building constructed for occupancy by the chancery. It is likely that no contractor will be interested unless the Embassy is able to promise occupancy for a term of years, say from 5 to 10. This would be an uneconomical solution, in the long run, but there seems to be no alternative, if constructing a building ourselves is indefinitely delayed. The currently occupied building is deteriorating rapidly, and a year from now its condition will be much worse than now, while 2 years from now the process of disintegration will have progressed that much more. A separate OM will be forwarded shortly by the Embassy's administrative officer dealing with his negotiations with the owners regarding a renewal of the lease for 1 year from February 28, 1955. BELGRADE, YUGOSLAVIA SHELDON T. MILLS. MARCH 31, 1954. In an informal communication to the Department covering a number of problems Ambassador Riddleberger commented on the critical need for staff housing at this Iron Curtain post as follows: "Ever since ***the beginning of my *** 5 months' residence in Belgrade, the question immediately after such things as- -has been what is known as the 'housing crisis in Belgrade.' *** The housing crisis is a permanent pain in the neck for anyone who sits in my chair. *** As it stands today we always seem to have several families in hotels plus anywhere from 12 to 18 girls also in hotels or occupying a room in a Yugoslav household and sharing bathroom and kitchen facilities. "All of this is prefatory to asking you whether the atmosphere in Washington is in any sense propitious for a building program of our own in Belgrade. The arguments in favor of this are succinctly: "(a) At the present rate of Yugoslav construction it will be 50 years before sufficient housing is available; "(b) We have large quantities of dinars backed up which would certainly cover any housing which I would be willing to approve for this mission *** 1 * * * What we should do is fairly obvious and that is to tear down some of these Serbian peasant houses on property we now control in the same block with the embassy building and building ourselves some modest and unostentatious apartment houses where we can help house the staff." VIENTIANE From Vientiane on March 17, 1955, Ambassador Yost commented further on the acute housing problem at that post as follows: "Most disturbing long-term problem is housing. Despite recent rentals we are still appallingly housed. Staffing projections all agencies indicate need will not (repeat not) be met even when housing compound completed late summer. Chancellery will also need substantial addition. Meanwhile our very limited administrative staff spending three-quarters their time in preparing plans, negotiating leases and supervising construction and maintenance. As first step in meeting our problem we urge immediate 6 months' assignment here of high-level building expert who could take over these duties from staff and could recommend authoritatively longer range solutions, such as, hiring Bangkok or Manila construction firm, flying in prefabs, etc.' AMERICAN EMBASSY, CIUDAD TRUJILLO, D. R. Department of State, Washington, D. C. DECEMBER 22, 1954. The Embassy has long been considering approaching the Department concerning the problem of space which confronts the Embassy. Reporting the problem to the Department was deliberately delayed until the advice of the inspectors and an FBO representative could be obtained. The Embassy now has such advice and can no longer delay action in view of the urgency of the situation. It is fully realized that it is not the opportune moment to present this problem for budget purposes. However, the Embassy sincerely solicits FBO's aid in preparing budgetwise to handle this problem at the earliest possible date. To give a bird's eye view of the present arrangement of the Embassy there is enclosed a free-hand sketch of the chancery showing distribution and location of sections and personnel. At a glance it will be seen the following space problems exist: 1. The Deputy Chief of Mission is crammed into a space which was originally intended for the secretary to the Chief of Mission. 2. The secretaries to the Chief and Deputy Chief of Mission are located in the space intended for a waiting room for visitors to the Chief of Mission. This space is ill-ventilated and has become so stuffy at times during the hot season that the secretaries have become physically ill. 3. In what was intended for the Deputy Chief of Mission's quarters are located three members of the Economic Section and the Foreign Agricultural Service representative. 4. The consular officer is only partially immured behind a wall of ordinary file cabinets, which affords him absolutely no privacy. He shares an office, partitioned off from the public waiting room by a series of storage cabinets, with his assistant, secretary, and two local employees. 5. The administrative assistant occupies an open porch which at the same time houses the Embassy commercial library for businessmen. Often winds, at the beginning of rain showers, drive him into the chancery proper for protection. 6. The public affairs officer and administrative officer, both of whom have a steady stream of visitors, share one office. 7. The disbursing officer and accounting clerk must share their room with a local employee although they are crowded with their equipment and office machines. 8. Two local employees share a hallway merely 8 feet 8 inches wide. The sketch is inaccurate here in that one sits with her back almost touching the desk behind her. The hallway is actually 18 feet long but 5 feet of that length is used as a passageway for persons using the side door of the chancery. 9. The side porch serves as the USIS film library and mimeograph operating quarters. When miscellaneous boxes or articles arrive at the Embassy shortly before closing time, they are placed in the aisle of the film library. 10. Although not pictured on the sketch, cleaning supplies and equipment are kept in the small alcove leading to the public toilet and lavatory off the rotunda. The inspector requested that another location be found for them but dropped the matter when the lack of alternatives facing the Embassy was explained. 11. The Embassy is completely without storage space. Expendable supplies are kept in the two small supply rooms bordering the main entrance and two storage cabinets located in the Consular Section. The third supply room shown on the sketch between the Ambassador's office and the Economic Section is actually an archives room. Each section of the Embassy must accommodate the forms required for that Section because the Administrative Section does not have the space. In addition to the above obvious space problems confronting the Embassy, there are others of equal and greater seriousness which must be listed for the Department's further information. These are: 1. The Foreign Agricultural Service's representative is presently occupying the space required for the second economic officer's position which is now vacant. The Embassy is urging the Department to fill this position as soon as possible to meet present work requirements. At that time, the agricultural officer will have to be moved out of the chancery altogether. Such a condition is suitable neither to the Embassy nor to the Foreign Agricultural Service, both of which realize the importance of having the agricultural officer working physically as close as possible to the Embassy's Economic Section. 2. The public affairs officer has asked for an urgently needed junior assistant in full awareness that the space problem of the Embassy is acute. The inspectors have recommended that the public affairs officer be assigned an assistant as soon as the space problem can be solved. 3. The Military Assistance Advisory Group, numbering eight permanent personnel, are quartered across the street from the chancery in the building leased by the office of the navel attaché. Inadequate as the space was for their purposes, the MAAG was compelled to accept the partial quarters or move a distance from the Embassy. Deciding that moving away from the Embassy would be administratively impracticable, the Chief of MAAG accepted what to him was the lesser of two evils. However, MAAG does not wish to have dropped from further consideration its space problems. 4. Mr. George Steuart, FBO representative, reminded the Embassy during his recent visit that it is the Department's desire to have the service attachés located within the Embassy proper if possible, as well as the Director of the United States Operations Mission and a secretary, at least, of the USOM at the post if the Embassy facilities cannot accommodate all of the USOM. 5. The Embassy lacks a mail room. Sea pouches and parcels are opened in the administrative officer's office for lack of a more desirable location. 6. Three local employees (utility man, messenger-janitor, and chauffeur) are without any work space whatsoever in the chancery. Literally, they have no place to hang their hats in the office. Instead of going to a central location where they should wait for further orders when not working on specific instruction, the administrative or general services officer must needlessly search these employees out. Wherever they congregate these locals find themselves in the way and so take themselves to that place where they are least apt to be troublesome because of their mere physical presence. The Embassy has various plans for increasing space but the most feasible one from an esthetic and cost viewpoint is that suggested by Mr. Steuart of FBO. That is that the plans of the building be studied in FBO to see whether the walls of the Embassy are sufficiently stable to withstand a second floor construction. If the walls are sturdy enough, sufficient space could be obtained to overcome most of the problems outlined above. Nevertheless, it must be pointed out that such increase in space could not possibly permit the Embassy to accomplish the solution of all those problems. If it is not found that the walls are capable of handling a second floor, the Embassy feels that the only other solution would be to build a building similar in size to the present one to the rear of the present building, i. e., to the left of the sketch as it is read, with a covered corridor leading from the present back porch to the new building. An H-shaped building would result, the extension of which would require no facade and costs on the new building could be held to the minimum. This might come closer to solving all outstanding space problems than would the building of a second floor. PHNOM PENH JANUARY 12, 1955. Secretary of State 461, January 12, 4 p. m. Sent Department 461; repeated information Hong Kong 20. *** Assign Housing situation outlined in reference Embassy telegram has grown more desperate. Believe we have almost completely exhausted market. ment of a MAAG will make situation absolutely hopeless. || LEOPOLDVILLE, BELGIAN CONGO AUGUST 19, 1953. In commenting on the situation at this post in 1953 the consul general reported in part as follows: **** The general public regards the whole setup as a joke, and I am frankly ashamed, humiliated, when anyone other than a native comes into the office and sees the filth and squalor, the absurdly overcrowded conditions, and the general tone of the office which can best be described as "rotten". * * * "I have never seen anything like it in my 22 years of service. Never before have I literally been ashamed to walk into my own office. "Five out of the eleven American members of the staff live in 3 buildings adjacent to the office, also owned by the Belgian Congo Government and rent free. These quarters are fairly roomy and adequately furnished, but the buildings themselves are in a shocking state. As in the case of the office building, neither the Belgian nor the American Government will do anything about it. Furthermore, the neighborhood is not a decent one in which to live. "The compound, containing office and living quarters for five American employees (in only four establishments, one of which is not completely equipped), is located in a dirty, busy industrial section on an unbelievably rough cobblestone street connecting residential and business Leopoldville with the airport and with a nightclub. Adjacent to the compound and forming one of its boundaries is a soap and margarine factory operating around the clock six days a week. A third boundary is a narrow dirt street giving vehicles and workers access to the soap factory and other industrial establishments beyond. The fourth boundary is a chemical plant whose entrance for vehicles and workers flanks a two-unit residence. A few hundred yards away, on the airport side, all the local soft drink, soda and beer are made and bottled. Every bottle consumed in Leopoldville and a huge surrounding area (millions a year) must pass the compound twice, once full and once empty, packed without separators, in crude cases, on huge overloaded trucks. Across the cobblestone street are a furniture factory complete with sawmill, and an operational base for a construction company. A goat farm must be somewhere out towards the airport, as about fifty goats pass by the office daily, their bleating added to the rattling of bottles, traffic, industrial noises, and babbling of thousands of natives going to and from work in staggered shifts produce an incessant cacophonous din from dawn to late at night. Six members of the staff can escape it by going home. All others (5) including one with a family, live as well as work with it ***" FAR EAST CHIEFS OF MISSION Far East Chiefs of Mission Conference held in Manila reported on March 5, 1955 covering a number of subjects including the following: More re "Housing is one of most acute administrative problems of this area. liable and effective methods and organizations for evaluating housing and building needs, including repair and maintenance should be urgently developed on a country by country basis and provision made for their satisfaction." TEHERAN, IRAN Inspection DECEMBER 7, 1954. The foreign Service inspector reports in part as follows: "(b) Ambassador's residence: This building is old and rickety and should be condemned if it has not been already. The superficial brick facade conceals mud walls which are crumbling. The tin roof is sagging and the chimneys askew. Interior walls are cracking. The space layout is not ideal and the kitchen and pantry are inadequate and unbelievably antiquated. Storage space is nowhere near adequate. Repairs are constantly required, costly, and uneconomical in the long run. The residence is far from being representative or contributing to the prestige of the United States. In fact it is the poorest residence of any Chief of Mission in Teneran. Moreover, the Ambassador has probably had to live with less comfort than most of his staff. It is recommended that plans for a new residence progress as rapidly as possible and that it be located on or near the site of the present residence. "(c) Counselor's residence: This building also is in a decrepit state and should be condemned. It is constructed of mud and brick and buttresses have had to be built to keep the crumbling walls from collapsing. It should be replaced by a suitable new building located in the vacant property to the north of it which has been termed locally the 'glass factory.' This would enable the whole eastern portion of the compound to be a residential area and would facilitate security, privacy, and freedom from the noises of the rest of the compound." PALERMO, ITALY MAY 29, 1951. The situation reported below by the consulate general has changed little if any since the date of the report and in view of the situation in Palermo will probably be rectified only by construction of suitable office space. "In the first place, the quarters occupied by the consulate general are most unsatisfactory for office purposes and cannot help but be reflected in the amount and quality of the work turned out. The location is good, but physically the premises are ill adapted to office purposes. No one outside of the principal officer and 1 or 2 other individuals have any privacy whatever. This, of course, likewise constitutes a serious security problem. The premises are so crowded that we are literally bursting at the seams. The front office makes a bad impression and is full of shabby, nonstandard furniture. It is so close to the street that one cannot segregate properly the legitimate callers from the hangers-on who overflow into the street." JIDDA SAUDI ARABIA APRIL 8, 1955. In justification for additional staff housing for the American staff at Jidda a report from the post comments on the conditions in a leased building containing four apartments now occupied by American staff members as follows: "Apart from the very high annual cost this building has numerous disadvantages, e. g. "(1) There is no public transport and occupants, if without private means of transportation must rely on Embassy transportation. "(2) The building is without telephones. "(3) The building is situated 5 kilometers from the Embassy. (4) During the King's stay in Jidda, usually a period of 3 or 4 months in midsummer, the large bulk of the Jidda Electric Co.'s electricity output is utilized in catering for the illumination requirements of the royal palace. "Sixteen powerless hours a day in a temperature of 130 F. is the normal experience, and as food preservation, cooking and air conditioning are all dependent on electric power, the hardship is very real. "In consequence of the foregoing factors the proposal of construction of an apartment building on the Embassy compound would have ample justification." DUBLIN, IRELAND Inspection AUGUST 13, 1953. As a result of an inspection by a Foreign Service inspector in August 1953 the report of inspection reads in part as follows: *** In just about every other way these buildings are unsuitable and inefficient. They are in need of much interior decoration. They are highly unsatisfactory from a security viewpoint. The 2 Service attachés have to share 1 office. The back building used for a visa etc. office is dark, dank, dingy, and unhealthful. "Since the Department is so familiar with this situation there is no point in extended discussions on my part. "I do believe that Dublin should be restored to a fairly high priority for chancery acquisition and that intensive efforts should be made to carry out this project promptly." BASRA, IRAQ MAY 6, 1953. A message from the consulate reporting property conditions reads in part as follows: "The building currently serves as both office and residence for the principal officer. It is a 2-story structure built in the Turkish era some 70 years ago and since then no major overhauling has been made that local inhabitants can recall. The street floor serves for offices and the second story as residence. "For many years the building served as a warehouse for an important British firm and the old wooden floors on the second story reflect the treatment received. The ceilings, including that of the living room, still have hooks. Here and there the floor boards are separated by spaces almost one-fourth of an inch wide so that one may peer from the hallway above to the space below. In addition, all of the floors are more or less undulated and one has to either step up or step down to go to all the rooms. Despite considerable expenditures last year by Consul Daniel Gudin, Jr., in shoring up the floors, it is still unsafe to have large numbers of people visit the residence at the same time. Some local residents refrain from accepting invitations to the residence if they think that more than 60 persons may be present, for fear of falling through the floor. "The kitchen and two storerooms at some remote date were added to the building and are made out of wood, in contrast to the masonry structure of the original building. In 1 storeroom 2 walls have become disjointed at the corners for threequarters of the room's height so that daylight enters the room through the separation. During sandstorms the quantity of sand that has to be removed from this room is very great. As the wood in the three rooms has been thoroughly dried out they constitute a fire hazard. "The roof of the building is made generally of a porous brick covered with a very thick layer of dried mud for insulation purposes. During the winter rainy season the roof becomes one vast mire and leaks occur throughout the structure. On the inventory several earthenware vessels are listed, which are used to catch the water from the leaks. "Because of the many holes between walls and in the roof and because of the mud covering, large numbers of rats and mice infest the building. Recently, the principal officer scraped off a beam a dead bat. In certain seasons of the year as many as 12 to 15 mice and rats are killed in a week. When the canvas covering is removed from the roof of the terrace on the second story at the end of the rains in the spring, large numbers of mice scamper off and the Iraqi employees of |