Legislation should be secured providing for an improved salary schedule and pay plan. The present separate schedules for the Foreign Service officer and Staff categories should be integrated into a single schedule which will reflect a reduction in the number of staff corps classes and an increase in the number of FSO classes.

Legislation should be sought to place permanent Foreign Service Staff personnel under the Foreign Service retirement and disability system to the extent that actuarial and related studies make this feasible. Except for purposes of disability retirement, future extra retirement credit for service at unhealthful posts should be eliminated when salary differentials for service at hardship posts are extended to all American personnel.

The Foreign Service leave system should be reexamined and consideration should be given to adjusting present leave benefits in the case of persons assigned to the United States to correspond more closely to leave benefits currently accruing to departmental employees.

(i) Selection-out.-A selection-out process should be retained for the Foreign Service and should be used to retire from the Service those who fail to meet performance requirements and those whose usefulness has become so marginal as to unduly inhibit the advancement of more able employees.

(j) Emergency provisions.-Provision should be made for the Secretary, whenever he determines an emergency to exist, to—

Recall any retired Foreign Service officer to active service. Make temporary promotions in all categories of personnel. Extend the period of service of a Reserve officer for an additional two years beyond the proposed five year maximum based on an extraordinary and compelling need in connection with a specific project.

Extend the period of service that an officer or employee of the Foreign Service may serve in the United States, not to exceed one additional year, based on an extraordinary and compelling need in connection with a specific project.

6. Additional improvements in departmental service personnel management

(a) Dual service positions.-Positions in the departmental service for which overseas experience is an essential or highly desirable qualification should be identified. To the extent that it is practical to do so these positions should be filled by persons possessing this. qualification.

(b) Recruitment and selection.-Consistent with the difficulties imposed by the national mobilization effort and in the interest of building for the future, a maximum effort should be made to increase the employment of promising junior officers for the departmental service. In this connection, programs of intern training should be continued and strengthened in close coordination with entrance level requirements for the Foreign Service.

(c) Promotion.-Positive steps should be taken to develop an improved promotional system for the departmental service which will assure periodic evaluation of employee fitness for promotion.

(d) Training and career development.-Efforts should be made to develop further training and career-development programs for the departmental service. Legislation should be secured to enable departmental officers to receive training at Government expense in the same manner that Foreign Service personnel now receive training.

Increased emphasis should be placed on the Department's program of executive development, with particular reference to broadening the range of experience and competence of junior departmental and Foreign Service officers through training and work assignment rotation.

(e) Turn-over.-Efforts should be made to reduce voluntary turnover of well-qualified personnel by improved placement and full utilization of employee skills and abilities.

E. GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS

Appropriate officers of the Department should be kept advised of progress toward achievement of the objective of an improved personnel system.

The Director of Personnel should arrange on an informal basis to obtain advisory assistance from other departments represented on the Board of the Foreign Service and from appropriate officers of the Department as will help him implement this directive. These arrangements should be considered as supplementary to (and not in lieu of) established procedures governing the advisory functions of the Board of the Foreign Service with respect to the personnel management the Foreign Service. Maximum participation of other interested agencies in interagency bodies should be encouraged.

of

Employees should be kept informed periodically of important developments affecting their interests.

The continuing administration of the personnel program should be adjusted to conform to directives and instructions issued to implement the policies expressed in this directive.

The planning staff in the Office of Personnel should be strengthened to the full extent that this will facilitate the adjustments called for in this directive. This staff should include representatives of depart mental personnel and of the Foreign Service and should consult with other Government agencies which rely upon the support of the Foreign Service abroad.

The limited legislation needed to accomplish the above improvements should be drafted and made ready for submission to the Congress no later than May 1, 1951.

[TOWARD A STRONGER FOREIGN SERVICE: Report of the Secretary of State's Public Committee on Personnel (the Wriston Report), May 18, 1954]1

2. RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE WRISTON COMMITTEE: Letter From the Secretary of State to the Chairman of the Public Committee on Personnel, June 15, 1954 2

DEAR DR. WRISTON: I have received and carefully studied the report of the Public Committee on Personnel transmitted by your letter of May 18.3 At my instruction, the report has been printed and is being released today.*

I should like to commend the Committee for the thorough and penetrating manner in which its public-spirited members, under your able chairmanship, have dealt with the very difficult personnel and administrative problems of the Department of State. It was the complexity and vital importance of these problems, most of which have been recognized-but left unsolved-for some years, that persuaded me to seek appropriate corrective recommendations from this group of outstanding private citizens.

I felt that this study could not be attempted while the Department and Foreign Service were undergoing the dislocations of the reductionin-force necessitated by budgetary restrictions. With that obstacle passed, we could proceed. Accordingly, I share the view of the Committee that now is the time for action.

1 Department of State publication 5458 (1954). The report was submitted on May 18, 1954, was approved by the Secretary on June 7, 1954, and was made public on June 15, 1954. On Mar. 3, 1954, the Department of State announced the establishment of a Public Committee on Personnel to study and advise on measures necessary to increase the effectiveness of the career service to meet the vastly increasing responsibilities in the field of foreign policy that had devolved upon the President and the Secretary. Members of the committee included: Norman Armour, Foreign Service officer, retired, former Assistant Secretary of State, and former Ambassador; John A. McCone, president, the Joshua Hendy Corp., Los Angeles; Robert Murphy, ex-officio member, Deputy Under Secretary of State; Morehead Patterson, chairman and president, American Machine and Foundry Co., N. Y.; Donald Russell, president of the University of S. C., and former Assistant Secretary of State; Charles E. Saltzman, general partner, Henry Sears & Co., N. Y., and former Under Secretary of State for Administration; John Hay Whitney, senior partner in J. H. Whitney and Co., N. Y.; and Dr. Henry M. Wriston, president of Brown University. Dr. Wriston was to serve as chairman of the committee (Department of State Bulletin, Mar. 15, 1954, pp. 413-414). The Department of State announced on Mar. 5, that the committee's field of interest would include the basic organization of the Service and its strength; personnel management with particular reference to the improvement of recruitment, training, and career-development programs; and the requirement to increase public confidence and fortify personnel morale (ibid., p. 414). 2 Department of State Bulletin, June 28, 1954, pp. 1002-1004.

3

Ibid., p. 1004.

'See Toward a Stronger Foreign Service: Report of the Secretary of State's Public Committee on Personnel (Department of State publication 5458; 1954).

I have been particularly concerned that the professional service, which bears the responsibility for carrying out the vastly intricate business of foreign affairs, has not expanded and broadened to meet the growing demands of today in the manner envisioned by the Congress when it passed the Foreign Service Act of 1946. I am, therefore, particularly pleased that the Committee's recommendations not only embody an immediate program for strengthening this service, but also provide a long-range method of maintaining that essential strength.

As a first and fundamental step, I have today recommended, and the President has agreed to, the nomination of Mr. Charles E. Saltzman as Under Secretary of State for Administration. Mr. Saltzman, who served as one of the members of the Public Committee, is also a former Assistant Secretary of State. He will have the duty of initiating and directing the execution of this new program. Under my supervision he will also be in complete charge of the administrative offices and operations of the Department, and will, of course, have my full support in carrying out his mission.

Mr. Thruston Morton, with exceptional ability and devotion to public service, has been carrying the additional job of Acting Deputy Under Secretary for Administration. Mr. Saltzman's appointment will enable Mr. Morton once again to devote full time to his duties as Assistant Secretary for Congressional Relations. I am grateful to him for the administrative leadership he has provided during the interim period while the Committee was formulating its recommendations.

Mr. Saltzman believes, and I concur, that this new program can be fully launched and well underway by December 31, 1954, at which time the statutory authority for the position of Under Secretary of State for Administration expires, and at which time Mr. Saltzman intends to return to his business, from which he is taking a leave of absence.

I heartily endorse the two key recommendations made by the Committee:

A. Integration of the personnel of the Departmental home service and the Foreign Service where their functions and responsibilities

converge.

B. The bold and imaginative recruitment and scholarship program whereby the Foreign Service would obtain a constant and adequate flow of qualified young men and women representing the best cross section of American life. Under this program, members of Congress would in the future have a part in selecting the candidates for the Foreign Service Corps, much as they now do for West Point and Annapolis.

I have issued instructions to initiate these forwardlooking recommendations. Specifically, I have taken the following actions:

1 PL 724 (79th Cong., 2d sess.), Aug. 13, 1946; 60 Stat. 999.

1. By signing certain orders, I have accepted as valid your central recommendation that those officers of the Departmental home service and the Foreign Service who perform similar and related functions should be integrated into one personnel system. Such a system, as you point out, can fortunately be built, in large part, on the excellent existing statutory foundation of the Foreign Service Act of 1946.

2. I believe, with the Committee, that the national interest dictates the creation of a Foreign Service Officer (Fso) Corps that is more flexible and broadly versatile than at present. We must take into particular account the need for specialized skills in the solution of the vastly complex problems of today. I have directed that this be done. 3. I have accepted the Committee's recommendation that a substantial number of Departmental positions, probably about 1,450, be designated for staffing by the Fso Corps, and that the present incumbents of those positions be encouraged to enter the new Foreign Service to serve at home or abroad, as the Department's needs require. 4. I also agree that all officer positions abroad under the Chiefs of Mission should be similarly designated, and members of the Foreign Service Reserve (FSR) Corps and such of the Foreign Service Staff (Fss) Corps as presently hold those positions should likewise be encouraged to enter the Fso group.

5. I have endorsed the Committee's recommendations that a revised and liberalized examination process should be instituted to effect these transfers, which I expect will raise the strength of the Fso Corps from about 1,300 to nearly 4,000.

6. I have issued instructions to consult with appropriate members of the Congress regarding the Committee's report and its recommendations with the objective of putting into effect as quickly as possible the fundamental recommendations of the Committee related to the proposed integration program. I understand from your report that certain minor amendments to existing legislation will be necessary to carry out this program.

7. I have also directed that action be taken to seek legislative authority for the scholarship program proposed by the Committee. This program, providing for two-year scholarship awards to outstanding young men and women after competitive examinations, would insure the constant renewal of the Foreign Service from colleges in all parts of the country. It seems to me that the scholarship program is a most important and unique feature of the Committee's recommendations.

8. I agree with the Committee that Congressional appointment to the competitions for the majority of these scholarships is desirable, with the Executive Branch having an appropriate share.

9. Since the scholarship training program will require legislative sanction and, in any case, will take time to initiate, there is need for immediate and interim action. I am particularly gratified that the Committee considered this factor, and I have adopted the recommendations to modernize and speed up the examining and appointment procedures for Foreign Service officers of the beginning grade.