The Student King

France's well-traveled Charles de Gaulle (see following story) had just swept out of town last week when a shy newcomer to jet-age diplomacy flew into Washington in the presidential Columbine. He was Nepal's King Mahendra Bir Bikram Shah Deva. 39, a sensitive poet by inclination, a statesman by necessity. He is absolute ruler of a tiny kingdom in the high Himalayas, wedged between populous India and Chinese-controlled Tibet. Accompanied by handsome Queen Ratna Rajya Lakshmi Devi Shah, in blue sari and mink coat. King Mahendra moved stiffly through welcoming pomp, kept silent (though he speaks fluent English) during the limousine drive downtown with President Eisenhower.

His eager eye for the new and unusual told more than words. Slight, self-effacing. King Mahendra for almost 30 years was cloistered within the palace grounds at Katmandu by Nepal's hereditary family of autocratic prime ministers, the Ranas. Their century-long rule was overthrown in 1951; King Mahendra. who succeeded his father five years ago, has tried hard to learn about his own country and the outside world. He walks the hills of Nepal each summer with a retinue of 2,000, camping in an ornate tent and blessing the throngs that worship him as the reborn Hindu god Vishnu. Eager for economic and social progress, he has traveled through neighboring India and the Soviet Union. The U.S.S.R. has granted Nepal $12.5 million in aid. The U.S. has given $30 million in technical assistance; Communist China, Nepal's northern neighbor, has given $4,500,000, has promised an additional $29 million. But King Mahendra refuses to swap isolation for the thralldom of any great power, steadfastly pursues a policy of nonalignment.

Coincidentally. as he flew into Washington last week, that policy was being tested in Nepal's capital of Katmandu. Red China's Premier Chou En-lai arrived for talks on China's claim to a slice of Nepal containing the world's highest peak, was greeted by paintings of Mount Everest prominently labeled "Nepal." Meanwhile, half a world away. King Mahendra earnestly told a joint session of Congress: "Our policy of nonalignment does not arise from our desire to sit on the fence . . . We shall certainly not be neutral when we are confronted with a choice between good and evil, or right and wrong.''

Nepal's border squabble with China was smoothed over by week's end by a return to the traditional split of Mount Everest between Nepal and Tibet. But Nepal's Prime Minister flatly refused Chou's offer of a nonaggression pact. As for Nepal's bedrock problems. King Mahendra. during a month-long tour of the U.S. and Canada, hoped to expand Western sympathy for an awakening land hampered by feudal poverty and widespread (94%) illiteracy.

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