FOREIGN RELATIONS: No Idler

When Roger Dearborn Lapham stepped down as mayor of San Francisco last January (his campaign pledge had been "One Term Only"), he let it be known that he intended to play plenty of golf (he used to shoot in the low 703) and take a three-month trip to Europe. But last week 64-year-old Roger Lapham decided to leave his clubs in the locker room and forswear the Grand Tour. The reason: Economic Cooperation Administrator Paul Hoffman had tapped him for chief of ECA's $338 million China aid mission. It was one of the toughest jobs going.

Hoffman buttonholed Lapham late last...