"Thy Servant, Franklin"

The Congress was 150 years old last week and Franklin Roosevelt, as President, was six. Tanned and beaming after his cruise with the fleet, he went from the train that brought him from Charleston, S. C., to the White House to put on his cutaway. Then with his wife, mother, daughter-in-law Betsey (Mrs. Jimmy) and Naval Aide Dan J. Callaghan he went to his front-row pew in St. John's Church, where Rector Oliver J. Hart III conducted a special anniversary service and prayed for him.

Rector Hart: "Almighty and Everliving God . . . we make our humble supplications unto Thee for this Thy servant, Franklin, upon whom is laid the responsibility for the guidance of this Nation. Let Thy fatherly hand, we beseech Thee, ever be over him; let Thy Holy Spirit ever be with him; and so lead him in the knowledge and obedience of Thy word, that in the end he may obtain everlasting life. . . ."

During the prayer, Franklin Roosevelt looked rapt in thought, but during the hymns (O God, Our Help in Ages Past and A Mighty Fortress Is Our God) his fine baritone could be heard clear and confident above the male choir. From church he went to the Capitol to address the joint birthday session of Congress (see p. 14).

> To Eugenio Pacelli, newly His Holiness Pope Pius XII (see p. 36), the President cabled: "It is with true happiness that I learned of your selection as Supreme Pontiff. Recalling with pleasure our meeting on the occasion of your recent visit to the United States, I wish to take this occasion to send you a personal message of felicitation and good wishes. ROOSEVELT."

Cardinal Pacelli visited the U. S. "personally and privately" in autumn, 1936. The late Mrs. Nicholas Brady (later Macaulay) was his hostess at Manhasset, L. I. He lunched with the Roosevelts at Hyde Park, addressed the National Press Club in Washington, went to Philadelphia and Boston, toured by air as far west as San Francisco. First Pope in history to have personal knowledge of the U. S., Pius XII has cousins in Flushing and Jordan, N. Y.

> Not without good-humored disrespect, Navy men last week called the President "The Greatest Admiral since Nelson," but took no public exception to his resume for the press of the greatest battle since

Trafalgar--the Navy's hemispheric defense game off the West Indies (TIME, March 6). In such theoretical exercises, said he, theoretical land masses are imagined on the strategy maps where actually there is only ocean. Gist of his report: the game had failed to demonstrate conclusively whether a foreign fleet could penetrate the U. S. first line of defense and gain a military foothold in the Western Hemisphere, but had proved that the Navy needs added bases in the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. Piquant detail of the game: a defense patrol plane, from an altitude of 15,000 ft., far at sea, and undetected even by the umpires, spied for 30 hours and reported by radio on the approaching "enemy" warships.

> From his post as Ambassador to dying Loyalist Spain the President recalled Claude Gernade Bowers, to consult about recognizing Generalissimo Franco's regime. To Moscow, to replace Joseph Edward

Davies (moved to Brussels) as Ambassador, the President shifted Laurence A. Steinhardt from Lima, Peru. Trained in the law under his canny uncle, Samuel Untermyer, Ambassador Steinhardt was described by Mr. Roosevelt, when he made him Minister to Sweden in 1933, as a "good fixer and hoss trader."

> Hearing at sea of the death in Washington of spindly Hirosi Saito, ex-Ambassador from Japan, Franklin Roosevelt radioed instructions to the Navy Department to assign a cruiser to transport Saito's ashes to Tokyo, an unusual honor. Since Hirosi Saito was a peaceful man who once sighed, "Navies will be navies," Mr. Roosevelt's gesture could be construed as a slap to Japanese militarists, who could but suffer it silently.

> To be a Brigadier-General and to take Son Jimmy's place as his closest liaison secretary, the President elevated his military aide, Col. Edwin M. ("Pa") Watson. After his retirement March 31, "Pa" will draw $5,500 a year from the White House, $4,500 from the Army. Military colleagues consider his temporary promotion a rank example of Presidential favor v. service proficiency. Naval officers last week thought they had a ranker one: in nominating able Captain Harry Allen Stuart to permanent Rear Admiral, Franklin Roosevelt unmistakably (and perhaps illegally) snubbed the sacrosanct Naval Selection Board.

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