* * * * The appointment of Sir Frederick Whyte
to be Director- General of the English-Speaking Union is presumably satisfactory both to Sir Frederick and to the Union, but major congratulations must go to the latter, for it has put its affairs into the hands of a man of quite first-rate competence. Sir Frederick, when he was elected for Perth in 191o, was, I fancy, the youngest member of the House of Commons, but he abandoned his political career at home to become the first President of the Indian Legislative Assembly and school that body in Parliamentary methods. Since then he has spent three years as Adviser to the Chinese Government, and— what is more to the point for present purposes—travelled and lectured constantly in the United States. At a moment when relations between Britain and America are more cordial than they have been for half a generation, a body like the E.S.U. has an invaluable opportunity for dissipating mis- understandings and interpreting the two countries to each other. It has done much valuable work in that field in the past, but it will be surprising if its activities are not con- siderably extended on both sides of the Atlantic under Sir Frederick Whyte's direction.
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