THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | MAY 2024 13 Our consular service is poorly paid, perhaps underpaid, and yet there are redeeming features which render that work wonderfully attractive to those who have curiosity regarding strange places and peoples and who enjoy travel for travel’s sake. Indeed, it is difficult to read a long list of consular appointments and transfers without one’s imagination thrilling. During the past week Secretary Hughes gave out such a list which is enough to induce a fellow to stoke his old kit bag and begin a world hike. We see where fellows have been ordered out to such intriguing places as Tientsin, Darien, Callao, Nogales, Salaverry, Patras, etc. The latter two probably are spots the average man could not find on any map without some guidance, for although he might, from the name form, pick Patras as Greek, it would take some nosing about over the map to stop the little port near the entrance to that sheet of water of old formation known as the Gulf of Corinth. But Salaverry, unless one were well up on South America, would be more difficult to discover on the Peruvian coast. However, it is not of the new appointments, even though they be to fascinating places, that we intend to speak, but of the weird shifts of consular locations recorded in Secretary Hughes’ order. Thus, Mr. Anslinger is to be moved from Hamburg to La Guayra—from the bustling city of North Germany struggling with afterwar difficulties, to the ultra-Latin port of Venezuela. Harry V. Boyle is being shifted from Durban, South Africa, to the peaceful Isle of Tahiti, land of Polynesian pippins made famous by artist and romancer, by Melville, Gauguin and O’Brien. Harry Campbell goes from Asuncion to Iquique, thus boring deeper into the strange heart of South America. … And thus the list continues juggling men from tropics to arctics, from wilderness to metropolis, from savage lands to civilization and back again. Yes, it’s the life! —American Consular Bulletin, May 1924, sent to the Bulletin by Consul General Alban G. Snyder, printed first in the Times-Picayune of New Orleans. Like Shifting Sands 100 Years Ago This advertisement appeared in the May 1924 edition of the American Consular Bulletin. NBC News reported that Carr Johnson will face a difficult task, pointing to a 2022 internal department survey that found 44 percent of respondents had experienced discrimination and 27 percent had reported harassment, including sexual harassment. New Science Envoys On March 13, the State Department announced the selection of four new U.S. science envoys whose job is to inform the department, other U.S. government agencies, and the scientific community about opportunities for international science and technology cooperation. The program was established in 2010 by then–Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Thirty scientists have previously been selected for the role, but this is the first time that the cohort has been all women. The new envoys—Dr. Rumman Chowdhury, Dr. Stephanie Diem, Dr. Sian Proctor, and Dr. Dawn Wright—were chosen “to take advantage of their expertise in key issues facing the world today: Artificial Intelligence; Fusion Energy; Civil Use of Space; and Ocean Sustainability.” Sweden Joins NATO On March 7, Sweden became the newest member of NATO, ending its 200-year policy of neutrality to join 31 other countries in the alliance. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said: “Sweden’s accession makes NATO stronger, Sweden safer and the whole Alliance more secure. Today’s accession demonstrates that NATO’s door remains open and that every nation has the right to choose its own path.” Orbán Visits D.C. Right-wing Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán visited Washington, D.C., on March 8, bypassing the current
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