Rowley's Testament

On the second floor of the palatial U.S. Embassy in Rio de Janeiro last week, the spacious, air-conditioned ambassador's office was being readied for a new tenant. Earnest, dynamic William D. Pawley, who resigned as ambassador last month, had checked out--private airplane and all. To fill the $25,000-a-year job, President Truman had picked 53-year-old Career Diplomat Herschel Vespasian Johnson.

Johnson, a scholarly Southern bachelor, had plugged along through 27 years of foreign service in both Latin America and Europe, was U.S. Minister to neutral Sweden during World War II. In the past two years as deputy U.S. representative in the U.N. Security Council, Johnson has tangled time & again with the U.S.S.R.'s Andrei Gromyko.

While waiting for Johnson, Brazilians had time to appraise their two-year exposure to Bill Pawley. The millionaire go-getter, who often invited 750 guests for cocktails, had shown Brazil how a jet-propelled American does business. At work and at play he had talked fast--Brazilians sometimes thought too fast--to sell his ideas. He wanted to raise the level of life of 47,000,000 Brazilians which could easily be done from Brazil's own resources. He wanted to open Brazil's potential oilfields to U.S. capital. He wanted to see Brazil's rickety transportation network expanded and made efficient. With realistic vision, he advocated settling 700,000 D.P.s in Brazil's vast backlands. Often he lost patience because Brazilians did not buy his ideas as quickly as he would have liked. And often his rear was harassed by confusion (or worse) in the State Department.

When Bill Pawley resigned, he had little to show for his two years--except for his important spadework for the Rio and Bogota conferences. But his friends believed that he left behind him ideas which would live and grow. Already Brazil had shown itself more receptive to U.S. investment in oil development. Pawley had tried to interest U.S. iron and steel men in the possibilities of Itabira (TIME, April 5). Some day that work might bear fruit.

Two comments in Rio showed where Pawley had made his mark, and what kind of mark. Said a U.S. businessman: "He's the best we've ever had." Said a Rio professor: "Your ambassador doesn't know a single man of letters, only businessmen."

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