Darius Jhabvala

-- It was my privilege to know Darius. I read his writings with constant respect, and I knew him well as a traveling companion. There were other occasions when we exchanged views.

-- One such exchange was at the correspondents' Christmas party last year. You will remember that Darius proposed to me that, since I tend to put on weight during diplomatic negotiations, the press, instead of asking for my penetrating analyses of our international problems, should simply weigh me at the conclusion of a given diplomatic effort to see how we were doing.

-- Nor shall I forget that very shortly after I came to this Department Darius called those journalists covering State together for a discussion of how best to develop a mutually profitable relationship between the Secretary and the State Department press corps.

-- Some have suggested that the true purpose was to discover how best to tutor the new Secretary in the conduct of his office and the development, in him, of an adequate degree of respect for the press.

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-- Seriously speaking, I shall always be grateful for Darius'
thoughtfulness toward me, his concern for a proper relation-
ship between the press corps and me, and his total dedication
to the highest ideals of his profession.

-- Others have already spoken of Darius' great warmth and humaneness, his unquestioned competence in his profession and his deep and abiding respect and love for his fellow man. I of course recognized and admired these qualities, both in our relationship while I have been at the State Department and before that when I was at the White House.

-- Perhaps I could relate what they meant in our relationship.
Some of you who went with me to China last year will recall
that when we got to Pakistan before flying to Peking we
encountered the usual problem of a shortage of seats on the
airplane. The problem was so acute we had to bump the physician
who had travelled with us up to that point. Faithful to his
obligation to guard the health of those of us going on without
him, he sought out the one man to whom he could entrust his
mission; he loaded him up with pills and other ministrations,
along with instructions on how they were to be used should they be
needed as we journeyed on. That man was Darius. While he

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maintained his customary high standards of journalistic
performance, he carried on for the abandoned physician,
passing among his mates, inquiring of their health and
seeing what might be administered to help.

-- Then, just last month, my wife and I were deeply touched
when Darius told us on the flight from Moscow to New
Delhi that he had not been to India, the land of his
birth, for 26 years. He told us about the emotional
impact his return after so many years had on him, because
Darius was really a man of many cultures and loyalties.

-- Darius never lost his love for his homeland, nor his
family ties. Indeed, he retained his Indian passport
throughout the years of his residence in the U.S. and the
all-too-short period here in Washington. He told us he
was torn between his deep feeling that perhaps he should
return to India to help his people work out their destiny
and the equally strong roots he had established here over
more than a quarter century.

-- Darius had family ties in India that are especially strong
among his people, the Parsees. He told Nancy and me