Rice, Sir Cecil Arthur Spring- (1859-1918), diplomatist
by H. C. G. Matthew

Rice, Sir Cecil Arthur Spring- (1859-1918), diplomatist, was born in London on 27 February 1859. He was the second son of the Hon. Charles Spring-Rice (1819–1870), second son of Thomas Spring-Rice, first Baron Monteagle (1790-1866), and his wife, Elizabeth (d. 1883), daughter of William Marshall MP of Halsteads and Patterdale Hall, Cumberland. Educated at Eton College and Balliol College, Oxford, he achieved distinction as a scholar both at school and at college, and his first efforts at poetry appeared in an Eton booklet, while his Oxford Rhymes had a more than ephemeral vogue. Later on it was in poetry of a more serious order that he often revealed his innermost thoughts, and sometimes with rare felicity of expression and depth of feeling.

Spring-Rice's father had been at one time under-secretary of state for foreign affairs, and he himself was appointed clerk in the Foreign Office on 9 September 1882. He had the advantage almost at the outset of his diplomatic career of serving directly under two secretaries of state, first as assistant private secretary to Lord Granville and then as précis writer to Lord Rosebery. His first post abroad, as well as his last, was Washington, where, with brief intervals, he spent several years between 1886 and 1895; he was then transferred to Berlin. He remained in the German capital until 1898 and he had there the opportunity, which he always regarded as having been of the greatest educational value to him, of watching at close quarters the ‘new course’ upon which the policy of the German empire was being set by Wilhelm II after he had emancipated himself from Bismarck's tutelage. From Berlin, Spring-Rice went in 1898 first to Constantinople and then to Tehran. He was seconded thence in 1901 as British commissioner on the Caisse de la Dette Publique in Cairo, where, as he put it, he went ‘back to school’ under Lord Cromer.

From Cairo, Spring-Rice was promoted in 1903 to be secretary of embassy at St Petersburg during the stormy years of the Russo-Japanese War and the first revolutionary upheavals in Russia. While serving in Russia he married, in 1904, Florence, the only daughter of his former chief, Sir Frank Lascelles, then still ambassador in Berlin; one son and one daughter were born of the marriage. In 1906 he was created KCMG and he returned to Persia as British minister. There he supported the constitutionalist movement, and in troublous times thousands used to take sanctuary within the grounds of the British legation in Tehran. None the less he faithfully carried out the policy of the Anglo-Russian agreement of 1907, which effectively partitioned Persia. Having been passed over for the Washington embassy in 1907, he enjoyed from 1908 to 1913 five years of relative ease and rest at Stockholm as British minister to Sweden. In April 1913 he was appointed ambassador at Washington, and shortly after his arrival there he signed the agreement renewing the Anglo-American arbitration convention of 1908. He was at home on leave after a somewhat serious illness when the Sarajevo tragedy precipitated the European conflict, which he had long foreseen.

Spring-Rice returned to Washington immediately war began in Europe and signed the Bryan–Spring-Rice treaty, providing for a permanent International Peace Commission. Spring-Rice's view was that ‘the President [Wilson] will be with us by birth and upbringing, but he is very much in the hands of some of our worst enemies’ (Gwynn, 2.220). He found William Jennings Bryan, the secretary of state, hard to take seriously and he was not successful in striking up a good relationship with Colonel House, Wilson's confidential adviser. Indeed, House argued that Spring-Rice's approach delayed American entry into the war by two years (Gwynn, 2.216). Certainly, Spring-Rice believed that it was important that Britain should not seem to be inveigling the United States into the war, and in his approaches to Wilson he maintained a scrupulous neutrality, waiting for Germany to show herself even more clearly in the wrong than she had done in August 1914. He felt more comfortable in the company of pro-war republicans—especially Roosevelt and Cabot Lodge—than of democrats, and the latter were quick to notice this. But he had good relations with J. P. Morgan (the banker who acted as British purchasing agent in the USA) and once assisted in disarming a German assassin who had attacked him. Spring-Rice proved himself a shrewd commentator on the internal politics of the USA, and on understanding the difficulties of Wilson's position. He was personally much affected by the carnage of the war; this and the heavy demands of his position caused very considerable strain. Some saw him as physically and morally unequal to the requirements of his position (Gwynn, 2.217). At least by Colonel House's account, he on several occasions lost his temper. He was undoubtedly reticent about combating German propaganda; in the whole of his time as ambassador he spoke in public only once (a few words spoken at Harvard in 1917). But he countered Wilson's proposals for a League of Nations in 1916 by warning the Foreign Office that Congress would make isolationist objections, and in that sense House was right to see Spring-Rice as working against himself and Wilson (Gwynn, 2.334). His reticence and caution were regarded as feeble and ineffective by Lloyd George and his group, and he became the focus of what was really a more general attack on traditional Foreign Office methods.

When America entered the war in April 1917, A. J. Balfour led a mission to the USA which effectively superseded Spring-Rice, though it was not until January 1918 that he was replaced as ambassador by Lord Reading. Just as he was leaving Washington, Spring-Rice was sent some verses by W. J. Bryant; in response he penned the famous lines ‘I vow to thee, my country’ (Gwynn, 2.432). After a day's skiing in Ottawa on his way home, he died suddenly on 14 February 1918 at Government House. Death meant the end of his pension; American friends raised $75,000 for his widow and family, the money to go subsequently to Balliol College, Oxford, for travelling scholarships. His poems were edited in 1920 by Bernard Holland.

H. C. G. MATTHEW