Evening star., 1932-01-31

rose from MS CIldlT dG
~ plenary session Of the peac
conference in Paris and move,
that the covenant of the League o
Nations be adopted. Looking through
his pinoe-ne2 at Georges Clemenceau
the graying gentleman from the Whit
House said:
you will notice, Mr.. President, tina
the covenant provides that the frs
secretary general shall be chosen b,
this conference. l move, therefore
that the first secretary general of the
Council shall be the Hon. Sir jaime!
Eric Drummond."
The covenant was adopted by
unanimous vote and the Hon. Sill
James Eric Drummond, whom Lore
Balfour had called "the perfect Secre-
tary" was given the job of nursing
the newborn League of Nations.
The League is now a Strappne
youngSter, approaching its thirteenth
birthday not strong enough, perhaps
to separate a pair of scrapping adult
such as China and Japan, bat capable
al making the little fellows in the
Balkans quit tantalizing one another
on occasion and very good under Sll
Eric's tutelage at arithmetic, IAN
guages. department and especially
elocution. Sir Eric has decided to give
ll0 MS lOD. ne SuDlIllJlCS IIAo ANS4oAio
ton last week, expressing a willing
ness to keep his nose to the grindstone
for a while longer until successor Is
selected.
Privileges Afforded by Position.
So there is a pretty good position
open now in Geneva. 1t pays about
s35 600 a wear, with an extra $4,000
for house rent and entertainment eX-
penses. The man who gets it will en-
iov eytraterritorial privileges, little
king in his own castle. and he Will not
have to pay taxes either in his own
country or in Switzerland or in any OF
the 5O-odd other countries that help
to pay his salary. ,...
He will meet a great many interest
ing people-scads Of foreign mlnlsIetS'
whole armies of ambassadors, multi
tudes of minor ENJOYS, now and then a
president, a prince or a king. He VIII
have a marvellous opportunity to brush
up on all sorts Of foreign languages.
On the other hand. he will have a
great many bosses. more than 5O OF
them. each one a sovereign State WIN
its own ak to grind. And he Will nave
to remain in pretty constant COM
munication with all Of them and keep
himself informed of their hnanceS'
their armamentS, their transit 1aclilCles
and their intellectual activities and m
ouire from time to time about thelI
health He will also have to travel
a great deal to smooth out little diff
cuities in between the meetings OF the
two directorate boards-one called the
Assembly. the other the Council.
Sir Eric Success as Secretary.
11yben a majority of the directors
think one of the members Shoulo De
scolded, the man who gets INTO oir
Eric's boots Will have to write the ao-
rnonitorv message, and IN mighty dip
1omatic language. too. Should mem
her fail to nav dues. it will be up 10
the secretary general to dun him ana
that. also in a manner SOFT ana SuaNt.
When the Assembly sits, or the CouhCll'
the secretary general must always pe
on hand. at the left ear OF the !ealNeu
and honorable gentlemen who is pre-
siding probably for the first time. And
all the while he must be the general
manager in charge Of a secretarlat OF
nearly 400 men and women OF some
3O-odd nationalitieS. all huddled TO-
qether in a fivC-story hotel over their
pens and their typeWriterS. their books
and their briefcaSeS. thinking and
talking in more than 90 languages.
At such a job a secretary who Is less
than perfect would fall 1t is generaLy
conceded, wherever one roamS ABOUT
this wrangling and disputatouS Out
ever hopeful world that Sir ETC mas
made a success of it.
He is Scot of aristocratic lineage
and distinguished appearance, man
of medium height, always well groomeo
His mustache is neatly trimmed, MS
eyes have a humorous sort OF sparkle
about them, and he has a knack Tor
putting himself in the other fellow
nlace and understanding the other fel-
lows point of view, whether he be a
prince or a pleb, a Persian, Pata-
gonian or a Portuguese For 80
years he has been a secretary in dlpIo-
matte fields, always listening to other
people make speeches, abhorrlng the
rare occasions when he himself was
obliged to address an audience He is
of modest mlen. and his demeanor is
sometimes seemingly shy. Seemingly
but not actually so. That is one OF the
arts Of the Scot.
Family History Recalled.
Sir Erics Scottish blood flows back
through quite a few centuries. He IS
SIS years old. a son of the tenth WIS.,
count Strathalan. His half brother, by
his fathers first marriage succeeded to
the title of Earl Of Perth, and, as the
earl is unmarried. Sir Eric is the heir
preSumptive to the earldom and the
family estate of some 1000 acres.
The family of DrummOnd was
founded at the time of William the
Conuueror by Maurice, a Hungarian
nobleman 1t was Maurice who guided
Edgar Atheling'S ship to safety at st.
Margaret's Hope when that princeling
hot-footed it out of the way of the
Norman conQuerOr Annabela, a
daughter of one of Sir Eric's ancestors,
was the consort of King Robert III OF
Scotland, and through her descendants
the Drummond blood was transmitted
to royal houses in England France,
italy, Spain and various other coun-
tries. including the Scandinavian.
Eric Drummond. not then knight,
married. in 1904. the Honorable Angela
Mary Constable Maxwell, second
daughter of the eleventh Baron Herrles,
a brother of the Duchess of Norfolk.
Already Mr.. Drummond had taken up
his career as a secretary. He had pol
ished off an Eton education with travel
on the Continent when he entered the
Foreign Office in London in 1900
at "a.
Held Several Foreign Office Posts.
He was slender, polished, studious
and precise and had other qualities TO
helm a Junior clerk up the Foreign Of
fice ladder. social position being not
the least of these. In 1906 the then
Hon. Mr.. Drummond was appointed
private secretary to the underSecretary
for foreign affairs, post which he re-
tanned for several years. In 1912 Her
bert Asquith, who was then Prime
Minister, selected the promising precls-
writer as his private secretary. In 1913
he succeeded Sir William Tyrrel as
private secretary to Sir Edward Grey
S'hen that statesman was secretary lor
roreign affairs. Later he was taken
under Balfour's wing.
In 1917 when one of Britains flrSt
moves upon Americas entry into the