Orchids for Andrei

With his compartment full of roses and a huge bouquet in his hand, Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Vishinsky was on his way back to Moscow from Paris. While photographers' bulbs flashed and Soviet officials bowed & scraped, newsmen fired questions about the spectacular failure of every Russian proposal put to the current session of the U.N. Assembly. Said Vishinsky: "The decisions taken were for the preparation of a new war by the Anglo-American bloc." Was he going to retire? Quipped white-haired Vishinsky, 68: "Qui vivra verra [He who lives shall see]." All but one of the satellite lackeys was at hand. Five minutes before the train was due to leave, U.N. Czech Delegate Gertruda Sekaninova-Cakrtova came breathlessly galloping down the platform of the cavernous Gare de l'Est, thrust a Cellophane box of orchids into Vishinsky's hand.

The U.N. calmly went on with its business:

P: Voted to reconsider the admission of 14 new U.N. members (five of them Soviet satellite countries) on a package deal proposed by Russia. This was a small orchid for the departed Vishinsky and a minor defeat for the U.S., which is anxious to include the other nine (Italy, Ireland, Finland, Portugal, Austria, Ceylon, Nepal, Jordan and Libya), but resents Russia's exclusion of South Korea and its inclusion of satellite Outer Mongolia, which is no more a sovereign nation than South Dakota. Addition of the other satellite countries (Hungary, Bulgaria, Rumania and Albania) would also relatively strengthen the voting position of the Soviet bloc. On any issue requiring two-thirds majority, every vote counts.

P: Took up a U.S. proposal to hold a special Assembly meeting in New York at which it would debate the future of Korea if the present armistice talks are successful. Presumably it could alternately take up the bombing and blockading of the Chinese mainland if the armistice talks fail.

Next morning on the German-Czech border, Vishinsky stepped out of the comfortable Orient Express, went aboard a dingy second-class Czech train decorated with a huge red star. A German border official noted that Mrs. Vishinsky's hair, described as black in her passport, had become a coppery red in Paris.

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