CONGO: President's Week

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For two weeks the Congo's pro-Western President Joseph Kasavubu had been cooling his heels in a Manhattan hotel room, waiting for the U.N. General Assembly to decide whether to give him the Congo's seat over the violent objections of his prime foe—erratic, mischief-making Patrice Lumumba. When the matter finally came up before the Assembly last week, Ghana led the fight for Lumumba, proposed a motion to adjourn the debate without even considering Kasavubu's case.

Harried Joseph Kasavubu had behind him not only the Western bloc but a new factor in U.N. politics—tribal ties. Cassock-clad Abbé Fulbert Youlou, the President of the former French Congo and, like Kasavubu, an Abako tribesman, rallied nine French Community states, helped beat back the adjournment motion 51 to 36. Result: after a bit more debate, Kasavubu seemed likely to get the coveted seat.

Get Out. Back in the Congo the vote strengthened the hand of Kasavubu's key ally, Congolese Army Commander Colonel Joseph Mobutu. Six weeks ago Kasavubu had declared Ghana's Chargé d'Affaires Nathaniel Welbeck persona non grata on the ground that he was running around Léopoldville whipping up support for Lumumba, who since his dismissal has rarely dared to venture out of the official mansion where he is still holed up. Instead of leaving, Welbeck kept right on operating from the Ghanaian embassy, where he was guarded by Ghana's U.N. contingent. Last week, after his men caught a secretary at the Ghanaian embassy trying to get to Lumumba with $600 and plans to set up a new state in the southern Congo, Mobutu himself ordered the eviction of all Ghanaian diplomats from the Congo. The colonel had not been so exercised since he kicked out all Communist-bloc emissaries back in September.

At this point the new winds from New York began to blow. Under heavy Afro-Asian pressure, the U.N. had been tacitly supporting Lumumba's contention that he is still Premier of the Congo despite his dismissal three months ago by Kasavubu —and had been treating Kasavubu's commands with a gentlemanly disdain. Now, apparently with an eye on the Assembly vote, the U.N. command shifted its stance slightly, ruled that if served with a formal expulsion order, Welbeck would have to get out, since the U.N. "does not intend to interfere in the relations between the government and diplomats."