THE CABINET: Johnson, Page, Phillips

To China. To read, write and speak Chinese is an asset invaluable to any U. S. diplomat in the Orient. Such a linguist is Assistant Secretary of State Nelson Trusler Johnson (salary: $9,000). Last week President Hoover sent his name to the Senate for confirmation as U. S. Minister to China (salary: $12,000) to succeed John Van Antwerp MacMurray, resigned. Than Minister Johnson no U. S. diplomat is more versed in the customs and curiosities, the politics and problems of China where, as student interpreter, he began his foreign service career 22 years ago.

To London. Up and down the worn State Department steps, back and forth through its high drafty corridors has of late been seen, in leisurely movement, a tall robust man with a British faultlessness of attire. With difficulty newsmen identified him as Arthur Wilson Page, son of the late great Walter Hines Page, U. S. Ambassador to the Court of St. James’s. Quickly they jumped to the conclusion— in print—that he was to be the new Assistant Secretary of State, vice Minister Johnson. Wrong though their conclusion was, it served to bring a White House statement: President Hoover had appointed Mr. Page to the U. S. advisory delegation attending the five-power naval parley in London in January. He would serve as personal aide to his great & good friend Statesman Henry Lewis Stimson. Born at Aberdeen, N. C., 46 years ago and brought up in the manner of a Southern gentleman, Advisor Page is, true to family tradition, a Democrat, though he voted for Herbert Hoover last year. A vice president of American Telephone & Telegraph Co. in charge of public relations, he plays a vigorous game of golf, sneaks off from his Long Island estate to New Hampshire or elsewhere to fish at the slightest provocation. For 13 years he was editor of his father’s World’s Work. From Canada. Regretfully last week President Hoover accepted the resignation of William Phillips, first U. S. Minister to Canada. Minister Phillips’ excuse was better than most: to bring up his children in the U. S. Twenty-six years in foreign service had made him one of the State Department’s most valued diplomats. He had served as Undersecretary of State under Charles Evans Hughes and was U. S. Ambassador to Belgium before stepping down to ministerial grade to accept the more important post at Ottawa. Deeply concerned was President Hoover at the way seasoned and experienced men are dropping out of the U. S. foreign service, apparently disappointed at their failure to make better progress to the top.