Changes in the Works

Four original members of the Eisenhower Cabinet have prevailed on Ike to accept their resignations some time during the spring or summer. Each of the four had wanted to quit at the end of the first Eisenhower Administration, had agreed to stay on to help get the second term on the road--and until a suitable replacement was found. The departing:

Treasury's George Humphrey, 66, trusted Ike friend and adviser, who has promised to stay until the Administration's $71.8 billion budget is approved. Though Humphrey intends to retire, he can be persuaded to stay if domestic or foreign affairs become sufficiently aggravated. No successor has been chosen, and Ike's eventual choice will be influenced by Humphrey's recommendation.

Defense's Charles E. Wilson, 66, who wanted to retire long before last week's National Guard explosion (see below), but has promised to stay until the 1958 military budget has cleared Congress. To succeed Charlie Wilson, Ike leans toward General Alfred Maximilian Gruenther, who recently retired as NATO's Supreme Allied Commander in Europe. Since the National Security Act specifically precludes military men from the Defense Secretary's job, Ike must get congressional dispensation to name Gruenther. If either Congress or Gruenther demurs, the post may go to another able candidate. Air Force Secretary Donald Quarles.

Postmaster General Arthur Summerfield, 57, whose urge to leave is heightened by his own bout of illness (a nonmalignant throat growth) and his wife's poor health. Summerfield will regard his Post Office service less than satisfactory if he leaves before achieving fiscal balance in the deficit-dogged postal system. In line to succeed ex-G.O.P. National Chairman Summerfield: ex-G.O.P. National Chairman Leonard Hall.

Commerce's Sinclair Weeks, 63, who wants to retire to his New Hampshire farm. One possible successor: Under Secretary for Transportation Louis Rothschild.

In U.S. diplomacy last week broad personnel changes also were in the works. Among them:

P: Massachusetts' ex-Governor Christian Herter, 61, took over as Under Secretary of State from Herbert Hoover Jr., who will stay on at Foggy Bottom as a consultant until Herter's appointment is confirmed by the Senate.

P: Charles E. ("Chip") Bohlen, 52, after longer (47 months) than normal duty as Ambassador to Russia, is scheduled to be replaced and reassigned. Likely successor in Moscow: Ambassador to Austria Llewellyn Thompson Jr., 52.

P: Former Ambassador to Japan John Allison, 51, Dulles' principal staff deputy in Japanese peace-treaty negotiations, has been named Ambassador to Indonesia.

P: Onetime Harvard President James Conant, 63, resigned as Ambassador to the German Federal Republic, may be replaced, if Senate Republicans approve, by David K. E. Bruce, 58, Baltimore lawyer, Harry Truman's Ambassador to France (1949-52) and onetime (1952-53) Under Secretary of State.

P: New York Republican Amory Houghton, 57, board chairman of Corning Glass Works, was selected to be the next U.S. Ambassador to France. Houghton, the seventh in his family to be an executive of the family glass company in Corning, N.Y., is the son of Alanson Houghton, who was President Harding's Ambassador to Germany (1922-25) and President Coolidge's Ambassador to the Court of St. James's (1925-29). No stranger to Government service, Amory Houghton was deputy chief of the U.S. Mission for Economic Affairs in London during World War II. He will replace Ambassador C. (for Clarence) Douglas Dillon, onetime investment banker (Dillon, Read), who will shift to Washington to become John Foster Dulles' Deputy Under Secretary for Economic Affairs.

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