gL AMERICAN FOREIGN SERVICE V°L.'7.NO.i JOURNAL JANUARY, 1940 WE’RE I\ THE FOREIGN SERVICE TOO! • So many of our friends in the service send their New York-bound friends and acquaintances to us that at times we, too, feel we are in the Foreign Service. That is why we go out of our way to make them com¬ fortable; meet them at the pier and do everything possible to please them in an effort to justify your kindness in referring them to us. The New Yorker has long been Foreign Service headquarters in New York because of its convenient location — handy to everything you want to see and do in this fascinating town of ours. Make it your home when you are again on leave in New York. Further, the New Yorker is the nearest large hotel to all the principal piers and is connected by private tunnel to Pennsylvania Station. Four popular priced restaurants. 2,500 Rooms from $3.50 HOTEL NEW YORKER 34TH STREET AT EIGHTH AVENUE, NEW YORK Ralph Hitz, President Leo A. Molony, Manager CONTENTS (JANUARY, 1940) For Prize Contest Notice See Page 40 Cover Picture OOD NEIGHBOR" LAND Flying Fortress (See also page 39) WWs eat land — greater than you've ~ Iceland ever imagined — with scenic wonders By Agnar Klemens Jonsson 5 that will leave you breathless — cities J. Butler Wright, In Memoriam 8 that stand proudly among the great urban Department Assignments for Foreign Service centers of the world—a life pulsing with Offi cers forward-looking enthusiasm. Mingling By George H. Butler 9 Hi the pioneer spirit of our own past with Commercial Aviation in Costa Rica as the rich heritage of Latin culture, these By John B. Ocheltree 11 good neighbor" lands to the South Helsinki Photographs 14-15 challenge the attention of every well- The U. S. Secret Service traveled person. By Barry Sullivan 16 lORTUNE Calls al (lie State Department 18 Editors’ Column Secretary’s Annual Greetings to the Depart¬ ment Personnel 20 Addition to Journal staff 20 News from the Department B By Reginald P. Mitchell 21 " ^S!VRG^I^ New's from the Field 24 )Tn New lodVlaieUo The Bookshelf R\O de Janeiro rbados Montevideo /. Rives Childs, Review Editor. 26 Santos Irinidao The F irestone Enterprise in Liberia luenos ft’ires By Morrison B. Giffen 29 Promotions 30 Foreign Service Changes 32 mS ; Service Glimpses 33 ’ 7h ,pb°ard activities^ Commerce Curriculum in the F. S. O. Training School By Vernon L. Fluharty. 36 Prize Competition Notice 40 ... In Memoriam . 40 Marriages 40 Visi,ors 56 LeHe1- 56 Issued monthly by American Foreign Service Associa¬ tion, Department of State, Washington, D. C. Entered as second-class matter at the Post Office in Washington, D. C., under the act of March 3, 1879. mi"** Si 1 For fast, accurate and reliable telegraph service to Central and South America and to the West Indies, send your messages — “via dll dtnerica tTlackay Commercial IKadio Cables Tostal Telegraph THE INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM Cablegrams “via All America” may be sent from any Postal Telegraph Office ALL AMERICA CABLES AND RADIO, INC. Main Office: 67 Broad Street, New York THE AMERICAN FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL INDEX FOR ADVERTISERS American Export Lines 45 American Security and Trust Company 31 Bacardi, Santiago de Cuba . 55 Brewood (Engravers) 54 Bowling Green Storage & Van Co. __ 35 HOST jSxvk Calvert School 44 Campbell, The W. D. Co 49 Cathay Hotel—Shanghai 55 Chase National Bank 34 WORLD Continental Hotel—Paris , 55 Crillon Hotel- Paris 55 Fessenden School, The 44 Firestone Tire & Rubber Co 4 France et Choiseul Hotel—Paris 55 General Motors Corporation 53 George V, Hotel—Paris 55 Goodyear Tire & Rubber Export Co 51 Grace Line 56 Glide Bros. Co 39 Hay-Adams House 54 International Telephone & Telegraph Co 2 Kressmann Si Co., Ed.—Bordeaux 55 IN THE Linguaphone Institute 44 NATIONAL CAPITAL Manhattan Storage & Warehouse Co 38 Mayflower Hotel 3 When you step into the lobby of this -world- Metropole Hotel—Shanghai 55 famous hostelry you instantly feel that it is Montgomery Ward 37 a great hotel, great in the sense that it is the Moore-McCormack Lines 1 home of international personages and a color¬ ful setting for the great events occurring National City Bank 42 daily within its corridors. This endless pro¬ National Geographic Magazine 41 cession of important happenings and distin¬ New England Mutual Life Insurance Co 49 guished guests never fails to thrill the dis¬ New Yorker Hotel II COVER criminating traveler seeking a standard of service conforming with individual require¬ Pagani’s Restaurant—London 55 ments in comfort, hospitality and service. Palazzo-Ambasciatori Hotel—Rome 55 That is why they stop at The Mayflower, Pan-American Airways, Inc 38 when visiting the National Capital. Its every Park Hotel—Shanghai 55 modern service and convenient location as¬ Plaza Hotel 46 sures the most for a pleasant stay, yet, its Sapp, Earle W., C.L.U. 49 rates are no higher than at less finely ap¬ Savoy-Plaza Hotel 34 pointed hotels. Schenley Products III COVER Sea Captains’ Shop, The—Shanghai 55 Diplomatic discount extended Security Storage Company of Washington 31 to officers of the Foreign Service Sloane, W. & J. 48 in Washington on active duty. Socony-Vacuum Oil Co., Inc 47 Turner’s Diplomatic School 44 WASHINGTON’S FINEST HOTEL Tyner, Miss E. J 54 Underwood Elliott Fisher Company 52 United Fruit Company 46 United States Fidelity and Guaranty Company 49 Waldorf-Astoria Hotel IV COVER The HlflVFlOlUER Woodward & Lothrop : 43 WASHINGTON, D. C. R. L. Pollio, Manager Please mention THF. AMERICAN FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL when writing to Advertisers. JANUARY, 1940 3 ^GEAR-GRIP SAFETY TRAIL .... erg -■ CHAMPION TIRES The Only Tires Made with the NEW SAFETY-LOCK CORD BODY and NEW GEAR-GRIP TREAD TAKE the “Gear-Grip Trail” wherever you go— it’s the safest road to travel. The new Firestone Champion Tire has the most amazing tread ever designed to protect against skidding, assure quick, safe stops and to provide longer non-skid mileage. The revolutionary new “Safety-Lock” cord body, designed on entirely new principles by Firestone engineers, provides such remarkable strength that it gives far greater protection against blowouts. So superior is the performance of this new Firestone Champion Tire that car manufacturers immediately adopted it for their new models. Drive to your nearest Firestone Dealer today and equip your car with new Firestone Champion Tires—the only tires made that are safety-proved on the speedway for your protection on the highway. er , Gear - GftP cotton fit> 5 „ “Safety ■} ecu are •stonesS£5 d body tltichtlv intery achieve lheftbets' cord, tbe c tough- a ribs hav 1 edges « S& *- 3,000 locked log vVd to p- gtiP th estotte Qum- ; vent stops* US assure strength^' Copyright, 1940, The Firestone Tire & Rubber Co THE FOREIGN SB I JOURNAL Eft PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY THE AMERICAN FOREIGN SERVICE ASSOCIATION m VOL. 17, No. 1 WASHINGTON, D. C. JANUARY, 1940 Iceland Looks at The ITnited States Specially written for the FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL by Agnar Klemens Jonsson, Attache to the Legation of H. M. The King of Denmark and Iceland, at Washington, D. C. THE relations between America and Iceland are In the latter part of the nineteenth century many very old. The first white man who ever saw the Icelanders emigrated to the United States and Can¬ American mainland was an Icelander, Leif Ericson, ada, and during and especially after the World War son of Eric the Red, who colonized Greenland. In the commercial relations between the tw'o countries the spring of the year 1000 Leif was on his way to have been increasing considerably. Greenland from Norway when he missed the south¬ There is some mystery about the discovery of ernmost part of Greenland (now known as Cape Iceland. The venerable Bede (A. D. 673-735) Farewell) and reached an unknown land, which speaks of an island called Thule “where there are was the coast of North America. no nights in the summer,” and another author, an In commemoration of this event the Congress of Irish monk Dicuilus in his work “Liber de mensura the United States of Amer¬ orbis terrae,” written in the ica presented a statue of year 825 tells about some Leif to the Government of Irish monks who lived on Iceland at the millenary an island far to the north¬ celebration of the Icelandic west. Both these descrip¬ Althing (parliament) in tions could refer to Iceland, 1930. This statue bears and there seems to be little the following inscription: doubt that Thule is identi¬ “Leifr Eiricsson Son of Ice¬ cal w'ith Iceland. land Discoverer of Vinland It was between 860 and The United States of Amer¬ 870 that the Norwegian ica to the People of Iceland vikings discovered Iceland. on the One Thousandth An¬ According to Landnama- niversary of the Althing bok. the most famous of the A. D. 1930.” Although the Icelandic Sagas, the first relations between the Unit¬ Norwegian to reach Ice¬ ed States and Iceland there¬ land was a viking by the fore are old the two coun¬ name of Naddoddr. He was tries have not been closely on his way to the Faroe connected with each other Islands from Norway, but during the centuries. Not w'as driven out of his until recently have they had course by gales in the any cultural or commercial North-Atlantic Ocean and relations with each other. Agnar Klemens Jonsson discovered an unknown 5 country. A few years later another Norwegian, Floki, sailed to the island in order to settle there.