17 FEBRUARY 1950, Page 5

Lord Vansittart surprises me. In an article in the American

Foreign Affairs he refers to " the dramatised cliche of the mid- nineteenth century that ' a diplomatist is an honest man paid to lie by his country '." Mid-nineteenth century ? Whether Sir Henry Wotton (1568-1639) did actually coin the epigram about a diploma- tist being " an honest man sent to lie abroad for the good of his country " is perhaps questionable, though there seems to be little doubt about it. The date assigned to it is 1604. At any rate, the epigram is an improvement on the cliche.