The Norweb Collection - An American Legacy

With the embassy's permission, Henry took his wife to Shanghai for a rest, but trouble found them there, too. China was in the grip of recurrent fighting between the Kuomintang, under Sun Yatsen and Chiang Kai-shek, and various local warlords and splinter groups of communists. The cities of Canton and Shanghai were divided into enclaves where French, British, and other foreign nations exercised military and legal control. All factions in China, whatever their political leanings, resented the foreign influence; anti-foreign riots were not uncommon, although there had been a lull just before the Norwebs arrived.

Renewed rioting broke out in Shanghai shortly after they landed. Mrs. Norweb told her daughter that she remembered standing at the windows of the embassy in Shanghai, watching crowds of students pounding on the gates outside, until mounted troops arrived to drive them away. Henry decided that Shanghai was not safe, so they traveled inland by train, staying with a Chinese war lord to whom they had an introduction. Their plans for returning to Shanghai were delayed for some forgotten reason, which turned out to be another stroke of luck, as the train they were scheduled to take back was hijacked and the foreigners aboard held for ransom.

Later, to ensure their safety, the war lord loaned his chief executioner to be their bodyguard during the return journey to Shanghai. The chief executioner stood outside their compartment door on the train, his arms folded across his chest, a huge sword strapped to his back. Needless to say, the return trip was uneventful.

The Norwebs remained in Tokyo through most of 1924. It was not a pleasant place to be for foreigners, even ones with diplomatic protection. Inside the embassy life was normal, but outside the grounds the Japanese government placed restrictions on free movement around the city. Claiming the measure was for their own protection, the government assigned soldiers to escort the diplomats whenever they wanted to leave the embassy and tour Tokyo. Actually, the escort was there to keep the diplomats away from the common people: western influences were felt to be detrimental to the purity of Japanese culture. Even when she went shopping, Mrs. Norweb was accompanied by her armed guard. Close proximity over the months she was escorted by the same soldier soon had its effect, however, and while they never became friends, the soldier soon relaxed his military posture when in her company. On one occasion, while bargaining over the price of some clothing material, her guard told the shopkeeper that he was overcharging her and his goods were inferior, even for a foreigner. The soldier steered her to a better shop where prices were more reasonable.

The Norwebs left Japan late in 1924, traveling by steamer to Java (now Indonesia), where Henry had been instructed to report on a controversy over rubber production in the Dutch East Indies colony. His even-handedness impressed the local Dutch authorities, and when a new first secretary was needed in the American Embassy to The Hague, the Dutch government requested Henry Norweb for the post. The next four years found the Norweb family reunited in Holland, and they spent the years from 1925 to 1929 happily together. The tour was largely uneventful. Mrs. Norweb remembered in 1934 that what impressed her the most about the time in Holland was the extraordinarily large number of tourists who flocked to the country for the annual tulip season. Henry Norweb attended an international radio conference during this time, and gained his first introduction to a technical field that would later become a specialty of his in the service.

Latin America

In 1929 the Norwebs were assigned to Chile, where Henry was appointed First Secretary to the Embassy in Santiago. Their house was outside the city, and had a panoramic view of the snow-capped Andes Mountains. They spent weekends skiing in the Andes or playing tennis or golf nearer home. Their chief entertainment was the movies; Chileans in the capital were great fans of Hollywood "talkies" and the movies were not dubbed in Spanish, so there was no language barrier for the Norwebs. Henry found conducting diplomatic affairs very difficult since governments rose and fell with an annoying rapidity. No real civil wars broke out, but there was constant fighting for hegemony among the military branches. If the Chilean Navy didn't rebel the air force would, or the army would jump in to make trouble. Surprisingly, the police forces remained loyal to whatever government was in power at the time, so the capital was usually quiet and orderly. Mrs. Norweb was perplexed by the appearance of the fashionable women of Santiago. She remembered later that high society ladies all seemed to be wearing dresses that were heavily wrinkled, and she could not understand why they didn't take better care of what were obviously the latest Paris fashions. She understood the local custom better, when it was explained to her that the wrinkles were a sign that the dress had just been unpacked from its Paris designer's shipping box.

The Norwebs remained in Chile until late in 1933, when Henry was assigned as Counsellor to the Embassy in Mexico City, Mexico. They enjoyed this posting in particular, because they were closer to home than they had been before on other stations. Vacations and leaves could now be taken at their home in Bratenahl, near Cleveland, Ohio, and the family could spend more time together than in the past. The three years they spent in Mexico City, 1933-1936, were used to good effect. Mrs. Norweb created pleasant gardens at her Bratenahl home during leaves. Henry Norweb further strengthened his close ties to Latin America through his work with the Seventh International Conference of American States, held in Montevideo, Uruguay in 1933. Also during their tour in Mexico City Mr. and Mrs. Norweb made the acquaintance of B. Max Mehl, whose offices were in Fort Worth, Texas. The Norwebs involvement with coin collecting resumed at this time.

The seven years from 1936 until 1943 found the Norwebs moving from one Latin American station to another, five different ones in all. Beginning with Bolivia, where Henry was sent in 1936 as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, they later moved to the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Peru, and back to Chile. Each new posting meant a new household, new staff, and new local customs to adapt to Mrs. Norweb described life in the foreign service to a reporter from the Cleveland press in August 1946, in these words:

Diplomatic life is something you either like or loath. One has to have the knack of house keeping in every language. The servants at a new post want to tell me how to do things. I let them go so far, then I go into the kitchen and make my specialty, an angel food cake. I tell the cook, when she can make a cake like that, then she can talk to me.