The Little Visitor

Japan's Premier Shigeru Yoshida is a tiny (5 ft. 1 in.), bouncy man of 76, who likes to wear old-fashioned wing collars and pince-nez and who like another well-known Prime Minister, has a fondness for strong brandy and premier-sized cigars. Last week Yoshida was in the U.S. on a twofold mission: 1) to pay a formal goodwill call, and 2) to find some economic succor for his hungry homeland. The protocol tour was a resounding success, but the fund-raising expedition turned out to be a disappointment for the little visitor.

Warm Welcomes. Yoshida arrived in the U.S. after a month-long tour of European capitals. Pausing in New York, he took time off for a quick trip through the Museum of Modern Art, where he was allowed two extraordinary privileges: 1) he was permitted to keep his glowing cigar as he whisked through the galleries, and 2) he didn't have to remove his shoes when he inspected the model Japanese home in the museum's garden.

In Washington the Premier of the country that attacked Pearl Harbor only a little more than a decade ago was given the warmest of welcomes. He addressed the National Press Club, and went to the White House for a conference and a pleasant lunch with President Eisenhower. When Yoshida arrived on Capitol Hill, the Senate gave him a standing ovation. "A great friend of the U.S. in the cause of freedom," said Vice President Nixon in his speech of welcome.

At the Pentagon Yoshida encountered the only lapse in the social success of his visit. After a talk with Secretary of Defense Charles E. Wilson, his party could find no trace of their guide, Vice Admiral Arthur Davis. A sailor who happened to be passing by volunteered to guide them to the office of Admiral Arthur Radford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

There they learned that Radford had left for Europe several days earlier, and nobody had bothered to cancel the Yoshida appointment. Turned loose in the Pentagon maze once more, the Premier and his aides wandered around uncertainly until a reporter noticed their bewilderment and escorted them out of the building.

Cool Answers. The Premier's official mission--aid for Japan--ended on an equally uncertain note. On the eve of Yoshida's arrival the State Department announced that the U.S. was prepared to sell Japan $100 million in surplus wheat and cotton.

Yoshida had grander ideas: something like $400 million in "investment help" to rebuild the island empire's economy and thereby renew her moldering industry.

In his Press Club speech the round little Premier suggested another aid program along the lines of the Marshall Plan, which would extend $4 billion to non-Communist Asia, including Japan. With his proposal Yoshida coupled a warning: "Somewhere, somehow, a way must be found to increase [current] help, if these underdeveloped areas are to survive in the free world family ... Action less noble, less decisive than that which I have outlined will not be enough to tip the scales."

Secretary Dulles quickly turned thumbs down on the proposal. "Conditions which exist in Southeast Asia are quite different from those in Western Europe at the time of the Marshall Plan," he told a press conference. "I am not today convinced that it would be practical to attempt to spend . . . any such figures as would compare with the Marshall Plan figures." But, the Secretary promised, the U.S. would continue its efforts to find an economic solution for Japan and the rest of free Asia.

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