Patriots' Bones

On the bones of the English, wrote Imperialist Rudyard Kipling, the English flag is stayed. The bones of Americans, too, lie whitening around the North Pole, in Luzon, Haiti, Cuba, Nicaragua, at Peking, Chateau-Thierry, on the weedy bottoms of four oceans and "the seven seas." Most of these are military bones. But men die in the Foreign Service too. Last week Consul Giles Russell Taggart, technically on leave, died at his post in Belize, British Honduras, from injuries sustained in last fortnight's hurricane (TIME. Sept. 21). Grieved, Secretary of State Henry Lewis Stimson announced:

"The death of Consul Taggart while serving at his post emphasizes that life in the Foreign Service often entails sacrifice even unto death. Since the earliest days of our national existence many Foreign Service officers have died under tragic or heroic circumstances. The first of these was William Palfrey of Massachusetts, who in 1780 was appointed 'Consul to reside in France.' He sailed for his post on the Shillala, an armed ship of 16 guns. The vessel was never heard from after it passed the Delaware Capes.

"The Foreign Service Association has recently been considering the suggestion that a roll of honor would be a fitting memorial for the association to undertake for those of their predecessors who so died. The suggestion is a bronze tablet to be displayed in the Department of State inscribed with the names of those who have died abroad under unusual circumstances or of unusual diseases incurred in foreign climes."

The Foreign Service Association is an unofficial, voluntary organization to which most members of the U. S. Foreign Service, from Ambassadors to vice consuls, belong. Formed "to foster esprit de corps and to establish a centre around which might be grouped the united efforts of its members for the improvement of the service," it is sanctioned, but not assisted or provided for by the State Department. The Secretary of State is honorary president. Toward the erection of the memorial $1,200 of a necessary $3,000 has already been raised among the membership. When finished it will be placed in the south entrance of the State Department. Among many another, these names will be graven in bronze:

Joel Barlow, Minister Plenipotentiary to France, who perished of cold and privation at Zarnowiec, Poland in 1812, during Napoleon's retreat from Moscow.

John S. Meircken, consul at Martinique, W. I., who was lost at sea in 1832 on the LaFayette.

Edward W. Gardner, commercial agent at Apia, Samoa who went clown in a hurricane in 1863 with the Anita.

Victor P. W. Stanwood, consular agent at Anadakabe, Madagascar, shot and killed by Captain Duverge in a dispute growing out of the wreck of the U. S. vessel Solitaire.

Thomas T. Prentis, consul at Martinique, killed with his wife in the eruption of Mount Pelee, 1902. Vice Consul Amedee Testart died with them.

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