FOREIGN RELATIONS: White Knuckles

Nobody, least of all the State Department, thought any more words would do any good, but just for the record, the State Department said them anyway. It sent a new, white-knuckled protest to Moscow over the U.S. Navy Privateer patrol bomber which the Russians shot down last month, apparently over the open Baltic Sea.

Obviously, said State, "the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics has not only failed to meet but has no intention of meeting the obligations which international law and practice impose on members of the family of nations.

"It is clear that this disregard for law, custom and the opinion of mankind . . . cannot be reconciled with the Soviet Government's continued protestations of its devotion to the cause of peace."