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He was in Arizona in the spring of 1947, nursing a troublesome sinus on his 20,000-acre ranch near Sonoita, when the call came from George Marshall. Douglas' name had been proposed for the ambassadorship to Great Britain after the death of Ambassador-designate O. Max Gardner. But the Democratic hatchetmen were against him. Harry Truman told George Marshall that the political ramifications of his appointment would be serious. Replied George Marshall: "The political ramifications will be a lot more serious if this Administration appoints an inferior man as Ambassador to Britain at this time." Marshall won his point.
The Marshall-Douglas conversation was brief. "Douglas, I'm calling to ask you if you'll accept the ambassadorship to Britain." "You take my breath away. I'll have to think about it." "What is your immediate reaction, Douglas?" "My immediate response is favorable. I'd like four days to think about it." On the fourth day Lew accepted.
"Good Risk." Douglas quickly won the confidence of thousands of weary, sensitive British citizens with his pre-sailing judgment: "Britain is a good risk." He bolstered his popularity when he got to London and said: "Mrs. Douglas and I propose to live as simply as possible."
From the first, Lew Douglas got along with everyone, from Communist Arthur Horner to Imperialist Winston Churchill, from the King & Queen to a 66-year-old miner's wife, who bussed him after his visit to a Yorkshire coal mine. At parties and receptions at Prince's Gate, he had the happy faculty of greeting each guest as though the affair had been a complete flop until the latest arrival. British Laborites were frankly delighted to have a man who was in tune with Washington economic thinking and could speak with authority for the official U.S.
But he did more than just get along. He kept plugging for better management of the British mines. He helped revise the convertibility provisions of the British loan. He had already helped lay down the occupation policy for Germany as a special adviser to General Lucius Clay in 1945. As much as any man, he did the spadework for the new U.S. policy in Germany (by talking France into raising the level of industry; by recommending increased U.S. supervision in the Ruhr in return for more U.S. dollars).
He rode close herd on the Marshall Plan from the start. After the 16-nation conferees began their meetings in Paris last July, Lew Douglas was more often in France than in London, digging for facts, explaining Europe's needs to visiting Congressmen, always staying tactfully in the background at a time when the U.S. was officially not intervening. When the conferees had finished, he came back to the U.S. with Will Clayton to help screen Europe's requests and draft legislation for interim and long-range aid. He wrote some of the technical and financial clauses himself, flew to Washington again this month to help sell the final product to Congress.