Evening star., 1939-07-30
Whereabouts Chief Locates
u. S. Citizens in Foreign Lands
Real Life Thrills
Are Part of Her
Daily Routine
By the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press.
Letters addressed simply Inter
national Sleuth,' are delivered-not
to Oman Hoover. Treasury Agent
Trey or Postoffice Inspector Aldrich
but to kindly young matron at
the State Department.
She's the whereabouts Chief
of the Foreign Office, and her job
is to find Americans lost abroad.
These days she's kept busy getting
tabs on wanderers in war-torn
China. relatives in Nazi Germany
and prisoners in Spanish jails.
Dramatic true-life stories are her
daily fare. Her low, husky voice
comforts the worried stay-at-homes
whose long distance calls and per-
sonal visits follow every automobile
crash, train wreck, sea disaster or
battle abroad.
Often, returning traveller calls
at her cheerful Office in the old
State, War and Navy Building to
express thanks and relate adven-
lures.
Located Couple in Spain.
The Whereabouts Chief, Mrs.
Madge Blessing, remembers espe-
cially a young girl who came when
the cherry blossoms were bloom
ing and Washington was in its
spring glory. 1t was the girls
first visit to Washington.
The girl and her brother had been
In Franco territory during the Span
ish war. Their worried father, who
had not heard from them in some
time, asked Mrs. Blessing to find
them
There was no American consular
officer in the place where the youths
last had been heard from, but the
consul's radio at Vigo flashed out
the news that the two were sought.
Americans in Spain listened regu-
larly to these broadcasts.
The two stranded youths got in
touch with the consul. He bought
their passage home with money sent
by their father.
Keeps File of Soldiers.
Mrs. Blessing still keeps a file on
Americans who went to fight in
Spain. Many of those who fought
for the losing side are in govern
ment prisons now, and the State
Department is doing everything we
can" to get them out and safely
home.
But China is the main trouble
center of Mrs. Blessings world
circling Job these days. She has four
file drawers full of cards on Amer
leans in China. Every time a group
of Americans leaves lower China
for the port OF Shanghai, the con-
sui sends list to Washington, and
Mrs. Blessing lets inquiring home
folks know their relatives are headed
back to "the States.
She tells a touching story OF three
American children abandoned in the
turbulent Orient Their mother and
father had left them behind in
China When the consul heard OF
their plight he wrote Immediately
to Mrs. Blessing. Meanwhile, Amer
leans in the area saw that the chill
dren were cared for.
The State Department has no
funds for the care of stranded
Americans. In this case there were
no relatives to turn to. So Mrs.
Blessing sought the aid of American
organizations. These groups financed
the childrens journey back to the
United States, and placed them in
an American nome.
A Businessman's Story.
A businessman dropped in the
other day to tell Mrs. Blessing how
proud and happy he was to be an
American.
Many years ago he had come to
this country from Germany. In 1918
he became a citizen. Recently he
had asked Mrs. Blessing to help him
find his old mother in Germany. The
American consul made inquiries and
finally located the woman in small
German town. Then Mrs. Blessing
helped the businessman with the
technical problem of sending money
to her. He was one of many, Mrs.
Blessing said, who seek word of rela-
tives uprooted IN the new Germany.
Not all Of Mrs. Blessings prob