The daily monitor leader. [volume] (Mount Clemens, Mich.) 1942-19??, 1942-08-18
BY PETER EDISON
Monitor-Leader Washington
CorrespOndent

get some 400 u. S. State Depart
ment people clear of Axis domi-
mated territory. That it has taxi
en- eight months since Pearl
Harbor to accomplish these
transfers is indicative Of the
kicking around and the impris-
onment which the U. S. Foreign
Service agents have to take in
time of war. Ambassador Mel
son Johnson, for instance, has
been in this war for more than
five years. AS ambassador to
China, he and his staff have TAX
en- Jap bombings at Marking,
Hankow and Chungking. john
son is now envoy to Australia,
and likely to be in the thick of
il again.
Experiences of these u. S.
Foreign Service people, in fact,
practically tell the story of the
war. John Ker Davis and the
embassy and consular staffs
took the worse the Germans had
to offer for IL days in the siege
of Warsaw.
Daisy Hartman, only woman
head of an American diplomatic
mission, was recently decorated
by Norway for her part in NOV
ing her embassy five times to
keep in touch with the Norweg-
ian government during the Ger
man invasion. One member of
her staff was killed by Ger
man bomb. In Paris, a bomb
dropped through the ceiling of
the dining room in the American
embassy while Ambassador Will
liam c. Bullitt was at lunch.
In London, Ambassador JOS
eph P. Kennedy and his success
sor, John c.. Winant, and their
staff have gone through the
heaviest bombings, and over a
period longer than at any post
except Chungking, China. The
embassy in London has not had
a direct hit, but u. S. consulates
at Plymouth, Bristol, Liverpool
and Manchester have been COM
pletely Quilted by fire and explo-
sions. Miraculously, not--one
American Foreign Service en-
ploye has been hit in Great
Britain, though their work has
gone on uninterrupted.
BALLYHOO BANNED
Foreign Service personnel sta
toned in the Balkans and in the
Mediterranean area have had
perhaps the toughest going q
any American civilians in the
war zones. In Belgrade, Yugo-
slavia, the embassy staff under
Arthur Bliss Lane took terrific
beating. Bombs destroyed one
side of Minister Lanes resi-
dence. A member of his staff
carried a diplomatic pouch right
through the city at the height OF
a bombardment, and delivered il
safely. When it came time fol-
the Americans to get out of tho
country, all bridges over the
Danube had been destroyed, sc
a boat was chartered and they
made their way to Budapest.
Not only bombings, but near
starvation hit the American dip.
lomatic and consular missions ir
Greece. Many of those who have
returned to the United State,
have had to undergo long pc.
RODS of convalescence to recov'
er from blood and diet defici'
encies.
So reserved and conservative
is the State Department about
making heroes of any of its For
eign Service personnel that it:
reports delete mention o.
names when exploits of individ
uals are passed along. In the
eyes of the State Department
all its people are modest, retir'
ing public servants, so why bal
lyhoo any of them. When Con
gresham Foster Stearns of Han
cock, N. H., who used to be {
Foreign Service man himself
wanted to make a speech abou
the brave deeds of these men
the apartment made him take
out all names, for fear that some
of those not mentioned nigh
feel sighted.
HEROES IN HOMBURGS
But individual ex perience!
will get around. There is thu
story of Walter A. Foote, wht
has ben consul and consul gen
eral at Batavia, Java, since 1884
When the Japs launched theil
invasion of the Netherlands Eas
Indies. Foote was in the thick O
it. He stayed at his post as lon:
as he could and then under pres
sure made a retreat across Java
finally escaping to Australia b,
plane. 1t took him three months
TO get back to the United States
or, an unescorted, slow freight
or. but after reporting to Wash
ington he was ready for anothe,
assignment and is now on hi
way to- a new post in the Pa
cific.