Dewdrop In

The Big Four, meeting at Geneva, agreed to take two holidays--one (on behalf of the French) on All Saints Day at week's beginning; the other (on behalf of the Russians), six days later, on the anniversary of the October revolution. U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles decided to celebrate the religious holiday by calling on Spain's Catholic Francisco Franco, and to celebrate the Communist holiday by calling on Yugoslav's Communist Tito. Neither dictator had ever been so honored before.

Traveling on his special Air Force Super Constellation, the Dewdrop, Dulles first dropped in to pay a five-hour call on Spain and enjoy a sustaining lunch of lobster and poularde at General Franco's palace. Madrid's newspapers wiped their front pages clear to proclaim the great event. An honor guard of Spanish troops was on hand to receive the visitor, and Madrid's citizens lined the roadways to welcome him. "My coming here," said Dulles, "is a manifestation of the friendship between our countries." It was also regarded by Franco as final proof that he was not only a useful ally but also socially acceptable. Dulles told Franco that the U.S. is heartily in favor of Spain's admittance to the U.N.

At week's end Dulles flew to Yugoslavia, a country that no other U.S. Secretary of State has ever visited. Once again, John Foster Dulles exuded a clubby desire for friendship. Soon after the Secretary's arrival at President Tito's Adriatic island retreat at Brioni, the dictator, in Dulles' words, "whisked him off" in his gleaming white speedboat. "I was glad to see he knew how to drive it," said Dulles later. "I was gladder," said Speedster Tito.

Before a lunch described by Dulles as "heavy," the two smiled and laughed before a crowd of reporters, admitted that they had discussed the problems of Eastern Europe, Germany and the Middle East. Were they in agreement? asked the press. "Yes," replied Dulles, and emphasized: "We discussed the problem of the states of Eastern Europe, and we are in common accord in recognizing the importance of the independence of those states, non-interference from the outside, and their right to develop their own social and economic orders in ways of their own choice." Turning to his host, Dulles asked: "We are in common accord, are we not?" "Yes," replied Tito. .

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