Lord Robert Cecil, speaking on the Foreign Office Vote in
the House on Wednesday, accepted in principle the changes recom- mended by the Royal Commission. The officials of the Foreign Office and of the Diplomatic Service should, he said, be interchange- able. The work of the Embassies and Legations should be re- organized ; highly trained men should not spend their time in doing humble clerical work when they ought to be studying the countries in which they are stationed. The condition that a would-be diplo- matist must have a private income of £400 a year at least could no longer be maintained. But the obvious corollary was, Lord Robert Cecil said, that the salaries of all the junior officials must be raised. The public has little reason to complain of our Diplomatic Service, whose honour and integrity are respected all the world over and whose efficiency is much underrated. Nevertheless, like all old institutions, it needs overhauling and modernizing.
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