Lord Lothian

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23204, 16 December 1940, Page 6

Lord Lothian

In the midst of a succession of brilliant, unexpected, and much-needed military successes, the British people have suffered one irreparable loss—the death of their Ambassador in Washington. When, in April, 1939, Lord Lothian was appointed to succeed Sir Ronald Lindsay, the shadow of war was already across Europe and it was apparent .that on the relations between Great Britain and the' United States depended the future of democratic .institutions and the democratic way of life. To many Englishmen, the appointment seemed as curious as it was unfortunate. In the previous five years Lord Lothian had been an active supporter of what is loosely called the policy of appeasement, a policy even more unpopular in the United States than it was in Great Britain. He had denounced collective security (or, to be more precise, the kind of collective security provided for in the League of Nations covenant) as an illusion; he had opposed the use of economic sanctions against Italy; and, through his close personal contacts with some of the leaders of National Socialism, he had worked hard for better relations between Great Britain and Germany. As a champion of democracy, therefore, he was suspect (wrongly,

as it happens) on both sides of the Atlantic. To add to his difficulties, the United States public had become morbidly afraid of British propaganda. His predecessor, Sir Ronald Lindsay, naturally cautious and reserved, had

become so obsessed by the danger of making a false move that he deliberately and somewhat unwisely avoided making other than official contacts. Why Lord Lothian was from the first able to address himself to the United States public with the utmost frankness on the most controversial topics and yet himself remain above controversy is not easily explained. One reason, no doubt, was his grip of his subject and his power of lucid, forceful exposition. His knowledge of the British Commonwealth and its history and of the military and naval strategy on which the Commonwealth’s security is based, made him peculiarly well fitted to grasp the strategic implications of the war for the United States. It may be suspected, indeed, that the United States public, in the anxious, bewildering days which followed the fall of France, found that the speeches of Lord Lothian threw more light on their dilemma than did the excited, contradictory utterances of their own political leaders. Nevertheless, these considerations do not go far towards explaining why Lord Lothian was able to drive a straight path through thickets of fear and suspicion, why he was able to say with impunity what other men in the same position would justifiably have hesitated to say. In the last analysis, his instant and durable success with the American people was due to personal qualities which are easier to recognise as greatness than to define. The British Government has no more difficult task than

that of choosing a successor of equal calibre,