LORD CROMER

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 278, 20 August 1938, Page 7

LORD CROMER

His Part In English Life CENSORSHIP OF PLAYS Nobody has deserved a holiday more than Lord Cromer, says Patrick Rankin in the “Daily Mail.” Since 1922 he has had all the royal palaces, the great Court functions, the Crown Jewels and the censorship of plays under his especial care.

For these 16 years he has had the very tricky job of handling the private negotiations of Court appointments, and, still more tricky, the reshuffling of these Court appointments. There must have been few .men in history whose advice has been taken by three consecutive monarchs. When he first became Lord Chamberlain —the office from which he has Just retired—the theatres were nursing a grievance against the censor’s office. Plays were submitted by managers, and only the managers saw the censor. Lord Cromer decided to see the authors as well, an'd the friendly discussions that followed were both helpful and agreeable. Playgoing His Hobby. Lord Cromer, I may say, is very much a Baring (he is Rowland Thomas Baring, second Earl of Cromer). In other words—banking, diplomacy and a great appreciation of the arts is hereditary. Hereditarily, too, hfe is all in favour of the strongest possible bonds between France and England. Whenever he has had a few days off he has usually gone to France. In any event, as a director of the Suez Canal Company he has to visit Paris once a month. On these occasions he goes to see the latest shows, and often wonders how the ingenious Mr. Cochran will turn a French bedroom farce into an entertainment which he can permit for London. For pl'aygoing is bis chief hobby, with reading as a second string. Even long books like “Anthony Adverse” and "Gone With the'Wind” do not deter him from this.

He and C. B. Cochran are two of the only men I know in London who continue to wear button boots. Mr. Cochran was unquestionably voicing the opinion of all reputable theatrical managers when he told me that he was entirely in favour of the. way plays were censored. “I would really give up production,” he asservated, “if any Government body was responsible for the passing, or vetoing of plays. The Lord Chamberlain is a gentleman of taste, and with a knowledge of the world. He has no axes to grind, and the play censorship under his control works magnificently.

“In my opinion, it is largely responsible for the great advance in the quality of West End plays in the past few years. One knows perfectly well that if he vetoes anything there is a first-class reason for it. Notliing Pernickety. “There is nothing pernickety about him. If the play censorship were a Government affair it would be affected by all kinds of fed tape, an'd one would never get anything done. As it is, his censorship is the only tolerable censorship in the world. The Lord Chamberlain is above suspicion in every way.” As an example of Lord Cromer's thoroughness and superb knowledge of French idioms there is this story: When'Sacha Guitry was intending to put on a season of French plays in London under Mr. Cochran’s management, Lov'd Cromer passed each play almost automatically, but he pounced on one single word in “The Illusionist.” This was real Parisian slang of questionable taste, and even many Frenchmen would not have known what it meant. But Lord Cromer did, and out it came. Lord Cromer’s French is indeed ,o exquisite that on various occasions foreign authors, mumbling broken English, have been overjoyed to discover that they could break into their native language at almost hysterical speed and yet find that Lord Cromer spoke it rather better than they did. Lord Cromer used to wear a heavy moustache, ‘but to-day is clean-shaven. He is very fon'd of his pipe. He is also an excellent shot, likes riding, and plays golf as a relaxation and form of exercise—-in other words, he is distinctly erratic on the course. One of his greatest gifts is his mastery of negative English. A refusal from Lord Cromer is more delightful than an acceptance from other people. A favourite phrase of his is “and I am sure you will understand.” Writes Very Slowly. To students of calligraphy his handwriting must be intensely interesting. He writes extremely slowly, with a very broad nib, giving the lienefit of the whole breadth of the said nib io. various letters in each word.

Interesting, too, are his hands. They are small and fine. Still more interesting is his voice. It is perfectly modulated and very cool, He has a house in Montagu. Square, with his own private letter-box, another house near Maidenhead, a very charming wife, and an absolutely first-class brain.

His career, meantime, lias been inmost as versatile as that of Sir Stephen Tallents, which is saying a great deal.

After leaving Eton he went into the Diplomatic, serving in Cairo, Teheran and the then St. Petersburg. He lias never forgotten the vivid scenes that he'witnessed'when the troops, tired on the crowds and bloodily quelled tne predecessor to the 'ultimate' revolution. Following four years at the Foreign Cffiet where lie was private secretary to Lord Hardinge and Lord Carnock, lie became managing director of Baring Bros, in 1913; a second lieutenant in the Grenadier Guards in 1914; an A.D.C. to the Viceroy of India in 1915; Chief of Staff to the Duke of Connaught’s Indian Mission in 1920, and to the Prince of Wales on his visits to Indian and the Crown Colonies in 1921 and 1922. Then lie iieeaine Lord Chamberlain. In his spare time, if any, lie is director of the London and Lancashire Insurance Co., of the Marine Insurance Co., and the P. and O. He is president of the National Hospital for Diseases of the Heart, chairman of the Cheyne Hospital for Children, and a vice-president of the Gordon Memorial College at Khartoum.

"I want to become British, because British countries have the most justice," said Mr. Richard Tauber, the famous tenor, in Sydney, when questioned concerning the cabled report that lie had sought British nationality. He admitted that he had made the application, but refused to comment-