General Pat

This week a tough-minded U.S. diplomat was hard at work in one of World War II's toughest diplomatic posts. Major General Patrick Jay Hurley, ramrod-backed and handsome at 61, had already been acting as U.S. Ambassador to China for four weeks. Now Franklin Roosevelt sent his appointment to the Senate.

General Pat landed in China last September to confer with Chiang Kai-shek at a tragically low point in China's fortunes. The Chungking Government, after seven years of war, was teetering on the brink of economic and military disaster. With the recall to Washington of General Joe Stilwell and Ambassador Clarence E. Gauss, Diplomat Hurley took over the thankless, monumental job of watching out for the best interests of both the U.S. and Ally China. It was not Pat's first hard chore.

Born in Indian Territory, Pat Hurley began work at eleven as mule boy in a coal mine. Oil and a dash of the law made him wealthy. After four years as Herbert Hoover's Secretary of War, he dabbled in Washington lobbying, became as outspoken an anti-New Dealer as any ex-officeholder. But Franklin Roosevelt tapped him early in World War II for a wide variety of ticklish diplomatic junkets. They have carried him at least three times across both the Atlantic and the Pacific, and into six continents--to Moscow, Canberra, Cairo, Kabul, Natal and points between and beyond. Franklin Roosevelt once confessed that only two men on earth understand how he and Pat manage to get along together: the other man is Pat himself.

The Chinese, who believe, with some reason, that onetime Oilman Hurley has a direct pipeline into the White House, generally approved of the choice. General Pat has been on warm personal terms with the Gissimo ever since his arrival. For Pat Hurley, there was added good news: even as Ambassador he could still wear the uniform he dearly loves.

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