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Show PAT HURLEY ALWAYS A STORMY PETREL WASHINGTON. This town, dead ly afraid cf peacetime boredom pricked up its ears and licked it. chops when Pat Hurley issued hi; stentorian resignation as ambassa dor to China. It then settled dowr to enjoy a good. show. Washington has known Pat evei since 1912 when as a dashing younj attorney from Oklahoma he usee to appear before congressional com mittees for the Choctaw nation and they know he always puts oi a good show. Once in testifying be fore the senate insular affairs com mittee as secretary of war. Pa shouted: "You cannot call me t liar. You can run your star-cham bcr sessions without me. I hav taken all I can stand." Whereupoi he flounced out of the room. Some years earlier, Pat ap peared before the house Indian of fairs committee to oppose openinj the tribal rolls of the Choctaw na tion to certain Indians who clalmc they were euchercd out of theii tribal lands. And he was severelj criticized by Webster Ballinger, whf pointed out that just two years be fore. Hurley had represented th Wards, an Indian family -whicl sought to have the Choctaw triba rolls opened. Thus Hurley was ir the position of arguing on both sidef of jthe same question in the brie) period of two years. Pat was not quite as ferocious ir those days, however, and for som unexplained reason did not threater to kick Ballinger out of the com mittee room. PATRICK J. O'HURLEY Pat Hurley has come a long waj from those days when Oklahoma was an Indian territory. Borr O'Hurley, he dropped the "O" ano the Catholic religion of his fathei to become a Baptist, and aftei working his way through an Indiar college, he had the courage tc come to Washington, take a law de gree at George Washington, and marry the daughter of Adm. Henry B. Wilson, then and now one of the most beautiful ladies in the capital. It is a long way from such lowlv beginnings to his more recent interviews inter-views with Joe Stalin, his airplane flights through the Near East, and his powerful position as the righl bower of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek. Kai-shek. But Pat has staged a colorful personal row at almost every mile stone along the way. In Chungking, he first rowed with Gen. Al Wedemeyer over the question ques-tion of sending a mission to the so-called so-called Communist section of China to evaluate the importance of its military strength. For a while he and Wedemeyer weren't speaking tc each other though they occupied adjoining ad-joining bedrooms in the same house. Later at a Chungking cocktail party, Wedemeyer's chief of staff. Maj. Gen. Robert B. McClure chided Hurley for sending Genera' Marshall a telegram of protest against Wedemeyer. "You pup," boiled the ex-cow puncher from Oklahoma, "I've shol men for less than that." Guests had to separate the two men. The Chinese looked on amused but not impressed. Ir China it brings severe loss of face to fight in public. "Pat is Pat." mused FDR when informed of the fuss, "and there's nothing you can do about him." CHRISTMAS CAROLS If you happen near the secondary office of Rep. Leslie Arends of Illinois, Illi-nois, house Republican whip, deep hi the sub-basement of the capitol, you can hear strange sounds echoing echo-ing through the catacomb-like corridors. cor-ridors. Arends and his five colleagues are getting their voices in trim for a special trans-Atlantic broadcast oJ Christmas carols in which sia members of the British parliament also will join to be aired by the Mutual network on December 20. Familiar carols, such as "Oh, Lit tie Town of Bethlehem" anc "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" will be rendered by the legislators. The Americans and Britons will dc a joint rendition of "Silent Night. ' The other members of the Arends sextet are GOP Representatives Harve Tibott of Pennsylvania. Paul Shafer of Michigan, Harry Towe ol New Jersey, Frank Fellows, ol Maine and William Hill of Colorado The singing congressmen occa sionally vary their practice session with "Sweet Adeline." according if; Macon Heed. Mutual news reporter, report-er, a former army corporal who ti helping to arrange the Christmas broadcast. However. Reed insists there is no "liquid encouragement" at such times CAPITAL CI! A IF California's new young Republican Sen. William F. Knowland was th i only member of the senate to chal lenge Sen. Jim Eastland of Mississippi Missis-sippi recently when Eastland made a lengthy speech attacking U. S. poli cy in Germany as too severe. . . General Marshall was slated to become be-come a director of the American Red Cross before Truman decided , to send him to China, . . . Former GOP Congressman Mel Maas ot Minnesota, a colonel in the murine aviation reserve. Is back in Washington. |
