New York Prepares

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29004, 18 September 1959, Page 11

New York Prepares

(Rec. 11 p.m.)NEW YORK, September 17. Mr Khrushchev, will arrive today on his first visit to this tallest and richest city of the world, which is also the home and haven of thousands ot bitterly anti - Communist refugees. A police force of 7300 will be protecting the Soviet leader from any violence from the moment a special train bringing him from Washington arrives at the famous Pennsylvania station. Before leaving New York for Hollywood by air on Saturday, Mr Khrushchev will have attended a civic luncheon, addressed some of the world’s richest capitalists, visited the grave of President Franklin D. Roosevelt at Hyde Park and addressed the 82-nation General Assembly of the United Nations As the Soviet visitor comes and goes, New York police, sharpshooters and judo experts will be watching and waiting for the slightest sign of any trouble in the bustling cosmopolitan city of eight million people. So strict are the security precautions that the police have ordered even rubbish bins along the routes to be taken by Mr Khrushchev to be removed or safeguarded to prevent their possible use as “missiles.” Picketing Permitted Picketing by anti-Communist demonstrators will be permitted, but they will be forbidden to use poles or sticks or other potential weapons when they carry placards. The demonstrators will be made to stay on the opposite side of the street from any building being visited by the Soviet leader. The peak number of police guarding the world’s top Communist leader at any one time during his 48-hour visit is expected to be 3300, making it the tightest and most concentrated security measure the city has ever known.

Even the train bringing him to New York will be preceded by a “trouble-shooting” express, with secret service men, Soviet security agents and railroad detectives carrying guns. The train ride from Washington to New York will be as sus-pense-packed as a spy thriller, United Press International said. Right after the pilot train will come the Khrushchev express, made up of two locomotives, empty coach cars, three luxury parlour cars, a dining car and a glass-panelled observation car. The tracks will be patrolled constantly until the train passes. Emergency telegraph and signal crews will be on duty in every station on the main line. Security Relaxation In contrast to New York’s preparations, the security cordon round Mr Khrushchev relaxed appreciably in Washington yesterday. During the first day of his visit, the movements of the hundreds of reporters and photographers were closely regulated. Most reporters got no closer than 25ft to the Soviet leader and none spoke with him. Yesterday, crowds of reporters rubbed elbows with him. At the Agricultural Research Centre swarms of reporters gathered around Mr Khrushchev. During his 10-minute visit to the Lincoln Memorial later, most security men were left standing helplessly outside the ring of tourists and reporters. Mr Khrushchev did not appear to mind.

Mr Khrushchev’s first official engagement today is a luncheon in his honour by the city’s Mayor, Mr Robert Wagner. In the evening he will go to meet some of the world’s richest men at a reception given by Mr Averell Harriman, the former Governor of New York, who visited Mr Khrushchev in Moscow recently. Later he will talk to the city’s capitalists at a dinner of the Economic Club. Mrs Nina Khrushchev and other women in the Soviet party will dine with Mrs Henry Cabot Lodge, wife of the United States Ambassador to the United Nations. Mrs Lodge will later take them to a Broadway theatre to see the musical comedy “The Music Man.” Marian Anderson, the negro contralto, will be among the group of 17 women at the dinner for Mrs Khrushchev.