--- description: Missouri's earnest, plodding Forrest C. Donnell is one U.S. Senator who has never sampled the hospitality of Washington's No. 1 hostess, Perle Mesta. Last week, when her appointment as... title: FOREIGN RELATIONS: Gem of an Appointment image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [U.S.](/section/us/) # FOREIGN RELATIONS: Gem of an Appointment by [TIME](/author/time/) Jul 18, 1949 4:00 AM CUT by [TIME](/author/time/) Jul 18, 1949 4:00 AM CUT Missouri’s earnest, plodding Forrest C. Donnell is one U.S. Senator who has never sampled the hospitality of Washington’s No. 1 hostess, Perle Mesta. Last week, when her appointment as U.S. minister to Luxembourg reached the Senate floor, Republican Donnell was ready & waiting with a hungry look in his eye. First he demanded to know whether the Senate Foreign Relations Committee had ever discussed Perle’s qualifications (it had not); then he read extensively from J. Rives Childs’s American Foreign Service, to prove she had none. New Hampshire’s Republican Charles Tobey rose to interrupt: “I look upon this as a gem of an appointment, for is not the lady a ‘Perle’ in reality?” Tobey freely admitted that Perle had never appeared before the Foreign Relations Committee, “but,” said he, “the Senators have come before Perle Mesta, many & many a time, in … great feasts of the intellect and palate . . .” Texas’ bellowing Tom Connally got in some licks too. “The Senator from Missouri wants a man with striped britches and a silk hat, perhaps,” shouted Connally. “Career men are all right in their places, but . . . they get into ruts . . . The career man says, ‘I have to go. We have tea at 4 o’clock. I am sorry, but I must goto tea.’ They nearly all wear the same kind of clothes . . . Their minds have little grooves in them . . .” Donnell doggedly held out, finally registered the one negative vote when the nomination was confirmed. Later in the week, Perle Mesta, wearing a white shantung Hattie Carnegie suit and a purple orchid (from Mrs. Woodrow Wilson), stood proudly beside Vice President Barkley and her new boss, Secretary of State Acheson, for the swearing in. The minister to Luxembourg’s oath-taking was far more star-studded than Acheson’s had been. Five Cabinet members, half a dozen ambassadors and squads of faithful Mesta partygoers showed up. “It’s just like one of Perle’s parties,” said one guest. After the ceremony, the Democratic Party’s fund-raising hostess made a happy little speech. Said she: “I expect to take my job very seriously . . .” FOREIGN RELATIONS: Gem of an Appointment ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6785714/foreign-relations-gem-of-an-appointment/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6785714/foreign-relations-gem-of-an-appointment/"},"headline":"FOREIGN RELATIONS: Gem of an Appointment","datePublished":"1949-07-18T04:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-03T17:11:29.544Z","description":"Missouri's earnest, plodding Forrest C. Donnell is one U.S. Senator who has never sampled the hospitality of Washington's No. 1 hostess, Perle Mesta. Last week, when her appointment as...","url":"https://time.com/archive/6785714/foreign-relations-gem-of-an-appointment/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME","url":"https://time.com/author/time/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/6785714/foreign-relations-gem-of-an-appointment/","name":"FOREIGN RELATIONS: Gem of an Appointment"}}]}] ```