12 JANUARY 1918, Page 3

Sir Cecil Spring-Rice, the British Ambassador at Washington, is coming

home on leave. Lord Reading, the Lord Chief Justice, has been appointed " High Commissioner in the United States in the character of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary on Special Mission." That is to say, Lord Reading will combine in America the offices of Sir Cecil Spring-Rice and Lord Northcliffe, and will represent Great Britain in diplomacy as well as in questions of finance and war supplies. It is stated that Lord Reading will not resign his high judicial office, but this is hardly credible. Even in a war of this unexampled magnitude, there seems no reason why the Common Law Courts should be deprived of their head for a couple of years, unless indeed the office of Lord Chief Justice has become a sinecure.