The daily monitor leader. [volume] (Mount Clemens, Mich.) 1942-19??, 1945-02-20

to the United State after they
had been checked and okayed
by the Department of Justice as
desirable citizens. Nearly all of
them were in special danger be-
cause they held political posi-
tons. Few of them got out of
Nazi territory, but in negotiat-
ing for their removal to this
country by the War Refugee
Board, a number of cables had
to be cleared through the De-
partment of State. James c.
Dunn, as head of the division of
Western European affairs at that
time, initiated many of the cab
les to expedite them, though this
was not directly his business.
CODE ENDANGERED
There came a time, however,
when messages from these refu-
gees, transmitted through Swift
erland, presented threat to
break the A mer lean secret
codes. Any code can be broken
II the uncoded contents of mes
sage are known and compared
with the coded version of that
same message. For this reason,
a cable was sent to the u. S.
Minister in Switzerland, order
ing him not to use the code for
refugee messages. The story got
out that this was an order to
stop sending atrocity reports to
the United States, but actually
it was nothing more than an
order to safeguard the code.
Jimmy Dunn got blamed for it,
but actually the order seems to
have been cabled to Switzerland
over the signature of Sumner
Welles, then Under Secretary
of State.
Perhaps a better case can be
made that Dunn has been pro-
Communist than that he is pro-
FaFscist. At the beginning of
U. S. participation in the war,
British and American govern
ments agreed to full exchange
of information on all subjects.
Dunn is generally given credit
for having broadened that policy
into one Of full exchange of in
formation with Soviet Russia,
too. Before, the Moscow gov
eminent had been treated with
suspicion and caution. Treating
Moscow with confidence and
respect as an equal was a new
idea. 1t paid off when Hull
went to Russia for his confer
ence with Stain and Molotov
and came home with the Moscow
agreement. Dunn went along on
that trip, as Hull's adviser.
NO SILVER SPOON
When Dunn hasn't been criti-
cized for his policies, he has been
picked on because he married
money-an Armour heiress--or
because he was once in charge
of protocol at White House and
State Department functions, and
therefre was considered an ex-
pert at balancing tea cups. But
all such stuff is a far cry from
his origin and he is anything but
a Harvard-Groton silk stocking,
which all successful diplomats
are supposed to be. Jimmy
Dunn was born in Newark and
his father was plumber.
He studied little law and
some architecture, but holds no
degrees for graduating in either
trade, thoughe he did work as
an architect from 1912 to 1917.
In the war he was a naval lieut.
enant, serving as aide to the
naval attache at Havana. That
turned him to diplomacy and he
began at the bottom, as a clerk
in the Department in 1919. He
has been career diplomat ever
since, with the exception of
year out in 1880 and 81, during
the serious illness of his wife.
1t was his Is years of expert
ence that probably accounts
most for his assistant secretary
ship in charge of eastern hemi-
sphere affairs, one of the hot
test postwar spots in govern
ment.