THE ADMINISTRATION: New Faces Abroad

Washington speculation about who might succeed convalescing John Foster Dulles as Secretary of State seemed to have a firm answer this week. The answer: John Foster Dulles, who left Walter Reed Hospital, announced before departing for a Key West, Fla. vacation that he would return to his desk Dec. 3. But elsewhere in U.S. diplomacy, talk of major ambassadorial changes were in the wind. Items:

London: Aging Sportsman and Financier (Chase Manhattan Bank) Winthrop Aldrich, 71, will retire, probably to be replaced by a younger sportsman and financier (and Eisenhower bridge partner), John Hay (“Jock”) Whitney, 52.

Paris: Investment Banker C. (for Clarence) Douglas Dillon, whose 1953 reward for early Eisenhower-for-President service was one of the most sensitive posts in the foreign service, will probably come home at year’s end. Successor unknown.

Rome: Clare Boothe Luce will retire by Jan. 1, be succeeded by San Francisco Industrialist (Crown Zellerbach Corp.) James D. Zellerbach, who has done Government duty in the United Nations, the International Labor Organization and as head (1948-50) of an EGA mission to Italy.

Bonn: Scholarly, ex-Harvard President James B. Conant may be followed by the State Department’s skilled careerist and longtime Ike friend. Deputy Under Secretary Robert Murphy.

New Delhi: John Sherman Cooper’s post, vacant since Cooper resigned to run for the Senate, will be taken by Ellsworth Bunker, retiring American National Red Cross president* and a topnotch ambassador to Italy and Argentina under Harry Truman.

* His sucessor as Red Cross president NATO’S retiring Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, General Alfred M. Gruenther.