* * * * Ralph Deakin will be deeply -
and widely mourned as a journalist among journalists, but much more as a friend among friends. As Foreign Editor of The Times he was highly efficient, not indeed in the sense that men like Valentine Chirol and Wickham Steed and Harold Williams were, for since Williams' death The Times has had no Foreign Editor of the old type—a journalist who has done a long apprentice- ship as correspondent in foreign capitals and comes home finally to influence policy and write leading articles, as well as arranging for competent representation in key centres abroad. Deakin was an organiser, not a writer, though he did occasionally write very interesting " turn-overs " as the result of some holiday abroad. He was the kindliest of men, always ready to give help when it was solicited; as lately as last week I rang him up to consult him on a technical matter, and got at once just exactly the advice and information I wanted. He liked nothing better than advising his friends about prospective holidays somewhere in Europe, a matter on which he con- sidered their tastes (as he knew or imagined them) with studious care. A few years ago two of his friends,' myself and another, consulted him separately about a holiday—our first post-war holiday—in Switzerland. After due thought he decided on Oberhofen, on Lake Thun, for me, and sent me a beautiful little sketch-map (on Times notepaper) of the range of Alps we should see from our window. His other friend he sent to Zug, on Lake Zug, and with results as com- pletely satisfactory, I believe, as in my case. At the Reform Club, where he regularly lunched, a vacant chair will make many hearts sad.
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