Greeter to the World

Next came the guests, mostly Kings and Queens, and among them Alice recognized the White Rabbit; it was talking in a hurried nervous manner, smiling at everything that was said, and went by without noticing her.

At an airline gate at Washington's National Airport, two tall and solid-looking men stood chatting volubly in German. At departure time the two shook hands and murmured "auf wiedersehen." Then Austrian Chancellor Julius Raab entered the plane. His companion, State Department Protocol Officer John Farr Simmons, waited at the gate until the plane was aloft; then he turned and hurried back to his desk at the State Department.

For Jack Simmons, 62, the chore of seeing Chancellor Raab off was just part of one of the most exacting, endless jobs in the world: representing the U.S. in all non-political relations with foreign officials. As the Government's top public-relations man, Simmons is as busy as the White Rabbit in the garden of the Queen of Hearts. He is the VIP's avenue to President Eisenhower, a caterer who solves some global gastronomic problems,* handyman for royalty, custodian of the Great Seal of the United States, and Washington's most indefatigable partygoer.

Line of Duty. In one 30-minute period last week, Simmons 1) pondered (and solved) one embassy's request for more parking space; 2) read and signed telegrams to the governor of Hawaii and the Navy's Pacific commander that outlined a program for the reception in Honolulu of Ceylonese Prime Minister Sir John Kotelawala; 3) scheduled the new Rumanian minister's first official visit to the State Department; 4) checked worriedly to determine whether Chancellor Raab was planning to follow his toast to the President with a short speech at a state dinner (he wasn't); 5) considered proper farewells for the Prime Ministers of Sweden, Norway and Denmark, who were preparing to go home after a brief visit.

In addition to his desk work, Simmons must fulfill an overwhelming number of engagements that to ordinary citizens would seem to be mostly social, but to Simmons are strictly line of duty. In one recent week he: lunched with the Nicaraguan ambassador; attended receptions at the Venezuelan embassy, the Latvian legation and General Matthew Ridgway's quarters; dined twice at the White House; flew to New York to represent the President at the departure of Britain's Queen Mother; returned to Washington in time to meet French Premier Mendes-France; escorted Mendes-France to the White House and the National Press Club; lunched with Vice Presidents Richard Nixon of the U.S. and Sir Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan of India; escorted 32 women from U.N. headquarters to a meeting with Mrs. Eisenhower; greeted Chancellor Raab at Union Station.