THE; AMERICAN FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Harris & Ewiny THE ACTING SECRETARY OF STATE JOSEPH P. COTTON Vol. VII MARCH, 1930 No. 3 BANKING AND INVESTMENT SERVICE THROUGHOUT THE WORLD The National City Bank of New York and Affiliated Institutions THE NATIONAL CITY BANK OF NEW YORK CAPITAL, SURPLUS AND UNDIVIDED PROFITS $239,650,233.27 (AS OF DECEMBER 31, 1929) HEAD OFFICE THIRTY-SEVEN BRANCHES IN 55 WALL STREET, NEW YORK CREATER NEW YORK Foreign Branches in ARGENTINA . BELGIUM . BRAZIL . CHILE . CHINA . COLOMBIA . CUBA DOMINICAN REPUBLIC . ENGLAND . INDIA . ITALY . JAPAN . MEXICO . PERU . PORTO RICO REPUBLIC OF PANAMA . STRAITS SETTLEMENTS . URUGUAY . VENEZUELA. ~v~ THE NATIONAL CITY BANK OF NEW YORK (FRANCE) S. A. Paris 41 BOULEVARD HAUSSMANN 44 AVENUE DES CHAMPS ELYSEF.S Nice: 6 JARDIN du Roi ALBERT 1 er INTERNATIONAL BANKING CORPORATION (OWNED BY THE NATIONAL CITY BANK OF NEW YORK) Head Office: 55 WALL STREET, NEW YORK Foreign and Domestic Branches in UNITED STATES . PHILIPPINE ISLANDS . SPAIN . ENGLAND ant! Representatives in The National City Bank Chinese Branches BANQUE NATIONALE DE LA REPUBLIQUE D’HAITI (AFFILIATED WITH TIIE NATIONAL CITY BANK OF NEW YORK) Head Office: PORT AU-PRINCE, HAITI CITY BANK FARMERS TRUST COMPANY (AFFILIATED WITH THE NATIONAL CITY BANK OF NEW YORK) Head Office: 22 WILLIAM STREET, NEW YORK Temporary Headquarters: 45 EXCHANGE PLACE THE NATIONAL CITY COMPANY (AFFILIATED WITH THE NATIONAL CITY BANK OF NEW YORK) HEAD OFFICE OFFICES IN 50 LEADING 55 WALL STREET, NEW YORK AMERICAN CITIES Foreign Offices: LONDON . AMSTERDAM . GENEVA . TOKIO . SHANGHAI Canadian Offices: MONTREAL . TORONTO The National City Company, through its offices and affiliations in the United States and abroad, offers a world-wide investment service to those interested in Dollar Securities. LONDON OFFICE: 34 BISHOPSGATE, E.C. 2. PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY THE AMERICAN FOREIGN SERVICE ASSOCIATION VOL. VII, No. 3 WASHINGTON, D. C. MARCH, 1930 From A Nicaraguan Garden By MARGARET W. MUNRO A FEW minutes ago Peggy darted into the Only yesterday I returned from the city to find room shouting, “Mother, come quick! the children screaming with rage because the There's an enchanted prince in our back nurse wouldn't let them attend the death of a baby yard!” boa in the garden. It did seem cruel to keep them 1 don't wonder she thought so. The tremendous so far out of reach at such a time, for the boa toad, squatting beside the woodpile and blinking was only 6 feet long and had come to eat baby his onion eyes, was just about the most repulsive chicks, not children. This is the second harmless object I have ever boa they have done seen. He must have to death over my been nearly a foot pea-vines, and the in diameter, and results are disas¬ heaved his sides un¬ trous and final. We pleasantly when the have labored in puppy yapped at vain, and this is him front the arms then all. There of the gardener. never was a garden “The prince will so molested. send poison into First of all, I set Buster’s eyes if I out tomato vines, let him go,” Julio which I raised in a explained, and the box on the legation children hastily balcony, and they backed off. “Poke did very well until him away,” said a hungry cow “But, mother,” the broke through the children protested, fence and devoured “If he is a prince ?” every one. Peggy “Anyway, he’ll like called me early that it better in the field,” I argued; so that is what morning to say that a lovely mother oxen with they are doing now, gently and with great con¬ her baby oxen was right out in our garden, eating sideration. while Buster is tied up beside me. something. A few days ago it was a poisonous little snake So we built a stronger fence, and planted more that coiled out of the woodpile, but Julio deftly tomatoes, they being all we had to plant at that secured it in an old candy box and presented it to time. Their disappearance was more gradual and a collecting Marine. more mysterious, a branch at a time. Iguanas! 77 Another fence was put up within the original one, I forgot to say that one thing did flourish. The and we planted for a third time. A fascinating fence posts grew up into fine shade trees! assortment of vegetable seeds had just arrived from home, and we had the remainder of the old corral pick-axed and the soil carefully prepared before we thrust the new seeds into the ground. Nothing came up, for the ants ate up the seeds as soon as we covered them. The next lot we soaked in kerosene, and they did come up, but not where we planted them; the ants carried them a short distance before they discovered the dis¬ agreeable flavor and dropped them slightly out of line. These untidy rows grew fairly well, for only the baby iguanas could squeeze through the fine wire, and although they did their best a good many plants got ahead of them. Then came the leaf-cutting ants and removed a large section of our hortaliza over night. The next day we spent in plugging their underground entrances and suffocating them with bisulphide fumes, but the main army tunneled from a jungly place across the road where it was impossible to locate their hole. So the “zompopos” continue to pester us and we them whenever a brigade appears. Again we soaked and planted, having little else to do, and wondering more and more why there was anything green to eat in Nicaragua. And again the seedlings came up, but by this time the dry season was again upon us, and the problem of irrigation became acute. Our water supply de¬ pended on the wind, and for two weeks at a time no wind blew. “Pipas” of water were carted in for domestic use, but nothing could be done for the garden. A few yellow bantam stalks and a Photo by O. Gaylord Marsh patch of eggplants were all that survived the drought. The corn looked rather promising, tas- seled out, and even developed a few puny ears. Our excitement was great. Early every morning we visited the garden to see which stalks had EVANGELINE’S WELL, new ears, we counted them again and again, we knew each one thoroughly. Then one dreadful GRAND PRE day the children came in aghast. The corn-field had gone flat! We followed them to the tragic scene, where every stalk lay limp on the ground. “Farther down, on the slope of the hill, was the The “gardener” joined the sad procession and well with its moss-grown solemnly shook his head. Such a pity, he la¬ mented, when only last night he had poured Bucket, fastened with iron, and near it a trough crude oil around each stalk to protect it against for the horses.” the 3 nts! Only the eggplants remained, and I may say “Vast meadows stretched to the eastward, giving righi here that I hope never to see another. From what the Major in charge of the penitentiary the village its name, and pasture to flocks gardsn tells me, I gather that the prisoners feel without number.” the same way about them, and have begun feeding them to the hogs. From now on I shall devote myself to petunias. c^SV> 78 Basil Miles: An Appreciation By WILLIAM FRANKLIN SANDS THE idea of a career in Foreign Service for considered as rewards for political lame ducks and the United States is by no means a new one, minor but useful party workers, and during that nor does the present Service include the period a number of situations and traditions took only “career” diplomats we have ever had; not shape which are the cause of a good many of our all were amateurs before the Rogers Act, which routine diplomatic annoyances today. Together relieved trained men from political caprice and with the growth of new nations to the south of which goes far on the desirable road of saving us and of European extensions to the Far East trained men from the vicissitudes of caprice with¬ came realization of the importance to America of in the Department. both those vast regions and of the urgent need of The various attempts to develop a service com¬ trained expert representation in each. In the mensurate to America’s peeds, to make a national meantime, the social feature of diplomacy had service of the finest quality; the efforts to that begun to assume undue proportions in the minds end of various men who saw in diplomacy a of some of our younger casual representatives, career, and their adventures with political place centering as diplomacy did about the life of Euro¬ hunters or with egotists who looked upon the De¬ pean courts and capitals. Grover Cleveland and partment as a private institution rather than as a Richard Olney determined to develop a highly public service of vital importance to the nation trained and permanent corps of experts to make would make an interesting study for present day themselves thoroughly familiar with the “prob¬ Service men. lems of the Pacific” before taking any European There have been many such men in the Service, post. The writer of this sketch was one of the not continuously, but perhaps not (for that very two first “permanent” diplomats to be appointed reason) less completely rounded diplomats than by them for this purpose; Ambassador Fletcher is others who have spent their time consecutively in the sole survivor.