Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1933-11-19
FIRST TEST PROVED
SAYRE DIPLOMACY
Won Brilliant Success as
Siam Envoy-HaS Had
Varied Experience.
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
BOSTON, November IS.-Prof. Fran
els Bowes Sayre, who once made a bril-
liant success Of handling the diplomatic
affairs Of the kingdom of Siam. soon
will have an opportunity to try his
hand in international matters of larger
scope as Assistant Secretary Of State
Tor the United States
Sayre, the Son-in-law of President
Woodrow Wilson, made his debut in
The theater Of international events in
1925, when the king Of Siam. to whom
sent him to Europe in an attempt to
obtain abrogation of old treaties, which
gave nine European powers a strangle-
hold on the then struggling Asiatic
kingdom
Even the most sanguine did not ex-
pect his mission to be the success 1t
proved to be. Within year every one
of the nine powers had surrendered its
claims without compensation, and the
son Of Pennsylvania railroad builder
and steel magnate returned to Bangkok
to be laden with fresh honors.
Was College Debater
The persuasive influence which Sayre
brought to bear on the diplomats of
Europe may have had its start in the
little college town of Willianstown. AS
an undergraduate of Williams he was
q member of the varsity debating team.
and was valedictorian Of his class.
There, also. he first took an/interest
in governmental affairs and sociology.
He organized a good government club
and investigated welfare problems in
his spare time, but these ard other
activities did not prevent him from
managing the varsity foot bail team.
doing a lot of hiking and horseback
riding.
If his early interest in Government
was leading to future honors in Siam
and at Washington, his none-the-less
ardent interest in sociological problems
was drawing him toward d romance
with the Presidents daughter. Miss
Jessie Woodrow Wilson, after her grad
uation from Goucher College at Balti-
more had been engaged in settlement
work at Philadelphia and the two had
many things in common.
Married at White House.
Their marriage on November IS, 1918,
was the thirteenth White House we'd
ding. Subsequently the Sayres returned
to Williamstown where Sayre had gone
as assistant to President Harry A. Gar
field Of Williams College. Mrs. Sayre
died early this year. leaving three chill |
dren.
Sayre had been graduated with high
honors at Harvard Law School a year |
before his wedding and had spent the /,
intervening time as assistant district at |
torney of New York City under the
future Gov. Whitman.
In that short time his natural bent
-. +, Il LIZ
being made chief of the Bureau of
Abandonment, the clearing house for |
domestic problems. While there he |
first achieved considerable newspaper
publicity in an interview in which he |
urged a unified and strict divorce law
for all States.
Later he left Williams to come to
Harvard as an instructor in the Law
School and eventually rose to a full
professorship. Life at the Law School, !
however, was not an uninterrupted one. /
He served in France and Italy with |
the Y. M. c. A. during the World War. /
Later he obtained another leave to go /
to Siam and when, last year, Gov.
Joseph B. Ely rendered him the post of
commissioner of corrections, he once
again left the class room.
Is League Advocate.
Sayre has long been an ardent ad-
Vocate of adherence by the United /
States to the League Of Nations and a
worker 10 promote tolerance and CO.
operation between the great religions of
the world.
The new Assistant Secretary Of State
will bring to his post not alone the dip
lomatic skill he acquired in the service
Of Siam, but experience of many KINDS. /
While college student he did nospital
work along the Labrador coast with Sir
Wilfred Grenfeu, who was later best
man at his wedding. In connection
with some mining claims, he explored
1900 miles OF the Yukon River and. not
satisfied with arriving safely at Nome,
he and a companion crossed to Siberia
in a l5-ton schooner and continued to
explore much of that country.
During another vacation he spent
several months on sheep ranches in
Montana and Wyoming, while still later
he donned oyeraIls and added to his eX-
perience with a Winter in the coal
mines near Birmingham, Ala
Today Prof. Sayre said he would have
to consult Gov. Ely before he could say
when he would leave his State post TO
go to Washington.