Portfolios Full

Back on his White House job President Roosevelt last week filled his fifteenth and last ambassadorship when he appointed Henry Hulme ("Hal") Sevier of Corpus Christi, Tex., to represent him in Chile* Born 55 years ago in Tennessee. Ambassador Sevier was transplanted to Texas in early youth, worked as a cowboy, sat in the State Legislature at 21, published a newspaper at Austin. Today "Hal" Sevier is tall, greying, courtly.

Only two U. S. Ambassadors still hold over from the Hoover Administration. They are Joseph Clark Grew in Japan. Fred Morris Dearing in Peru. Both are able career diplomats who presumably will be continued at their present posts. Also last week President Roosevelt appointed the following U. S. Ministers: Bert Fish of Florida to Egypt. Lawyer, judge, spry campaign cash collector, Minister Fish owns large citrus groves around De Land. James Marion Baker of South Carolina to Siam. Frederick Augustine Sterling of Texas to Bulgaria. Career Diplomat Sterling has served as Minister to the Irish Free State since 1927. At Dublin he is expected to be succeeded by William Walter McDowell, chairman of the Montana Democratic State Committee. Post Wheeler of Washington to Albania. A career diplomat, Mr. Wheeler's last post was in Paraguay. Fay des Portes of South Carolina to Bolivia. John Van Antwerp MacMurray of Maryland to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.** Minister MacMurray's appointment was of major significance as it foreshadowed his selection as first U. S. Ambassador to Soviet Russia when diplomatic relations are resumed. As a young careerist he served three years (1908-11) in the U. S. embassy at St. Petersburg. In 1925 President Coolidge sent him to China as Minister. In 1930 he resigned from the foreign service to head the Walter Hines Page School of International Relations at Johns Hopkins University, whose onetime president, Dr. Frank Johnson Goodnow, is his father-in-law. Last year he visited the U. S. S. R., prepared an extensive report on Russian debts to the U. S. as they figure in the recognition issue. Alert, aggressive, sharp-nosed Minister MacMurray, say his friends, could never have been induced by the President to take the obscure and unimportant post at Riga except as a stepping stone to Moscow 530 mi. eastward.

From Manhattan last week sailed Edward Albright of Gallatin, Tenn. to become Minister to Finland. It was the first trip abroad for this small, grey-haired publisher and editor of the Sumner County (Tenn.) weekly News. This appointment was the only one asked of the President by his good friend and fellow Tennesseean, Secretary of State Hull. Declared Minister Albright: "I'll perhaps do a bit of writing for the paper as the folks in Gallatin and all the countryside sort of know me and would like to know what it seems like abroad."

Last week President Roosevelt's score on diplomatic appointments stood: careerists, 14; politicians, 25.

*The other U. S. Ambassadors: Argentina--Alexander Wilbourne Weddell Belgium--Dave Hennen Morris Brazil--Hugh Simons Gibson Cuba--Sumner Welles France--Jesse Isidor Straus Germany--William Edward Dodd Great Britain--Robert Worth Bingham Italy--Breckinridge Long Japan--Joseph Clark Grew Mexico--Josephus Daniels Peru--Fred Morris Dearing Poland--John Clarence Cudahy Spain--Claude Gernade Bowers Turkey--Robert Peet Skinner

**These three small Baltic powers constitute one U. S. diplomatic mission, with headquarters at Riga

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