EARL OF CROMER

Greymouth Evening Star, 20 September 1938, Page 3

EARL OF CROMER

CENSOR OF BRITAIN’S PLAYS 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, (he Crown Jewels, and the censorship of plays under his especial care. For these 16 years he has had the very tricky job of handling Tile private negotiations of Court appointments, and, still more tricky, the reshuffling of these Court appointments. There must have been few rften 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 seethe authors as well, and the friendly discussions that followed were both helpful and agreeable.

Lord Cromer, 1 may say, is very much a Baring. In other words —bank-, ing. diplomacy, and a great appreciation of the arts is hereditary. Hereditarily. too. he is all in favour of the strongest possible bonds between Prance 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. CochIran will turn a French bedroom farce unto 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 arc the only two men I know in London who continue to wear button i 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 asseverated, “if any Government body was responsible for the passing or vetoeing 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 workt magnificently.

“In my opinion, it is largely respon-

sible 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.

“NOTHING PERNICKETY” “There is nothing pernickety about him. If ihe play censorship were a Government affair it would be affected by all kinds of red tape, and 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 Prench idioms there is this story: When Sacha Guitry was intending to pat on a season of French plays in London under Mr. Cochran’s management, Lord Cromer passed each play almost automatically, but he pounced on one single word in “lhe Illusionist.” This was real Parisianslang 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 so 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 fond 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.” To students of calligraphy his handwriting must be intensely interesting. Be writes extremely slowly, with a, very broad nib, giving the benefit of the whole breadth of the said nib to 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. lie has a house in Montague Square will) his own private letter-box. an- ■ other house near Maidenhead, a very j charming wife, and an absolutely firstclass brain. His career, meantime, has been

almost as versatile as that of Sir Stephen Tallents, which is saying a great deal. a t After leaving Eton lie went into the Diplomatic, serving in Cairo. Teheran, and the then St. Petersburg. He has never forgotten the vivid scenes that he witnessed when the troops fired on the crowds and bloodily quelled the predecessor to the ultimate revolution. BUSINESS AND THE ARMY ' Following four years at the Foreign Ollice, where he was private secietaiy Ito Lord Hardiuge and Lord Carnock, I he became managing director of Bari ing Bros, in 1913: a second lieutenant 1 in the Grenadier Guards in 1914; an I 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 India and the Crown colonics ill 1921 ’and 1922. Then he became Lord, Chamberlain. In his spare time, if any, he is director of the London and Lancashire Insurance Co., of the Marine Insurance Co., and of the P. and O. He is president of the National Hospital for Diseases of the Heart,

chairman of the Cheyne Hospital f° r ~« Children, and a vice-president of the Gordon Memorial College at It was a year ago that he told of the possibility of his return-to the/g city when he. ultimately retired- from his Court appointment. He made evident that a holiday from., work — would be no holiday at all; And one.—, can well understand that with such a razorlike brain, would not:'., willingly, allow it to get rusty,, with disuse. But what a pity that he utterly refuses to writes his reminisceqc.es.'