833. Letter from Clough to Johnson1
I looked into the matter of a possible amendment for Bob Ekvall’s travel authorization, along the lines of your letter of September 12, but it appears the administrative mind works the same in Washington as it does in Paris. The orders on which Bob travels to Geneva were issued by State, whereas his orders for travel within France are paid by Army; to have him perform a trip employing both sets of orders, however amended, would entail all sorts of budgetary complications involving overlapping agency responsibilities, which our administrative people would rather not contemplate. However, if Bob can work out some procedure acceptable to the Embassy in Paris, I will try to have our executive office take another look at the problem.
Best regards,
Sincerely yours,
Director for Chinese Affairs
- Source: Department of State, Geneva Talks Files, Lot 72D415. Unclassified; Official–Informal. Drafted by Osborn.↩