Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-07-27
DUTY OF DIPLOMAT
LIKE SALESMAN'S
PoIicymaker of John Jays
Time Changed by Modern
Communication.

BOSTON, July 24.-Lightning COM
munications such as enabled Secretary
Mellon In Paris to keep President
Hoover apprissd by telephone of the
progress of the debt negotiations have
been gradually Transforming an AmbaS-
sador's job from that of a policymaker
to that of a salesman of his country's
foreign policy, says Denys Myers of the
World Peace Foundation, leading To-
cal expert on the mechanics of diplo-
macy.
Between the President and the Secre-
tary communication was almost in
Simultaneous. But what was the Situa-
ton when John Jay negotiated the first
commercial treaty in 1894?
England was at war with France at
the time. In those days 1t WIS Gus
tomary to send as many as seven origi-
nails of document across the ocean,
because of the risk of seizure or ship
wreck. Jay was less careful; when the
treaty was signed he sent only two
copies.
The first went by the bark Tanker
vile, which was held week to await
it. The original of the treaty was
thrown overheard to avoid capture by
the French. The other copy, which went
in November. 1894. was in the ship OF
Capt. Blancy of Virginia. 1t reached
Phil adelphia, then the capital, about
March the next year.
Ratified and Sent Back.
The Senate ratified it, and the State
Department, instead of attaching the
ratification to a copy as was customary,
attached it to the original and sent 1t
back to England. where 1t remained.
So there Is no original of the Jay
treaty in the files OF the American
Government.
In the year 1889. says Mr.. Myers,
the State Department sent 49, 1853 tele-
grams. containing 1,929,219 words and
code groups. The next year it sent Al
734 messages containing 2,210,734 words
and code groups. The departments mail
in 1929 consisted of l.266,520 mes
sages and jumped the next year to
1891, 496.
The best instance of the Ambassador
as policymaker was that of Talleyrand,
French Ambassador to Austria after
the fall of Napoleon in 1915. France
was defeated nation. Talleyrand Sus-
pected that the victors intended to do
as the allies dic to Germany in 1918
develop the peace terms for themselves
and make her sign on the dotted line.
So he wrote each of the victor ma
tions and asked when the scheduled
Vienna Peace Conference was to start
Between the recipients of the letters
there were no quick communications.
Talleyrand got such diverse replies that
he was convinced that his suspicious
were justified
Cleverly he got them together . to
draw up a protocol as to the confer
ence date. Then, at the bottom. he
suggested an addition. the words "ac-
cordlng to public law"
This threw CONSERVATION into the
allies. They could not very we'll put
themselves in the position of refusing
to hold the conference according to
public law" ana the words meant that
France must be represented.
Clever Work at Session.
And Talleyrand, at the conference.
worked so cleverly that he was able to
play the victors against one another,
and France got off lightly for de-
feated nation.
During these proceedings. says Mr.
Myers. the correspondence between
Talleyrand and Louis XVII of France
show in terms of respect and Subserv-
fence that the Ambassador was the real
boss and the King was in actually the
yes man"
1t was the Ambassador who was the