THE CABINET: Again, Career Man

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President Coolidge last week picked another "career man" for an important diplomatic post. Hugh S. Gibson, present U. S. Minister to Switzerland, will succeed William Phillips* (TIME, Feb. 14) as Ambassador to Belgium.

Mr. Gibson is every inch a diplomat. He started out at a tender age to be one, was schooled at the famed Ecole Libre des Sciences Politiques in Paris. His first post was secretary of the legation at Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Then he was moved about—to London, Washington, Havana, Brussels, Paris, Warsaw, Geneva.

A spirited young man, he was well remembered for his services in Belgium during the German occupation. His A Journal from Our Legation in Belgium, widely read on its appearance in 1917, avoided propaganda and contained a dramatic chapter on "The Last Hour of Edith Cavell." When the Department of State needed an able first Minister to Poland in troublesome 1919, Mr. Gibson was its choice. Recently he has represented the U. S. at the preparatory disarmament conference at Geneva, at the same time continuing to serve as Minister to Switzerland. He is now in Washington on a leave of absence. The U. S. could hardly have selected a better successor to Mr. Phillips at Brussels than gay, likable Mr. Gibson, who at 43 knows the difference between astute diplomacy and "cookie-pushing."