Change at Washington

The British Foreign Office announced that Sir Auckland Geddes, "having been informed by his medical advisers that the condition of his eyes will not admit of the immediate resumption of work at Washington, has felt bound to tender his resignation."

Sir Auckland is returning to Washington in order to make the necessary arrangements for his departure and to take leave personally of his many friends.

Immediately following the statement of the Foreign Office, King George approved the following diplomatic appointments: The Right Hon. Sir Esme Howard, P.C., K.C.B., K.C.M.G., at present Ambassador in Madrid, to be Ambassador in Washington; the Right Hon. Sir Horace Rumbold, K.C.M.G., M.V.O., at present High Commissioner in Constantinople, to be Ambassador in Madrid.

Sir Auckland Campbell Geddes, aged 44, is a jack-of-all-trades. He is a doctor, an authority on international trade and finance, a soldier, a statesman,a professor. He was given a medical education at Edinburgh University, at the London Hospital and at Freiburg, Germany. He became a Demonstrator and Assistant Professor of Anatomy at his old University; from there he went to the Royal College as Professor of Anatomy at Dublin and subsequently held the same position at McGill University, Montreal, later becoming Principal of that institution.

In the South African War, Sir Auckland was a lieutenant in the third Highland Light Infantry Regiment; he rejoined the Army quite early in the Great War, was badly gassed. In 1916 he was made Director of Recruiting; during the next four years he held a number of posts and in 1920 was appointed British Ambassador to the U. S.

Commenting upon his resignation, Sir Auckland said: "It is not because my eyes have failed me that I am resigning the British Ambassadorship at Washington, but because physicians have informed me emphatically that if my eyes are again subjected to the intense strain which is unavoidable in carrying out diplomatic work that I may lose the use of them completely and permanently."

Sir Esme William Howard is a member of the younger branch of the Catholic Howard family, which has during hundreds of years produced the Dukes of Norfolk. On and off Sir Esme has been in the Brtish Diplomatic Corps for 38 years and is therefore a professional diplomat. For that very reason his appointment caused some comment in official circles, for it has been the almost invariable practice of the British Government to appoint men conspicuous in some other field of life. Being a Catholic and popular in Spain, it was felt that his position there, as Ambassador to the Court of His Most Catholic Majesty King Alfonso, was eminently satisfactory and likely to endure for some years.

Sir Esme, aged 60, has held a number of diplomatic, consular and political posts, among which was that of Councillor of Embassy in Washington from 1906 to 1908. When the South African War broke out, he joined the Yeomanry as a trooper and received the Queen's medal and four clasps.

In 1898 he married Lady Isabella Giustiniani-Bandini, daughter of Prince Giustiniani-Bandini, Earl of Newburgh, whose family played an important part in the Jacobite rising in 1645 and was forced to go into exile.