Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-04-06
SIR RONALD'S ADVENT REVVES
STUDY OF DIPLOMATIC SYSTEMS
Briton, Trained in Long
Career, Reveals Difference
From U. S. Method.
Labor's Lack of Antipathy to
Old School Theories Also
Is Shown.
BY WILLIAM HARD.

Various reflections are aroused by the
advent here of the new British Ambas-
sador, Sir Ronald Charles Lindsay, P. C.
The first is that the British Labor
government seems not to be penetrated
by such anJipathy either to belted earls
or to old-school theories regarding the
value of professional diplomats.
Sir Ronald is the fifth son of the
twenty-sixth Earl of Crawford. Earls
in Great Britain seem to have a ca
pacity for protracting themselves into
more generations than any other fac
ton of the nobility. A brother of Sir
Ronald now is the twenty seventh Earl
Of Crawford and additionally the pre-
mier earl of Scotland"
The logic Of the situation thus be-
comes apparent. A proletarian Social
ist government in Great Britain is
about to send an Ambassador to the
great equalitarian democratic common
peoples Government of the Western
World. It naturally sends brother Of
the premier earl Of Scotland"
Formidable Opponent.
And it makes no mistake. It would
be difficult to call Sir Ronald decadent.
No liberty loving American truck driver
Is likely to take any liberty with him.
He looks to be q great many inches
IA4O1C J1l6A1 o4A 4CCO O1A4 144A 4A4O A1bA~
tudinal extensiveneSS Is appropriate to
his longitudinal one. 1t would be
minimizing Sir Ronald to call him
burly. He will be able to take care Of
himself with any American opponent Of
the effete families Of the Old World
It is said that he claims to play golf
with more ferocity than skill. To any
antagonist In anything, he certainly
would seem to be at least formidable.
To this formidableneSS he adds a
quick sensitiveness, a quick humor, an
plished consideration of others. He
possesses, in other words, precisely the
qualities that q representative of one
country in another, if he is to like and
be liked, and If he Is to learn anything
and accomplish anything, should have.
Mannerisms Interest U. S.
How much of this arrived manner
and method in Sir Ronald Is by in
stinct? How much Of it is by training
and experience? Who shall say? One
can only remark that the training and
the experience in his case are Of the
utmost interest to Americans puzzled by
the problems presented by the recent
upgroWth and some Of the recent set
backs of the professional diplomatic
service of the United States.
We now have IS American AmbaSsa-
doris and IS American Ministers abroad.
OF the ministers, 20 are from our diplo-
matte career service and Is are from
outside that service. OF the AmbasSa-
doris, six are from the career service
and nine are from outside It: Many
career men have been resignng from
the lower levels of our diplomacy on
the ground that their chances Of at
tanning to the highest levels are greatly
limited by the political exigencieS and
demands to which q President neceS-
sarily Is subjected. Many critics Of
career diplomats, on the other hand,
maintain that amateurs with no tech
meal diplomatic experience, but with
sound, long, practical political home
training, are better fitted than most OF
the career diplomats are for the high
est foreign posts. In the midst Of this
argument it is instructive, or at any
rate entertaining, to observe contempt
rary British diplomatic practice.
Britain Uses Different System.
Britain has 81 Ministers abroad. They
are all diplomatic professionals. She
has II Ambassadors abroad. They also
are all of them diplomatic professionals.
This was so under the Conservative
government of Mr.. Baldwin. 1t con-
eminent of Mr.. Macdonald.
Sir Ronald Lindsay Is q perfected ex-
preston Of the British system. His
completely Of professional training is
He entered the British service of dip
lomatic career at the age Of 81 in 1893.
Three years later, as third secretary
at st. Petersburg in Russia, he earned
q special pay allowance for knowledge
Of the Russian language. Three years
later, as second secretary at Teheran
in Persia, he earned another special
pay allowance for knowledge Of the
Persian language. He then was trans
ferred for further edifcation to this
city Of Washington. He thereupon, In
1907, was transferred to Paris, and
then in 1908 back to the foreign office
in London, where he served as private
secretary to Sir Edward Grey, then
minister for foreign affairs. It seemed
wise thereupon soon sfterward to send
him to the Hague In the Netherlands,
where he became q first secretary.
Goes to Egypt in 1913.
But he had not yet been sent to
Egypt. Accordingly, he was sent to
Egypt in 1918. He there became under
secretary in the ministry of finance of
that country, and ultimately an officer
Of the Order of the Nile. He was re-
turned to Washington for a.short time
In 1919. In 1920 he was re-returned to
Paris. In that same year he was raised
to the rank of minister. In 1921 he be-
came assistant undersecretary Of state
in the British foreign Office in London