Editing Cecil Spring Rice (section)

===Early diplomatic career===
[[File:Spring-rice c2.jpg|thumb|left|200px|Spring Rice as a young man.]]
Spring Rice began his career as a clerk in the [[Foreign Office]] in 1882. In 1886, he was appointed Assistant Private Secretary to the Foreign Secretary, the [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal]] politician [[Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery|Lord Rosebery]].{{Sfn | Gwynn | 1929 | pp = 36–38 (Volume I)}} Spring Rice was known to be a supporter of the Liberal Party and was sympathetic to the [[Irish Home Rule movement]] so he was relieved of his post when the [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservatives]] came to power later that year. Spring Rice subsequently made the unusual move to the diplomatic service, where he remained for the rest of his life, starting with his first posting to the British legation in [[Washington, D.C.]] in 1887.{{Sfn | Gwynn | 1929 | pp = 51–97 (Volume I)}}

In 1892 he was posted to Japan, and undertook a tour of Korea with Curzon later that year.{{Sfn | Gwynn | 1929 | p = 125 (Volume I)}} While in Japan Spring Rice was instrumental in laying the foundations of the [[Anglo-Japanese Alliance]], which he identified as vital to British interests if Russian expansionism in the region was to be challenged. He left Japan in October 1893 and was posted again to Washington until October 1895, when he was posted to the British embassy in Berlin.{{Sfn | Gwynn | 1929 | pp = 178–256 (Volume I)}} During his time in Germany he fell in love with his future wife, Florence Lascelles, the daughter of the then British ambassador. He left Berlin in July 1898, and after spending several months with his family on Ullswater was posted to Constantinople.{{Sfn | Gwynn | 1929 | p = 256 (Volume I)}} In May 1899 he was given his first posting to Persia as Secretary of Legation, and he became the British [[chargé d'affaires]] in [[Tehran]] in March 1900, when the Minister, Sir [[Mortimer Durand]], left for London due to his wife's health.<ref>{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=Court Circular|date=9 March 1900 |page=6 |issue=36085}}</ref> In 1901 Spring Rice was appointed Commissioner of Public Debt in [[Cairo]], where he remained for two years. In November 1901, he had been promoted to the rank of [[diplomatic rank|Secretary of Embassy]].<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=27387 |date=13 December 1901 |page=8834 }}</ref> He was made Chargé d'Affaires in [[St. Petersburg]] in 1903, and in June of that year began to warn the British government that war between Russia and Japan was becoming increasingly likely.<ref name=burton/> He was still serving in Russia when the [[Russo-Japanese War]] began in January 1904, and he corresponded at length with his close friend and confidant President Roosevelt about the United States' mediation in the conflict and the subsequent [[Treaty of Portsmouth]].{{Sfn | Gwynn | 1929 | p = 441 (Volume I)}} In January 1905 [[Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, 5th Marquess of Lansdowne|Lord Lansdowne]] appointed Spring Rice as the Foreign Office's special representative to the US president.<ref name=burton/> Spring Rice was carrying out the duties of the British ambassador to Russia, who was unwell, during the [[1905 Russian Revolution]] and was involved in the early negotiations which resulted in the [[Anglo-Russian Entente]] of 1907.

In September 1906 Spring Rice undertook his first ambassadorial role when he was made [[British Ambassador to Iran|British Minister to Persia]], before becoming [[List of ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Sweden|Ambassador to Sweden]] in 1908.{{Sfn | Gwynn | 1929 | p = 126 (Volume II)}}