Arizona sun., 1948-08-27

memory the multi
colored window had stirred for the
first time when he was descending
a stairway with just such a window
behind him. He was Alfred Bill
rnanis and he died in July of this
year. He was the minister of the
republic of Latvia which had died"
eight years ago but according to
the state department was and is Of
such corporeal quality that, along
with it's sister republics of Lithu-
ania and Estonia, it still possesses
diplomatic representatives who are
recognized on equal terms with
those of living nations.
1t was in August of 1910 that
the Red army marched into the
Baltic states and they became
by force majeure, territOrially
a part of the u. s. S. r..
But the three little democra cies
were prepared politically, if not
automatically. A month or so
earlier, by due process of parlia-
mentary law, a decree was pro-
mulgated which made the Latvian
minister to London chief of the
Latvian state if the Russians took
over her territory. Today Charles
Zarena, minister to Britain. re-
mains the head of the diplomatic
corps of the republic of Latvia.
Bilmanis continued to serve his
ghost-government in the United
States after the Russian seizure.
Up to then he had helped to keep
tn bonds firm between us and his
little country whose people reached
the shores of the Baltic back in the
early days of European history.
along with the only two other re-
naming groups which are at least
liguistically, if not ethically, re-
lated to the Latts: the Firms and
the Magyars.
The last president of the
free republic of Latvia, Carl
Ulmanis was Am eri an
trained. He lived in Nebraska
where he waited in exile and
worked for his cOuntry's indie
pendence. He studied agricul-
ture and when he returned to
Latvia in that hopeful heydey of
aEf
World War I, he carried back
ideas. One of them was the 4-H
clubs.
Latvia was so per cent agricul-
tural and among its population of
only two million, the All movement
grew, adapted of course to its new
environment, to 100000 when I
heard of it last before the iron cur
tain descended.
There were interchanges of visits
between the countries and, when
ever the big 4-H encampment took
place in Washington, the little Lat
Wan legation echoed to the cheer
full chatter of American children
who drank lemonade and heard the
big, smiling man with the express
siv, ruddy hands, tell of his coun-
try and show pictures of the chill
dren there at work on their prof.
ects or going through their folk
dances in the gay costumes Of
their land.
The American kids looked at !
the paintings that covered the
walls-fOr Bilmanis was quite
a collector. They were allowed
gingerly to try the great chair
which Napoleon had taken back
to France from Moscow, ex-
anime the delightful little ivOr-
les, the china and the other
objets dart which filed the
legation.
And then, one by one, they
tripped up the stairs to look at
the life-Size model of the Latvian
girl in the traditional robes of the
country, wearing the symbolic
necklace made of great discs OF
amber. Amber had been a Latvian
article of export since the earliest
traders from the Mediterranean
made their way to this northern
land, for it was a much admired
ornament for the ladies of ancient
Rome and Greece. A good neck
lace was supposed ito be worth an
Arabian mount.
If there is any amber being col
lected on Latvian bea ches today il