The Congo: Exit Raj

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Twenty-seven years in India's elite civil service gave brilliant, Oxford-trained Rajeshwar Dayal an elegant diplomatic manner and endless Oriental patience. But this was hardly enough to prepare Dayal for the heat, hatred and hurly-burly of central Africa when U.N. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold named him chief of the U.N. mission in the Congo last August. Almost before Dayal had settled into his glass-walled office in Léopoldville, chaos broke around his head. Erratic Patrice Lumumba wanted protection in his refuge in the Premier's residence. From his own villa near by, President Joseph Kasavubu sulked and hurled insults at the U.N. One afternoon Colonel Joseph Mobutu strode into Dayal's office, asked for a slug of Scotch, and announced that a coup d'état would take place within ten minutes.

The untrained politicians clearly got on his delicate nerves. The Congolese army, he declared publicly, was "rabble," and the local press angrily quoted him as calling Army Boss Mobutu a "bandit." In time, Dayal lost personal contact with all Congolese leaders, eventually withdrew to haughty isolation in his own elegant residence. When, after Lumumba's death, he seemed to lean over backward to favor Antoine Gizenga's Red-leaning Stanleyville regime, Dayal also lost the trust of the big Western nations.

When Hammarskjold called Dayal back to U.N. Manhattan headquarters for "consultation" in March, nearly everybody sighed with relief. U.N. relations with the Congolese improved spectacularly, and the U.S. gently urged Hammarskjold to keep Dayal in Manhattan indefinitely. Finally, last week, controversial Rajeshwar Dayal announced his resignation. As soon as he can pack his bags, he will return to his old job as India's High Commissioner to Pakistan, where good diplomatic manners and endless Oriental patience still had a certain value.