Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1941-12-12
Washington, D. C.
BRITISH DIPLOMACY

BRITISH DIPLOMACY
The British barring Of Russian
Ambassador LitviAoff from an air
plane en- route to the U.S.A. has in
creased Washington whispers that
it Is about time the British did
something to clean up their mori-
bund diplomatic service and cut
out snubs to people who are trying
to help them.
It has long been the belief Of
Americans, too polite to mention it,
that the British embassy in WASH
ington can make more mistakes to
the square inch even than Mr..
Hull's state department-and many
Of the state departments mistakes
come from trying SO ardently to ape
the British.
For years the British embassy
has sat on its hilltop, well removed
from the hustle Of Washington. and
looked with slightly disdainful
amusement upon the hoi polloi Of
congress. An invitation to the Brit
ish embassy in those good old days
was considered by the dowagers as
better than an invitation to the
White House.
But those good old days, I'M
fortunately both for the dowagers
and the embassy, are gone, never
to return. However, the embassy
appears completely unaware Of that
fact. And its charming young men
60 their charming way, saying
sometimes too audibly: I'VE must
be nice to Americans; while the
real work of defending Britain takes
place in the British Purchasing COM
mission, largely under the direc-
ton Of hard-boiled Canadians and
Australians.
Viscount Halifax is one Of the
most delightful and genteel persons
ever to grace the embassy. He tries
hard. But hard as he tries, he
cannot overcome the bubbling
Charles Peake, who minces around
him as If his lordship still were
viceroy of India with white and
crimson-costumed Sikhs mounted
on black chargers outside his pal
ace, in Calcutta, instead Of being
in city where politics are very
earthly and where the congress
mans wife from Keokuk has 4 lot
more influence than the pink tea
protocol experts usually seen at the
British embassy.
WASHINGTON SOCIETY
Washington is city where de-
bate may rage furiously on the floor
of the senate, but simmer down to
friendly storytelling in the ante
room or around the dinner table
afterward. This is not always the
case, however, and sometimes
Washington society becomes so
vite certain strong-minded people
to dinner.
This was true during the fight over
Roosevelt's Supreme court bill; and
during the Roosevelt illkie cleo
ton campaign; and it Is somewhat
true during the neutrality controver-
sizes today. Old hands at the game
of controversy, however, manage to
keep their tempers. For instance,
seated near each other at dinner the
other night were Sen. Burt Wheeler,
than whom there is no more ener-
getic isolationist, and Undersecre-
tary Of the Navy Forrestal, just as
energetically interventionist.
Wheeler was talking about the re-
cent neutrality debate, telling how
Roosevelt forces influenced votes by
promising jobs and dishing out pa
tronage. Interrupted Undersecretary
Forrestal:
Senator, did the neutrality fight
reach the depths of your fight to
pass the Wheeler-Rayburn act?"
(The Holding Corporation act)
NO." shot back Senator Wheeler,
II didn't have the patronage"
The two men continued a good
natured discussion of neutrality,
Wheeler maintaining that time
would prove that his anti-war stand
was right. After the war, he con-
tended, history would reverse the
present tide of war sentiment and
there would be a revulsion Of feel
ing if not a virtual French revolu-
ton.
"And when the guillotine az be-
gins to fall, SENATOR" said Forrest
al as he departed, twill you be my
attorney"
Firms VS.. NAILS
Intelligence reports from Europe
for the first time indicate friction
between German and Finnish
troops on the eastern fronts. The
Firms are sore because the Nazis
have been living off the country and
have not been at all scrupulous in
paying Finnish peasants for pigs,