SIR WILLIAM

SEEDS

Ambassador to Russia 1939-40

Sir William Seeds, KCMG, who died yesterday' at the age of 91, was HM Ambassador to Brazil (1930-35) and to the Soviet Union in 193940.

In the months before the outbreak of the Second World War the British Government decided to resume the negotiations, which had been suspended with the Soviet Government for a treaty of mutual assistance, and Seeds-who had gone out- to Moscow as Ambassador in January, 1939. was summoned home to receive fresh instructions. Lord Strang, then Assistant Under-Secretary of State at the Foreign Office, returned from Poland, where he was on an official visit, prior to going to Moscow to help and advise Seeds. The negotiations ultimately broke down; meanwhile there had been secret contacts betvween the Russians and the Germans; Stalin later announced his intention of signing a pact with Germany; von Ribbentrop went to Moscow and the SovietGerman agreement was concluded.

Seeds was the son of Robert Seeds, QC. of Dublin, Queen's Advocate General. He was born in 1882, educated at Rugby, and entered the Diplomatic Service in 1904.

He was Minister in Bogota from 1923 to 1925, in Carac_s from 1925 to 1926, and Durazzo (Albania) from 1926 to 1928.

In 1928 he was transferred to Coblenz as British High Commissioner for the Rhineland and during his tenure of the post was mainly occupied in the arrangements for the evacuation. Two years later his services were rewarded by a KCMG and he was promoted to be Ambassador at Rio de Janeiro.

When Seeds reached Brazil he found the country in a disturbed condition. A provisional Government had been established after the revolution in 1930 but the finances of the country were in a state of chaos. The aid of Great Britain was invoked and Sir Otto Niemeyer was sent to Rio to advise on a plan for the reconstruction of the Bank of Brazil. Seeds retired in 1941.

He married in 1911 Arabella, daughter of Theobald Butler, ICS. They had three sons and a daughter. One son was killed in the Second World War.

Mr Stewart Owler, CBE, North-West Regional Director, Ministry of Works, 1945-49, chairman of North Western Industrial Estates 1949-60, and founder of Liverpool Letterpress, died on Tuesday at the age of 78.

Mr lValter Henry Guillebaud, CBE, deputy Director General of the Forestry Commission 1948-53, died on Thursday at the age of 83. He was the commission's director of research and education from 1945 to 1948.