EARL OF CROMER

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 63, 12 September 1938, Page 17

EARL OF CROMER

LORD CHAMBERLAIN

CENSOR OF BRITAIN'S PLAYS FIRST-CLASS BRAIN

Nobody has. deserved a holiday more than Lord Cromer, who has gone to France, wrote Patrick Rankin in the "Daily Mail" recently. 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, and the friendly discussions that followed were both helpful and agreeable. PLAYGOING HIS HOBBY. Lord Cromer, I may say, is very much a Baring. In other words —banking, diplomacy, and a great appreciation of the arts is hereditary. Hereditarily, too, he is all in favour of the strongest possible bonds between France and Great Britain. 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 playgoing is his chief hobby, with reading as a second string. He and C. B. Cochran are the only , two 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 s way plays were censored. * "I would really give up production," [he asseverated, "if any Government . body was responsible for the passing Lor vetoing of plays. The Lord Cham- . berlain 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 j. 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 I that if he vetoes anything there is a * first-class reason for it. 1 "NOTHING PERNICKETY." "There is nothing pernickety about t him. If the play censorship were a 2 Government affair it would be affected i by all kinds of i*ed tape, and one would - never get anything done. As it is, his - censorship is the only tolerable censor--1 ship in the world. The Lord Cham- . berlain 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 2 put on a season of French plays in y London under Mr. Cochran's manage- \- ment, Lord Cromer passed each play s almost automatically, but he pounced ;. on one single word in "The Ilusiona Ist." This was,real Parisian slang of g questionable taste, and even many v Frenchmen would not have known V what it meant. But Lord Cromer did, and out it came. i Lord Cromer's French is indeed so exquisite that on various occasions t foreign authors, mumbling broken s English, have been overjoyed to dis- - cover 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. c MASTER OP THE NEGATIVE. c Lord Cromer used to wear a heavy I- moustache, but today is clean-shaven. ■x He is very fond of his pipe. He is also an excellent shot, likes riding, and plays 'x golf as a relaxation and form of exeri cisc—in other words, he is distinctly >> erratic on the course. v One of his greatest gifts is his mase tery of negative English. A refusal c from Lord Cromer is more delightful than an acceptance from other people. J i A favourite phrase of his is "and I am 0 sure you will understand." '- To students of calligraphy his hande writing must be intensely interesting, j s He writes extremely slowly, with a c very broad nib, giving the benefit of "■ the whole breadth of the said nib to i •* various letters in each word. j 1 Interesting, too, are his hands. They '• are small and fine. Still more interesting is his voice. It is perfectly modulated and very cool. j He has a house in Montagu Square, with his own private letter-box, an- . other house near Maidenhead, a very a charming wife, and an absolutely firste class brain. c His career, meantime, has been q almost as versatile as that of Sir s Stephen Tallents, which is saying a s great deal. After leaving Eton he went into the i- Diplomatic, serving in Cairo, Teheran, a and the then St. Petersburg. "He has a never forgotten the vivid scenes that i. he witnessed when the troops fired on n the crowds and bloodily quelled the - predecessor to the ultimate revolution. 1 BUSINESS AND THE ARMY. g Following four years at the Foreign ~ Office, where he was private secretary £ to Lord Hardinge and Lord Carnock, he became managing director of Barf ing Bros, in 1913; a second lieutenant v in the Grenadier Guards in 1914; an f A.D.C. to the Viceroy of India in 1915; [1 chief of staff to the Duke of Con- . naught's Indian Mission in 1920, and ,f to the Prince of Wales on his visits to India and the Crown colonies in 1921 and 1922. Then he became Lord Chamberlain, r In his spare time, if any, he is director s of the London and Lancashire Insure ance Co., of the Marine Insurance Co., ■- and of the P. and O. i. He is president of the National HosV pital for Diseases of the Heart, chair--3 man of the Cheyne Hospital for s Children, and a vice-president of the 0 Gordon Memorial College at Khartoum. It was a year ago that he told me of 1 the possibility of his return to the city i- when he ultimately retired from his i Court appointment. He made it evident s that a holiday from work would be no i holiday at all. And one can well underL- stand that anybody with such a razore like brain would not willingly allow it to get rusty with disuse. But what a 1 pity that he utterly refuses to write s his reminiscences.

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