DEATH OF LORD LOTHIAN

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23203, 14 December 1940, Page 11

DEATH OF LORD LOTHIAN

British Ambassador In U.S.

CAREER OP PUBLIC SERVICE

(VJRTKD PUSS ASSOCIATION—COPTiIOKT.) (Received December 13, 9.20 a.m.) LONDON, Decembejr 12. Lord Lothian, the British Ambassador in Washington, died suddenly at the Embassy in Washington early this morning. Lord Lothian, who was 58 years of age, had been British Ambassador to Washington since April of last year, when he succeeded Sir Ronald Lindsay. Lord Lothian died at the Embassy at 3 a.m. He had been ill for three

days. Lord Lothian, who was a Christian Scientist, had no medical attention but he was treated by a practitioner from Boston. The announcement of his death was held up for five hours by a coroner. The Coroner certified that Lord Lothian’s death was from natural causes, to which uremia and a heart and kidney condition added. No autopsy was made. It is explained that the Coroner was called in because

no physician was with Lord Lothian at the time of his death. A doctor was called in after death. The news of his death, which was immediately communicated to the King and the members of the Government came as a great shock to the British public. Lord Lothian was reported to be indisposed yesterday and his stirring and impressive spech at Baltimore last night was read by the Counsellor at the Embassy, Mr Neville Butler. His important mission to Washington, the conduct of which had been marked by distinction, was recognised on both sides of the Atlantic and marked the peak of a career devoted unswervingly and unstintingly to public service in various fields. Lord Lothian worthily upheld the tradition of Britain’s greatest ambassadors, and he performed a unique service in securing a complete and mutual understanding between Britain and the United States. Knowing both countries as he did, he could speak to each with a sureness of touch that comes only from long experience and close personal contact. His knowledge of the American State was quite invaluable, and he will long be remembered as one who most faithfully represented the British Empire in the .coutotry where he served. Mr Roosevelt has sent a personal message of sympathy to the King on the sudden death of Lord Lothian. He

said he was shocked beyond measure at the sudden passing of his old friend, whom he had come to love and trust during their associations of nearly a quarter of a century. The President added that if Lord Lothian had been able to leave a last message he would have said that the greatest of all efforts by the democracies must, and would succeed. Mr Cordell Hull, the United States Secretary of State, has stated in Washington that the United States Government is considering'bringing the body of Lord Lothian to Britain in a United States cruiser. The United States shares with Britain its sense of loss in Lord Lothian’s death. The Ambassador made friends of the people of the United States and with the newspaper reporters as few British envoys nave ever done. . Tributes to Lord Lothian are paid by all the New York newspapers, and by many non-intervention newspapers. Similar tributes are paid by Empire leaders, and a message of sympathy has been received horn Turkey. Work for Journalism Philip Henry Kerr, Government official, journalist and eleventh Marquis of Lothian, was educated at New College, Oxford. Going to South Africa, he was one of the brilliant young men who assisted Lord Milner in the task of pacification after the South African

war. Following Lord Milner’s resignation of the High Commissionership in 1905, he was made assistant secretary to the Intercolonial Council of the Transvaal and Orange River Colony. Resigning in 1908, he edited the South African publication, “The State," for a year and then returned to England, where he did further journalistic work. Joining the group of earnest young political thinkers who were writing for “The Round Table,” he was made its editor in 1910. When in 1916 Mr Lloyd George became Prime Minister of the Coalition Government, he was one of his private secretaries, his domain being foreign affairs. . In 1931 he visited Russia and interviewed Stalin. When the National Government was formed in August, 1931, Lord Lothian was made Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. A member of the Round Table Conference, he was appointed in November, 1931, Undersecretary for India—a post which he held until 1932. He accepted office on a specific undertaking that the Government meant to honour in letter and spirit the Prime Minister’s pledge to extend a measure of responsible- goveminent to India. In December, 1931, he was selected as chairman of the Franchise Committee which went out to India to advise on the scope of the electorate and the nature of the constituencies under the reform scheme. Lord Lothian was the central figure in an incident in the Faridpur district of Bengal where the committee was met by a crowd shouting, “Go back, Lothian.” Mingling with them, he elicited their views on the franchise problem, whereupon jeers were replaced by cheers. Later, hearing that some of the demonstrators had been

arrested for making a disturbance, he secured their release. The committee's report, issued in June, 1932, recommended a five-fold increase in the number of voters. It also urged the enfranchisement of 6,600,000 women, for whom two to five seats in the Provincial Legislatures should be reserved, and of 10 per cent, of the Untouchables. of library In 1934 a wonderful collection of MSS from Lord Lothian’S library was sold in the United States. At the first session £71,252 was realised, £12,200 being paid for a psalter. The possessor of several historic houses, he lent the Border Castle of Ferniehurst to the Scottish Hostels Association, and offered Newbattle, his Midlothian seat, as a kind of staff college and centre fbr holiday courses to the adult education movement in Scotland, Lord,

Lothian was said to have exercised a strong influence on Sir John Simon and on Mr Geoffrey Dawson, editor of “The Times,” to which he once wrote a letter appealing for a better under- - standing in Britain of the Hitler Government’s policy. Lord Lothian’s name was persistently connected with the so-called pro-Ger-man “Cliveden set.” His sympathy with Germany led him to pay two visits to Herr Hitler. After one of these in 1935 he declared that

Germany was settling down alter . the revolution,” and did not want war. Lord Lothian attacked the theory of German war-guilt and the Treaty of Versailles. While a guest of Herr von Ritabentrop in May, 1937, he had another long talk with Herr Hitler. But the Fuehrer’s subsequent actions convinced Lord Lothian that he had been deceived, and in' 1938 be began to attack Herr Hitler’s regime. He said that he would give Germany colonies, if it could be done without affecting the security of the British Empire, but if their return meant the creation of vast air and naval bases in Africa threatening peace and Empire defences, he would refuse to yield a single colony. In June, 1936, Lord Lothian resigned from the executive of the Council of Action because he opposed sanctions against Italy. These, he said, were either ineffective or led to war, and the League of Nations had too many big States outside it. Lord Lothian in 1938 headed the United Kingdom delegation to the unofficial British Commonwealth Relations Conference at Sydney. Before leaving Sydney- he said that and power policy in, Europe and Asia would impose pressure on Australia in a way few Australians yet realised. If the British Navy became inferior and any hostile Power occupied Gibraltar, Suez, or Singapore, Australia’s independence would be doomed. In April, 1939, Lord Lothian was appointed Ambassador in Washington 'in succeifion to Sir Ronald Lindsay, taking up his duties in the late summer. Still a bachelor, he had two unmarried sisters, Lady Anne and Lady Margaret Kerr to act as his hostesses.

LORD LOTHIAN’S SPEECH MUCH INTEREST IN LONDON

RUGBY, December 11 Lord Lothian’s speech at Washington yesterday about American aid to the British cause was read with great interest in London, The opinion was expressed that no Ambassador from n belligerent to a neutral nation had ever been more outspoken in public, “That it should have been possible, ' states the “Daily Telegraph,” lor • diplomatic representative of Great BrL- - ( tain to make such a direct and wore- , ; served appeal to the people of the . United States is striking evidence Of', i the intimacy and understanding—i hardly to be matched elsewhere—ln the relationship between ;the tWO'EngL lish-speaking democracies’* rS <