Gauss Recalled

For 37 of his 56 years, quiet, sharp-faced Clarence Edward Gauss (rhymes with boss) has been in the U.S. foreign service (he began as a $900-a-year State Department clerk). For 28 years he has represented the U.S. in China.

He started as deputy consul in Shanghai, moved around among the consulates in Tientsin, Amoy, Tsinan and Peiping. Back as Consul General in Shanghai in the ticklish years preceding the Sino-Japanese war, he made a quiet reputation for himself by getting small things done unobtrusively and well. As a longtime resident of China, he became virtually the head of Shanghai's International Settlement.

Finally he graduated to plug-hat rank, spent a year as Minister to Australia, returned to China as Ambassador in February 1941, to be entrusted with the grave, back-breaking job of helping to put off Jap aggression. Soon, as Ambassador, he was superseded in influence by U.S. military missions in China.

In all his years in the Orient, Clarence Gauss never bothered to learn Chinese (at longest a four-year stint).

Last week Clarence Gauss, called home by the State Department, returned to Washington, conferred briefly with the President, was mum to reporters. Then he left for a vacation in California. Even Mr. Gauss would be surprised if he went to Chungking as Ambassador again.

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