Foreign Service Not A Life Of Parties, 007s

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30633, 26 December 1964, Page 2

Foreign Service Not A Life Of Parties, 007s

Cf-XF-A.-Reuter; OTTAWA. The woman secretary who is looking for glamour or just getting away from mother and boy friend —should not turn to foreign service, according to Miss Pat Southgate, a 31-year-old vivacious blonde, who for the last seven years has been a stenographer for Canadian embassies in various parts of the world.

She says that it has not been a life of exciting cocktail parties and meetings with 007-type characters out of an lan Fleming novel. “It’s hard work and you have to be able to turn your hand to almost anything, especially in a small post,” said Miss Southgate, a Londonborn girl now living in Ottawa. She has worked in Tokyo and Djakarta and has travelled through the Far East and Europe between postings. Now she has a new assignment in the Dominican Republic. “So many girls who apply for jobs like mine have misconceptions about what the

life is like," she says. “You shouldn’t apply because you want to get away from a boy friend or your mother or something like that. You have to be genuinely interested in travelling—anywhere” Stenographers may be sent to any country where Canada has an embassy, and the move may come at any time in their career. “That's the thrill of the job—knowing you can be sent to Turkey or Lebanon or Russia at short notice.” Miss Southgate says that many girls interested in this sort of a job would be happy to go to Europe but “shrink at the thought of going to certain other areas.” Although there is a constant flow of applications from young women hoping to become foreign service secretaries, the Civil Service Commission has difficulty filling all its openings. Not everyone ■who applies has the special requirements needed. Skill in shorthand and typing is important, but by far the best quality is adaptibility. “You have to be ready to accept unusual living condii tions, the sound of an unfamiliar language all around you, perhaps a climate differi ent from the one you’ve been [brought up in, or, in some ■ countries, an unsettled political situation.” | Aside from these realities, however, there are glamorous [moments in Miss Southgate’s life.

“There is the opportunity to meet people working with the diplomatic corps of many countries, and also the opportunity to meet the natives of the country you are posted to, and learn their unique customs.”