By James Patton
Sir Cecil A. Spring Rice GCMG GCVO PC (1859–1918) was born into a prominent blue-blooded Anglo-Irish family and educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford. He began his long career with the Foreign Office as a clerk in 1882; his first diplomatic posting was to Washington from 1887 to 1892, with a second stint there during 1893–1895. Following were short stays in Japan, Germany, and the Middle East; then he was off to Russia, where he was the chargé d'affaires. During the Russo-Japanese War he corresponded at length with President Theodore Roosevelt as the American mediation effort progressed and led to the subsequent treaty. As a result, in 1905 he was designated as the Foreign Office's special representative to the U.S. president. In 1906 he was rose to an ambassadorship, first to Persia then later to Sweden. He was also knighted.
His biographer, Stephen Gwynn, says that Spring Rice’s ambition was always to be the ambassador in Washington. Throughout his career he had voiced his desire to "improve relations between the two great English-speaking powers." Early in his career he became such a great friend with Theodore Roosevelt that he was asked to be best man when future president married his second wife, Edith, in London in 1886. Due to his long association with Roosevelt, Spring Rice had unrivaled influence in Washington, and ultimately, in 1912 he became the ambassador to the U.S. It was later said that his "whole career seems to have been a preparation for the final struggle in Washington." He would serve in that capacity for almost the entire Wilson Administration and duration of the Great War.
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| The Roosevelts' London Wedding in London, 1886 |
With the start of the war, Spring Rice’s principal job became finessing American neutrality. The United States was the Allies largest foreign source of munitions, arms and food. ARTICLE
However, in 1914, most Americans favored neutrality, and there were strong anti-British and non-interventionist sentiments as well. His frequent opposite number, Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan (1860–1925) was a pacifist. It was a tribute to Spring Rice’s tact that the two became close friends. He also had to defend British policies and activities that violated American neutrality, such as the cutting of cables, reading mail and telegrams, the search and even seizure of ships at sea, and the dubious deeds of British agents.
Furthermore, his German counterparts were also courting American public opinion. Of particular concern was their involvement with ethnic German and Irish groups, and the embassy also monitored activities of anti-British agents and sought to identify their contacts and sources.
In January 1915, Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour (1848–1930), prime minister from 1902 to 1905 and in 1917 the author of the Balfour Declaration, was dispatched to Washington to smooth over differences and assure the U.S. Congress of Britain's undying fidelity. Spring Rice and his staff were excluded from these meetings. Even so, Spring Rice’s friend J.P. Morgan Jr.’s firm was appointed as the sole purchasing agent for Britain in the U.S.
Henceforth, Spring Rice was regarded as Morgan’s man, as the latter became deeply involved in lending funds to the Allies.
Spring Rice became very concerned about the rapid growth of sub rosa purchasing deals. He warned Whitehall that payments made in gold would seriously undermine the British banks, but he was largely ignored, likely because of his relationship with Morgan.
Spring Rice and his staff increasingly assumed an advisory role as many British special missions were sent to secure the support of the U.S. government. One of these was the 1915 Anglo-French Financial Commission, led by Rufus Isaacs, Earl of Reading (1860–1935), which resulted in a line of credit being issued to the British in the amount of $500 million, underwritten by Morgan & Co. and a consortium of about 2,200 U.S banks.
Spring Rice was unable to control the large number of private brokers and agents, both with and without official authority, who were operating in America on behalf of British business interests. Stymied, he demanded that the War Office provide him with an official list of their accredited agents, which request was only reluctantly complied with.
Spring Rice also had to control the anti-British influence on U.S. policy towards the Indian and Irish independence movements. The U.S. government was reluctant to quash these sentiments. British intelligence uncovered a conspiracy in the U.S. between German agents and Indian nationals planning an armed rebellion against British rule. Likewise, after the Easter Uprising in Ireland, Spring Rice was asked to request clemency for the rebel leaders, including Sir Roger Casement, which he did, knowing that while this raised his standing with some Americans, it had the opposite effect in Whitehall.
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| Spring Rice (second from left) Signing the Third U.S. War Loan to Britain in 1917 |
In January 1917, Spring Rice was authorized to sign the third U.S. War Loan agreement on behalf of His Majesty’s government. However, in January 1918, following a disagreement with the media mogul Albert, Viscount Northcliffe (1865–1922), the head of yet another British special mission to America, Spring Rice was abruptly recalled to London by a one-line telegram.
On his way home, he stopped off in Ottawa, Ontario, to visit with the Governor General of Canada, the Duke of Devonshire, who was Spring Rice’s wife’s cousin. He died there suddenly on 14 February 1918.
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| Gravestone, Vanier, Ontario |
His death left his widow (who lived on until 1961), herself an ambassador’s daughter, to raise her two young children with no home or pension. He was buried in the Canadian National Military Cemetery, located at Vanier, Ontario. “Ambassadors were expected to have family money,” a descendant says. “She never talked about him; she never talked about life in embassies. People like her didn’t talk about being short of money.” American friends, led by Morgan, raised money for the family’s support and the children’s education. Spring Rice created a small endowment to fund scholarships for future diplomats at Balliol College, Oxford.
In the day, many tributes were forthcoming. In 1919, a peak in British Columbia was named for him. In 1931 a small bridge in the Lakes District was dedicated to him.
He was called a consummate diplomat, able to find and befriend the persons of real importance. He could also placate difficult personalities and egos. Robert Cecil, Viscount of Chetwood (1864–1958), said of Spring Rice: “No ambassador has ever had to discharge duties of greater delicacy or of more far reaching importance than fell to his lot. Nor has any ambassador ever fulfilled his task with more unwearied vigilance, conspicuous ability and ultimate success.”
The Poet
A hundred years on, Spring Rice’s legacy now rests not with his distinguished diplomatic service or his connections with famous figures like Roosevelt, Morgan, and Bryan. Like most educated persons of his era, Spring Rice dabbled in poetry. Fluent in Farsi, he translated Persian poetry into English. He also wrote poems. His complete collection, entitled Poems of Today was published in 1922. Of particular importance is his poem "Urbs Dei (The City of God) or the Two Father Lands." This is the original version:
I heard my country calling, away across the sea,
Across the waste of waters, she calls and calls to me.
Her sword is girded at her side, her helmet on her head,
And around her feet are lying the dying and the dead;
I hear the noise of battle, the thunder of her guns;
I haste to thee, my mother, a son among thy sons.
And there's another country, I've heard of long ago
Most dear to them that love her, most great to them that know
We may not count her armies, we may not see her king
Her fortress is a faithful heart, her pride is suffering
And soul by soul, and silently her shining bounds increase
And her ways are ways of gentleness, and all her paths are peace
The final line of the second stanza echoes Proverbs 3:17, "Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace," although in the Bible the pronoun "her" refers to "wisdom," whereas Spring Rice is using it for "heaven." Spring Rice rewrote the first stanza in 1918 shortly before his death. It is thought that he felt that the original did not emphasize the magnitude of the tragedy that was the Great War:
I vow to thee, my country, all earthly things above
Entire and whole and perfect, the service of my love
The love that asks no question, the love that stands the test
That lays upon the altar, the dearest and the best
The love that never falters, the love that pays the price
The love that makes undaunted the final sacrifice.
His second stanza remained unchanged. In 1921 the words of the revised version of the poem were set to music by Gustav Holst (1874–1934), using tune of "Jupiter, from his suite The Planets. Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958) then included Holst’s harmonized version in the 1926 Church of England hymnal "Songs of Praise." Known by its first line, the hymn has become a staple at Remembrance Day ceremonies and especially state funerals, including those of Sir Winston Churchill; Diana, Princess of Wales; Margaret, Baroness Thatcher; and Queen Elizabeth II.
The hymn has become controversial in recent times, accused of being nationalistic, even heretical, for suggesting that allegiance to country should come before allegiance to God, as well as "obscene" for urging unquestioned obedience when asked to kill others.
Also, on 7 June 2013 the inscription “And there’s another country, I’ve heard of long ago, most dear to them that love her, most great to them that know" was added to Spring Rice’s refurbished grave marker, courtesy of the Toronto branch of the Honourable Company of Freemen of the City of London.
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