The Diplomatic Life

When the Czechoslovak Foreign Office made charges this summer that the Americans had spread the potato bug in that country with the intention of ruining the crops, it was up to Ellis O. Briggs '21, our Ambassador to Czechoslovakia, to reply.

After expressing sympathy over the losses suffered, the note called the allegations maliciously "false and preposterous" and went on to say, "The Embassy ventures to suggest the inherent unsuitability of the potato bug (Doryphora decemlineata) as an instrument of national policy. The Embassy doubts whether the po'ato bug, even in its most voracious phase, could nibble effectively at the fabric of friendship uniting the Czechoslovak and the American people."

Mr. Briggs was named Ambassador to Czechoslovakia in June 1949, at which time he was Ambassador to Uruguay. A career diplomat, he earlier represented this country in the Dominican Republic, Chile, Peru, and Liberia, and has served as a State Department consultant in Washington.