New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1912-11-15
Mr.. BRYCE'S SUCCESSOR
Sir Cecil Spring-RiCe'S Midnight
Visit to the White House.

,.r, 1912, by the Brentwood Company
g. cecil sprlng-Rice. who, according to
.,,o dispatches from London, has been
@,moted from the post of British Minis
plsnipotentiary at Stockholm to sue
Nv BRYCE as ambassador at Wash
-. is a grandson of the first Lord
,,.,tsagIe Of the present creation, whose
,.erage has no connection save that of
uo with that of the Lord -Monteagle
Dlsyed so notable a role during the
If lanes l in revealing 10 the lat
the Gunpowder Plot. That Lord
vonteagle was a Stanley, whereas the
,,ra Monteagle Of the present day bears
-. natronymic of spring-Rlce. The peer
=. was created by Queen Victoria short
=. otsr her accession in favor of the
. D,oht Hon Thomas Spring Rice, who was
rhorcellor Of the Exchequer and Secre-
~ ~ State for the Colonies during the
.bird decade Of the last century.
when Sir Cecil was formerly stationed
woshington as secretary Of the British
r,,,bassy he saw great deal of Theodore
pooseyelt. then Civil Service Commits
,o,sr and afterward Assistant Secretary
- ,he Navy. They were on terms of con-
,aarsble intimacy, and IT was for this
,eason that he was chosen for rather
.,ys,erious mission, which was the oc-
e.sion Of his last visit to this country.
:, VAS in February, 1905, just at the
lament when the powers were beginning
% take steps with a view to bringing the
r,r between Japan and Russia to a close.
e,r,ng- Rice. then councillor of the Brit
,,b Embassy at Berlin. was suddenly sent
N hot haste by his chief. Sir Frank
1ascelles who is also his father-in-law.
70 London, where, after a prolonged in
,srview with Lord Lansdowne, then For
s,gn Minister. and King Edward, he van
,,5s6. 10 turn up suddenly just a week
later on a Sunday evening in Washing
ION, at the British Embassy.
After some time spent in consultation
With the ambassador. Sir Mortimer Du-
rand. he drove OF with the latter TO the
White House near midnight, remained IN
conference with President Roosevelt until
near o'clock in the morning, left Wash
,ngton al 10, and was back in London
eight days later.
II has always been understood that his
,rp 10 America was in connection with
the project Of friendly Intervention by
Germany, Great Britain and the United
states between the belligerents in the Far
orient and that Sir Cecil, as an old friend
Of Roosevelt, was regarded by King Ed
ward as better qualified than any one else
10 assist in negotiations that partook
more of a personal character as between
rulers than Of an official character as be-
tween governments.
Sir Cecil Is persona gratissima at the
Foreign Office In London, having been
private secretary of the late Lord Gran
vile and Of Lord Rosebery when they
were al the head Of the department. lie
may be said to have won his spurs as
charge d'affaires in St Petersburg during
several months of the worst crisis in Rus
sia--that following the armed rising in the
Museovite capital-and likewise did ex-
usmey well at Teheran as minister.
LADY SPRING Rice is daughter of Sir
Frank Lascelles, who was for so many
years British Ambassador at Berlin and
who is held I'm such high regard by the
Kaiser that the latter, on Lascelless re-
tirsmeut. bestowed upon him the order of
the Black Eagle, which is the Prussian
equivalent OF the English order of tho
Garter. Through her mother, Lady Spring
Rice is a connection of the widowed Lady
Psuncefote and a granddaughter of Sir
Joseph Ouffe, physician to Napoleon ILL.,
the feLow-founder with the late Due dc
Momy Of Deauville, and who has been
Indignantly portrayed by Alphonse Dau-
Oct in his celebrated novel THE Nsbob'
under the transparent pseudonyme Of 'Dr.
Jenkinson."
The advantage of Sir Cecil Spring-Rice
appointment lies in the fact that ne comes
to this country with a knowledge and an
understanding thereof; not. Of course as
extensive as that Of Mr.. Bryce, but never
thsess superior to that Of most diplo-
mats on their appointment TO the post OF
Ambassador al Washington.