Paris Sunday, June 15, 47.

Departed from N.Y. Tuesday via Gander to Azores. Arrived Wed. p.m. at Hotel Pont Royal. Flight smooth & interesting. Mostly 15000 feet & more; very good service & food. Neighbor: M. Gendrin de Kaysersbach, ex Chef ing. des Mines, now cardbord manufacturer. Had read Walras, Pareto etc. Described the far greater Am. indus. productivity. This was also stressed with amazement & dismay by other fr. & belgian industrialists on board (e.g. rolling mills). At the Azores many police, soldiers etc, but only 2 (for.) planes. At La Guardia field not one & 100’s of planes of all nations. French customs slow, deliberately so, but tolerable. Weather brilliant, first impression of Paris overwhelming after so many years. All seemed unchanged & I was highly pleased & even elated. At Perroux’s Institute very well received by Pujabe, then by P. who just returned from Italy. The ital. economists urge me to come there. I may do this later. Lect. for Thursday. – Visit at Embassy, no permit has come. Letter from Miles Cowles to Gen. Joe Tate transmitted but Maj. X simply sends me to Lt. Skodaris at Mil. Permit Off. where there is no trace of application or permit. New appl. made Cabled to Wash., Berlin etc. Answer should be here early next week. RRd. Strike still on. My Swiss trip doubtful, I may go directly to Frankfurt or Vienna. – The same evening the good Impression wore quickly off. Saw Schütz briefly at the Meurice who knows P. thoroughly & is here a week already. He has a terrible impression; but some of the investments they had written off come back quickly. Paris is very dark, cafés close at 10, 11, ! No business there, people look depressed, gray, women particularly. Only seldom sees one smart women (then they are often Am. North or South). The war has told on women quite particularly. The houses are delapidated, & groteskly in need of repairs. Sometimes there is genteelness in the poverty. Then one sees very smart, beautiful things (Kunstgew.) for the very few. Prices are fantastic whether the $: 129 or l: 200! Dinners cost easily $3-5. Clothing etc. all twice as high as N.Y.!! Still puzzled how people manage. No unemployment but very low productivity (app. 80% of 1938 & then it was nothing to bragg about!)

Lect. went well, about 60 people. Among them Buchanan, Lutfalla, Piatier, Ulmo etc. & lots of discussion. First a luncheon; very good. They are very nice to me. Same evening with Schütz to André Wahl (philos.) where also Paul Lévy (math.), Santillana & other philos. Quite interesting; He lives in a hole. Has wife & baby, 2nd expected. The whole seemed to me like something from the ruins of Europ. civilization. And so much talk about America & a great looking – there. Schütz says that so many (rich) frenchmen whom he knew in N.Y. & are now here, after having always praised France & condemned US badly want to go back. Passp. offices are jammed. People are sour, as if hit over the head (not the Perroux group). Visited Rist’s Institute: terrible; nothing goes on there. I may see him monday. The lect. on the Games was Friday June 13; I spoke free (french) & it was allright. Seminar type; app. 25-30 people. Few understood, but all terribly excited and interested. Allaiz opposed: we had not disproved that there is a soc. max. for free competition (!). Ulmo then said that Johnny was the greatest living math. & that they (Allaiz) should be careful in criticizing. Lutfalla was very interested. Frechet did not come; Divisia is out of town. Nobody has even seen the book; the copy I sent to Perroux has not yet arrived. I am supposed to write down my lecture and they want to publish it. –

Same evening to Follies Bergère, quite good, not full, listless public. Le me integral (except for a little white feather). Rain. Then to the Lido which I did not like so much. Ete, pleasant.

Yesterday visit at Piattier’s office. Very eager to show off & perhaps he does good work. Then lunch with Herbert of Rist’s Inst. who instantly said that Piatier & his outfit were worth nothing. Those jealousies (as formerly in Vienna & worse on the Balcans; sign of poverty etc).

Dinner with the Buchanans. He flies today to Prague. We should meet in Vienna. She is nice. Home early. I do not want to tire myself out. M. Duminy was 5 years in Austria as pris. of War! M. Macewski, in Perroux’s Inst., was in Mauthausen & in his wife in another KZ. He saw how 1000’s were killed, mostly hung. Jews. He is not jewish, I think.