Dressing Up

In his first three weeks as Secretary of State, General George Marshall had worked like a top kick, sprucing up his new outfit. By last week he had some results to announce.

Some time next month most of State's personnel will move out of its present fusty Victorian monstrosity on Pennsylvania Avenue to the gleaming new War Department Building, which is as elegantly modern as a Radio City men's room. The Army personnel now there would be absorbed into the fastnesses of the Pentagon.* This week a new administrative secretariat will go into action, to streamline departmental business and keep the Secretary up to the minute on the plans and actions of his underlings.

Announcing the new setup at his first press conference, Secretary Marshall also reported the overheard complaint of one of his assistants. He quoted Under Secretary of State Dean Acheson: "I understand already why most of Marshall's former associates have stomach ulcers."

* Since its completion in 1942, the real hub of Army activity. Principal occupants to be moved from the new War Department Building: the Army's Engineers, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Combined Chiefs of Staff, the Atomic Energy Commission.

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