Castle for Cotton

When William Richards Castle Jr. left Washington to visit his sister in San Francisco, he was merely an Assistant Secretary of State.* Last week when he detrained at his destination he found himself THE Undersecretary of State. While he was speeding across the prairie in a Pullman, his good friend President Hoover had promoted him to the No. 1 sub-Cabinet post, vacant since the death of Joseph Potter Cotton (TIME, March 23). Never before had a career diplomat climbed within one rung of the top of his professional ladder.

The late "Joe" Cotton was noted for his easy informality. Once while he was Acting Secretary a U. S. Ambassador, fretted by a triviality, cabled the Department for instructions. Cotton wrote a message to him: "Laugh it off." When clerks explained that the Department had no code word for ''laugh," Cotton had the message sent anyway in uncoded nakedness.

Undersecretary Castle is not like that. Twelve years in the State Department have bred into this slender, grey-haired. grey-eyed man a profound regard for the formal usages of his profession. He would no more give an ambassador such stark instructions than he would dine at the French Embassy in overalls. Yet behind his correct exterior the new Undersecretary is a man of real ability.

"Bill" Castle was born in Hawaii in 1878 as a loyal subject of King Kalakaua. His grandfather had come to the Islands from New England with the first mission aries. His father had served the King as Attorney General, later as Hawaiian Minister to the U. S. Young Castle went to Harvard, was graduated in 1900, lingered on at college as an English instructor, as assistant dean in charge of freshmen, as editor of the Graduates' Magazine. When the War came, he went to Washington, opened a Red Cross bureau to relieve prisoners, to find missing men overseas. As Director of Communications, he and his assistants ultimately handled 10,000 letters per day.

In 1919 he was literally invited into the State Department by Undersecretary Frank Polk as a "drafting officer."* He served as assistant chief of the division of Western European affairs, later as its chief. In 1927, his capacity demonstrated, he was made an Assistant Secretary. In 1929 President Hoover needed an Ambassador in Japan to carry on negotiations incident to the London Naval Conference. Always a good pinchhitter, Mr. Castle went to Tokyo for six months, returned to his semi-portfolio when his job was done.

No bore can wear out the Castle patience. His social circuit about Washington is wide and continuous. At his S Street house near the Woodrow Wilson residence he provides frequent and elaborate hospitality. (The Castle family, with its Hawaiian holdings in banks and public utilities, is wealthy.) Late in the afternoon he can generally be found swimming in the Racquet Club pool.

Shortly after a burglar had broken into "Woodley," the home of Secretary of State Stimson (TIME, Oct. 27), Mr. Castle was awakened at 3 a. m. by the same sort of intruder in his own home. The man was drunk, said he was looking for "someone." Diplomat Castle, unarmed, used soft words on him, lured him downstairs in his search for "someone," planned to lock him in a hall closet. The burglar entered the closet. Mr. Castle slammed the door--only to discover no key in the lock. The burglar broke and ran.

*There are four.

*A diplomatic employe above the clerks, below the officials, yet not a member of the Foreign Service.

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