The Persuader

The House Foreign Affairs Committee moved out of its cramped old quarters in the Capitol into the spacious hearing room of the Banking & Currency Committee to hear Secretary of State John Foster Dulles defend the President's resolution on enslaved peoples (TIME, March 2). Nonetheless, the seats were filled, reporters were jammed against television cameras, and standees rimmed the room by the time Dulles took the witness chair. First he read a carefully prepared statement, setting forth the high principles of the resolution. Then he pointed out the pitfalls of flatly repudiating the Yalta or Potsdam agreements of World War II, or trying to fix the blame on anybody for executing them. Next he took the questions.

Wisconsin's Larry Smith wanted to know if there shouldn't be some sort of confession of America's error in signing the wartime agreements. Replied Dulles: "Confession is always good for the soul." But the place for confession, he said, "is in the privacy of communion with one's God. I do not think a resolution which we want to vibrate around the world is the place for confession."

Through the Ages. Dulles went on to explain the gradual objectives of the resolution in some of the most statesman like phrasing heard in the Capitol for a long time. Said he: "I do not think this resolution is going to soften the heart of the masters of the Kremlin. It will encourage the aspirations of captive people ... It is going to be a gradual process. This is the beginning, not the end ... I believe that this resolution--if taken as I hope with virtual unanimous support of the Congress--will resound through the ages, and will in due course attain a dignity and position in history comparable with that of the Declaration of Independence and the Monroe Doctrine."

The Representatives were completely won over. Next day the committee considered a dozen amendments, voted them all down and unanimously passed the resolution without a change. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee, after hearing Dulles behind closed doors, was expected to follow suit this week.

In Congress last week:

P: The Hawaiian statehood bill sailed serenely through the House Territories Subcommittee to the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, a strong indication that Hawaii would get its flag star, and soon.

P: The Senate Appropriations Committee approved $60,000 for the President's inactive Council of Economic Advisers--which the House once denied.

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