The death of Sir Harold Butler will cause wide and
deep sorrow, for he was a man who inspired regard and respect in a quite unusual degree. His varied record, Eton and Balliol, Fellow of All Souls, Home Office, Ministry of Labour, Director International Labour Office, first Warden of Nuffield, Head of Information Services at Washington during the war, has been adequately recounted in his obituaries. What has not been conveyed, and is not easily conveyed, is the quality of the man himself, his quiet competence, his quiet friendliness, his quiet humour, his essential fairness of mind, and the integrity of character which lay behind it all. The hospitality he and Lady Butler dispensed at Geneva from 1920 to 1938 was a privilege to share. Not many entries in the obituary columns would fin more people with a keener sense of loss. As readers of this journal know, Butler was a gifted writer. His review of Barbara Ward's recent book in the Spectator of March 2nd must be almost the last article he wrote. jitztis.
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