Gentlemen Abroad

As a wartime fleet commander, Admiral Raymond A. Spruance crossed the Pacific, from Midway to Saipan to Okinawa, the hard way. In 1952 he crossed it with ease to become U.S. Ambassador at Manila, but he soon found that his political duties were almost as exacting as running a fleet. After three highly successful years of extending his country's benevolent paternalism to the Philippines, while deftly avoiding any appearance of internal meddling, Ambassador Spruance, 68, was ready to retire. Last week, the White House announced his successor: Michigan's ex-Senator Homer Ferguson.

In 1952 Ferguson was a Taftman at Chicago, but later, as Republican Policy Committee chairman, he became a loyal Eisenhower Administration man in the Senate, leading the fight for Ike's military budget. White-thatched Homer Ferguson, 66, is noted for gentle friendliness, dogged fact-searching (during the Pearl Harbor probe, he grilled General Marshall for a week running) and as a worrier, particularly about things that offend his sense of rectitude, e.g., the congressional pork barrel. Twelve years a Senator, he was defeated last fall by Democrat Patrick McNamara. His legislative experience should stand Ambassador designate Ferguson in good stead for working out pending trade and defense agreements with the Philippines and for continuing the spirit of cordiality which Raymond Spruance developed with Philippine President Ramon Magsaysay.

Last week brought news of other diplomatic appointments:

P: Admiral Spruance's right-hand man, Manila Embassy Counselor William S. B. Lacy, will become U.S. Ambassador to Korea, replacing Ellis O. Briggs, who will go to Peru. Coloradan Lacy, 45, worked his way up in Washington's wartime bureaucracy before joining the Foreign Service, wears a Homburg and a natty mustache, is regarded as a diplomatic comer.

P: Ambassador to Thailand John Peurifoy, a career man who has ironed out messy situations in Greece and Guatemala, will take on, as an additional task, that of U.S. representative on the SEATO defense council at Bangkok. The job, equivalent to the NATO post to which ex-Assistant Secretary of State George Perkins was recently appointed, may become even more important, since the SEATO area, more than Europe, depends on the U.S. for its defense.

The week's shifts bring to 14 the number of ambassadorial assignments this year. The others: two of Ferguson's ex-colleagues in the Senate, Kentucky's John Sherman Cooper (to India) and New Jersey's Robert Hendrickson (to New Zealand); an ex-governor, Connecticut's John Davis Lodge (to Spain); and six well seasoned career men, including James Dunn, a veteran of the Rome, Paris and Madrid embassies (to Brazil), James Bonbright, a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State (to Portugal), and Henry Byroade, razor-sharp former Assistant Secretary of State and Army brigadier general (to Egypt). By and large, these appointments signal a healthy upgrading of the nation's foreign representation.

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