Shop-Talk Therapy

His abdominal injection of radioactive gold "cooled off" enough not to menace visitors,* cancer-stricken Secretary of State John Foster Dulles last week got another visit from the President. Himself an old hand at convalescence, Eisenhower did little of the you-look-fine cheering, instead settled right down to therapeutic shop talk about Berlin. Though wearied from the rigor of the gold and the million-volt X-ray treatments, Dulles was strong enough to have hopes of talking this week with Britain's Prime Minister Harold Macmillan. One plan discussed by White House staffers: if Dulles continues his recovery of strength he might be helicoptered up to Camp David for the Eisenhower-Macmillan weekend.

Meanwhile, the President sternly refused to discuss or consider a replacement for Dulles unless Dulles himself decides that he cannot return to the job. But earlier in the week, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman J. William Fulbright recommended Acting Secretary Christian Herter for the job and predicted that he would get it.

* The gold isotope 198, which has a radioactive half-life of 2.7 days, prevented hospital personnel from staying close to Dulles more than 15 minutes the first day, 30 minutes the next, an hour the third day after treatment.

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