5 JANUARY 1929, Page 18

A GREAT WORKER.

He is thought to be a little " gauche," especially by the Latin races, but that is nonsense. How can a man be tactless who has managed 500 people of forty nationalities for ten years without any serious dispute arising ? How can a man lack savoir-faire who has fostered the League through its delicate adolescence, hand-feeding it when the milk of unanimity was denied, shielding it from enthusiasts who would make the baby run before it could walk, upholding it against cynics, justifying it to all the world P Shy he is. But as a diplomatist he has put simplicity and good faith on pinnacles at Geneva from which they will not be easily cast down. Those to come after him will have high standards to follow. Everyone trusts and respects him. The fact that he is a Roman Catholic made many suspicious of him at first. Now that is completely forgotten. What is remembered is his invariable and scrupulous fairness, his very careful attention to detail, and his constant hard work. Add to these virtues a physical fitness (won on the golf course) which is not a very common asset among those who spend their time in high con- claves, and you have a figure which we may consider with justifiable pride as a typical Eng'ishman.