MARSHALL’S TEAM HAS SEIZED THE INITIATIVE

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25301, 29 September 1947, Page 6

MARSHALL’S TEAM HAS SEIZED THE INITIATIVE

UN. GENERAL

ASSEMBLY

[By GODFREY BLUNDEN, “Sydney Morning Herald” correspondent in New York.) (Reprinted by arrangement.)

Two developments of the utmost importance distinguish this meeting of the United Nations General Assembly from all those held previously. The first is the militant organisation of the United States delegation, and the second js the greatly increased tempo of the proceedings as a result of simultaneous translations of delegates speeches in the three official languages. The American delegation, instead or being a group of individuals —drafted politicians or career diplomats each reporting back to the State Department and receiving general instructions —is now a tightly organised group, acting always strictly according to plan. This change is due, of course, to United States dissatisfaction at having been so often out-generalled m the previous meeting by the Russians; it is due also to the firming of American foreign policy; but it is due most of all to the personal leadership of the Secretary of State, General Marshall, on the floor of the Assembly. An American reporter close to the State Department described General Marshall as running the United States delegation just as he used to conduct meetings of the chiefs of staff during the war.

Plans Carefully Made Every morning, and sometimes during the evenings, at General Marshall’s suite at the Pennsylvania Hotel, there is a conference attended by all delegates, their alternates, secretaries, and State Department specialists. General Marshall sits at the head of a long table. At his right sits Mr Warren F. Austin, former Senator and now United States Ambassador to UNO; at his left Mrs Eleanor Roosevelt, who has been United States representative on all the lesser humanitarian, reformist and aid committees. Next is the mild-mannered, heavy Herschel Johnson, who was United States Ambassador to “Sweden during the war, and saw the Russian postwar policy being shaped long before Germany was invaded. Opposite him is the soft-spoken, shrewd, intelligent John Foster Dulles, who has represented the United States on many international conferences, and here voices the Republican Party’s views, ensuring that General Marshall’s policy is thoroughly bi-partisan. . These are the principals of General Marshall’s team, but their alternate delegates also sit at the table. When the delegates and alternate delegates have expressed their views General Marshall says: “This is what we shall do,” and he lays dpwn m precise language American policy. Inside UNO, each delegate and alternate remains at his station Until the meeting ends, except for an occasional word with the delegation’s executive secretary, Mr Durward San,difer, who is a kind of message centre for all reports and instructions. General Marshall is seldom spoken to py members of his delegation, and only seldom does he speak with them during sessions. Reporters waylaying delegates or alternates are given the same answer, “See Mr Sandifer.” But when a critical m° m ent arrives, such as an important decision in the general committee, one of the principals enters the sound.booth of one of the great national broadcasting networks, where he will give a brief interpretation of what has happened. With all his austerity, General Marshall has not neglected opportunities afforded by press anq radio for bringing the American people behind hjs policy. By these means—obvious but hitherto not practised by any other international delegation, with, probably, the exception of the Russians —the United States has managed to seize the initiative of UNO in the first days. In the stepring committee, where procedure op ipatters to come before the General Assembly is discussed, the United States moved on the first day

that the Greek border dispute should be fully debated in the Assembly Only one day previously in the curity Council Mr Gromyko had used his twentieth veto to block the United States proposal to refer the dispute from the Council to the Assembly, but he could not prevent the matter being withdrawn from the Council altogether, thus making it possible for the United States to reintroduce the subject in the Assembly. Meanwhile, in the Assembly, General Marshall himself, in a speech which showed every sign of careful and detailed preparation, was suggesting a new and radical development of United Nations procedure—that there should be a full-member committee permanently in session between annual meetings to consider such matters as the Greek dispute, to advise and to appoint commissions af investigation, and so on, in fact to do all the work which the Security Council was expected to do, but which the Russians have consistently prevented. Vyshinsky’s Slip It was here that the second important development at UNO made itself noticed. In the past procedure has been slowed down by translation, an interval which delegates used for conferring with one another and deliberating over proposals. These delays invariably have helped the Russian delegates who have taken the time to digest every phrase of important speeches, rfefer them in detail to Moscow and await directives. Thus under previous conditions the Russian delegation would have had perhaps a day or half day in which to examine the Marshall speech. But now each speech is translated 8s it is being made and broadcast irough small radio receivers supplied to each delegate. The leader of the Russian delegation, Mr Vyshinsky, did not use the gadget during General Marshall’s speech, and therefore missed its whole import and had to be informed by his aides afterwards. He was obviously go concerned with the United States attitude that he ordered his own speech struck off the agenda. General Marshall's speech was undoubtedly transmitted that afternoon to Moscow, where the Politburo would probably confer before instructing Mr Vyshinsky what to say. Meanwhile the United Nations charged ahead at a new tempo. Apart from these two developments, this session differs very little from tfle last one.

Delegates Bring Guards One significant addition this year has been the number of secret and not so secret police accompanying the delegations. The Arabs have brought their own bodyguards dressed and armed like themselves and looking thoroughly capable of slitting an infidel throat. The little meek Sir Alexander Cadogan, tripping around in his threadbare old tweed jacket, is now followed lay a large man with a soup-strain# moustache and soiled waistcoat who, they say, is a Scotland Yard man. The Arabs and British are, pf course, guarding against Jewish terrorists, but the Russians, who have also brought their own guards, are simply afraid of Americans. Last session an obscure Ukrainian delegate walked into a delicatessen in New York, anfl was fired on and wounded. police say, in one of th? city’s many daily hold-ups. Ent nothing could convince the Russians that there was nothing political m this attack. So this time the Cunard Line’s wharf was completely blocked off for Mr Vyshinsky’s arrival and an escort of motor-cycle police accompanies him everywhere. All this is in addition to UtyQ's own specially-trained blue-clafl police corps, augmented this session by 100 New York policemen and 20 detectives. Well, it’s all in aid of world amity.