14 NOVEMBER 1941, Page 4

The appointment of Professor R. H. Tawney to a post

on Lord Halifax's staff at Washington is among the startlingly unexpected happenings that this war is bringing about, for if there is any place on earth where Prof. Tawney would seem likely to be out of his element it would be an Embassy dominated (as the Washington Embassy, I am afraid, still is) by strait diplo- matic tradition. What the duties attached to the post are is a little vague—something, I think, in the nature of advice on social questions. The wise course would be to arrange a speaking-tour

for Professor Tawney. At that he would be admirable: * * *