Progress Report

Philosophized Lebanon's husky, furrow-browed Charles Habib Malik (Ph.D., Harvard) : "As Aristotle said ... a horse runs --it does not converse. A house does not make love--it is for living in." Malik's question: What is U.N. good for?

Lebanon gave its own answer when it suggested that U.N. have the world's greatest books translated into all the world's languages. In U.N.'s General (Steering) Committee one day last week, the proposal caused a weary two-hour debate. Queried Russia (Andrei Gromyko): "What is the cost of such enterprise?..." Replied Lebanon: ". . . Small, in proportion to the benefit. . . ."

Uruguay and New Zealand (Roberto MacEachen and Sir Carl Berendsen) tried to escape from the room, were testily waved back to their seats by the Chair (Paul-Henri Spaak). The Ukraine (Dmitri Manuilsky) prodded sarcastically: "Who is to decide which are the 'great classics of human thought?' Human thought has taken some very capricious turns at times! Very capricious. ..." (Lebanon's own uncapricious selections: Plato, Aristotle, St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, Shakespeare, Leibnitz, Pascal, Descartes, Kant, Averroes.*) The matter was referred to the Assembly, to be referred back to a committee.

Two days later, Committee One discussed admission of Eire, Albania, Portugal, Trans-Jordan and the Mongolian People's Republic. The overheated committee room, with its entire contents of delegates, tables and sorely tried hopes, seemed to swim in a bluish haze of tobacco smoke. Cuba (Guillermo Belt) dozed off, woke up a quarter-hour later, rosy-cheeked and refreshed. Later, South Africa (Jan Christian Smuts) went to sleep. Declared Liberia (C. Abayomi Cassell): ". . . We will not move the big powers--each of them has its own fish to fry. . . ."

Meanwhile, in a corner of the deserted Security Council chamber, in front of a loudspeaker relaying the meeting next door, sat China's neat, dignified Wellington Koo. He was deep in the slumber of an oldtimer who has learned to doze discreetly through such occasions.

Seeping out of the cafeteria, permeating the peaceful scene, was the strong, vital scent of freshly cooked sauerkraut.

* Twelfth-Century Arab philosopher, whose own attempts to propagate classics, chiefly Aristotle, came to the West in a Latin translation of a Hebrew rendition of his Arabic commentary upon an Arabic translation of a Syriac translation of the Greek original.

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