Nov. 10th
Still no action – Morale very low –
Worse than the shortage of food is the shortage of tobacco – Tobacco stills hunger pains – the Japs say there is none, but they brought in 600 pkgs of 250 grams each the other day – this native tobacco is very strong – I’ll bring you some – we are smoking it mixed with dried papaya leaves, dried hibiscus leaves, dried tea leaves – I am not very adept at rolling cigarettes and admire those who seem to do it proficiently –
I just finished Harold Nicholson’s trilogy “Portrait of a Diplomatist”, “Peacemaking”, and “Lord Curzon” The trilogy covers the years from about 1890 to 1924 – A masterly piece of work – Let us hope that Roosevelt does not go to a second Paris and that we do not have another Versailles Treaty – I agree with Nicholson that we should have a trained diplomatic corps, technicians just as lawyers and doctors are technicians – And we should look to them for technical advice but not
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for policy making –
I have been in favor of a national university – for the training of young men for administrative positions in the government, the states, and the diplomatic service – we must come to the European system of government administration as a career – Here too the men are technicians.
I would like to see after this war exchange scholarships on a vast scale – Let our young men go to Europe, South America, the Far East & let their young men come to the United States – if we had 50,000 a year, it would only cost $100,000,000, the cost of one day’s war.