rTHB; AMERICAN FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Photo fro7n C. R. Cameron. GARDEN IN TOKYO Vol. I OCTOBER, 1924 No. 1 FEDERAL-AMERICAN NATIONAL BANK NOW IN COURSE OF CONSTRUCTION IN WASHINGTON, D. C. W. T. GALLIHER, Chairman of the Board JOHN POOLE, President RESOURCES OVER $13,000,000.00 FOREIGN S JOURNAL PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY THE AMERICAN FOREIGN SERVICE ASSOCIATION VOL. I. No. 1 WASHINGTON, D. C. OCTOBER, 1924 C. I. = Current Information I ivas engaged in arranging material for an THE position allocated to “Cl”—the Division article on the zvork which the Division of Current of Current Information—on the State De¬ Information performs in the Department when partment’s chart is 17. Perhaps that indi¬ one of the correspondents entered my office, a man cates somebody’s idea of relative importance. If zvho has had many years’ sendee in the State so, it is wholly out of keeping with the practical Department and in whom the Department has experience of many years in dealing with Amer¬ placed entire trust. In conversation this corre¬ ican foreign relations’ matters for the American spondent showed such interest in the subject on press. which I was working and displayed such a The outstanding lesson derived from that ex¬ thorough appreciation perience is that the of the problems facing State Department, this office that I re¬ through the channel af¬ quested him to give me A Greeting forded by Cl, has in his views in writing as recent years at least dis¬ to the work performed I desire to congratulate the Foreign Service covered that it lacked by this office and how, officers on the new organization which brings intimate contact with in his opinion, it should into happy coordination both branches of our the American press and be performed. This he Foreign Service. It is the old service but with has sought to set up consented to do pro¬ new opportunities, new hope, new inspiration. machinery that would vided his article should It gives better promise for career, better adapta¬ supply that contact. It remain anonymous. tion to present-day conditions. has found in the prac¬ The resulting article I trust that the phrase “Foreign Service” will tical operation of the is transmitted herewith never become hackneyed. I hope the thought of Division a way to in¬ and I feel confident that service to our country will ever be uppermost. form the American pub¬ the men in the field will It means hard work, unfailing loyalty, deserved lic of the necessities be interested in learn¬ distinction. There is always one remedy when that underlie aspects of ing how the correspon¬ routine becomes irksome, and that is renewed American foreign policy dents themselves view zeal. There is endless fascination in the study which it is essential that the work Gf this Divi¬ of peoples, of their institutions, of their lives, of the people should un¬ sion. their aspirations. Keep up the zest of intimate derstand and approve study. There is no post which will not yield if American policy is Very truly yours, valuable returns in knowledge and experience. to be successfully car¬ Hugh R. Wilson. I look for a new esprit de corps. The Amer¬ ried out. Chief, Division of ican Foreign Service should be second to none. The restraints of in¬ Current Information. CHARLES E. HUGHES. ternational negotiations, Sept. 18, 1924. hedged about as these 1 must be by official silence until a meeting of fering conditions with which Cl must deal to be minds necessary for an agreement has been effective. reached, makes the task of keeping the Ameri¬ It is trite to say that the success of any organi¬ can public advised one of extreme delicacy. zation or of any part of an organization depends Policies sound in conception, well calculated to first upon the degree of intelligent cooperation meet the requirements of American interests within the entire organization. Yet the problems abroad and at the same time to accord with of Cl are so radically different from those of any fundamental American ideals, may fail of execu¬ other bureau or division in the Department, they tion and be repudiated at home if there has involve to such a degree the wise reconciling of been no educational background in the American opposing forces within and without the Depart¬ press upon which the public could formulate its ment, that it seems certain that intelligent co¬ judgments. operation could flow only either from practical From that viewpoint it is beyond question that experience on the part of other officials in Cl the consensus of opinion among the thoughtful work or from a background of newspaper re¬ newspaper correspondents in Washington whose porting and editing on the part of these bureau duties bring them into contact with the State chiefs. Department and whose mission is to write dis¬ It is planned in this article to outline some of patches that alone reach the eye of the public these contact problems of Cl as they are seen and furnish the daily record of events upon which from the other side of the fence by newspaper¬ the Republic must base its opinion, is, that the men who deal with Cl and through it with the Bureau of Current Information stands second Department as a whole. What is said here is only to the Secretary of State himself in its pos¬ put down in the hope that it will aid in stimulating sibilities, properly and adequately exploited, of that sort of intelligent cooperation within De¬ aiding in the creation of a sound public con¬ partmental circles which it seems obvious must ception of foreign affairs. be for the best interests not of the Department In this article it is proposed to deal with the alone but of the Nation. many factors involved in working out a success¬ The ordinary functions of Cl are prosaic and mechanical in a large degree. They are, it is ful press relationship for the State Department. assumed, fully understood by the readers of this It is the conception of the writer that this is the article and they have to do with the distribution overshadowing function of Cl and that the suc¬ in the press of formal or informal mimeographed cess of Cl must depend upon an understanding communiques—“handouts,” as they are known to within the Department and the Foreign Service of the press. The information for this purpose is the United States of the peculiar and widely dif¬ derived from a variety of sources, principally CONSULATE AT NAGASAKI 2 from reports and telegrams from can newspapers. Cables, even the Service men in the field. at newspaper rates, are expen¬ The Division has moreover, sive. Such a “bulletin” may and this comes closer to its real not be more than ten or twenty importance, to keep the Secre¬ words. Yet it may state that tary and his various deputies the Washington Government is advised as to the nature and in conversation with the foreign substance of news dispatches office in some remote capital appearing in American papers with a view to formulating a and dealing with foreign rela¬ project for the annexation of tions. Graustark or the abrogation of There are also certain more the Monroe Doctrine or some or less mechanical functions of equally impossible proposition. the bureau, such as the arrang¬ The reporter in the foreign ing of regular press conferences capital who sent the dispatch is with the Secretary or Acting merely transmitting a rumor Secretary, the reporting of that has reached him, protecting these conferences and the dis¬ himself as a rule by the state¬ tribution of the conference re¬ ment that it is “reported" that ports to the bureau heads and such a negotiation is in pro¬ others interested. So much for gress. the routine of Cl, though the The telegraph editor of the brevity of these references by paper receiving the dispatch no means should imply any usually is a man of very wide suggestion of triviality or lack experience with news vagaries of importance even of these and has seen many times very routine activities. large stories grow out of very- The less understood func¬ small and seemingly improb¬ tions of Cl, as the Division able acorns of information . He functions in actual practice, lie will “play safe” in all likelihood in the personal contact between and publish the dispatch for its chief and the newspaper what it is worth; but at the correspondents to whom he same time he will send a hasty must be available night or day. message to his Washington The majority of the newspaper office, if the paper has one, call¬ ing for an immediate Washing¬ reports from Washington re¬ counting the progress of diplo¬ ton “follow” on the cable and matic negotiations and corre¬ depend upon that Washington spondence are written against a “follow" to correct any wrong background of general infor¬ impression the cable dispatch mation which can be furnished itself might convey. only through some such in¬ Suppose now that the Wash¬ formal contact between the ington correspondent has re¬ writers and the department as ceived such a call from his is thus afforded. home office and that it is late at It should be realized that the night, as it usually is. The correspondent has never heard development of news in the of any such proposal as the American press generally is like , -V. cable indicated, this also being the tide, it waits for no man. A the usual situation, and he brief press “bulletin” from Photo from G. B. Ravndal. knows nothing or practically London, Paris, Berlin, Pekin, nothing of negotiations which TOTEM POLE or Timbuctoo, or anywhere else may be in progress between in the world, may be laid down From Fort Wrangel, Alaska Washington and the capital at one o’clock in the morning on which is the origin of the the telegraph desks of Ameri- (Continued on page 31) 3 Kubla Khan’s Hunting Palace By SAMUEL SOKOBIN, Kalgan “In Xanadu did Kubla Khan that Pai Ch’eng Tzu was not Xanadu (Shangtu), A stately pleasure dome decree.” but Chagan Nor, where Kubla Khan had his THE Consular Inspector, the rubicund N.