LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
[Letters of the length of one of our leading paragraphs arc often more read, and therefore more effective, than those which fill treble the space.]
THE LATE LORD CROMER.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR.")
SIR,—Mr. Lytton Strachey in a remarkable and brilliant book, Eminent Victorians, which he has recently published, presents us with the following portrait of Lord Cromer :- " Sir Evelyn Baring thought so too; but he did not say so; it was not his way. When he spoke, he felt no temptation to speak everything that was in his mind. [The italics are mine;] In all he did, he was cautious, measured, unimpeachably correct. It would be difficult to think of a man more completely the antithesis of Gordon. His temperament, all in monochrome, touched in with cold blues and indecisive greys, was eminently unromantic. He had a steely colourlessness, and a steely pliability, and a steely strength. . . . His life's work had in it an element of paradox. It was passed entirely in the East; and the East meant very little to him; he took no interest in it. [The italics are mine.] It was something to be looked after. It was also a convenient field for the talents of Sir Evelyn Baring. Yet it must not be supposed he was cynical; perhaps he was not quite great enough for that. He looked forward to a pleasant retirement—a country place—so-me literary recreation. [The italics are mine in every case.] His ambition can be stated in a single phrase; it was to become an institution; and he achieved it. No doubt, too, he deserved it."
The greatest of poets, in a bitter mood, has described the characteristics of a certain class of people, whom he did not like. " They," he says,
" that have power to hurt and will do none,
That do not do the things they most do show, Who, moving others, are themselves as stone, Unmoved, cold, and to temptation slow, They rightly do inherit Heaven's graces, And husband nature's riches from expense; , They are the lords and owners of their faces. . . ."
Without trespassing on any ground which might be thought con- troversial (although this impression in grey monochrome with its " cold blues and indecisive greys "—indecisive!—will appear strange to those who knew Lord Cromer in the flesh, and it will be news to them that he " felt no temptation to speak everything that was in his mind "; and perhaps it will startle them to learn of his " habitual reticence " of which Mr. Strachey speaks later on, and of his " diplomatic conscience "), I wish to correct one or two errors of fact in this delicate impressionist portrait. To say that Lord Cromer took no interest in the East is a misstate- ment of fact. There was not the minutest point of difference /cetween the Oriental and the Occidental that did not interest Lord Cromer. He was never tired of discussing these differences. His written and printed notes bear witness to this interest, and I am certain that the finished Oriental scholar who was once Lord Cromer's secretary will corroborate what I have said. To say that he " kept up " his classics is misleading. It would be truer to kay he whole-heartedly plunged into the study of the classics, as he did into the study of French and Turkish, at an advanced age, without having had any of the advantages- of a Pubic School or University education. The phrase " he looked forward to a pleasant retirement—a country place—some literary recreation " will make those who knew Lord Cromer smile. His retirement consisted of incessant work in London, in Wimpole Street, where- he died as he had lived : in harness. -It would have been truer to say that he looked forward to the same thing he could look back upon : tireless devotion in the service of his country. He never possessed a country house, and I don't think he ever got used to the cold summers of the North.—I am; Sir, &e., MAURICE- BARING, Major, R.A.F. Headquarters, Independent Force, R.A.F., B.E.F., France.
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