Sir John Pratt, 75, brother of Hollywood's horror specialist, Boris Karloff,* had a distinguished, 27-year career in the British Foreign Service in China, was knighted in 1929, retired in 1938. From 1939 until 1941 he was head of the Ministry of Information's Far East Section, in 1948 was appointed to the nonpaying job of Foreign Office representative on the Universities' China Committee—a nonpolitical body which selects Chinese students wishing to attend British universities.
The committee has not had much work lately (Mao's regime does not permit Chinese to study in the West), but Sir...