Evening star., 1946-07-14
Wide Reorganization Urged
For y. S. Foreign Service
Legislation Prepared for Better Salaries and
Allowances, Extensive Training and General
Stimulation of Career System
By Robert J. Le,vis

By fOOPf
Veterans focking to jobs in the Amer
lean diplomatic corps have big stake
in the fate of a bill now pending in
Congress to reorganize, expand and
"democratize" the United States foreign
service.
For five years until the end OF the war,
no recruiting from outside the service
was permitted. Since the war ended one
already has been held, and another is
set for September 80.
From the two examinations, the serv-
Ice hopes to recruit total of $50 career
officers, of whom IS already have been
designated and confirmed.
A further source of appointees from
the ranks of former servicemen was
opened up July 3 when President Tru-
man signed bill to authorize appoint
ment of $50 foreign service officers of
the middle and upper grades, All those
appointees must be ex-servicemen or
persons employed in the Government at
least two years during the war
Recruitment of the additional 600
men from these two sources is expected
to be possible within the next two years.
Foreign service career officers now num-
Der about $780, Thus this career service,
In a comparatively short time, will un-
dergo a far-reaching Transformation.
Forty per cent of its faces will be rev,
most of them veterans.
Major Reorganization Planned.
In preparation for this TRANSMISSION of
new blood, and to improve the service
for the crucial diplomatic rough-and-
tumble Immediately ahead, the State
Department and Once of the Foreign
Service recently. drafted major reor-
ganization plan.
Based on recommenda tions drawn
up after two-year study of the prob
lem. the reorganization bill was written
by House Foreign Affairs Subcommit-
tee headed by Representative John Kee,
Democrat, of West Virginia.
Chairman Sol Bloom of the House
Foreign Affairs Committee said yester-
day the bill had been thoroughly gone
over" he was confident it was now
"non-c controversial" and hoped there
would be sufficient time to enact it into
law before Congress goes home.
Rejecting the urgency of the pro-
posal, the committee started hearings
two weeks ago on the subcommittee
preliminary draft. in advance of Mr..
KEGS introduction OF the measure last
Tuesday.
No Change Since 1924
Since the Rogers Act consolidated the
diplomatic and consular services in
1924, no major legislative step has been
taken to keep the foreign service
abreast of the times.
Yet in the % years since the act was
passed. rapidly changing conditions
have increasingly handicapped opera
tions of this overseas arm of the Gov
ernment.
The service has remained, as Repre-
sentative Kee phrased it few days ago,
a sort of stepchild,' forced, without
adequate means at its disposal to
handle the titantic and highly complex
job of representing the United States
ali over the world.
To fulfill its function as a truly
democratic service during the postwar
era, when Americas position and mo-
tives assuredly will continue to be sub
iected to critical, If not hostile, interpre-
tation from various sources, the service
is considered to need more men from a
wider crosS-section of the population,
better administration, increased facili-
ties for training and more adequate
financial support.
At present, the corps is composed of
about 9,700 persons, including 55 ambas-
sadors and ministers, Its foreign serv-
ice officers and auxiliary officers, 6,4o0
foreign service clerks and miscellaneous
employees, and 2,l00 officers and clerks
recently absorbed from other Govern
ment agencies. Among the last group
are about 1000 persons, many of them
former owl employees. who are serving
the Office of International Information
and Cultural Affairs.
No Salary Increase Since 1855.
The service operates 303 embassies,
legations and consulates in 6s countries
Back in 1855, when the first general
diplomatic service law was enacted.
Congress fixed $l7,5O0 as the maximum
salary for ambassadors and $4,000 as
the top limit for ministers.
In spite of sharply changing economic
standards affecting every one in the
ensuing 80 years, those anachronistic
pay scales have been allowed to remain
the same, petrified in the law.
The result has been. as is quite gener-
ally realized, that only rich men can
afford to serve in the loftiest spots, save
at severe handicap in relation to rep
resentatives of other great powers.
As the House Foreign Affairs Subcom-
mittee pointed out in connection with
the foreign service bill now being con-
s~iered:
In view the heavy expenses incurred
In the largest posts the most important
embassies and legations have tended to
become the preserve of men of substan-
tial independent means"
British Envoy Paid $4,000.
To indicate the gross disparity be-
tween our own support of diplomatic
representatives abroad and that of
Great Britain, Judge KEGS subcommit.
tee pointed OUT
To-day the British Ambassador in
Washington receives $4,000, tax free.
while the American Ambassador in Lon
don receives total compensation, includ-
ing allowances, of about $3o,000 of
which s17,500 is taxable"
How much the American Ambassador