Evening star., 1937-12-12
The New Ambassadors.

. Amid topSy-turvy world conditions,
impending changes in the American
ambassadorships to Great Britain and
Germany assume more than ordinary
significance. Formal announcements are
lacking, but authority is behind the init
nations that Joseph p. Kennedy, chair
man Of the United States Maritime
Commission, will supplant Mr. Bingham
at London and that Assistant Secretary
Of State Hugh r. Wilson will succeed
DR.. Dodd in Berlin. Both appointments
are admirable. To the Court of st.
James President Roosevelt is sending a
close friend and valued personal adviser,
who In addition is an eminently success
ful business man. To Germany goes a
seasoned career officer of the Foreign
Service, with ten years of recent Euro
pean experience to his credit and total
background of more than two decades
and half in posts of responsibility on
both sides of the globe. 1t would be diff
hcult to conceive of two assignments
with so much In their favor, under the
circumstances accompanying them, as the
commissions about to be intrusted to Joe
Kennedy and Hugh Wilson.
Fighting Irishman" though he be-
there is no reason to anticipate that he
will not be persona gratissima on the
Thames. any more than there is occasion
to doubt that he will prove pre- eminently
the right man in the right place at the
present juncture in Anglo-American re-
lAtions. Mr. Kennedy's immediate task
will be the negotiation of reciprocal
trade treaty. Not SO long ago he would
have embarked upon it under cloudier
skies. Today the Chamberlain govern
ment is apparently as completely sold"
on the proposition as Cordell Hull him.
self. Achievement of pact will not be
. matter of exclusively smooth sailing,
for there are industrial and agricultural
die-hards In Great Britain, as there are
here, who are gIuttons for taking But
nlisers for giving. Shrewd Yankee trader
that he is, Ambassador Kennedy will not
or resiliency for which his mission calls.
If readjustment of the war debt proves
to be a corollary or aftermath of trade
discussions, in that field, too, the former
Wall Street operator and first chairman
OF the Securities and Exchange Com
mission may be depended upon to give
An account Of himself that will rebound
to his own credit and his country's bene-
1T.
Secretary Hull makes no concealment
Of his hope that a trade agreement
between the premier business nations
and most powerful democracies will
project into the international situation
factor Of influence at this hour of
destiny and menace for free peoples and
liberal institutions. The spectacle of
John Bull and Uncle Sam united for
economic peace-a virtual pooling of
their inexhaustible resources in material
wealth-cannot be without its lesson for
the "have not" relationships currently
leagued for fulfllment of their aspira-
tions in brazen defiance of world law.
MIR. Kennedys personal predictions also
equip him authoritatively to interpret
views Of the American people and Gov
ernment toward such pretensions.
Ambassador Wilson will carry to Berlin
the abiding wishes of the United States
for the friendship and welfare of the
German people, despite the alterations
which impel or compel them to tolerate
the NaN conception of government and
human rights. II it is the duty of an
Ambassador really to represent" his
country abroad, our new envoy to the
Wilhelmstrasse will not fail to convey
the impression, as his opportunities and
prerogatives permit. that Hitlerism stands
for everything abhorrent to Americanism.
Legitimate emphasis on that score can
only conduce to better German-Ame
lean understanding" especially If now
and then MIR. Wilson takes occasion to
let the autocrats of the Reich know that
this democratic soil is unreceptive to
totalitarian seed.