The Home Front:
BOHN, WILLIAM E.
THE HOME FRONT By William E. Bohn A Day at the General Assembly AS USUAL, I entered the great, shining Assembly Hall of the United Nations ahead of time. With a friend I sat for half an hour in...
...The result was: 43 yes, 11 no, 6 abstentions...
...Mme...
...Vishinsky and Lodge could argue for days without ever meeting...
...proposal...
...They start from different bases...
...what the UN has done has given mankind renewed optimism...
...Each contestant is right according to his own logic...
...This does not mean that the problem is settled...
...It was an outrage: 600 million human beings were represented here by a handful of bankrupts...
...the present Chinese government is not peaceful...
...At this first session of the ninth Assembly, there were a few lovely Indian ladies in shining silk and a couple of Indonesians in black fur hats...
...Then the head of our delegation, Senator Lodge, moved that the Assembly decide not to exclude the representatives of the Republic of China during the current year or to seat the delegates of the so-called People's Republic of China...
...Then followed a series of arguments...
...Vishinsky was supported by Poland, Burma, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia...
...Vishinsky, which gleamed like a malign star to my left...
...By putting an end to the Indo-China war, the leaders of the Chinese People's Republic had shown their power, their skill and their will to peace...
...The hall itself is so efficient, so modern, so well lighted, so adequately and conveniently equipped with hearing aids, that you naturally assume that the men and women who meet there will do their jobs efficiently and well...
...the UN must be made up of real powers...
...Yeh called the Chinese Communist Government a puppet regime forced upon the people by violence...
...As the lady from India was thrilling the audience with her deep contralto, I could hardly remove my gaze from the shining white pate of Mr...
...The great nations and the small ones are lined up according to the letters of the alphabet: Iceland--India, Canada--Costa Rica, and so on...
...They are always fighting somewhere...
...The Russian says: The Communists actually rule China...
...With a friend I sat for half an hour in the press-gallery--talking now and then, or just looking at the great hall and watching the delegates stroll in...
...The delegation of the USSR proposed that the Chinese People's Republic be at once admitted to the UN...
...But I regret to report that distinctive costumes are gradually fading out...
...At the end of her address, Mme...
...In the early days of the UN, there used to be quite a number of delegates from India and the Arab countries who wore the gorgeous flowing robes of the Orient...
...A few committees have been named and a few announcements made...
...the fights it has started have cost us dear in blood and money: we cannot admit them until they have shown a disposition to help in our efforts toward peace...
...therefore, the Communists are the only ones who have the right to speak for China...
...The Americans and British say: The UN has been organized to promote peace...
...Shaking both his fist and his old white head, the Kremlin's representative went to work...
...In one respect, the member nations have been treated rather evenly...
...All of them have been permitted to contribute to the staff which hustles about and does all the things that need doing...
...At the moment, there is no open war...
...Pandit announced quietly: "I recognize Mr...
...Yeh, the head of the present Chinese delegation...
...Among the policemen, ushers, doormen and others, there are all of the colors and contours of the human race...
...But that was about all...
...Let them prove their devotion to peace...
...So the matter is postponed for the present...
...Berlin and Geneva had been great victories for peace...
...You see the names of the sixty countries marking the seats which the delegations will occupy...
...Pandit, in laying down the Presidency, expressed with great eloquence a note of hope...
...It gives you the impression, not at all justified, that power is evenly distributed...
...The man from Australia argued that a code has been laid down by the UN and the plain fact is that the Chinese Communists have not lived up to this code...
...Backing Lodge were delegates from the United Kingdom and Australia, as well as Dr...
...Finally the vote was taken on the U.S...
...The two Presidents, the one retiring and the other being inaugurated, have said the appropriate words...
...But this year it was different...
...If they wish to be received, the way is open...
...The arguments on both sides are too solid and impressive...
...Vishinsky, of the Soviet delegation...
...If folks would learn to think alike rather than to dress alike, it would be more to the point...
...Then everyone has gone out for a drink and all has been well...
...These opening sessions of the various assemblies have generally been short and merely formal...
...many nations are united in fighting our common enemies, hunger and disease...
...Fifteen million people, he said, have been liquidated...
...Undramatic and unspectacular clothes like those we wear are conquering the world...
...It is obvious that this debate can go on forever...
Vol. 37 • October 1954 • No. 40
