Reverse English

One of the most prized fixtures in many a U.S. executive suite is a British secretary. In Manhattan, her impeccable manners, cool good looks, clipped telephone accent and considerable secretarial skills are greeted with more than ordinary hands-across-the-sea enthusiasm. Through friends or enterprising employment agencies, some 700 young English girls enter the U.S. each year to work for a while as secretaries.

New York used to get most of them --but not any longer, by Gregg. The U.S.

Labor Department, looking out for American girls who might be deprived of jobs, has specifically barred the entry of any more foreign secretaries to New York City.

U.S. "LEPER LAW" BANS OUR GIRLS, headlined London's Daily Mirror, in wry reference to the fact that the restriction on visas was ordered under a section of the U.S. immigration law that prohibits entry of aliens who are "afflicted with leprosy, who advocate polygamy, and whose employment will adversely affect wages and working conditions" of Americans. Despite the presence of an estimated 3,500 English secretaries in New York, the city actually has a shortage of typists and stenographers. But the U.S. Government, suspecting sharp practices by some employment agencies, grew worried as visa applications began piling up at the London embassy.

Nonetheless, there'll always be an English secretary. In London and New York, employment agencies are still processing the eager young things by the score, placing them at typewriters in Boston-Chicago and San Francisco--from where they may eventually move to New York if they wish. They do not work for coolie wages either; they may start for less than Americans when they are new to the country, but soon make $80 to $110 a week. Last week the government heard pleas to reconsider its New York ban, conceded that there may have been a misunderstanding, and promised to restudy the matter within two weeks. Meanwhile, by some reverse English, a number of American girls are getting a fine welcome in London executive suites. British bosses think they make jolly good secretaries --breezy, informal and that sort of thing.

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