DIPLOMACY AND WEALTH.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 232, 24 June 1908, Page 7

DIPLOMACY AND WEALTH.

A "CLEAN SWEEP." ' BT TELEGRAPH PREBS ASSOCIATION-^-COPTRIQHJ London, June 22. The "Daily Mail" says that President Roosevelt and the State Department liavo decidcd on a clean sweep ~.of the United States Embassy at Berlin, on the departure of the retiring Ambassador, Mr. Charlemagne Tower. ./ t\

Members'of the secretarial staff are very wealthy, and it is supposed the President desires to get rid of millionaire diplomatists.

NOT MILLIONAIRE.MONOPOLIES., It has been freely stated,. and generally admitted, that tho Kaiser's objection to Dr David Jane ffill (now United States Minister at The Hague) being tho successor in tho Berlin Embassy of Mr. Charlemagne Tower was based on Dr. Hills financial means. Tho Kaiser's objection was not pressed; but the affair created an unpleasant impression in' Washington. Writes ' The Times ":-r" It is stated that tho purposo of-tho (United States) Administration has been made to mako it evidont that great diplomatic positions are . not to b'e as positions which can be, held'only by millionaires, but, so far as is possible,!as rewards for faithful service to tho public in ..other positions. Thus the last tour Ambassadors appointed, Mr. Riddle to Russia, Mr. Dudley to Brazil, Mr. O'Brien to Japan, and Dr. Hill to Germany, have all 'been men .'of' moderate means, who in previous positions of lesser rank had shown especial fitness for duties in higher posts. The Administration has been particularly anxious to have it made evident in tho case of Dr. Hill that the possession of merely moderate means is 110 bar to preferment to the highest position, and it is because of this feeling that it so deeply fegrcts tho failure of Congress to provide proper official residences for United States Ambassadors It is stated that this failure militates directly in favour of men of wealth, and both permits and causes such violent contrasts in the scale of expenditures of successive" incumbents of. the samo office and fosters just such gossip and trouble as have occurred in tho present instance." A Bill has since been introduced into' Congress to provide money to purohaso suitable residences for American Ambassadors abroad.