Missioner's Return

Special Delivery Mailman Joseph Edward Davies reported to the Commander in Chief. He had circled the world in 28 days (on its side the plane had "Mission to Moscow" painted in bright yellow letters in English and Russian). Nine of those days he spent in Moscow; five of the nine in bed with his pills because of his ailing stomach. (He drank no vodka at state dinners.) He had two interviews with Joseph Stalin, for a total of seven and a half hours, looked up many an old friend from his Ambassadorial days.*

In his wax-sealed brief case Joe Davies brought back a sealed letter from Joseph Stalin to Franklin Roosevelt. The contents, known only to the principals, were certainly historic, perhaps were history-making in the profoundest international sense.

The contents apparently made the President happy. At his press conference next day, Franklin Roosevelt bubbled with good cheer. The Old Optimist was in high good humor. Relations between himself and Joseph Stalin, he told the newsmen, were excellent.

* Old acquaintence Marshal Klimenti Voroshilov so admired Joe Davies' shockproof, water proof wrist watch that Davies' immediately gave it to him. The Marshal, in return, presented Joe Davies with his own, quite ordinary timepiece, which Joe Davies said he would give to his grandson.

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