Satisfaction in Silence

EASTERN EUROPE

The communique published by the Polish news agency P. A. P. was just that. It spoke of "brotherly friendship and complete unanimity of views"; yet a quick look at the guest list put the lie to that in a hurry. Gathered in Warsaw last week were Premiers, Presidents and party bosses of the Warsaw Pact nations: Russia's Brezhnev and Kosygin, Bulgaria's Todor Zhivkov, Czechoslova kia's Antonin Novotny, East Germany's Walter Ulbricht, Rumania's Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, Hungary's Janos Kadar, Poland's Wladyslaw Gomulka.

Over the past few years these men have grown ever more diverse in their national interests and their approaches to everything from Comecon to the Sino-Soviet split. Prime disunifier of the lot was Rumania's Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, who had not deigned to talk publicly with Russian leaders in 18 months. He agreed to talk this time, but the official silence was appalling.

Actually there must have been plenty of chatter behind the grey walls of Warsaw's Namiestnikowski Palace, the 18th century abode that now serves as Poland's Cabinet building. Though the meeting had ostensibly been called to discuss defense matters, a more pressing issue to the East European Reds was the imminent (March 1) preparatory conference called by the Kremlin to discuss Moscow's ideological quarrel with Peking. This was the same monster rally originally scheduled by Nikita Khrushchev for last December. Kosygin and Brezhnev postponed the showdown's date and changed the tenor of the proposed conference from truculence to "objective" discussion of Russo-Chinese differences.

As the black, slush-splattered ZILs, Chaikas and Mercedeses of the gathered leaders crisscrossed Warsaw's wintry streets, it was clear that defense was not all that crucial a discussion point. And it was just as clear from the official silence that no hard agreement had been reached on the March meeting. Never mind. In these days of polycentrism, it was victory enough that Russia's B. & K. team had even got their recalcitrant partners together to discuss the advisability of discussing Red China.

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