The Foreign Service Journal, September 2022

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | SEPTEMBER 2022 11 to convey the findings and recommendations to decision- makers, it is all for naught. Finally, Amb. Abercrom- bie-Winstanley states: “Any- thing that we need, it can be taught” at the Foreign Service Institute. In this, as well, she misses the mark. English-language skills, composition and reading comprehension cannot be “taught” in a two-week course at FSI. Neither can the body of knowledge a successful appli- cant who passes the FSOT brings to the Foreign Service. Amb. Abercrombie-Winstanley dismissively suggests the FSOT “tests a certain body of knowledge at that time.” But the “body of knowledge,” including English-language ability, demonstrated by successful applicants who pass the FSOT, has historically been one of the key indicators of a successful career as a Foreign Service officer. William H. Barkell FSO, retired Arlington, Virginia Consuls Bearing Arms The May 2022 FSJ included a fascinating article about Robert W. Imbrie (“A Lethal Encounter in Tehran, 1924,” by Michael Zirinsky), providing lots of information about an incident in Foreign Service history known to many of us, but only dimly. Thanks for printing it. However, it raises some questions. Were sidearms standard equipment for American consular officers in the 1920s? If so, were they issued or purchased pri- vately by officers? Was there pertinent guidance about their use in the Foreign Service regulations? Imbrie’s revolver is so prominently displayed in the photos that I wonder about these questions. Professor Zirinsky’s otherwise excellent study is silent on this issue. He does comment, how- ever, that Imbrie “was no diplomat” but rather an “adventurer-spy.” Lots to ponder here. And, by the way, the FSJ is increas- ingly rich, I find. And in difficult times. Edward Marks Ambassador, retired Washington, D.C. Consuls Bearing Arms— The Author Responds To the best of my knowledge, it was not usual for consuls to pack heat. Indeed, in the material I reviewed about the incident in the National Archives in 1981, the only weapon mentioned was Imbrie’s “shillelagh,” which was wielded by his prisoner who identified it as a “blackjack.” The pictures of Imbrie armed with a pistol, which I had never before seen (the FSJ editorial staff found and chose them), rather make my point that he was more adventurer-spy than “diplo- mat.” In looking at the Library of Congress site where the photo was found, there is no indication of when and where it was taken, other than the 1924 caption cre- ated by the media. My recollection from my research is that the LOC received the photo after Imbrie’s death. Since I am aware of no American “staff member” at the Tehran consul- ate, my (tentative) conclusion is that the photo was actually taken in Anatolia, when Imbrie was seconded to Ankara to negotiate with Mustafa Kemal amid the struggle to establish the Kemalist regime and to reject the Treaty of Sevres. The headgear in the photo is telling. It seems likely that he had clothed himself in Turkish military gear for his “roughing it” adventure in Ankara and beyond. My recollection of Imbrie’s personnel file and other State Department records is that he did not make “inspec- tion tours” in Iran. The only journey I can surmise is his travel to Tehran, which would likely have taken two months from Washington. The routing would have been something like DC– NYC–London–Paris–Marseille–Bom- bay–Basra–Baghdad–Khanaqin–Ker- manshah–Hamadan–Qazvin–Tehran, which was the route taken by Minister Joseph Kornfeld two years earlier. Iran then had no railways and few car roads, most intercity transport being made by horse, donkey or camel, so it is possible that the photo was taken on the overland journey to Tehran from the railhead at Khanaqin. Going armed on this trip would have been reasonable, since highwaymen