The Foreign Service Journal, February 2004

European continent. That meant a lot of work for the American consulate general. Because many of the older customs of the 19th century which have now been abandoned had been preserved. No goods could be shipped to the United States, but what I had to sign the outgoing invoice and cus- toms document. I was also given the seamanship work; I had a little office of my own in the basement of the Hamburg American Line building. Every American ship captain who came in had to deposit his papers with me and leave them with me until they were ready to sail. This was a holdover from sailing ship days. The tramp steamers used to hire Americans, then come to Europe and hire cheaper labor. We also screened immigrants, especially from Russia, who had great visa problems. We had at this time no relations with the Soviet government. The Day I Almost Resigned FSJ : You were in the Foreign Service for 26 years. Looking back on your career, what did you feel were the high points, and the low points? GFK : About a year after I entered the service, I was in Hamburg, I knew German and I began attending courses in litera- ture and other subjects. And I came to the conclusion that I shouldn’t have gone directly from Princeton to the Foreign Service, that I should have graduate school training. And I began to feel so strongly about this that I wanted to go home and consult with the department about this. So they let me do this, at my own expense of course, and I went to Washington, and went to see the director of personnel at the department. He was very cold and said, “Is this your decision? All right, then, that’s it.” He said go up and write your resignation. And F O C U S F E B R U A R Y 2 0 0 4 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 17 Great importance was attached at that time to your own writing ability and style.