Evening star., 1934-01-01
WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

Washington'S first distinguished for
eien visitor in 1884 will be an old friend,
Prince Tokugawa, last survivor of the
Shogunate and of the ruling feudal
barons of Japan. Until his recent res
ignation. Prince TokugaWa was head
of the House of Peers at Toxic. JapanS
| foremost private citizen, he for years
has been one of the ardent apostles of
| friendship between his country and the
United States, though abstaining from
the hurly-burly Of party politics. The
| prince has just reached OTTAWA. 10
visit his son and heir, Prince lyetsu
Tokugawa. japanese Minister to Can
ada, TO whom his father is devoted by
ties OF unusual affection. Prince
Tokugawa will come to the United
! States late in February to speak at Har-
ward and afterWard will be guest
at the japanese embassy in Washing
ton. following the arrival here Of the
| new Ambassador, Mr Saito, who will
reach New York from his present post
| at The Hague on February u. Prince
! Tokugawa was last in Washington as
| a member of the japanese delegation
at the Armament Conference of 1921
| %. Though 80 years of age, he is in
vigorous health and is looking forward
| keenly to renewing his many ties in
American official life. He and Chief
Justice Hughes became great friends at
the conference.
X 4 X
Gen. Pershing contributes to the
| January National Geographic Maga-
zine an account of Americas national
war memorials in Europe, with hand
some illustrations of the monuments
erected to our honored dead "over
| tho an mn of tho
! A E. F. who sacrificed their lives, 30
| $50 now sleep amid. beautiful and
peaceful surroundings in the areas
where they fell in action. Altogether,
under the auspices of the American
Battle Monuments Commission, of
which Gen. PerShing is chairman,
eight memorial chapels now stand in
as many American military cemeteries
in France. Belgium and England. In
addition, there are IL monuments on
the principal American battlef1elds and
at certain chief bases of our operations
In the different war zones. Two of
these one at Brest and the other at
| Gibraltar, were built in tribute to the
war achievements of the United States
Navy. The two most imposing monu-
mentS in France are the 175-foot gram
ite column at Montfaucon, marking a
strategic point in the Meuse- -Argonne
offensive and a stately edifice on Hill
204 at Chateau Thierry.
| X
Either by design or coincidence, the
| number of recovery agencies set up
under the new deal in 1888 reached
exactly 26-one for each letter of the
alphabet N E. c. National Emer-
gency CounciD was the latest addition
to the list. It's suggested that another
and famous set of initials (P D. O.
is appropriate right now as expressing
Washington's hopes for speedy action
by Congress during the impending
session.
President Roosevelt's recent Wilson
day speech, which, like the shot fired
at Lexington, has rung around the
world, was completed for advance re-
lease to the press only an hour or two
before the time for its delivery F. D. r.
frequently waits until the last minute
TO whip even his most importat public
statements into shape. He is pursuing
| that course in connection with the
messages he is about to send to Con-
gress-the general report" on "the
state of the Union" and the budget
message which will follow This doesn t
mean that Rooseveltian pronunciamen-
toS on major occasions are reeled of
slap-dash. 1t merely means that once
he has marshaled his material, includ-
ing even intricate facts and figures. he
has gift for putting them into final
form at short notice and with mini
mum expenditure Of time and energy
Once dictated, he only rarely tampers
with the original draft.
|
White House and State Department
officials are much intrigued by the al
most universally gratifying impression
which the Presidents Wilson day