NEW YORK, Sunday—With men returning from Korea just now, I think everyone is interested in how these troops get moved around the world. The story is told in a folder describing the Military Sea Transportation Service, which is the sole ocean transportation agency for the Department of Defense.

Anything moved by sea, whether men, equipment, supplies for the Armed Services or for the State Department, is moved by these ships. Those that operate in the Atlantic area go from New York to Bremerhaven, Southampton, Piraeus, Alexandria, Beyrouth, Rotterdam and Naples, and on the U.N. run they go to Japan and Korea. The families of men in the service, and their household effects, are moved in these ships. Some are naval ships, manned by civil service crews with a small military detachment on board, or operated with a naval crew. Some are chartered ships which are run for the MSTS.

They have many interesting experiences on these ships, including dramatic sea rescues. For instance, on February 15, 1953, about 250 miles off Sicily, the S.S. Tripolitania, an Italian ship, got into real trouble, with a leak in her engine room in heavy weather. It was the Muir, of the Military Sea Transportation Service, that took off 62 passengers, 56 crew members, the ship's master and even the little dog who was the ship's mascot!

If you want to learn more about this service, which has a really inspiring story to tell, you may write to: Department of the Navy, Military Sea Transportation Service, 58th Street and First Avenue, Brooklyn 50, N.Y. I am sure they will send you some of the really interesting stories and much more information about the actual work they do.

On Thursday afternoon of last week I went to a tea given by the N.Y. Newspaper Women's Club in honor of Mrs. Clare Boothe Luce, our new Ambassador to Italy. It was her 50th birthday and, she told us, someone had said to her: "Well, the worst part of the century is behind you."

Mrs. Luce does not look 50. She is a very lovely-looking woman who has kept her slim, slight figure, and she has much charm. They say the Italians were uncertain about accepting a woman as Ambassador, for it was a somewhat new departure in their area of the world. But in Mrs. Luce they will find not only a beautiful woman, but an able ambassador, with brains which any man might be proud of. I feel Mrs. Luce will represent us well. Her powers of observation and analysis, sharpened by her training both as a writer and as a member of Congress, should make her very valuable.