gL AMERICAN FOREIGN SERVICE VOL. 26, NO. 12 JOURNAL DECEMBER, 1949 In This Issue—The Association’s Christmas Gift OUR BOOK SERVICE TO MEMBERS IN NEW YORK ... The Flamingo Room of the world-famous Waldorf-Astoria Hotel is an exciting, unique rendezvous. Schenley Whiskey will add to your pleasure there. tor connoisseurs all over the world ... THROUGHOUT THE WORLD ... In leading clubs, hotels, restau¬ rants and night spots, Schenley Reserve’s popularity is con¬ stantly on the increase. Discriminating people throughout the world enjoy its natural flavor and smoothness. • Try Schenley Reserve, the light, smooth American Whiskey created to please your taste. It adds so much mellow quality to a whiskey and soda or to cocktails and other mixed drinks. Schenley International Corporation, Empire State Building, New York, U. S. A. The World’* JLnrgest Setting Whiskey AMERICAN AMERICAN FOREIGN SERVICE ASSOCIATION FOREIGN SERVICE HONORARY PRESIDENT DEAN ACHESON SECRETARY OF STATE HONORARY VICE-PRESIDENTS THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE THE ASSISTANT SECRETARIES OF JOURNAL STATE THE COUNSELOR GEORGE F. KENNAN PRESIDENT W. WALTON BUTTERWORTH VICE PRESIDENT ELBERT G. MATHEWS SECRETARY-TREASURER JOHN M. McSWEENEY ASSISTANT SECRETARY-TREASURER BARBARA P. CHALMERS EXECUTIVE SECRETARY EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE HERVE J. L HEUREUX CHAIRMAN ELBRIDGE DURBROW VICE CHAIRMAN ELBERT G. MATHEWS JOHN M. MCSWEENEY WILLIAM P. HUGHES PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY ALTERNATE RAYMOND A. HARE HAROLD N. WADDELL THE AMERICAN FOREIGN SERVICE ASSOCIATION JOURNAL EDITORIAL BOARD EDMUND A. GULLION CHAIRMAN FRANK S. HOPKINS JOHN M. ALLISON VOL. 26, NO. 12 DECEMBER 1949 PAUL J. REVELEY MARTIN F. HERZ JOAN DAVID MANAGING EDITOR COVER PICTURE: Detail of the Epiphany Window, Bethlehem Chapel, Washington EDUCATION COMMITTEE Cathedral. Color plates loaned through courtesy of the Washing¬ NILES W. BOND CHAIRMAN ton Cathedral. BENJAMIN M. HULLEY JOSEPH S. SPARKS MRS. ELBRIDGE DURBROW IRAN ENGINEERS ITS FUTURE 11 MRS. JOHN K. EMMERSON By Samuel J. Gorlitz and Northrup H. Kirk ALTERNATES MRS. WILLIAM L. KRIEG FOREIGN SERVICE RESCUE TEAM ... 15 EVAN M. WILSON By Emily H. Bateman, R. N. ENTERTAINMENT COMMITTEE THE TRUST TERRITORIES OF THE PACIFIC 16 JACK D. NEAL CHAIRMAN FULTON FREEMAN By James L. O’Sullivan, FSO G. FREDERICK REINHARDT STUART W. ROCKWELL THE PRESS: TWO VIEWS OF THE FOREIGN SERVICE 18 DOUGLAS MACARTHUR, II ALTERNATES CHRISTMAS GREETINGS MISS G. EDITH BLAND THOMAS S. ESTES From the President .... 22 From the Secretary of State 23 This publication is not official and material appearing- herein represents From the Director General : 24 only personal opinions, and is not in¬ tended in any way to indicate the THE BOOKSHELF 32 official views of the Department of By Francis C. de Wolf, Review Editor State or of the Foreign Service as a whole. Anna E. Long John C. Haskins W. E. O’Connor Eleanor West The Editors will consider all manu¬ scripts submitted to the American LEATHERNECKS AND TOP HATS 34 Foreign Service Journal. If accepted, By Joel D. Thacker the author will be paid a minimum of one cent a word on publication. Pho¬ LETTER FROM WASHINGTON—THE PRICE SITUATION 36 tographs accompanying articles will, if accepted, be purchased at one dol¬ lar each. Five dollars is paid for FOREIGN SERVICE WIVES LUNCHEON 56 cover pictures. DEPARTMENTS Coypright, 1949, by the American Letters to the Editor 3 Foreign Service Association. The re¬ printing of any article or portion of Twenty Five Years Ago 19 an article from this publication is Marriages 19 strictly forbidden without permission from the editors. Editors’ Column 20 Issued monthly by the American Angus Ward Foreign Service Association, 1809 G Street, N. W., Washington 6, D. C. Semper Fidelis Entered as second-class matter at the Post Office in Washington, D. C., un¬ Our New Book Service der the Act of March 3, 1879. Births 20 Retirements & Resignations 20 SUBSCRIPTIONS Service Glimpses .... 25 The American Foreign Service Journal is open to subscription in the United News From the Department 26 States and abroad at the rate of $3.00 News From the Field 28 a year, 30 cents a copy. In Memoriam 56 Letters to the Editors ORIENT-BOUND DC-6 Belfast, Maine December 12, 1949 Five-mile-a-minute speed- hours to Manila. To I lie Editors, i|||||||||!|||i|i|i| t j Only PHILIPPINE AMERICAN FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL: *. "1 AIR LINES offers this 1 In reply to your request for your readers’ views respecting ——superior air travel Mr. Philip Bagby's article on Service morale I venture to ob¬ to the Far East. serve that Mr. Bagby placed his hand on a festering sore. Although Mr. Bagby had his own personal reasons for resigning 1 ii | Connections to Hong from the Service “nevertheless,” he explains, “I would not have Full-size berths-larger than a single bed. Kong,Tokyo, Batavia, thrown away my career so lightly if I had not felt that the Darwin and Sydney. Service is no longer the straight and narrow path on which I Fortnightly service to entered ... it is certainly true that personal security and the Rome, Madrid and chances of reaching the top are less than they were before the London via Calcutta, war.” Karachi, Dhahran Where lies the trouble and where the remedy? On many • Air-conditioned, pressurized cabins- and Cairo. Stop-over sides I hear complaints and voices of discouragement from quiet, comfortable, spacious. privileges atall points. members of the Service. Why should this surprise anyone who has followed the strange aberrations of administrative officers For complete information consult your travel agent. who. with premeditation, have been doing their utmost to break down the security implicit in the Act of 1924 by means of the unhappily drafted Act of 1946? The great virtue of the Act of 1924 was that it gave assurance to Service members that during good behavior they were in no danger of arbitrary dis¬ missal until they reached the age of sixty-five years. It was believed and so stated at the time that such an age limit was HILIPPIIIEMIIIES essential to the acquisition of the experience regarded, then, as HONOLULU • SAN FRANCISCO • LOS ANGELES • SEATTLE CHICAGO • NEW YORK • WASHINGTON, D. C. an invaluable asset instead of a detriment. Happy results en¬ sued and a remarkable esprit de corps developed, largely due to the wise and unselfish direction of the late Wilbur J. Carr, whose successor has not yet been found. What has happened in recent years? The Act of 1946 was ushered in after a naive and now re¬ gretted disclosure published editorially in the JOURNAL that the era of the Young man had arrived, that to make place for the Young Man at the top it should be the pleasure of their elders Sweet, tree-ripened oranges and grapefruit from Florida. approaching the statutory age of retirement to quit voluntarily. Shipped anywhere in CONTINENTAL UNITED STATES. For Valentine’s Day, Easter, Mother’s Day, Birthdays, Anniversaries and But, as the intended victims showed no disposition to quit it be¬ Special Occasions. came necessary to find some drastic means of accomplishing Box (1 3/5 bushel) $9.00* the desired result. There was then invented a “new promotion Bushel $6.00 system” 11 quote from House Report No. 2508) and “it will be Half-bushel $4.00 Choice: Mixed—All Oranges—All Grapefruit the aim of the new system to provide for the rapid advancement To place an order, kindly print; Your name and address, of men of ability by the separation of officers less qualified for Name, address, city, state of recipient of gift. advancement.” “In general,” continued these bright Young If gift card is to be enclosed. Men. “the retirement age is lowered from 65 to 60.” Thus by Send Money Order or Check to these artificial retirements, five years that had cost the United MIRIAM HORNSBY States some millions to acquire, were to he cut off from men 812 Harwood Avenue Orlando, Florida, U. S. A. normally at the maximum of their usefulness. The process was ♦Add 10% to prices listed for shipments euphemistically described as one of “selection out.” The out¬ WEST OF MISSISSIPPI raged feelings of those “selected out” did not really matter so long as places higher up could be made for bright Young Men and still other places for that monstrosity known as the Foreign Service Reserve Officers Corps whose members were pushed into the Service over the heads of everybody, even the WELLBORN MOTORS, INC. bright Young Men. Congress was asked to sanction these arrangements and did CHRYSLER-PLYMOUTH so by granting the Secretary authority to prescribe the maximum period during which Foreign Service Officers of Classes Nos. (Direct Factory Dealer) 2, 3, 4, and 5 “shall be permitted to remain in such classes without promotion.” To rid himself of any or all of them it was merely necessary to let them remain in their classes and when the hour sounded they were out of the Service, branded "We Serve the Service Serving the Nation" of course as incapables. Is it any wonder that men of spirit revolt at such arrangements, like Mr. Bagby, who gets out of it preferring “to pursue the study of cultural anthropology.” Call SLigo 1333 1100 East-West Highway Our Young Men explain that actually only a few men in each Washington Directory Silver Spring, Md. (Continued on. page 5) DECEMBER, 1949 3 Good-by to Laundry Problems with Nylon clothing is exceptionally desirable, particu¬ larly for those men who find themselves without ade¬ quate laundry facilities. Nylon garments can be washed very quickly, dry in about 60 minutes and require little or no ironing, and best of all they retain their shape. Both the white on white Nylon shirts by Sherman and the all-white David Richard shirts are carefully tailored, with french cuffs and slotted collar to suit the most fastidious dresser.