Man About the World

To succeed canny Career Diplomat Loy Henderson, now Deputy Under Secretary of State, as Ambassador to Iran, President Eisenhower last week picked canny Career Diplomat Julius Cecil Holmes, onetime insurance salesman, Army general and airline president.

Mustached Julius Holmes, 55, has had a career as varied as the intricate pattern of a Persian rug. A Kansan* who entered the Foreign Service in 1925, he served at four Mediterranean and Balkan posts before returning to Washington as assistant chief of protocol. In 1937 Protocol Expert Holmes resigned to become vice president of the New York World's Fair and, in effect, Grover Whalen's secretary of state.

After a brief presidency of a Brazil milling company, National Guard Officer Holmes was called to war. He served on Dwight Eisenhower's staff, slipped into Algeria by submarine with General Mark Clark to prepare the North African invasion, rose from lieutenant colonel to brigadier general.

Appointed by F.D.R. as an Assistant Secretary of State under the late Edward Stettinius in 1944, Holmes quit the next year, took a vice-presidency of T.W.A., and then the presidency of TACA Airways. He joined ex-Congressman Joe Casey, T.W.A.'s general counsel, in a scheme to buy surplus Government tankers, brought in ex-Boss Stettinius, who, in turn, brought in Fleet Admiral William ("Bull") Halsey. The tanker deals made over $3,000,000 on a $100,000 investment, and before long became the subject of a congressional investigation (TIME, March 3, 1952).

Meanwhile, Holmes rejoined the Foreign Service, spent five years in the London embassy as counselor and minister, returned to Washington as Secretary of State Dulles' specialist on the Trieste question. Last February he was indicted, along with Casey, 16 other associates and seven Casey corporations for illegally selling the ships to foreigners. Four of the companies paid fines, but the charges against Diplomat Holmes and other individuals were dropped. The State Department in effect has cleared Holmes of any taint in the tanker deal.

Julius Holmes has not served in the Middle East since 1929 when he was vice consul at Smyrna (now Izmir), Turkey, but in London he was close to the Iranian oil negotiations.

* His wife Henrietta is a daughter cf Kansas' late Republican Governor and Senator Henry J. Allen.

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