1 AUGUST 1952, Page 5

Sir Alexander Cadogan must be counted one of the favourites

of fortune. To get a Suez Canal Directorship, an O.M. and the Chairmanship of the B.B.C. Governors, all within the space of a single year or not much more is something that falls to the lot of no ordinary man. But Sir Alexander is no ordinary man and no living person is likely to begrudge him his distinc- tions. When Mr. Eden flew home from the Quebec Conference in 1943 he left Sir Alexander with the Prime Minister as adviser on foreign affairs. Whether the impression be made then, or the previous impressions which he confirmed and emphasised then, had anything to do with the appointments Mr. Churchill offered him after his retirement from his membership of the Security Council in 1950 only Mr. Churchill knows; but it may well have been so. Regarding his latest appointment it need only be said that Sir Alexander has never done any job badly yet, and he is unlikely to begin now.