Foreign Relations: New Man for Formosa

Ever since U.S. Ambassador to Formosa Everett F. Drumright resigned two months ago, the Administration has scouted for a successor. Finally, last weekend, it picked a man who appeared to have the right qualifications: former (1949-52) Ambassador to Moscow Alan G. Kirk, 73.

Philadelphian Kirk is a late but capable comer to the diplomatic service. Lured to the sea by boyhood canoeing on the Delaware River, he graduated from Annapolis in 1909, became a gunnery expert. By World War II, he had his rear admiral’s flag, led invasion task forces at Sicily and Normandy, instituted the custom of broadcasting battle action to seamen below decks. His last professional contact with China was in 1911-14 as a gunboat ensign on the Asiatic Station during the Sun Yat-sen revolution. His last prolonged contact with the Kennedys was in 1939-1940, when Joseph Kennedy was Ambassador to the Court of St. James’s and Kirk was his naval attache.

Retiring from the Navy in 1946, Kirk was invited into the diplomatic service. He served first as concurrent Ambassador to Belgium and Minister to Luxembourg, then went to the Soviet Union. Early this year, on the strength of his Belgian contacts, Kirk was pressed into special service. He flew to Brussels to persuade officials of the Belgian combine controlling the Congo’s giant mining enterprises to accept the proposal for a strong central government in the Congo rather than a powerful Katanga under Moise Tshombe. Recalling that service, the Administration asked aging Alan Kirk to return to Government work. Cheerfully he agreed.