27 FEBRUARY 1932, Page 3

A Pre-War Diplomat The death of Sir Maurice de Bunsen

removes one more of the little group of British diplomats to whom destiny allotted leading parts in the drama of the fateful month before War broke out in 1914. Sir Maurice, who was then Ambassador at Vienna, kept the Foreign Office singularly well informed of the trend events were taking, and two of his despatches in the middle of July, a week or more before the Austrian ultimatum was delivered, contained remarkably accurate predictions of develop- ments which in fact took place. A competent and conscientious public servant, with a record of successful work to his credit at Madrid and Buenos Ayres as well as Vienna, he was a man of great personal kindliness, and never so much a diplomat as to allow his human sympathies to atrophy.

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