New Britain herald., 1930-07-22
HANKEY REFUSES TO BE TEMPTED
Mystery Man Of England Keeps
 World Secret

the clever gentlemen whose job it is to get best sellers written.
 By dangling fat check books in front of their eyes. the book pub fishers of America, Germany, Eng land and France have been able to get the World War story and the peace story of nearly every ia nous soldier and statesman. All except Hankey. He is adamant. He will probably never write his story. And if he ever does, he will probably stipulate that it shall net be published until a hundred years after his death.
 Knows Great Secrets
 For Hankey knows more big se crcts than any living man. This little military chap, who looks so unmilitary, has packed away in his diaries and note books and documents, and also in his clever brain, more inside stuff than any dozen men who have given their memoirs to the world. He has been custodian of the How down stuff" of cabinets and conferences and commissions for so long that people forget that he ever did any thing else.
 He was born in 1877, educated nt Rugby, and went into the Roy al Marine Artillery in 1895 when he was only 18 At 22 he was a captain and when he finally and definitely retired from that boiy in 1908 it was with the rank of lieutenant colonel.
 Quick Rise to Fame
 in the meantime, the goyern- ment had already found he was an ideal man for all kinds of jobs and so all kinds of jobs were given him. From 1899 to 1901 he serv- eG on the Families, flagship Of the fleet. The former artillery man showed SO quick grasp of naval matters that from 1902 70 1906 he was attached to the Naval Intelligence Department. In 19"7 he was made Naval Intelligence Officer with the Mediterranean fleet. In 1908 he was given a tre- mendous boost, being made assist ant secretary of the Committee on Imperial Defense, the body char5- ed with organizing all the war de lenses of the British empire. In four years time he made himself so indispensable that he was made secretary of that body.
 When the World War broke out the taSt crisis of it's history a special War Cabinet inside the regular cabinet was formed. IL was necessary 10 have a secretary And the whole government turned with one ac- cord to Hankey. In the following year, when the Imperial War Cab- inet was formed, Hankey was once mere secretary. He knew so much about the defenses of the empire, he was so quickly receptive of new ideas and he originated so many 0. his own that nobody else was thought of for the job. When the inventors of the tank were fight ing army and red tape to get tine machine adopted, 1t was Hanhey who largely won their battle for them.
 Called British Colonel House"
 After a while other people gave him other appellations. Some called him the British Colonel House, be- cause of the implicit faith the war time Premier, Lloyd George, had in him. Others said he was the real rul-
 1F h was to tell the country what the war cabinet had decided So nobody was surprised when he was knighted in 1916. The only surprise was that he did not get a higher honor.
 When the statesmen and generals met at Versailles to draft the peace treaty, Sir Maurice was right there, in charge of .he British secretariat, and right-hand man of Lloyd George The tigerish old French Premier, Georges Clemenceau con- ceived a tremendous admiration for him. When the Big Three-President Wilson, Lloyd Georges and Clemen- oeau-were discussing some impor- tant point Snd wanted some partic1- lar document to refer to, the Tiger would turn to Sir Maurice and say:
 Come along. Pull it out of that bag of yours
 To his wife. Clemenceau sa. hel husband was the best man Tn the world.
 Given Grant by Parliament
 When the peace conference was over grateful Parliament gave him a grant of s125,O0O. He has been the chief of the British sec retariat at every international con- ference held since the war. winding up with the recent Naval Confer ence. In the closing hours of the lat ter. when a continental delegate made a speech paying high compIt- nents to Sir Maurice, none applaud ed louder than the American dele gates. headed by Secretary of State Stimson.
 AS soon as the Naval meetings were over, Sir Maurice went back 10 his regular jobs, All he does is to be clerk to the Privy Coun- cil, at which the King discusses with his Councillors all the secrets O. empire; Secretary to the Cao- inet; and Secretary to the Com mittee on Imperial Defense.
 In 1921, when the magazine, the Round Table, announced an article by h m, people thought al least they were going to hear some thing. But Sir Maurice only told how diplomacy by conference had developed as one of the results ot the war. He modestly said De knew little about it as he had attended 4SS international confer ences since 1914 and had been on the secretariat of all of them. With equal modesty, san old crlck- e. n1ayer. he compared his job with