5 JANUARY 1924, Page 17

It is no disparagement to Sir Auckland Geddes to admit

that the most successful British Ambassador who ever went to Washington was the late Lord Bryce. To stay-at-home Britons it would have come as a revela- tion to have learnt at first hand the warmth of the affection with which Lord Bryce was regarded in all parts of America, in the East, in the Middle-West and in the Far West. Of course, the author of the American Commonwealth had enormous advantages over both his predecessors and his successors ; nevertheless there were two factors which contributed to Lord Bryce's success which are within the grasp of his successors—namely, his accessibility and his absence of " side."

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