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New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13722, 11 April 1908, Page 8

Much -shuffling of the diplomatic cards may short bo expected. Sir Gerard Lowthe'r, now homo ou leave from Tangier, is mentioned in connection with the Berlin post should Sir Frank Lascelles retire in October. A year ago, the fact that Sir Gerard has an American and a charming wife, sent him, bv rumour, back to Washington. In reality, Mr. Bryce went instead, and now, in his place, those same quidnuncs are saying Sir C. A. Spring-Rice will shortly stand. In Rome, where Mr. lioyd Griscom, the New United States Ambassador, is making mighty bids for : popularity, it is hoped Sir Remiell Rodd will succeed Sir Edwin Egerton, retired. In the Eternal City, as secretary, under " Sir Francis Bertie, Sir Rennell was an indispensable and ever-welcome figure. There 1 is a vacancy at The Hague as well. Sir ■ Henry Howard being retired, and Sir C. A. Spring-Rice, failing Washington, may I possibly be sent there. There is, perhaps, I no more ungrateful task than the representation of the Mother Country in a daughter or a sister State. From Canada comes a rumour that even Earl and Countess Grey, popular and delightful as they are, have not quite succeeded in winning every heart. The Governor, say the grumblers, is too much of a " hustler" his wife, a true Holford, is, in the social sense, a little slack. Her tastes are simple, and simplicity, in a new land, does not pay. Earl Grey, hoping to get the Prince of Wales to journey there in August, is working hard in Quebec on his Park of Peace idea. The Plains of Abraham, above Quebec, once the scene of war and death, he hopes to see re-born, and, in their birth, the hatchet once and for all buried-' A worthy aim, bat monev and sympathy are necessary to its realisation. Both are there, but in insufficient volume, for the French-Canadian, an im- | portant, ever present element in Quebec, J holds back.