PARIS, Friday —Most of us were shocked Wednesday morning to read in the papers that Secretary of State Marshall had undergone an operation. Many French people had asked me when they saw he had entered the hospital whether he was seriously ill. But I thought it was just the usual kind of checkup that the Army and Navy insists on for many of our high government officials. I hoped that it meant he was taking life a little bit easier after the strenuous time he had had over here. Now I am happy to know that he is doing well, but I am distressed that he had to go through with this operation at a time when so many difficult problems must weigh on his mind.

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After a brief meeting of our committee Thursday morning, when most of the delegates were absent, we adjourned until our April meeting in New York.

I rushed back to the hotel for a hurried lunch to find that most of my steamer bags and boxes had safely gone, which leaves us looking really as though we were actually started homeward.

In the afternoon our delegation met to talk over our remaining work, and we held another delegation meeting early this morning. I also did a "few words" on the radio for the United Nations radio station with Dr. Charles Malik and had promised to do two more short radio talks after our meeting.

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The parties that we go to now all take on added significance, since we are always saying goodbye to someone about to leave for home.

Admiral and Mrs. Hewitt had a party at the Hotel Crillon yesterday afternoon. They leave by boat tomorrow.

I was interested to meet the son of Admiral Moreau, who was the French commander at Brest when my husband and I came over here in January 1919.

Also, yesterday afternoon I went to look at some very interesting maps of Palestine, which were hanging in the room of the head of the U.S. mission, James McDonald.

Mr. McDonald's daughter told us of the difficulties and of the great expense of living in Palestine today. Rents are higher in Tel Aviv than in New York, and food and clothing are higher and very difficult to get. When I suggested that Paris was in many ways still not the mecca for shoppers that it used to be in years gone by, she said, "Just come to see us in Tel Aviv!"

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A very interesting young French girl whom I had in for tea yesterday was greatly worried because the director of her office, who had promised to try to get her transferred to one of the company's offices in the United States, wouldn't be able to do it soon enough for her to be married in the spring. So I suggested that there was another worry, too, and that she had better start at once to look into getting a visa.

I also warned her that life in America was sometimes not very much like life in France but that I thought the French and American people had much in common and I was sure she would be flexible enough to adjust herself to her new life and family and friends.

I cannot help hoping that when she does manage to get to the United States I shall have the chance to see her and her husband. I must say I envied her, for she speaks Russian, Czechoslovakian, German and French with ease, and now her English is excellent, too. That would seem to give her very valuable equipment not only for a job but for settling down in almost any community in the U.S.