THE CABINET: Pest Holes

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By President Hoover's decree 79 foreign cities last week found themselves officially designated as unhealthy places. Effect of the Hoover order: a U. S. diplomat or consul who serves one year in any of 79 "pest holes'' gets credit for 18 months toward his retirement. World travelers were not surprised to find on the list such notoriously uncomfortable communities as Aden, Arabia; Canton, China; Baghdad, Iraq; Dakar, Senegal; Guayaquil, Ecuador; Leopoldville, Belgian Congo; Monrovia, Liberia and a host of Central American cities. What they found hard to understand, though, was the stamp of unhealthiness the Government had placed on such metropolitan centres as Hongkong, Nanking and Shanghai, on Havana and Saigon, on Bombay and Madras.