GENERAL MARSHALL RESIGNS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 69, Issue 75, 8 January 1949, Page 5

GENERAL MARSHALL RESIGNS

HEALTH REASONS GIVEN (Rec. 9.10) WASHINGTON, Jan, 7. The United States Secretary of State (General Mashall) lias resigned and President Truman had appointed the' former Under-secretary of State (Mr Dean Acheson) to succeed him. The Under-secretary of State (Mr Lovett) has resigned and Mr James E. Webb (director of the Budget. Bureau*) has been appointed to replace him. General Marshall, who' is convalescing from a kidney operation, resigned for health reasons.

MV Truman in announcing his acceptance of General Marshall’s resignation said that he was “the outstanding man of the war period.” He denied that there had been any differences regarding foreign policy. Mr Truman said that the appointment of MCr Acheson did not mean any change in United States’ foreign relations.

The resignations are effective on January 20.

Mr Lovett resigned for personal reasons, which are understood to be his desire 1o return to private business. He is a close friend of General Marshall.

In his letter of resignation to President Truman last month General Marshall said he regretted it was necessary to submit his resignation and thanked the President for “the extraordinary consideration and Complete support you have given me these past three years.”

President Truman, in accepting the resignation sent a letter to General Marshall saying he. had hoped lie would have been able to resume his duties but said, “1 am, however, unwilling to assume the responsibility of further jeopardising your health.” Mr Acheson is a man who is often credited as much as General Marshall himself with inspiring the European Recovery Programme. It was lie who, even before General Marshall’s famous speech at Harvard, first gave public voice to the need of the United States extending aid to Europe on a planned, co-ordinated basis. Mr Acheson was then Under-secretary of State, but resigned in July, 1947, because the previous two years in which be had served the Government, had sever elv drained his private fortune. He needed to return to his private lawpractice to recoup losses the small Government salary he had been receiving had caused. Mr Acehson who is aged 55 is tall and handsome with almost an English taste in clothes. ’the appointment of Mr James Edwin Webb as Undersecretary of State was a big surprise to diplomatic circles. He is aged 42.