Evening star., 1940-12-29
Lord Halifax Will Be Clothed
With Rare Diplomatic Powers
New British Ambassador Expected to Find
Handicap at First in Conception of Him
as Aristocratic 'Appeaser'
By Raymond p. Brandt.

u Il DTuUuIs
and revealed he had accepted the Brit
| ish terms. To their CONSERVATION,
Gandhi reported that he had no right to
assume that the British viceroy was less
honorable than he.
On his return to England in 1881, the
Indians bade him adieu as the Great
Sahib," and the British press, almost
unanimously, praised him for having
saved India from a blood bath.
In 1895, now Viscount Halifax, he was
named lord privy seal and joined the in
ner cabinet group of the Chamberlain
government that was debating foreign
policy, with Anthony Eden as Foreign
Secretary. When Eden resigned from
the Foreign Office because of Chamber
lain's appeasement policies, Halifax sue
ceeded him. He accompanied his Prime
Minister on all the ill-fated trips to the
continent, yet he retained the respect
of Winston Churchill, then in the oppo-
sition, who called him "a gentleman,
foxhunter, a friend"
DiSilluSiOned by Prague Seizure.
Completely disillusioned by the seizure
OF Prague, Lord Halifax turned against
the totalltarlan powers. The same re-
hgious fervors that made him seek peace
as long as he thought peace could be
attained was changed into channels di-
rected against Hitler and the Nazis. But
his religious convictions also kept him
from seeking earnestly pact with Soviet
Russia, and to this day, the Russians
believe he and the class he represents
are responsible for the policy which
they say makes impossible an UNDER
standing with the British.
The failure of the present British
Russian negotiations gave rise to reports
that Churchill had been eager to re-
lieve Halifax of the secretaryship so he,
Eden, and Laborite Sir Stafford Cripps,
British Ambassador to Moscow, could
proceed on more friendly basis with
the Soviet officials. These reports were
promptly denied in British circles here,
although it was conceded that relations
with Russia might be improved under
Eden's guidance.
There can be little doubt that Halifax's
religious views entered into his conduct
of foreign affairs and that he regarded
Stain and the Soviet government with
as much, perhaps more, adherence as
he did Hitler and the Nazis. Yet this
religious zeal has added strength in the
fight against Germany.
These religious views are the result of
inheritance and environment. The Sec
ond Viscount Halifax was throughout his
long life deeply concerned with the ques-
ton of uniting the Church of England
with the Church of Rome. The father
rose at am. to make his private devo-
tions, and the son, as soon as he was
able to understand the ceremonies, ac-
companied him. AS befltting the son of a
landowning Yorkshire nobleman, Edward
Wood attended exclusive Eton and then
Christ Church, oxford. At EtOn and
Christ Church he was the delight of his
father and his tutors, and he had the
rare distinction of being elected fellow
of All Souls College, Oxford. All Souls
is a unique British institution. 1t has
no students-only six Bible clerks and
81 fellows. The examinations are ex-
tremely difficult and the successful can
didates are triple distilled Phi Beta
Kappas Mere brilliance is not enough;
sound scholarship must show through
the written and oral examinations.
Ran for Parliament.
Unlike many students from the ruling
class" the future Foreign Secretary and
Ambassador took little interest in politics
at Oxford, but in 1910, when he was %
years Old he was selected by the Con-
servative Party to run for Parliament
from the safe" Ripon District, near
York. A year before he had married
Lady Dorothy Evelyn Augusta Onslow, a
daughter of the fourth Earl of Onslow.
From this union there were three sons
and one daughter.
After serving with distinction in the
first World War, he was among the 200
Conservative members of Parliament
who signed demand for harsher terms
for Germany.
His official duties did not prevent him
writing books and essays. His father
had collected a mass of material on
ghosts, premonitions and stories of
dreams coming true, and the son pre-
pared these stories for publication.
A Hearst publication presented these
stories to American readers.
AS a spokesman to the American
people, Lord Halifax will lack the great
advantage possessed by his predecessors
intimate knowledge of this country and
its history and the many personal ac-
quaintances he had from coast to coast.
(See BRANDT Page C-4)