CONFERENCES: Without Distinction

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At this season of the year, says a dry British Admiralty handbook, fog is rare in Beirut. Last week, in that ancient city of Lebanon, where St. George is supposed to have slain his dragon, a winter sun beat fiercely on old walls radiant with purple bougainvillaea and flaming crimson poinsettias. Its rays glittered gaily in the gentle wash of Mediterranean tides on Lebanon beaches, and shone on the sleek hoods of shiny new U.S. taxicabs weaving their way through clusters of bronzed and burnoosed Arabs.

At night in Beirut, neon signs glared garishly before such nightspots as Maxim's, Harry's Bar and the tinseled Kit Kat Club, where a burnished blonde from Budapest chanted defiantly: "Bingle, bangle, bungle, I'm so happy in the jungle, I refuse to go." In the black sky overhead, Aldebaran, Betelgeuse and Rigel blazed as brightly as they had centuries before when Arab herdsmen first gave them their names.

Plans for a Study. Despite its crystal days & nights, Beirut was not entirely free of haze last week. On the southern outskirts of the city, past Parliament Square, where a bemused policeman stood directing traffic with one hand and counting his beads with the other, delegates from 44 countries were gathered for the third annual conference of UNESCO (the United Nations' Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization). Their purpose was to remove all global misunderstandings.

From the conference rooms rose a heavy mist of insubstantial words. Through it one could hear the faint humming sound of platitudes being rubbed together, of logs being rolled, of whitewash being slapped across naked raw spots of international dispute. "Her interpretation of the dance is certainly interesting. Now if we could find a way to bring it down to the level of popular understanding . . ." Or: "It might be beneficial for us to initiate plans for a study with a view to promoting more understanding . . ." Scarcely a speech failed to make a bow to UNESCO's objectives, "human rights and fundamental freedoms . . without distinction of race, sex, language or religion"; or to that other ringing UNESCO slogan: "Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defenses of peace must be constructed."

UNESCO, however, could not ignore the fact that the very country in which it met last week was proudly and openly at war with the Jews of Israel. On the second day of the conference, the Lebanese delegation, supported by other Arab nations, raised an outcry against the admission of Jewish observers from whatever nation. A hot debate ensued until somebody discovered that no Jewish observers were present or intended to come. Sullenly then the Arabs agreed to admit all organizations which had "accepted the invitation" (no Jewish group had).

After that, the conference got down to business. "Let the mind of man be free," cried U.S. Delegation Chairman George V. Allen, "and it will soar to undreamed of heights of majesty. Let people understand each other, and they will create a world order of peace and human betterment."