Careerist to Paris

In a busy week of diplomatic shuffles, the White House announced the appointments of nine U.S. envoys, five of them seasoned career men. To the Polish Government in London went suave Careerist Arthur Bliss Lane, 50, an appointment which should put Polish-Americans in a good election-year mood. To The Netherlands went solemn Stanley Hornbeck, 61, onetime chief of the State Department's Far Eastern division; to Bolivia, Walter Thurston, 48, of Colorado; to Colombia, John Cooper Wiley, U.S. Minister to Latvia and Estonia until 1941; to El Salvador, John F. Simmons, 52, who began as a U.S. consular clerk in 1916.

Three of the new diplomats are seasoned Democrats. To Belgium and Luxembourg went Charles Sawyer, 57, longtime Ohio politician; to Norway, by way of the exiled Government in London, Lithgow Osborne, who left the U.S. foreign service 22 years ago for the automobile business, and has aided Herbert Lehman in UNRRA; and to the Yugoslav Government, Richard C. Patterson, onetime assistant to the late Secretary of Commerce, Daniel C. Roper.

None of these shifts ranked in importance with the appointment last week of cool, tough career Diplomat Jefferson Caffery, 57, ex-Ambassador to Brazil, as U.S. envoy to Paris, with the rank of ambassador. Forthwith the French gaily opened up their big, chateau-shaped Embassy in Washington, closed since the 1942 departure of Vichyman Gaston Henri-Haye. Paris should be a hot diplomatic spot, which will be no novelty to Careerist Caffery, who has served U.S. interests abroad through six administrations. A Louisianian who studied to be a lawyer, Caffery went to work for the State Department when he was 24. He has since seen service in Stockholm, Teheran, Paris, Madrid, Athens, Berlin, Havana, Rio de Janeiro and points between.

As a State Department fledgling, he was entrusted with such tricky diplomatic odd jobs as: 1) escorting the late King Albert of Belgium and the Prince of Wales about the U.S., 2) acting as Woodrow Wilson's protocol adviser at Versailles. In more recent years, he is credited with the tricky job of persuading Brazil to give the U.S. World War II air bases. Natty Diplomat Caffery keeps his figure trim by swimming, climbing mountains, and forgoing lunch. Shy, nervous and addicted to bad puns, he is highly regarded by the Department as a painstaking foreign serviceman who plugs away to carry out orders, digs hard for facts, wins the respect of foreigners, and keeps Washington well-informed with terse, one-page reports.

The Caffery talents offered no clue to Washington's future course toward De Gaulle. If the U.S. drifts into full recognition of the Paris Government, Diplomat Caffery is an expert at the old game of diplomatic drifting. But he is also known as a hardheaded trouble shooter.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.