The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1918-12-02
MAJ. STRAIGHT DIES IN PARIS
Had Remarkable Career as a Diplomat and Financier,
 Notably In Orient.

Paris, Dec. 2 - Major Willard D. Straight, New York fnancier and diplomat, who several days ago was stricken with pneumonia, died in the night.
 Major Straight had been detailed at the request of Col. E. M. House to take up duties with the House mission as soon as hostilities ceased. The major had begun work several days before I he fell i'll. His loss is deeply felt by 1 Col. and Mrs. House and the members 1 of the American mission.
 Son of an American missionary to Japan, Willard Dickerman Straight's 1 career was one of the most interesting and remarkable of any young Yankee | of this generation. Typically Ameri- can, brilliant in initiative, a natural
 diplomat, he arose from obscurity to
 an important position as a financier 1 when little more than 30 years of age. A master of Chinese and Japanese politics and culture he became the right hand man of great American l bankers and was their representative
 in the Far East when, with British,
 French and other European f1nanciers
 they undertook to syndicate a loan of
 $27, ,500,OOO to China.
 Willard D. Straight was born in l Oswego,' N. Y, on Jan. 31, 1880. Years of residence in China and Japan gave him a valuable insight into. native character. Two years after his grad
 uation from Cornell in 1901 young
 Straight went back to China and en- tered the service of the Chinese Im- perial Maritime Customs Service un.
 der Sir Robert Hart where he was
 assigned to Ranking and Peking. In 1904, when the Russo-Japanese
 war started, Straight resigned his
 post, and, with the view of broaden
 ing his knowledge of Eastern affairs and peoples, went to Manchuria as a
 correspondent for Tne Associated
 Press. Early in 1905 as a result o1
 illness he was ordered home and al
 Petrograd met the late George von L. Meyer, then Ambassador to Russia , and later Secretary of the Navy. Shortly after returning to New York
 and recovering his health MT. Straight . was appointed Vice Consul General a
 Seoul, Korea, and the next year re.
 ceived his credentials as American Consul General at Mukden, where ht remained until 1908.
 , Returning to the United States oJ leave in the fall of 1908, MT. Straigh was detailed as Acting Chief of tht Bureau of Far Eastern Affairs of tn,
 State Department. Later, when a syn
 dicate of American bankers, cooper ating with the State Department un | o1r iy, OF +o : gotiate with British, French and othe 4 European bankers, the so-calIed "St Power Loan" to China, Mir Straigh . resigned from the State Departmen . and was appointed the representative of the American group in Picking . Although not yet 30 years old, MT , Straight was at this time reporte to be receiving a salary of $50,000 year. J. P. Morgan, the elder, wa said to have selected him for the joh In 1911 MT. Straight married Mis- e Dorothy Payne Whitney, daughter O
 the late William Whitney, Secretar of the Navy in the cabinet of Presl . dent Cleveland, and one of America wealthiest young women.
 Returning to the United States MI = Straight became, in time, vice presi n dent of the International Corporation l, and director in 12 or more enter r. prises, including the Allied Construc l. ton Machinery Go. and the Sieme !. Carey Railway & Canal Co.,, engage , on work in the Orient. Ee. was * Fellow of the Royal Geographical Sc ciety of London and trustee of Cor ,, nell University. He also was a mem is Der of numerous clubs in New For
 and Lont1on.
 When the United States entered tn l. war MT. Straight was appointed hea g of the United States War Risk Insur
 ance Bureau in Washington, but, de