Evening star., 1950-03-28
Crash
CONTINUED From First Page. J

life Airport at $40 EST. Wit
nesses at the scene, the Gould
farm three miles southeast of
Ramsayville, said the craft
seemed to explode about SO feet
from the ground.
On Way to New York.
In Washington, the State De-
partment said Mr.. Steinhardt was
en- route to the United States on
private business. 1t gave his des-
tination as New York.
The Embassy sent attaches to
the crash scene and to Rockliffe
Air Force Hospital, where the sur
vivor, Sergt. Long, had been taken.
Alan Harrington, student at
Randolph Macon College in Vir-
ginia, was returning from a holi-
day spent with his parents here.
Mrs. Steinhardt and their
daughter, Dulcie-Ann, 26, are at
the Embassy residence here.
! Mr.. Steinhardt was Ambassador
to Moscow during a critical period
of United States-Russian relations.
| A New Yorker, Mr.. Steinhardt
gave up a profitable law and busi-
ness career to enter the diplomatic
service in April, 1888. He worked
for the election of President
Roosevelt, whom he had known
for several years, and was made
Minister to Sweden.
He stayed in Stockholm until
1887, then was made Ambassador
to Peru. The Moscow assignment
followed in February, 1899.
Saw War Begin in Moscow.
Mr.. Steinhardt saw the war
begin in Moscow. He was bombed
and nearly captured by the Ger
mans after they turned on their
Russian allies.
Because one German officer he
knew sent pet dog home by
plane four days before the Ger
man invasion in 1941, Mr.. Stein
hardt was able to call the turn
on the Germans decision to fight
Russia.
He few home just before Pearl
Harbor and was Immediately
posted back to Istanbul. There
he matched wits for three years
with Hitler's ace diplomat, Franz
Won Papen. He helped hold the
Turks from wavering into the Ger
man ranks and then cinched their
aid for the Allies.
1t was in that post that his
work won him the Medal of Merit
for helping American flyers escape
from Eastern Europe. Most of
them were creWmen of planes shot
down in raids on Romanian oil
fields.
Talk about your cloak and dag
ger" Mr.. Steinhardt used to say.
1--WE did everything to get those
boys back to their bases-mysteri-
GUS jeep rides at midnight, excur-
sions into deserts, dangerous boat
trips. But we got them out, in
ones and two and threes."
Last European Post in Prague.
His last European post was in
Prague. 1t was a difficult assign
ment, especially after the Com
munist revolution and victory of
February, 1948.
1t may have been significant
that Mr.. Steinhardt was absent
from Prague for about two and a
half months before the coup. He
| arrived just before the peak of the
crisis, after convalescing from a
surgical operation in the United
States.
The trouble shooting expert,
who began lend-lease with Russia
and ended it with Czechoslovakia,
looked forward to the Canadian
assignment as a respite from
European cares.
A lean 6-footer, he once re-
marked ruefully, when I was
young I used to like to travel"
Flew Thousands of Miles.
Mr.. Steinhardt flew thousands
of miles on diplomatic assign
ments. He had one previous close
call. That was a flight on which
he and Maxim Litvinof and
several newspaper correspondents
were missing several days during a
series of forced landings in a
South Russian blizzard.
II wouldn't give a nickel to go
through that again." he said.
But I'd give $1,000 not to have
missed it,"
His energy and informally
amazed intrigued Europeans.
He drove his own automobile
even on official trips.
The Turks saw him referee a
baseball game in shirtsleeves be-