Traditionally, each newly arrived foreign ambassador to the U.S. presents his credentials to the President in a stiff ceremony calling for brief formal speeches on both sides. Since Ike's heart attack, however, ambassadors new to Washington have been forced to content themselves with presenting their credentials to the State Department. To compensate them for the change, the President last week tried a timesaving new wrinkle in diplomacy—a protocol-free stag luncheon for the twelve ambassadors he had not yet met. Pleased with the opportunity to meet the President and his staff informally, the ambassadors were so enthusiastic that Ike's innovation bids fair to become standard operating procedure.
Last week the President also:
¶ Sent to Congress a message urging liberalization of the McCarran-Walter Immigration Act and re-examination of the antiquated national quota system, which discriminates against would-be immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe. Among his specific suggestions: an increase in the number of immigrants admitted annually from the present 154,657 to 220,000.
¶ Approved a significant $5,000,000 aid program to Ceylon, hitherto denied U.S. economic assistance because of its refusal to end sales of rubber to Red China.
¶ Named as members of the U.S. Air Force Academy's Board of Visitors Charles Lindbergh, Physicist Arthur Compton, ex-Air Force Chief of Staff Carl Spaatz, Iowa State University President Virgil Hancher, Michigan State College President John Hannah and Chrysler's Board Chairman K. (for Kaufman) T. Keller.
¶ Appointed as his Special Assistant for Aviation Facilities Planning Eastman Kodak Vice President Edward Peck Curtis, World War I combat airman and veteran Reserve officer, who rose in World War II from major to major general and chief of staff to General "Tooey" Spaatz. Close friend of the President, "Ted" Curtis includes in his postwar record one overnight tour during the 1952 Chicago convention as baby sitter to Ike's grandchildren.
