[Philippe Joseph Louis]. French diplomat, born on the 9th of October 1866, a son of Marcellin Berthelot, the famous chemist and politician. After having passed through the regular stages of a diplomatic career, he was sent on a mission to the Far East in 1902, and returned to the Foreign Office to mount the hierarchical steps of promotion, many of which, by reason of his appointment as chef de cabinet, he was able to take at a single bound. He acted as Briand’s righthand man throughout his term of office as Minister of Foreign Affairs and prime minister; became Clemenceau’s trusted adviser during the World War and the Peace Conference, and succeeded Jules Cambon, with the rank of an ambassador, as general secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
