UNITED NATIONS: Les Onusiens

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Mutton Stew. On their side, the Russians had an excellent propaganda opportunity in the issue of the Italian colonies in Africa—Libya, Eritrea, Somaliland. The 1947 peace treaty with Italy provided that unless the Big Four reached agreement by Sept. 15, 1948, the matter would be turned over to the U.N. Assembly. Some weeks ago Moscow startled the Western powers with a proposal to have one last fling at the colonies before the deadline. U.S. Secretary of State George Marshall agreed to negotiate but refused to attend in person. So last week in Paris the Big Four held a three-day conference on the Italian colonies. Moscow did not send Molotov, it sent the Foreign Office's No. 2 man, mercurial Andrei Vishinsky.

Vishinsky at once attacked the conference's authority to deal with the problem at hand. "In order to make mutton stew," he stormed, "you must have mutton. In order to have a Foreign Ministers' conference, you must have Foreign Ministers." To this France's Robert Schuman, the only actual Foreign Minister in attendance, sharply retorted: "If you don't have powers to negotiate, why did you come here at all?"

For three days the conference went through the motions, disagreed and turned the problem over to the U.N. Assembly. Russia is willing to turn the colonies over to Italian trusteeship with or without U.N. supervision. So is the U.S., but it is hamstrung by a British promise to the Senusi tribes who inhabit part of Libya. In return for Senusi help during the war in the desert the British pledged that the Senusi would never again have to live under Italian rule. The U.S., undecided on whether to please the Italians or the British and Arabs, hopes the Assembly will decide to postpone the issue for a year.

Other major preoccupations of this Assembly:

The Balkans. UNSCOB (United Nations Special Committee on the Balkans) is ready to submit a report giving solid evidence that Albania, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia had aided the Markos guerrillas against the Athens government. It may throw some interesting light on whether aid from Yugoslavia has dwindled or stopped since Tito's country got kicked out of the Cominform.

Little Assembly. The Interim Committee ("Little Assembly"), which functions while the Assembly proper is not in session, has recommended that its life and work be continued "for a further period to be determined by the Assembly." Russia has boycotted the Little Assembly, will doubtless fight the proposal.

Veto. Last July, the Little Assembly adopted an Argentine resolution calling for a world conference on Charter revision (purpose: to change voting procedure in the Security Council). The U.S., France and Britain voted against this recommendation which will be considered at the Paris meeting.

Premature. The French handled for the U.N. one problem which literally camped on its doorstep—Garry Davis, idealistic son of U.S. Bandleader Meyer Davis, who renounced his U.S. citizenship in order to become a "citizen of the world" (TIME, Sept. 20). Young Davis pitched a pup tent across from the Palais de Chaillot. Gendarmes escorted him, somewhat forcibly, off the grounds.