Ex-Diplomats

Axis diplomats in Washington were a downcast crew. The U.S. could not let them leave until U.S. diplomats in Axis lands could leave too. Likelihood was that Ambassador Grew and his staff would get out of Japan by way of Russia and Alaska. But meantime Ambassadors were a drug on the market. In Washington the German diplomats bought trunks; the Japanese sent out for food, were no longer trusted by their grocer, and had to pass the hat to pay for it. They sat around the Embassy drinking whiskey gloomily. Their American chauffeur, driving out for the last time, was jailed for drunkenness.

It was 8 a.m. when German Charge d'Affaires Hans Thomsen slipped out of his embassy to deliver Germany's declaration to Secretary Hull. When the Secretary did come, Dr. Thomsen was told that he was "engaged." Finally Dr. Thomsen delivered his note to the Chief of the European Division, went glumly back to the ramshackle old red-brick Embassy.

Equally stony-eyed was Italian Ambassador Prince Ascanio Colonna. When he stepped out of Political Adviser James Dunn's office, and into the elevator, photographers backed him against the wall, flashed closeups. Said Colonna: "I have delivered nothing. I came to inquire." (Commented the gum-chewing, irrepressible New York Daily News: "Okay, Prince, goombye please.")

The last time the U.S. fought Germany, it took eleven days to complete the transfer of nearly 300 diplomats and other German and American nationals. This time it is likely to take longer. The exiles waited, as uncomfortable as duelists who are driven into the same room by a rainstorm just as they are ready to shoot.

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