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jul 16, 1951 - "RHODES IDEALS SLANT STATE DEPT. POLICIES Key Posts Held by Oxford Scholars" Chicago Tribune 1951, Jul 16

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RHODES IDEALS SLANT STATE DEPT. POLICIES
Key Posts Held by Oxford Scholars
BY WILLIAM FULTON
[Chicago Tribune Press Service]

New York, July 15 - Key positions in the United States Department of State are held by a network of American Rhodes Scholars. Rhodes scholars are men who obtained supplemental education and indoctrination at Oxford University in England with the bills paid by the estate of Cecil John Rhodes, British empire builder.

Rhodes wrote about his ambition to cause "the ultimate recovery of the United States of America as an integral part of the British empire." The late diamond and gold mining tycoon aimed at a world federation dominated by Anglo-Saxons. His intimates have admitted the scholarships were established for the primary purpose of instilling "political bias," rather than providing education.

32 Scholarships a Year
Thirty-two scholarships have been awarded in this country every year, except in war time, since 1904. The State Department and its foreign service rolls are studded with a total of 34 Rhodes scholars, or two more than the annual production.

Rhodes' protégés have exercised considerable influence in the foreign policies of this country within the last few years, particularly in the Far East where diplomatic blunders led to the Korean debacle with its 78,000 American casualties—to date.

On the top echelon of the State Department sit two savants who soaked up the British way of looking at the world at the foot of the Oxford dons. They are Assistant State Secretary Dean Rusk, in charge of Far Eastern affairs, and Assistant State Secretary George C. McGhee, in charge of Near Eastern, South Asian, and African affairs.

Gets Too Hot
Rhodes scholars have had a throttlehold on the country's policies toward the Far East for two decades. Appointed in March of 1950, Rusk took the place of another Rhodes scholar, W. Walton Butterworth. Butterworth was an assistant state secretary until criticism got too hot and he was kicked upstairs to become ambassador to Sweden.

It will be recalled the Senate originally confirmed Butterworth's appointment as assistant secretary for Far Eastern affairs only after four months of debate early in 1949. Senator Styles Bridges [R., N.H.] told the Senate approval of Butterworth would amount to an endorsement of "the complete failure of American diplomacy in China."

Adviser to Marshall
Butterworth had been a principal assistant and adviser to Gen. George C. Marshall during his disastrous post-war mission to China which culminated in suggestions for including Communists in the national cabinet, and paved the way to complete Red conquest of the Chinese mainland. Before the war and during the...

RHODES IDEALS HELP SHAPE U.S. FOREIGN POLICY
Pro-British Scholars in Important Jobs
[Continued from first page]

During the entire period of strained relations between Japan and the United States another Rhodes scholar had charted the State Department's meandering course in the Far East. He was Stanley K. Hornbeck. Hornbeck was chief of the Division of Far Eastern Affairs during the thirties and then became political adviser on the Far East. He retired in 1945 after a brief fling at the post of ambassador to the Netherlands.

Hornbeck arrogated to himself wide powers while at the State Department. This was revealed in the testimony of Adm. J.C. Richardson, who commanded the fleet in the Pacific for 13 months prior to February of 1941, before the congressional committee investigating the Pearl Harbor attack.

Admiral Meets Snub
Richardson told the committee during a hearing in 1945 that he found Hornbeck had more to say about the fleet than he did. The admiral had suggested the war vessels be returned from Hawaii to the West Coast. President Roosevelt refused to follow this suggestion because he claimed their stay in Hawaii represented a "restraining influence" on Japanese aggression.

Alger Hiss, Roosevelt's Yalta adviser who is now in federal prison serving out a sentence for perjury which involved his espionage activities, was assistant to Hornbeck from 1939 to 1944. Hornbeck testified as a character witness for Hiss during his trials. He admitted he heard Hiss described as a "fellow traveler" by William C. Bullitt, former ambassador to France, but upheld his integrity on the witness stand.

Assistant State Secretary McGhee is a sample of how chummy you can get in the rarified atmosphere of Oxford and top-shelf diplomacy. His dean and tutor at Oxford from 1934 on for three years was Sir Oliver Franks, now representing his Britannic majesty's labor government as ambassador to the United States.

Appointed In 1949
McGhee was appointed to his post in the summer of 1949 after having served the State Department as special representative to the Near East on the Palestine refugee problem and as coordinator for the $400 million aid to Greece and Turkey.

With the Near East, South Asia, and Africa falling within his sphere, McGhee has answerable to him 53 foreign service stations, of which 14 are embassies, and a vast territory embracing 700 million people. Britain has vital interests in the area.

McGhee, a millionaire oilman from Texas, recently journeyed to Iran to confer on the proposed nationalization of the Anglo-Iranian oil company.

List Other Rhodes Thinkers
Other important positions held by Rhodes scholars in the State Department are as follows:

Robert W. Barnett, officer in charge, economic affairs, bureau of far eastern affairs.
Bryton Barron, assistant for treaty affairs, office of legal adviser.
Louis E. Frechtling, acting chief, division of research for near east and Africa.
B.N. Hulley, officer in charge of northern European affairs.
S. Shepard Jones, officer in charge of public affairs, bureau of near east, south Asia, and African affairs.
G.B. Noble, chief, division of historical policy research.
Archibald B. Roosevelt Jr., chief, near east section, Voice of America.
R.H. Sargeant, deputy assistant secretary of state for public affairs.
Schmitt in Research

Bernadotte E. Schmitt, chief, German war documents project, division of historical policy research.
Conrad E. Snow, assistant legal adviser.
Five other Rhodes scholars hold down jobs in the State Department in Washington and 16 are scattered around the globe in American embassies and consulates.

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jul 16, 1951
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~ 73 years ago

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