New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1912-12-17

lOn.
The state of things in London though
the lines may be drawn less sharply, is
much the same. We have had Minis
ters-I go purposely back to the pre-
Ambassadorial days-who for social
purposes in London did not exist. That
repose which stamps the caste of We're
de We're was not theirs If | am told
that | rate it too high. the answer is
that even in these days there are in
/ huences more potent than those Of
Downing street. and that an American
or any other Minister or Ambassador
must, in and for the interests of his
own country. do a kind of work which
: cannot be done in the Foreign ONCE,
| cannot be done in purely political cir
/ Giles; cannot be done except by and
| through those classes which, spite of
the new Radicalism. are stin the gov
/ eruing classes of England And that
all important work Mr.. Reid did to per-
! lection.
said I should be personal and I will
/
admired as few men in like position
| have been admired Women, ever the
| arbiters in these matters, admired him
and said so. perhaps all the more be-
( TALLY for women as women They
| admired his beauty-there is no other
word for it and il is the word they
used. They admired his manner, his
method OF speech. his independence, his
Americanism; his carelessness about
such conventionalities as are not the
conventiOnalities of every company of
well bred people. They thought him
an ornament of their drawing rooms;
| they coveted his presence. If he turned
away from them to discourse of nigh
matters with their masters they ac-
cepted that as one more proof that his
mission in England was all enveloping
and always a serious mission: as ii
| was. When they saw the King-the
| late King or the present-draw him
| apart in conversation they understood
| that the King and the Ambassador
were talking Of something besides
! pheasant shooting or the next Court al
| Buckingham Palace. They respected
| the discretion which buried all sorts of
! secrets in common tomb; and the
more readily impaired secrets Of their
own. Mr.. Reid was known as a man
to be absolutely trusted. No reputa-
ton is worth more: to diplomatist
or to anybody else.
| Uncompromising in his Americanism,
he fell readily into English ways He
| had a natural adaptabiity. He could
not have done what he did or could
! not have done IT so completely If ne
| had not taken Wrest Park as well as
/ Dorchester House. He knew that the
! English are more at home in the coun-
! try than in London. whether in their
| own houses or other peoples. Wrest
| Park is a place of 1000 acres, with eX-
celent shooting, and is, incidentally,
/ the finest piece Of French landscape
gardening in England. There Mr. and
Mrs. Reid entertained as an English
host and hostess would have enter
tanned. They had shooting parties and
week ends. Mrs Reid became-she
/ could not help becoming-the good
angel Of all that Bedfordshire country
side. Mr. Reid was the same genial
| host as at Ophir Hall, in Westchester.
| and the house parties at Wrest and at
| nPh ~ ha n oft Ill,
which host and hostess set upon them.
Latitude and longitude had nothing to
do with it; nor racial differences. 1t
was both English and American-it
was Anglo-American.
For far other reasons / should de-
/ scribe Mr.. Reid as | described Lord
/ PauncefOte. Each was an Anglo-Ameri-
4 can Ambassador. Each was a great
| Ambassador. Each so served his own
country as never TO imperil but ever
/ to improve the relations between both.
/ Can there be a higher eulogy? i touch
upon that and pass on keeping to the
personal side. i never heard of Mr..
Reid 8 making a mistake. In countries
4 WneTe lHty nave ulDIOIHdIC SeiNlCc
/ and traditions that would be thought
| the highest eulogy Of all. You never
hear Of u.s." said Lord Dufferin, him
self one of the most accomplished Am
! bassadors Of his time; you never hear
| of us so long as we succeed. 1t is our
mistakes that get into the newspapers"
Sometimes he phrased it differently.
but the sense was always the same.
MIR. Reid did not even make mistakes
| In technique; and for man not trained
| TO diplomacy that is praise still higher.
/ And he knew how TO repair the MS
takes Of others. / have known the
Ambassador of great European power
guilty Of a solecism on formal occa-
sion where toasts had TO be proposed
/ in a certain order, which he violated.
The host was TO have proposed the
/ health Of the ruler whom he repre-
sented The Ambassador was then TO
! have proposed the health Of the host.
/ The European lost his head and in
verified the order-had il been his own
sovereign he would literally have lost
his head. The American saved the
situation with a tact which was a les
/ son TO the other and the admiration
! 4.~gtfians ,n,nna,,tT don't