Europe Talks

Only a practiced and attentive follower of the diplomatic minuet could make out all that was going on in Europe last week. From Paris to Rome a bewildering assortment of alphabetical outfits solemnly assembled; the air was murmurous with a busy shuffling of diplomatic papers, the inquiries of Wise Men, the reports of soldiers, the undertone of simultaneous translations. Among them:

The U.N. (60 nations), meeting in Paris. Two of the principals in the disarmament debate, Dean Acheson and Anthony Eden, had left to talk rearmament in Rome. That left the floor to Andrei Vishinsky, who had nothing new, either in invective or ideas, to offer.

With the Big Powers thus stalemated, the U.N.'s little nations gave new voice to old complaints. In the Assembly's Trusteeship Committee, Yemen demanded an end to Britain's protectorate over Aden in southern Arabia. Greece called for self-determination for British-held Cyprus (in the hope that it would go Greek). Guatemala wanted Britain to give up British Honduras to Guatemala. Egypt kept up her demand for British withdrawal from the Suez Canal and the Sudan. All the Arab states demanded an end to French rule of Morocco, even though the General Assembly's General Committee had voted against bringing up the subject in this session. When the Arabs persisted in discussing it, French Delegate Leon Pignon and his aides walked out. "The jackals are after us," admitted one British official sadly.

NATO (12 nations), meeting in Rome. The rank and brass of the North Atlantic alliance assembled in what used to be known as the Foro Mussolini, a flamboyant pile of buildings, Gargantuan statues and stone slabs commemorating Fascist triumphs. Heading the yoman U.S. delegation: three cabinet members (Acheson, Lovett and Snyder) and the nation's top ranking soldier, General Omar Bradley.

Most critical decision in the making: how to meet General Dwight Eisenhower's request for 25 to 40 divisions, fully trained and equipped, within the next year, without letting down on the longer-range program of 60 divisions by 1954.

Council of Europe (14 nations), meeting in Strasbourg. This most toothless of international assemblies proved to be the most interestingly talkative (see below).

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