Deferred Decision

During their 11 months as hosts to U.N., New Yorkers had witnessed some exotic spectacles. There was the turbaned Moslem strolling unconcernedly down Fifth Avenue; the sight of Russia's Molotov, convoyed by a squad of bulky, grim-visaged MVD agents; the group of berobed delegates gulping down siskebap in a midtown restaurant. The U.N. meetings themselves, at Lake Success, were almost as good as the Dodgers at Ebbets Field.

But New York's press, perhaps mirroring the sentiments of the majority of readers, had remained cool to the city's guests. Suburban Westchester residents had squawked indignantly when the U.S. began looking around the county for permanent quarters. Long Island groups protested, less notably, at the rate at which U.N. employes took over apartments and houses in a housing crisis. This week, after a fortnight's site-hunting jaunt, U.N.'s delegates sat down to select a new home.

They could be sure of a clamorous welcome wherever they went--at least outside the New York City area. From every city they had visited, alluring invitations continued to pour in. Philadelphia bolstered its earlier bid with a station-wagon load of new maps and photographs. In from San Francisco, Mayor Roger Lapham hurriedly rushed around New York with a final sales talk.

Even austere Westchester unbent somewhat. Escorting the delegates around his showplace farm, one resident proudly announced that he and a score of his well-heeled neighbors would be delighted to move out for U.N.

The only jarring note came in Boston, where Russia's Nikolai Bassov coldly demanded a plebiscite of U.N.'s prospective hosts. Obviously he had not forgotten last spring's outburst by a Massachusetts judge against "godless Russia." But Bostonians replied to a radio appeal with a 100-to-1 vote welcoming U.N.

Faced with such an embarrassment of hospitality, the delegates could not make up their minds. Dodging a final decision, they recommended to the full 54-nation headquarters site committee a choice of three suitable areas: San Francisco's Presidio, Philadelphia's Belmont-Roxborough site, a tract near White Plains, N.Y.

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