Evening star., 1937-12-13

replied: mo, I live down the road a
couple of miles" What do YOU do?"
oh, 1 am farmer over here" Were
you ever crazy?" The farmer replied
mo, I never was" The inmate said: "It
beats farming" Lees comment on the
yarn was: When a man is irving to
raise cotton without aid from the Gov
ernment to equalize the injustice brought
about by the tariff, I can fully SYM
pathlze with that statement
Like time. the career" idea in Uncle
SANS foreign service marches on. Late
shifts will leave our Embassies and Le-
cations at such strategic European posi-
tlons as Brussels, Berlin, Prague, Bucha-
rest. Sofia, Rome and Constantinople-
In almost bee-line across the conti-
nent from the North Sea to Asia Minor
in the hands of trained diplomats Of
long experience In both the State De-
pertment and the field. In Latin Amer
lea, virtually all key posts except Mexico
City are held by career men. In the
Far East. with Joe Grew in Japan and
Nelson johnson in China, the country
Is represented by two service veterans
universally regarded the peers OF the
worlds best authorities on the politics
and affairs of the Orient. London and
Paris, by apparently ironclad tradition,
are diplomatic plums reserved for de-
serving political friends of the adminis-
tration of the day, though the country
Is seldom so fortunate as to have non
career Ambassadors of the merit Of
Joe Kennedy at London and Bill Bull
lit in Paris.
l.
Major General Omar Bundy, U. S. A.,
(retireO, who is at Walter Reed Hos
pital for general check-up, is literally
one of the legendary heroes of the
A. E. F., in France. While the Hoosier-
born veteran was commander of the
Second Division during the 'Belleau Wood
operations in June, 1918, there came
the famous moment when the French
line had fallen back nearly to our whole
front, then held by the Fourth Brigade
OF Marines. At critical juncture q re-
treating French officer gave a written
order to an American officer to retire
from the position the Yanks occupied.
The order was not obeyed. Thereupon
arose the great legend that General
Bundy had met the French retreat
order with this resounding refusal: Re
treat, hell! We've just come" The story,
born of the mood of those wonderful
days, spread like the "flu" from continent
to continent. But it was sheer invention,
as far as Bundy was concerned. Captain
Williams of the marines was its real
hero. Later Williams was wounded. and.
while on the operating table in the
dressing station, was killed by random
shell. He is among the multitudinous
dead who lie buried in the Valley of
the Marne.
American Ambassador Nelson T. john
son was among the last chiefs of ioreign
diplomatic missions actually 20 quit
Marking after Chang Kai-shek's gov
ernment decamped for safer parts
week or two ago. Never at any time
since the city was in danger was john
son away from his headquarters for
more than forty hours, when, at the
end Of September, he was temporarily
domiciled aboard the gunboat Luzon,
q mere fifteen minutes from the En-
bassy premises by automobile. Immedi-
ately johnson learned that his move
had been interpreted as physical aban-
donment OF Nanking, he decided to re-
turn to ths Embassy, and stayed there