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Royall Tyler to Robert Woods Bliss, August 10, 1934

Finance Ministry

Budapest

10th August 1934.

Dear Robert,

The present Director of the Financial Section of the League of Nations, Alexander Loveday,Alexander Loveday (1888–1962), a British economist who worked for the League of Nations, becoming director of the Financial Section and Economic Intelligence Service in 1931. is going on leave to the U.S. after the Assembly at Geneva, that is probably early in October. I am giving him a letter to you, and I am writing this separately to say that I am sure you will find him very interesting, as he knows the financial and economic situation in Europe extremely well, and is a very distinguished scientific economist. He is a Scotsman, and a trifle dour at first sight, but a very lovable human being underneath. The longer I know him the more qualities I find in him.

His wife may be accompanying him. If she is, I think you and Mildred will find her sympathetic. She is a Roumanian, but was educated in England, and is about as unlike the type suggested by the word Roumanian as anything one could imagine.

I should be personally very much obliged for anything you can do to make Loveday’s stay in Washington interesting. I have given him notes to Billy Philipps [sic],William Phillips (1878–1968), an American career diplomat who was assistant secretary of state between 1917 and 1920 and minister to the Netherlands and Luxembourg between 1920 and 1922. He served as under secretary of state from 1922 to 1924, when he was appointed ambassador to Belgium, where he remained until 1927, when he became the first minister to Canada until 1929. He served as under secretary of state again from 1933 to 1936, when he was appointed ambassador to Italy. He resigned this post in 1941, and the following year was made chief of the United States Office of Strategic Services in London. T. J. Coolidge,Thomas Jefferson Coolidge III (1893–1959), an American banker who was vice president of the First National Bank of Boston between 1929 and 1934, when he was appointed special assistant to the secretary of the treasury and then under secretary of the treasury between 1934 and 1936. See Frederick J. Bradlee, “Thomas Jefferson Coolidge,” Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 3rd ser., 72 (October 1957–December 1950): 373–78. and a lot of people in New York and Boston. He knows FeisHerbert Feis (1893–1972), an American author and economic advisor for international affairs to the Department of State during the Hoover and Roosevelt administrations. and VinerJacob Viner (1892–1970), a Canadian economist and professor at the University of Chicago, where he was an early leader of the Chicago School of Economics in the 1930s. and perhaps a few other people in the Government Departments. Perhaps it might be a good thing to put him in touch with Mrs. Longworth,Alice Lee Roosevelt Longworth (1884–1980), the oldest child of President Theodore Roosevelt. She lived in Washington, D.C. Marie BealeMarie Beale (née Oge) (1881–1956), an American socialite and wife of Truxton Beale (1856–1936), the U.S. minister to Persia in 1891–1892 and Greece in 1892–1893. The Beales lived at Decatur House in Washington, D.C. and Mrs. Dows.Alice Dows was an American socialite, a friend of Alice Roosevelt Longworth and the mistress of her husband Nicholas Longworth, and the mother of the artist Olin Dows (1904–1981). She lived in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C.

Hayford arrived in Europe the other day. He had had dreams of being able to get the lion tamer stuffBZ.1934.1. from Sangiorgi some day, but he is reconciled to missing it now that it is going to the Oaks. Also, Sangiorgi has some Antinoë and Akhmin fragments which are really more within our scope, and which we are negociating with him for.

Our Second VolumeL’art byzantin. is out, and I have ordered a copy to be sent to you. I hope you will like the cover, which I think looks very well.

Bill’s wedding went off comparatively painlessly, and he and Betsy are very happy. They expect to sail for America early in September, and you will no doubt have news of them.

Everything is absolutely quiet here, and I hope the situation in general is now by way of quieting down. I am going off to Antigny next week, and staying there until the Financial Committee meets in the second week of September. It is bad luck that the Byzantine Congress at SofiaFourth International Congress of Byzantine Studies (IVe Congrès international des études byzantines), Sofia, in September 1934. should take place precisely at the same time, so I shall miss it. However, I doubt if I shall be losing very much.

With much love to you both,

yrs,

R. T.

 
Associated Things: L'art byzantin
Associated Artworks: BZ.1934.1