Vol. 2 July 1, 1948 No. 12

.ON DUTY IN EUROPE by W. Glastra, Economist, Economic Department

During my eight months' stay for the Bank in Europe, I found from time to time, among the papers and docu­ments sent to me from Washington, the little periodical BANK NOTES with the familiar blue and gray masthead. I must confess that I frequently glanced through the "Notes" first, before reading such serious studies as "The European Coal Supply" or "Crosshauls and Round­about Routing of Coal. "

Most of the time I stayed in Geneva, the site of the European Office of the United Nations. As a matter of fact, the accommodations of this branch office are far more impressive than those of Lake Success, in­asmuch as it is located in the Palais des Nations, an extensive sandstone and marble structure, erected in the thirties for the late League of Nations. The Palais is beautifully located outside Geneva, overlooking the lake.

Several international organizations have their home in the building, of which the International Refugee Organization (IRO) is the largest. The Economic CommiSSion for Europe (ECE), sub-organization of the Economic and Social Council, took most of my time with meetings on steel, coal, transport, timber, man­power, housing, et cetera, (42 in all); there were meet­ings going on constantly, sometimes even two or three at the same time. The short and long term problems being dealt with in these conferences, give a kaleido­scopic picture of the numerous troubles of a war- torn continent. The difficulties that have to be overcome in order to restore more or less bearable conditions are tremendous, and the inability of Europe to succeed without outside help was clearly demonstrated.

The ECE differs from the Organization for European 'Economic Cooperation (OEEC), in Paris in several respects. The latter body consists of the so- called Western European Marshall countries, and its specific objective lies mainly in the execution of the European Recovery Program insofar as the receiving countries are concerned. The ECE on the other hand is a UN body, with countries from the Eastas well as from the West of Europe among its member~. It was created before the Marshall Plan took shape, and its task is more of a general nature. In fact, this is one of the few organizations in the economic field in Europe where both eastand westare represented and find a common .forum to . express '-their . views

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while trying-... - to reach­- . .. ~ - - - . . ­

BANK STAFF AIDS CHILDREN'S CRUSADE

Staff members of the Bank have generous hearts. Their response to the Children'·s Crusade, sponsored by the UN Children's Emergency Fund, will bring happiness to many families in war-torn areas. The Crusade will continue through July, so there is still time to make a contribution through your Staff Relations representative, if you so desire. The reportby depart­ments follows:

Executive Directors $ 50 Loan Department 57 Economic Department 100 Treasurer's Department 30 Secretary's Department 92 Legal Department 26 Public Relations Department 13 Administration Department 45

TOTAL $4I!'"

agreements. By leaving political matters out of the discussions, it has been possible to keep both groups together, and at the recent third session of the ECE, there appeared to be an unanimous desire to maintain this valuable means of contact.

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WELCOME TO NEW MEMBERS OF THE STAFF

Economic Department Miss Constance Barrett, formerly with the Republican

Open Forum. Miss Mary Ellen Ryan, formerly withReconstruction

Finance Corporation. . Mrs. Corinne Schelling, a student from Harvard.

Treasurer's Department Miss earolyn A. Rice, a student from Pennsylvania

State College. Mrs. Doreen H. Millett, formerly with Warner Bros.,

Washington, D. C. Secretary's Department

Miss PaUIinaPalmer, formerly WithCommer~e Dept. Administration Department

Miss Pearl Frances Rice, a student from Pennsylvania St~te College.

Mr. William G. Kirkland, a student from Cornell.

.INTRA-MURAL TRANSFERS

Miss Helen Austin from Loan Department to Adminis­tration Department; Mrs. Josephine Coates from Trea­surer's Department to Economic Department. .

LOAN DEPARTMENT Miss Helen Austin, of Administration Dept., andMiss

Dolores Harrison returned June 22 from Montreal, Canada, where they had a "wonderful time."

ECONOMIC DEPARTMENT Miss Helen Franc is resigning as of July '5 to accept

a position as Associate in Education with the Philadel­phia Museum of Art.

TREASURER'S DEPARTMENT Mrs. Lois Schrimsher left the Bank on June 25, to the

great regret of her many friends here. She resigns to live a life of ease. Mrs. Doreen Millett, of Scotland, will be Mr. Aldewereld's secretary.

Miss Edith Kesterton is leaving July 2 for a month's vacation in her home, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada.

Miss Florence Czok is quite busy since her sister is getting married on July 10, and she will be maid - of honor. PUBLIC RELATIONS DEPARTMENT

Mr. William L. Ayers has leased a house for the sum­mer. Mrs. Ayers and their son, William R., have joined him.

Mr. Dwight Mallon has returned from a three weeks' visit to Cincinnati and the West Coast.

On June 21, Mrs. Anita May Edwards, who left the Bank on June 25, was feted at a shower given by Mrs. Kay Kenney.

Miss Rosalind Williams spent the past weekend visit­ing friends in New York City.

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AD~AINISTRATION DEPARTMENT Miss Margaret Burnett, to our regret, is leaving the

Bank early in July. She will be taking up an adminis­. trative appOintment with the Public Health authority, in

Anchorage, Alaska. We wish her luck in her new ven ture, and hope to hear something aboutAlaska from he. some day. .

Miss GeneWash'was married June 24 to Mr. Lawrence Vincent Calhoun of Brunswick, Maryland. The wedding took place in Columbia Heights Christian Church.

Mr. William McCorkle has just returned from a three­weeks'vacation. He' took short trips as the spirit moved him and found it to be a most successful vacation.

The engagement of Mrs. Emily Doyle to Mr. Lynford T. Alexander has been announced. Mr. Alexander is Division Manager in Advertising with the Dupont Com­pany in Wilmington, Delaware. Emily says the wedding will take place around the first of the year.

Mr. John Cook spent a week visiting with members of his family in North Carolina.

Mr. Russell Woods spent his vacation studying for and taking bar examinations. We wish him luck.

Miss Lorene Mason is enjoying along vacation at her brother's home in Califprnia.

Miss Ecelle Herndon recently spent three weeks in sunny Florida.

Mrs. Olive Shull is vacationing at Virginia Beach. Miss Marion Dougherty is touring the West in her

newly-purchased Frazer.

CUPID ON THE ELEVENTH FLOOR

Cupid has been busy recently, shooting his arrow' : into the hearts of girls on the eleventh floor. His latest victim is Gloria Llorente, of the Legal Department, who has just become engaged to James Karrich, of the War Department. Jim is that good looking young man who was with Gloria at the Bank picnic.

Tillie Goslinga, of the Executive Director's Office, same floor, will be married July 24 to Carl Ruys, of the Secretary's Department. .

Helen Page, of the Executive Director's Office, eleventh floor, became Mrs. William Smith on June 16 and is on her wedding trip to Fredericton, New Bruns­wick, Canada.

Did you lmow that Epi Portela, of the Executive Director's Office, was Cupid's first victim on that floor? Last winter she went with a group of girls from the Bank to a party for convalescents at Walter Reed Hospital. There she met a young man who was at the time in a wheel chair. Cupid got busy and urged Epi to return, at the soldier's request, to visit him at the hospital. Time went on and the young man became well and strong and asked Epi to marry him. This she did and went with him to Cuba. This ends our epic on Epi.

But--take heed: Cupid is still on the eleventh floor, and we are told that he is now aiminghis arrows at the heart of one of our bachelors.

STAFF RELATIONS COMMITTEE LUNCHEON

Because of the Bank Holiday on Monday July 5, tht. regular monthly luncheon of the Staff Relations Com­mittee will be held Friday July 9, at 1:00 at the New Athens.

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WHO'S WHO IN THE BANK

WILLEM KOSTER

His direct manner was the first and lasting impres­sion we got of Mr. Willem Koster, Alter~ate Executive Director of the Bank and Fund for the Netherlands and the Union of South Africa. Plunging right into the interview we asked, we don't know why, about his wed­ding ring which he, wears on the fourth finger of his right hand as do all Hollanders. Mr. Koster said the ring was one that his wife had bought for him in this country because, in a moment of indignation when the Netherlands were invaded by the Germans, they had given their original wedding rings to Churchill's Spit-

r '!ire Fund in the Netherlands East Indies, where they .ived at that time.

Mr. Koster was born September 24, 1911, in Utrecht, Netherlands, and lived there until he was eight years old. He attended high school in Bandung, J ava, and played a great deal of water polo. He was also fond of mountain climbing for which the numerous volcanos in Sumatra and Java offered many opportunities. We were told that he got his first impulse to study economics when he found that in some native villages, the market value of the football he owned was equal to that of a mountain horse.

He returned to Holland and was employed by Philips Incandescent Lamps and Radio Works at Eindhoven. After completion of his military service he entered the Netherlands School of Economics at Rotterdam. In order to gain practical knowledge he worked during vacations, first in London in the shipping business, then in LeHavre, France, in the Netherlands Consulate. A t that time some difficulties had to be overcome to work abroad. He confessed that his permit to work in England was valid only for two months, but he managed to stay longer. However, in order to escape undue attention, he had to go back to the Continent as a stow­away.

After college, from which he graduated in 1936 with degree doctorandus of economics, cum laude, he went with the Netherlands Ministry of Economic Affairs as . research economist. In 1937 he was appointed econ­,mi~t in the Netherlands East Indies Government. His occupations there were mainly in the field of foreign trade and exchange policy. In 1940, he was Assistant Secretary of the Netherlands Delegation for Economic

Negotiations with Japan. The prolonged negotiations were broken up shortly before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, which brought the Indies immediately into the Pacific War and Mr. Koster in the Navy Head­quarters in Java. Mr. Koster said he had attended some nice parties with the Japanese during the negotiating; however, a few months later the Japanese military police urged him to bow before a Japanese Captain (on a soap box) whom Mr. Koster recognized as a prewar local shopkeeper. The Captain told him in fluent Malay that henceforth he would be a guest in a Japanese Army hotel which turned out to be an overcrowded prison camp. This was in the summer of 1942. After many registrations and searches had established his wordly status as a civil internee":-thoughlabelled as a danger­ous specimen--heventured tobecomea member of the so-called self-government committee, established by the Japanese in each camp to relieve them of certain unpleasant responsibilities as to the internal organi­zation.

Though Mr. Koster would not elaborate further on his experiences he hoped that the new Japanese generation would not be judged by the behavior of the Japanese in charge of the prison camps in those years. The sur­vivors have indeed learned some interesting things about human nature though not exactly the happiest side of it. Mr. Koster was interned until September 1945.

After V -J Day, while the Japanese were still in actual command in Java, Mr. Koster found his way from his camp in the mountains to a women's camp near Batavia, where he was united with his wife and two little girls, ages four and six, from whom he had had no news all the years that he was interned. Mr. Koster's family was immediately transferred to Holland, and he followed them in February 1946. As Secretary of the Nether­lands Indies Import and Export Organization, he had assisted in the first efforts towards post war recon­struction. During 1946, Mr. Koster partiCipated in the discussions on the financial relations between the Netherlands and the Netherlands EastIndies. He came to Washington first as a staff member of the Fund. He was appointed Alternate Executive Director for the Netherlands and the Union of South Africa in the Fund and the Bank January 8, 1947.

Mr. Koster's wife and two little girls are here with him in Washington. He is enthusiastic about the Ameri­can way of living and the way his children are being educated. He appreciates the fact that social behavior is stressed and that each one is given the sense of being an important member of the commlll1ity.

PHYSICALS AND BENEFITS

In order that staff members may be considered for disability benefits of the Staff Retirement Plan, evidence must be on file that laboratory tests and chest X-rays are satisfactory.

If your physical examination has not been completed, you are ur'ged to get in touch with Miss Mendelsohn, ext. 2241, without delay.

NEW CREDIT UNION PRESIDENT

Mr. Charles M. Powell, Comptroller of the Fund, was recently appointed President of the Bank Fund Staff Federal Credit Union.

SWIMMING AND TENNIS INVITATION

With a long weekend approaching, staff members will be glad to know that they will have an opportunity to swim and play tennis. Through the courtesy of Colonel and Mrs. Robert Guggenheim and staff members who are members of the United Nations Club, Bank people are invited to "Firenze House, " July 4 and 5 from. 2 to 6 p.m.

Drive out Connecticut Avenue to Albermarle Street, turn right eight blocks tonumber 2800. Guests, $1.20 each.

SOFTBALL Have you played softball Wednesday evenings on the

Bank's teams? If you haven't, you've been missing lots of fun. Every Wednesday from 7 0' clock until dark (when it doesn't rain), staff members, men and girls, play on diamond number 22, which is directly south of Lincoln Memorial.

If you want to play, all you have to do is to leave your name on Wednesday mornings with Arnold Kirch, 2086, Donald Fowler, 2021, or Staff Relations, 2130.

BANK GOLF TOURNAMENT

On.June 15, Bethesda Country Club was the scene of the Bank's first golf tournament. Smiled on by a be­nevolent weatherman, everyone teed off on time and the bets were on. Good natured rivalry was the key­note of the afternoon and often foursomes got tangled up looking for one another's balls. As the last group straggled in rather wilted but gleaming pinkly after five hours in the hot sun, they rushed eagerly for a quick dip in the pool to refresh themselves for a short sojourn at the ninet-eenth hole and a delicious roast beef dinner.

Darkness failed to dim the brightness of Mr. Moller's smile of delight in having shot his first birdie...Bud Sharkey was undisturbed by the goodnatured ribbing of his pals for having shot one over instead of par for 18 holes.

The handicaps were figured and checked until it was decided beyond a doubt that Bud was the winnah with a low gross score of 69. Jimmy Jones had second low gross score of 75, Victor Moller, first low net 101-31­70, and Gordon Street, second low net 84-13-71. Then the men said a prize should go to the one woman who finished the course--Agnes Maher. So we ran to the golf shop and just as it was closing, bought three Spaulding dots as a prize for Agnes.

The "field" was composed of S. Aldewereld, Bill Avery, Lars Bengston, Aron Broches, Ken Clark, John Cook, Bill Curtin, Ralph Forster, Don Fowler, Winnetta Gould, Gordon Grayson, Kay Kenney, Walter Morgan and Joe Reamy.

Par for the course was 68. The gross scores ranged from 69 to 142-atleast. (One wasn't counted-entirely.)

Of the 19 golfers, 9 of them had a score of over 100, but they couldn't have had a better time if they all had been champions. Everyone was grateful toBudSharkey for arranging the tournament and is most enthusiastic about a repeat performance in the fall. Watch for the date and sign up for the fun.

ARE YOU A HIKER? By Helen Franc

Probably nobody has lived very long in Washington without being aware of its proximity to the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Shenandoah National Park. B have you ever thought of hiking there? Among the many advantages (other than the obvious scenic ones) are: ready access by car or public transportation, easy ascents, and well-marked, graded trails all the way.

These trails are maintained by the Potomac Appa­lachian Trail Club, which as a member of the Appa­lachian Trail Conference is responsible for a 264- mile section of the Appalachian Trail along the crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The entire Trail extends for 2050 miles from Katahdin in Maine to Mt. Oglethorpe, Georgia, and the parts near Washington are among the most beautiful of all. There is a 'continuous chain of "lean-to's", 8 to 10 miles apart, containing raised wire bunks. Stone ovens and drinking water are nearby. In addition to these open-faced structures, there are closed, locked, shelters fully equipped with matresses, blankets, and cooking utensils, whi"ch are suitable for longer stays and are available on application to Potomac Appalachian Trail Club.

A recommended outing is via the Capital Greyhound bus line on the Winchester route, leaving the bus be­yond Bluemont atSnicker 's Gap (a two-hour run). Here the Trail crosses Virginia Highway 7, and one may elect to go either north towards Harpers Ferry, re­turning to Washington by the Baltimore and Ohio Rail ­road; or south towards Ashby Gap, where the Trail crosses U. S. Route 50 and where one may return to Washington by Greyhound bus via Fairfax. The hiki distance in either case is ahout 12 to 15 miles.

A ddi tional information may be obtained by calling Michigan 0326; Monday to Friday from 7 to 10 p.m.

BANK EXCHANGE

For Rent: Log cabin in the Jersey pine woods, about 3/4 mile from small lake, good swimming and boating; cabin furnished, electricity, good well water, suitable for two or three good housekeepers. August 28-- Sep­tember 11. $25 per week. Call ext. 3123. For Sale: Two pairs of drapes. One is floral designed, and lined; the other is solid color beige, unlined. Also one pair of metal swinging rods which fit the drapes. Call ext. 2164, Mrs. Paulson.

INTERNATIONAL BANK NOTES Edited and PUblished on the 1st and 15th of each month by the

Staff Relations Office, Personnel Division INTERNATIONAL BANK FOR

RECONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT 1818 H Street, Washington 25, D. C.

Michael L. Lejeune -- Personnel Officer Elizabeth Geib -- Staff Relations Officer

Harriet French Editor Reporters

L'1llian Breen -- Secretary's Department Marion Dougherty - - Office Services Division Dorothy East -- AdministraUon Department Doris Eliason - - Public Relations Department Allee Foley -- Legal Department Ann Friedman - - Economic Department M. Timmins -- Treasurer's Department .Josephine Van Gasse -- Loan Department .Jeanne Wells -- ExecuUve Directors

All contributions should be sent to the Edlt6r, Room 230. Deadline, 10 o'clock on the 8th and ~ of each month.