1932
I landed back home two long months after I left to help negotiate with various of the NATO countries to get relief from taxes for US expenditures abroad, "for the common defense effort." We got the relief in the course of the most intensive, peripatetic days I have ever been part of. I negotiated with representatives of only five of the countries, but succeeded in crossing borders about 35 times in the two months. A series of flashing mental pictures will stay with me for a long time, of special events but mostly of people and their unexpected activities: the fog over Paris when we landed on New Year's eve Gene Kelley in the cocktail lounge of the stratocruiser going over, washing down dramamine tablets with martinis ... the murmurs of the crowd in Paris as they saw Eisenhower walking in the funeral procession for Gen. de Lattre . .. the memorials in the walls at the Place de la Concorde to the French patriots killed by the Germans in 1944... the Duke of Windsor, looking fitter than when I saw him 22 years ago, in the restaurant car going to London, pouring milk out of an oversize thermos bottle into a tumbler containing a brown liquid
.. . the Texas-born wife of a Dutchman speaking fluent Dutch .. . the memorials in Brussels to Belgian patriots killed by Germans
... the North sea making the ferry act like a canoe until I paid tribute with my English dinner... snow on the streets, trees and railings of Paris ... gaunt remnants of buildings in London bombed by the Germans .. . the lithesome Egyptian girl in the Casino de Paris whom you could see so much of in so few minutes of looking. .. the new London taxis just like the old ones . . . the three MacPhail kids eating by themselves in a Paris hotel and proving that the hand is as good as the tongue when you can't speak the language ... the bare swath in Rotterdam where the German bombs fell. . . the French movies which never fail to show all of the good points of at least one comely dame ... negotiating a tax agreement in the French Ministry of Finance offices in the Louvre buildings just down the hall from Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo and the Victory of Samothrace ... landing at the New York airport in a blinding blizzard . . . reunion with my family who were almost as glad to see me as the armload of gifts I had picked up.
It was a pleasant surprise to find CnarleyOdegaard on the same plane coming home. He had been in Paris for ten days for a meeting of the International Council of Philosophy and Humanistic Studies, of which he was elected a vice-president. The Council is a UNsupported organization with a unique position in its field. Charley is also a delegate to the International Union of Academies, which has its headquarters in Brussels. I won't confuse matters by trying to explain the functions of these learned societies; those who want to know may apply directly to Charley.
Rod Hatcher is still with the National City Bank in London, but I was able to get no nearer to him than to speak a word with his secretary. I might have done better if I could have given him notice of my arrival, but I moved too fast for such civilities.
Some of you may have heard Carl Baker speaking on the radio program Invitation toLearning, on December 30, when he joined Jan Struther in a discussion of George Meredith's Diana of the Crossways. ... Joe Sawyer and Bill Brister are with the National Production Authority in Washington. Bill left the Institute of Inter-American Affairs, but is still concerned with Latin American matters in his new job. .. . Howie Sargeant, who visited the West Coast in December to help celebrate Mrs. M. L. Sargeant's completion of another picture, Belles on their Toes, toured so many vacation spots that he considers himself "really initiated into ways of California living." ... Congratulations of the month go to Sam Englander, who was married on February 2 to Helen Louise Jones in Greenville, Miss.
With another urgent reminder to plan to be in Hanover with your families June 13, 14 and 15 for Reunion, I now gratefully turn the column over to ex-secretary E. B. Marks, whose letter of March 3 from Athens shows that his skill on the type keys has stayed with him through many roamings round the girdled earth:
"Your letter chased me to Geneva and then back to Athens where it finally caught up with me too late for your deadline. I suspect we were both in Paris about the same time, and I'm sorry to have missed you. We left Athens just before Christmas when the IRO mission closed, and went on a skiing holiday to Megeve in the French Alps. Margaret and the kids were there for most of January while I ducked in and out from Geneva and Paris. In February we drove to Marseilles, then came on to Piraeus by a Turkish ship.
"After four years abroad we should probably be getting back to the U. S., but I was tempted by a new job as Chief of Mission in Greece ot the Provisional Intergovernmental Committee for the Movement of Migrants from Europe—PICMME to you! PICMME was created at Brussels in December by the U. S. and 16 other member nations. Its job is to stimulate resettlement opportunities and assist in the overseas movement of as many as possible of Europe's surplus population. The main countries of emigration will be Germany, Austria, Italy, Greece and Holland. Australia, Canada, Brazil and the U. S. will probably be the chief recipients. The new organization will use the fleet which moved over a million refugees. Although refugees will be included, the chief migrants will be nationals of the countries concerned. Greece has never had an organized migration program before, so in essence we will be doing a kind of technical assistance job.
"You ask how it is to live abroad. It all depends where you are. I suppose Europe offers no contrast greater than between Switzerland, where we spent three years, and Greece which, after a year, we are just beginning to know. Life in Geneva with its many comforts and conveniences, its matchless setting in the heart of Europe, its opportunities for sport, etc., was a rare experience. We had a comfortable house with oil heat. Our kids went to a Swiss public school and learned French sans accent. That little country really works!
"Greece is poorer, dirtier, noisier, and very badly organized, but it is gay and vital and possesses other attractive qualities, not the least of which is generosity. The country is beautiful, and it has weather such as I have never seen. Greece is not geared to serve the foreigner: as a tourist he will be inconvenienced; as a man with a job to do, he will be exasperated, but he will come away with affection, even admiration for a people whose pride persists despite grinding poverty and centuries of recurrent occupations.
"We moved two days ago into a house by the sea, about six miles from Athens. The furnace is hopelessly inadequate for these chilly evenings, but the house is otherwise well furnished for a Greek house. It has an entrancing garden containing, inter alia, a dog, chickens, two pregnant goats, air raid shelter, olive, fig and palm trees, cactus plants, a well with an electric motor that fascinates my son, nut trees, pine trees, numerous flowers, including large beds of Easter lilies, vegetables, an orange tree, and a large grove of lemon trees in full bloom. The flowers, lemons and (fortunately) goats are tended by a couple named Prodromes and Joanna who came with the place and earn their living mainly by its produce.
"My children, having made the transition from French to English, now attend an Anglo-American school where they are rapidly being corrupted by the comic-book, bubble-gum element. No television here yet. They've picked up some Greek words, as have we, but it's a pretty tough language to wade into.
"We all miss America, or think we do, and hope to head back later this year. Unfortunately (and this breaks my heart) it won't be in time for reunion. I'd love an interlude at Hanover. Distribute my greetings, please. And tell any classmates who care to wander that we can offer cooling draughts of Samos wine and cooling dips in the fabled blue Aegean."
Secretary, 3909 North sth Street, Arlington, Va. Treasurer, 144 Brixton Rd., Garden City, N. Y. Class Agent, 40 Meritoria Dr., East Williston, L. I., N. Y.
