Peck's Good Boy

While Japanese soldiers in French Indo-China made ugly faces across the border at Thailand, the U.S. decided that Bangkok was no place for a noncareer diplomat, hastily picked one of the ablest (and homeliest) career men in its Far Eastern diplomatic service to replace the Alabama politico who has been U.S. Minister there since 1940.

The Japanese radio scored one of its rare newsbeats on the resignation of the retiring Minister, Hugh Gladney Grant. Japan added (mistakenly) that he had been removed for promising U.S. military aid to Thailand. Fact is that Grant turned in his resignation as a matter of form when President Roosevelt's second term ended, was both surprised and hot under the collar when he heard it had been accepted. He got so hot that his diplomatic veneer peeled clean off, and he cabled home to Alabama that he had been "railroaded" and would have plenty to say on his return.

The U.S.'s new Envoy Extraordinary & Minister Plenipotentiary to Bangkok is keen, spare, mild-mannered Willys Ruggles Peck. His joints jut out like scaffolding joists. His Chinese-yellow skin is stretched tight over a shrunken skull. Peck is one of the most tactful, tightlipped, affable men in the State Department, with an Oriental knack for getting what he wants while he lets you think you are walking all over him. If anybody-can hold Thailand safe for democracy, Peck is the man to do it.

Son of a missionary to China, 58-year-old Willys Peck was born in Tientsin, has spent 35 years in the foreign service, 31 of them in China. He speaks Chinese, in all its intricate, singsong dialects, like a native scholar, and has been known to spin entrancing Chinese narratives of his own invention by the hour, in fluent, flawless Mandarin.

Peck speaks no Thai, and his China lore will be no asset to him in Thailand. The Thai people love the Chinese about the way a County Cork Irishman loves the British. Like the Irish, Thailanders are not impressed by the bold, underdog fight their neighbors are putting up against the Axis.

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