The Washington times., 1936-12-03

PRESIDENT, the 8 ASS% A
Secre tary Of Secretary Hull
State and GER
tain State Department officials
have frequently discussed the
necessity of stopping the caretree
international marriages of their
ENJOYS.
Their objection to such ro-
marlces rests principally on their
emotional dangers and their pos
sibility for divided allegiance. 1t
Is the rare diplomat who does not
absorb in his domestic life a de-
gree Of the national viewpoint OF
. foreign wife.
Another drawback in such inter
national marriages is the person
atty of the wife. For instance
Italy would prefer to see in the
wife of an American Ambassador
at Rome a woman who represents
American women. If the Amer
lean Ambassadors wife is Spanish
or French, she represents the
women of her own, not of her hus
bands country. Nor can she ever
have the full and complete under
standing of her husbands racial
viewpoint and psychology.
The foreign wife of a diplomat
Is thus handicapped when sta
toned in a foreign capital. She
is at a greater disadvantage when
her husband is assigned to duty
in the State Department at Wash.
tngton.
Here, so my friends insist, she
Is an outsider among the women
Of her husbands people. She is
seldom admitted to the inner cir
Gle. American women feel that
she is regarding them suspiciously
and that Someday she will go
home and talk about those
strange Americans"
Seldom does the foreign wife
know how to speak her husbands
adopted language fuently. She
is frequently none too happy in
this America to which she is mar
ried. She is homesick, is likely
to keep her husband stirred up
and so affects his efficiency.
Then of course, there is always
the fearful possibility of war. How
does a diplomat continue in un-
swervering loyalty to his own
country when by ch ance its
soldiers are shooting at the
brothers and friends of his wife?
What happens then to diplomatic
suavity?
During the World War d1plo-
matte suavity had rough going, do
mestically, in many tragic cases
In this particular I'm not refer
ring definitely to the diplomatic
corps of this country.
There were times between 1914
and 1918 when information that
should have been kept secret
leaked into other countries from
the letters and conversation OF
foreign born wives. Not real
espionage nor treason, was this
But many a delicate situation
popped up. ..
husbands and wives separated for
the duration of war. Children were
sent to remote relatives. Many
many times brilliant diplomats
could not be sent on special mis-
sions because of the foreign sym
pathy of their wives.
The State Department of this
country knows that there are fine
examples of successful marriages
between their ENJOYS and foreign
ers. But these examples are the
exception and not the rule. Di
nlomacy feels that it can't take
this unnecessary chance.
I suspect personally that one o.
the reasons that the United States
has suddenly forbidden interna
tional marriages is because othel
Governments are doing it, eithel
formally or informally. So VIII!
shouldn't we? The ruling is con
tagiouS like the measles.
I do feel sorry for the unfortu
nate Secretary of State, Presiden
Roosevelt certainly passed tn
romantic buck" to the Judge
as his old friends call him.
For it is the Judge" who mus
decide on all the exception. to tn
new order. Every man who fall
IN love with a strange foreigl
woman will think himself the eX
ception worth consideration. Th
intricacies of the Buenos Aire
Conference will be kindergarten
work compared with Mr.. Hull
new task-the gentle but firm
breaking of hearts.