A Student

Arrived in the U. S. the Right Hon. Sir Esme William Howard, G.C.M.G., K.C.B., C.V.O., P.C., recently appointed British Ambassador at Washington in succession to Sir Auckland Geddes, resigned (TIME, Jan. 7).

Sir Esme arrived on the Olympic and was met by Sir H. Gloster Armstrong, British Consul-General at Manhattan, and Major General H. K. Bethell, British Military Attache to the Embassy in Washington.

In a statement prepared for the press, the Ambassador said:

"Although I have looked forward to returning to America and to renewing many old friendships and making, I hope, many new ones, I feel a certain diffidence at coming in the capacity of British Ambassador. My position is rather like that of a young man returning to his university while still a student, after some years' interval.

"I feel that, although my master in former years--James Bryce-- was certainly the best that any man could have, I shall have to spend a certain time here before I can really graduate and take my degree. But I hope that the American press, who will be my examiners, whether I like it or not, will not be too hard, and I am encouraged by the fact that never, I believe, in the history of the two countries have their relations been so friendly and cordial as now. Indeed, it seems to me that my chief duty will be to reap what my predecessors have sown.

Sir Esme, who has been nearly 40 years in the Diplomatic Corps, is tall, good-looking, gray-haired, gray-moustached, 60 years of age. On his arrival he was dressed in a dark gray fedora hat, a dark overcoat, blue suit, gray spats. His courtly manner had won him much popularity on the transatlantic voyage.

Sir Esme and Lady Howard (nee Lady Isabella Giustiniani-Bandini daughter of Prince Giustiniani-Bandini, afterwards Earl of Newburgh) have five sons. The eldest is at Oxford and the second at Cambridge. Lady Howard will bring the other three over with her when she rejoins her husband, when they will be placed in preparatory schools. The Ambassador said that he hoped Esme, the eldest, would come to the U. S. after he had finished at Oxford and obtain a good job.