Evening star., 1928-10-28

~ HERE is a certain look which
comes upon the faces Of many
OccidentalS who have studied
China or who have lived long
in China It remotely resem-
bles the expression of the Chinese
Buddha. Bret Harte recognized it in
the Heather Chinese" of his day. 1t
is detachment and wisdom OF things
known long ago. 1t suggests the IN
Scrutable.
There is more than trace of this
upon the face of DR.. Stanley Hornbeck,
Uncle Sans new pilot for the China
Sea, the Eastern Sea, the Yellow Sea,
not to mention the seas called Java and
Banda and Sulu and Celebes and the
Arafura Sea, Corea Strait, Mindoro
Strait and the Gulf of Tartary-Dr.
Stanley K. Hornbeck, scholar, traveller,
diplomat and doer, recently made chief
of the Division of Far Eastern Affairs
In the Department of State.
Some may be tempted to read in that
description the title Of an ordinary
bureaucrat. Let them read on.
BY what means are the foreign poll
cies of the United States directed?
Upon whose skilled advice; whose expert
opinion? From what sources comes the
material by which the President must
make those, decisions which ultimately
may lead to intervention, to recognition
of this government or that, to peace or
to war?
Obviously, in large measure, from the
unseen, unremitting work OF men ike
Nelson T. johnson, recently CHIEF OF
the Far Eastern Division, now Assistant
Secretary Of State, or such men as DN
Hornbeck Mr.. johnson began MS
study of the Far East 20 years ago
as a student interpreter" in our lega-
ton in Peking; DR.. Hornbeck began MS
at about the same time in Chlnese
government college in HangchoW.
These are no petty bureaucrats, TO pe
at worst, despised; at best, overlooked
They are the men behind the firing line,
| behind the treaty line, makers of peace
| or war. pilots of the Ship of State.
Hornbeck has been for intervals dur
ing the last 10 years a puzzle to the
hostesses of Washington. When, just
before he went into the Army, he ap-
peared suddenly upon the Washington
| horizon as an expert for the Tariff
Commission these ladies promptly began
to ask him to dinner. He sometimes
accepted.
"a Mans Man."
Hostesses usually encountered only
his inscrutable look. They called him
deep and interesting" They re-
NAMED bewildered. They ended by
saying he was mans man.
| It was true. He is amiable. He has q
delicious whimsicality of mind. His is
a face in which aloofness is pierced by
the intense expression of dark brown
eyes under shading brows. Then sud-
| denly there appears a determined dim
pie prefacing smile both of lips and
eyes-with a fan of little wrinkles
sure sign of benevolent outlook and a
sense of humor.
Men saw the other Hornbeck oftener
For his Is a mind easily impatient o1
tea and talk, the obvious or the discon-
nected He loves conversation. Or
rather, more accurately, he loves dis
cuSsion. And he likes only talk which
runs consecutively - ana gets some
where. It is, pre-eminently, the schol-
ar's mind whose learning is living
thing. knowledge, in Stanley Horn.
beck, becomes activity, life.
Not like the poets of the Chinese
screen who dropped their poems on ths
waters to be carried into nothingness
for him studies and experiences of his
now rounded years must shape them,
selves into public service.