TRAGIC DEATH.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 136, 10 June 1932, Page 7

TRAGIC DEATH.

Sudden Passing of Italian Ambassador. SHOCK IN LONDON. (Received 11.30 a.m.) RUGBY, June t. The death occurred yesterday morning of Signor Antonio Bordonaro, Italian Ambassador to Britain. He suddenly became ill on Tuesday night just prior to a dinner party he was to have given. The Ambassador wae removed with all speed to a nursing home, where he was found to be suffering from cerebral hemorrhage. His wife remained at his bedside throughout the night, but he never regained consciousness. Signor Bordonaro was extremely popular with his diplomatic colleagues and a large circle of friends. When the Britieh Foreign Secretary, Sir John Simon, was informed of the Ambassador's death he said it was shocking news which would profoundly distress Signor Bordonaro'e many friends. "He was a most admirable representative of his great country," snid Sir John, "and we offer Italy our sincere condolence and are all thinking with deep sympathy of his wife who hae been so suddenly bereaved."

The King conveyed a message of condolence to Signora Bordonaro yesterday morning. Practically all the Ambassadors and Ministers in London called, at the Italian Embassy to express their sympathy. The funeral of the late Ambassador will take place on Saturday and his remains will be given full military and naval honours by Britain.- When the body is taken from the Embassy to Westminster Cathedral for the first part of the service there will be a military escort, and again when the remains are taken to Victoria Station. The body will be taken by rail to Dover, where a British warship will bo. waiting to convey the body to Calais.

Antonio Bordonaro was born in Sicily, his father being a landowner. In 1890 he entered the Italian Foreign Office, being appointed Consul-General at Trieste. In 1902 he wae transferred to Budapest, and five yearn later become first secretary of the Italian legation at Berne. He was appointed to the Italian Embassy in Petrograd, and later Berlin, where he was stationed at the beginning of the war. When Italy came into the war he was employed in the Foreign Office at Rome. During the armistice he acted as political commissioner at Berlin. Signor Bordonaro was appointed to Prague after the armistice when the Czecho-Slovak Republic was founded. Ho won the esteem of President Maearyk by his tact in arranging for the military training in Italy of the Czecho-Slovak Legion, which totalled nearly 40,000 men. In 1924 he was transferred to Vienna. There he settled financial questions with Austria. In 1925 he was in the Italian delegation to the Locarno Conference, and by his diplomatic qualities gained the confidence of Mussolini. In January, 1927, he was sent to London as ambassador.