A member of the Senate Agriculture Committee had a question to ask Secretary of Agriculture Charles Brannan. Did he agree with the President's recent comment about the committee? Said Brannan, "Oh, I do, sir. I don't remember what he said, but I agree."

In a story bylined by eight-year-old Vera Kondakova, who was chosen to present Joseph Stalin with a May Day bouquet, the Communist paper Young World gave East German readers the Moscow version of juvenile heaven. Wrote Vera (or ghostwriter): "I am the happiest, the very happiest child on earth. Comrade Stalin stood right next to me. He looked at me in such a friendly way and smiled."

In Manhattan, after the traditional motor drive to City Hall where he received the city's Medal of Honor, Dr. Leopold Figl, Chancellor of Austria, was luncheon guest of honor at the Overseas Press Club. There he accepted a bouquet and a buss from nine-year-old Emmi Mattesich, all dressed up in her best Austrian costume. In a serious mood, Figl told reporters: "We in central Europe today are the easternmost outpost of the free world and we are determined to defend this bastion. To achieve this we must rely upon the moral and material help of the free world . . . until we are again in possession of all the natural resources of our country. It is not our fault that we were robbed of them under the unfortunate Potsdam decisions."

Wisconsin's Senator Alexander Wiley and his 41-year-old British-born bride Dorothy May Kydd arrived in Europe aboard a U.S. Army transport plane for a combined good-will visit ("in the national interest." said the Defense Department) and a honeymoon trip. Among their first stops: Noordwijk-aan-Zee, The Netherlands, for the opening of the International Council of Christian Leadership. After they were saluted with a few bars of Here Comes the Bride, the 68-year-old Senator, filled with good will, beamed at the delegates and said, "There's life in the boy yet." Then he turned to Princess Wilhelmina, honorary chairman of the conference, and asked her for a blessing on his marriage. Not so jovial, the former Queen declined by saying: "I'm no clergyman."

In a broadcast from London, on the eve of the Duke of Windsor's arrival, Lord Beaverbrook recalled some background on the abdication of the ex-King. When the duke arrived in France in 1936, Beaverbrook recalled, he said, "I always thought I could get away with a morganatic marriage." Obviously, said Beaverbrook, "it had been his intention to barter the threat of abdication against government acknowledgment of the morganatic marriage. The game was played to the end, and the Times and Mr. [Stanley] Baldwin won the last trick."

Hearth & Home

After eight months of rough & tumble marriage, Actor Franchot Tone appeared in a Los Angeles court to plead for a divorce from Cinemactress Barbara Payton. Said Tone: "My wife's hobby is cooking. She wanted to prepare dinners herself." The trouble was, Tone explained, that he would invite people home for one of her dinners and the guests would sit around for hours waiting for her to arrive and start cooking. After a ten-minute hearing, the judge decided Tone had been cruelly treated, and gave him the divorce.

In Manhattan, Cinemactress Olivia de Havilland, fifth wife of Novelist Marcus Goodrich, announced that her six-year marriage had about finished its run. A good husband, she said, should be "as placid as a millpond in July," with "the ability to produce tranquillity and peace in the home. A woman like myself must have it or perish . . . I didn't get it."

Manhattan Nightclub Comedienne Jane Kean hinted that Cinemactor Mickey Rooney might pick her for his fourth wife. Said she: "I went with him before he married Ava Gardner, and I went with him before he married Martha Vickers, and now I'm going with him again . . . He's a real doll and real cute." Said Mickey from Hollywood: "She's a grand girl. We're good friends, and that's all we ever will be."

Nods & Becks

The National Dog Welfare Guild met in Manhattan to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the founding of National Dog Week and announce its annual Dog's Best Friend awards. Among the winners: Guild Member Dale (How to Win Friends and Influence People) Carnegie.

Sydney Chaplin, 26-year-old son of Cinemactor Charlie Chaplin, arrived in London to visit his father's latest leading lady, Claire Bloom, 20. His gift for the occasion: a 40-lb. box of steaks.

In Paris, the Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres elected Sweden's King Gustaf VI Adolf to life membership. His qualifications: archeological diggings in Greece, Egypt and his own palace grounds at Sofiero.

Presiding Bishop Henry Knox Sherrill of the Protestant Episcopal Church announced that he had chosen Francis B. Sayre, onetime U.S. High Commissioner to the Philippines, to be his personal representative to the Episcopal Church in Japan.

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