FOREIGN N EWS,INTERNATIONAL: Man of Good Will

INTERNATIONAL

Under Secretary of State Edward R. Stettinius Jr. was seeing everybody. To Prime Minister Winston Churchill he took a fine acorn-fed Virginia ham with the fat all on it, sat and talked late in the P.M.’s bedroom. Next day he settled to long, earnest talks with Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden. He lunched with the Bank of England’s new Governor, Lord Catto (TIME, April 17), Chancellor of the Exchequer Sir John Anderson, saw Imperial Chemical’s Lord McGowan, Production Minister Oliver Lyttelton. He also had an audience with King George VI.

Big Ed, on his first big-time diplomatic mission, felt that he was getting somewhere. So did correspondents who watched him in action. Cabled TIME Correspondent Charles Wertenbaker, examining the background of Stettinius’ mission to London:

“Stung by public criticism at the time of Welles’s resignation, Hull decided that the U.S. must have an independent foreign policy directed by the State Department and not simply drift along on decisions made at personal meetings of Franklin and Winston. Through the winter this pursuit of an independent policy has resulted in some strain between the U.S. and Britain, much fear that economic and political rivalry would set them against each other when war ends. By the time of Stettinius’ trip, strains had already become apparent over Arabian oil, recognition of De Gaulle, Italian policy, attitude toward the Polish-Russian dispute, Argentine sanctions and the treatment of other neutrals. Stettinius’ trip was made primarily to iron out as many as possible of these differences and to re-establish warm relations, this time between the State Department and Foreign Office rather than just between Churchill and Roosevelt.”