Jolly Answers

In his usual glib and grinning way, Russia's Nikita Khrushchev confounded Western newsmen at a British embassy celebration of the Queen's birthday by taking up rumors about his past purge victims, and talking about what might have happened to Politburocrat Mikhail Suslov, who, Polish Communists believe, is Khrushchev's No. 1 opponent in Kremlin councils:

P: "If you want to see Suslov [missing from Kremlin functions for a month], go to the Black Sea, get a bathing suit and go swimming with him," said Khrushchev. Suslov, he added, has some further "accumulated leave" coming. "We take our holidays in turn."

P: "If you want to see Bulganin, buy a bouquet of flowers and go visit him at the hospital." Bulganin, demoted from Premier, "has been very ill" and has just had a "successful but serious" operation. Will he go back to his job as head of the state bank? "Now you are interfering in our internal affairs," grinned Khrushchev. P: How about Malenkov, supposedly managing a hydroelectric station in eastern Kazakhstan since his downfall last June? "You can buy a ticket and go visit him," shrugged Khrushchev. "I have not seen him in a long time, but the last time I heard, he was alive and well." What about the story that Malenkov had been injured while hunting? "Malenkov." said Khrushchev firmly, "is not a hunter. Furthermore, this is not hunting season."

If it was all as simple and jolly as this, the only question was why the dispatches reporting this conversation were then held up for 19 hours by the Russian censors before being put on the wires.

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