Cocktails in Constantinople

Every year, State Department officials, foreign services officials, congressmen, columnists, and scholars, like salmon swimming upstream, come together to shout about the inadequacy of entertainment allowances for U.S. diplomats. "The total annual budget for 100 embassies and 350 consulates is $850,000"; it is an old and familiar grievance.

When James Reston describes this situation in the New York Times, no one is surprised. The perennial salmon, many of whom have themselves had to work with incompetent superiors and inefficient staffs, know that their yelling has never convinced the men who must appropriate their money.

Yet of all the problems that continually harass the Congress and the Administration, this has always been the most absurdly easy to solve. Supported by the new President-elect, and Senator Fulbright's plan to recommend the expenditure of at least another $1 million on entertainment allowances, this year's salmon may have a chance. Perhaps they will at last be able to reach their lakes before they are killed by the ignorance and stupidity of those who have never considered diplomacy anything but gentlemen in striped trousers feeding martinis to alluring foreign women.