The Waterbury Democrat., 1936-08-22


 average diplomat.
 Furthermore, you discover after you know him that he is quite capable, when in the proper at- mosphere, of arraying himself in the full head-dreas of Q Sioux ITl- dian-he being an honorary chief tain--and executing Q war-dance which certainly was not learned ia tho bathrooms of diplomacy.
 So that you wonder how Musso- lini, a hard listed dictator famous for his judgment of men and his ability to get what he goes after, could have picked Augusta Russo not merely as his ambassador exc traordinary to the United States but also as his agent on a score of other delicate and important mis- Sions.
 But when you get to know Rosso, you discover that he takes his job most seriously; though never himself.
 Crucial Winter
 The days Rosso passed this win ter probably were as serious aS any In his life--undoubtedly more serious than those experienced by any other ambassador in this country since the scoldingS given the Japanese envoy by Secretary Htimson in l032.
 The pressure which Secretary Hull brought upon Italy to pre- vent war in the Mediterranean stiIl Ia unwFitten history, but it was considerable. Ross0 was called in for some of the stiffest advice that it Is possible for the representative Of one friendly nation to give another,
 He took 1t in q manner which won him respect, no matter how much the state department was In disagreement.
 Rosso's predecessor, Ambassador di Martino, literally beat . path to the state department con1- plaining about every unfavorable comment which appeared in the press. It was he who precipitated the court martial of General Hmedley Butler for criticiSing Mussolini.
 Hut although The Merry G0- Round, among others, has taken Ambassador Ross0's cause and country for a dizzy and caustlc ride, he never lost hts head or his sense of hum0r. He never went off halR-cOcked. Hc never brldIed at criticism. And yet he never yielded any points on be- half of hls government.
 In the middle of the Mcditer. ranean crisis, when many diplo- mats predicted an almost certain clash between Italy and Great Britain, Rosso announced that there would be no war, and out- lined very carefully the reasons why. Down to the last detail he proved to bo right.
 Farm Family
 Ambassador Rosso was born about 4B years ago in the Pied mont, q section of northern Italy sometimes compared with New England, not in It's agriculture for 1t Is most iertile--hut because, unlike the Neapolitans, It's people keep their emotions to themselves.
 Rosso comes from Q well-to-do, middle-class family which has titled tho soil of the Piedmont for hundreds of years. And after he had been in the diplomatic service some years, achieving sig" nal honors at Geneva, he came back to visit his old home.
 Never before had NO dIstIn- guished . citizen sprang from that village, and . holiday was declared. A special platform was erected, and the village fathers gathered on It, with the crowd around, t0 do RossO hon- or. The mayor paid him q glow Ing tribute, placing him next to MussOlInI in national rank, and then callsd upon ROssO.
 Az he rose, his niece, aged ten, Jumped up In the audience, stuck out her tongue and yelled: "Ya-ya-ya, Uncle AugustO!"
 It broke up tho meeting. The villagers all knew him aS Augusto anyway. and he never yet has be- come to them "Excellencia Am- bassador."
 Eligible Bachelor
 Rosso came to the United States az Q very young secretary of the Italian embassy many years ago, and has virtually grown up here. When he first arrived In Wash- ington, he says 1t looked as If the pprairie still spread out around the Union Station.
 Rated as Washington's most eligible bachelor, ho has never married, although any number of nEE THP RPC0pD