The Press: The Flying Carpet

Even for such a veteran good-will ambassador as 69-year-old Colonel Robert Rutherford McCormick, his "last big trip" around the world was hitting new highs of diplomacy and tact. After causing a sensation in Spain by unwittingly displaying the Spanish Republican flag on his converted B-17 (TIME, March 6), the Chicago Tribune's publisher had invaded

Egypt. In Cairo, he had an audience with Premier Mustapha el Nahas Pasha, but thoughtfully waited until he reached Pakistan before describing Egypt's new constitution as "a complete phony."

By the time McCormick flew into Bombay last week, the Indians could hardly wait. Because of the Tribune's rabid opposition to anything British, India's nationalists have regarded Bertie as their best American friend. At Bombay's Taj Mahal Hotel, the 50 newsmen who met their best friend face to face got a rude shock.

Tired and bored, Colonel McCormick described himself as a "reporter looking for news." M. A. Gidwani of the United Press of India, also looking for news, asked McCormick what he thought about the dispute between India and Pakistan over the status of Kashmir (TIME, Jan. 9). Replied McCormick: "I did not know there was such a place before I landed here," thus convicted himself of failing to read his own newspaper"; the Trib's Delhi correspondent, Percy Wood, has filed full and accurate accounts of the dispute. Then McCormick made a tentative stab: "That is where the rugs come from."

When affronted Reporter Gidwani suggested that Kashmir's future was a "very important question," McCormick disagreed. "American people," said he, "generally are not interested in happenings in countries very far from their own." Snapped Sorab Patell, reporter for Bombay's sensational tabloid weekly Blitz: "Are you interested in anything but yourself?" Barked Bertie: "An impudent question . . . What do you know about Alaska?" (Next day the Times of India pointedly printed a story about Alaska.)

Having disposed of geographical matters, the Colonel tackled social ones. He told his race-conscious audience that he considered President Truman's civil-rights proposals "a new form of slavery." When a reporter asked him whether Madame Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, India's ambassador to the U.S., was welcome at the White House,* McCormick snorted: "I wouldn't know. I am not welcome there myself."