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The French cruiser Tourville steamed westward across the Atlantic last week bearing home the body of Myron Timothy Herrick, late U. S. Ambassador to France. Manhattan prepared to receive it with solemn honors, in which France's dead Foch was to share. In Ohio waited a grave.

Meanwhile discussion of a successor to Mr. Herrick's high diplomatic post began. Four names emerged: Frank Billings Kellogg, John Joseph Pershing, Alvan Tufts Fuller, Frederick Henry Prince. President Hoover was faced with the necessity also of finding a new man to represent the U. S. at the court of St. James's. His purpose was to fit a smooth-working team into London and Paris. For the London post only one name really loomed: Charles Gates Dawes.

Mr. Kellogg denied that he would take a diplomatic post after four years as Secretary of State. A special act of Congress would be necessary to make General Pershing an Ambassador for the statutes now prohibiting a military man, active or retired, to enter the diplomatic service. The Sacco-Vanzetti case is held to militate against the chances which onetime Governor Fuller of Massachusetts has of going to Paris where the "radical" tide often runs strong.

Mr. Prince, buyer and seller of railroads, with his 70-room Prides Crossing, Mass., home, is amply rich for the French ambassadorship. He already spends eight months of each year at his homes in Paris and Pau. His son, Norman, was one of the founders of France's Lafayette Escadrille.

Observers expected no appointment until after Mr. Herrick's interment.