The President's News Conference

RED CROSS INVESTIGATION OF THE FAMINE IN CHINA

THE PRESIDENT. I have a question as to the impending famine due to the more or less failure of crops in some parts of China. Some 3 weeks ago I asked the Red Cross if they would not send an effective mission to China to investigate the entire situation. Mr. [Ernest P.] Bicknell, Mr. [William M.] Baxter [Jr.], and Mr. [Ernest J.] Swift, all of them very experienced men, will arrive in China in about another 7 or 8 days on that mission. The reports as to the size and importance of the famine and the accessibility of the famine areas are fairly divergent, but this mission should be able to make a reliable report and statement for us in the course of another 2 or 3 weeks, I expect.

APPOINTMENT OF FREDERIC A. TILTON

The only other point I have this morning is that Mr. Frederic A. Tilton, of Detroit, a partner in Haskins & Sells, accountants, has yielded to our persuasion to become Third Assistant Postmaster General. That is the division of the Post Office that has charge of fiscal affairs and accounting, and it is the first step taken by the Postmaster General in the reorganization of the Department. We have had some delay due to the difficulty of persuading men of very much larger incomes and [p.176] positions to accept this sort of position. Mr. Tilton, however, stands in the first rank of public accountants in the United States and I think is going to be able to perform a very great public service.

That is all I have on my mind.