The Wilmington morning star., 1943-12-30
Inside
w ashington
BY HELEN ESSARY

WASHINGTON, u. C.-President
Roosevelt was as calm as a Nav
morning in peacetime at his first
news conference, few hours After
his return to Washington from III.
most important meeting any pres
dent of the United States has evn,
held.
You'd never have known from
his manner that he had been ann
where at all. Certainly you'd nov
er have suspected that he hsd
been arranging the future Of tba
world and of it's millions of hllman
beings with three great United Na
tons leaders.
Seeing and talking to Premier
Marshal Josef Stain of the nowar
full, mysterious Soviet Union ana
to President Generalissimo Cbian~
Kai-shek of China and to his Oh
friend and English speaking broth
or in arms, British Prime Minister
Winston Churchill. seemed to bavs
been matters all in the days WORK
for the chief executive of the Uni,
ed States.
I'VE had an awfully good tjmeo
he said. smiling bshind the co.
aret in the long holder. We had
many excellent talks"
No, didn't mind having TO uso
an interpreter. Of course, if had
been able to speak Russian and
Chinese or if Mr.. Stain and tbe
Generalissimo had spoken English
it might have been easier. BIT NO
got on all right
Stain lived up TO his highest ev.
pectations, Mr.. Roosevelt said
What did you call him, Mr.
Presldent?' reporter asked
Il said, What beautiful morn.
ing replied the president smiI,
ing.
| No l mean how did you ad.
dress him"
oh, I said 'Marshar!"
| Obviously the leader of the Sow.
ct Union and the president Of the
United States did not progress 10
first names in the manner of Mr.
Roosevelt and Mr.. Churchill. Yet
you got the idea that without in
terpreter, they spoke the same
language-the language of defeat
ing the Axis.
! Not that Mr.. Roosevelt was ey-
uberant. He wasn't. But he looked
well. Not too tired. Nor tco any
ious. His face was little brown
from the eastern sushine Of GU
70, Teheran and Dakar. | think he
had on a new suit-his travelling
suit. AnhoW, it was dark gray and
very becoming.
| When he made a particularly
good retort in customary press
CONFERENCE repartee, he glanced
out of the tail of his eye at the
family row at his left occupying
the bench where the anonymous
secretaries usually sit.
In the family row was Mrs.
Roosevelt in a chair beyond the
bench. She said she had come to
hear about the trip. But believe
me if all she actually heard was
what the president divulged to the
news conference, Mr.. Roosevelt is
no better reporter than any other
husband back from jaunt away
from wife and home. And if Mrs.
Roosevelt has since heard no more
of her husbands experiences than
she istended to then by this time
she must have joined that assoc
ton of wives known by all women
as the But You Never-Tell-me-
Anything club"
Mrs. Anna Boettiger only
daughter of the Franklin PoHS
velts who iourneyed to the White
House to spend Christmas with her
father and mother, took notes ~
| dustriously as any good reporter
would, on a proper note book
: suppose she was getting material
for a dispatch to the Seattle Post
l Intelligencer which she and hef
husband, Major Boettiger, now IN
: the eastern war tneater, edit To-
gether.
.. Anna looked blonde and pretty
in lavender wool with wide white
neck frill.
Young Franklin Roosevelt mad
brought his wife. Ethel who uSeo
to be a Dupont, to the conference
Young Mrs. Franklin D. was as
lovely as paper doll. She %o
gray wool dress and one OF those
= beguiling little baby caps 'lla'
showed her dark hair. MIS- F'o1'
I welt had her personal secretaN
5 Malvina Thompson, present.
l On the whole, this contefenFs
l was much as anv other Gomez
ence. 1t began the same way
"Well there isn't much ina S
5 portant," said Mr.. RooSeVe-'
, There was, of course. that story s
of the German plot to pop OIL
Messrs. Churchill, Roosevelt s'A
} Stain, "a pretty good haul u..
ing the Teheran stay. But the pro-
: iden+ mnntionel this lncloeh' Ill