To England

After weeks of mulling over the biggest vacancy in his diplomatic corps--the ambassadorship to Britain--Harry Truman made up his mind. The man he picked for the job: conservative, 64-year-old O. (for Oliver) Max Gardner, a safe, uncolorful candidate whom the Senate was likely to confirm with little or no fuss.

From a law practice in Shelby, N.C., Gardner swam naturally into Democratic politics. In 1929 he became North Carolina's governor. To the horror of local Southern politicos, he once had himself photographed at a rally with a Negro girl who had won an essay contest.

In 1933 he went to Washington, built up a practice as a corporation lawyer, became a friend of Franklin Roosevelt. Among Government jobs he faithfully served at: adviser on the Office of War Mobilization and Reconversion Board. Among jobs he was mentioned for but did not take: president of the New York Stock Exchange, governor of Puerto Rico. Max Gardner, big. pink and amiable, does not stick his neck out.

Last winter he settled comfortably down into the job of Under Secretary of the Treasury, asked to be excused from serving as a member of the British-American commission on Palestine. Now Max Gardner may have to grapple with that problem.

He will find it not too hard to get along with Britain's socialist Government. "Government planning," he once said, "is just a common-sense approach to a constructive postwar economy." Two of his great assets for the socially exacting, financially burdensome job at the Court of St. James's: he is social-minded and he is wealthy.

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