UNITED NATIONS: The New Boys

The piping voices of the small nations —uncertain, parochial, timidly daring—were sounding last week through the corridors of the U.N. Suddenly, they sounded loud even in their own ears.

Some of the uncommitted were tentative; all were self-centered. "We are the new boys at school." confided a tall, broad-shouldered delegate from Niger. "We are just watching to see how the others behave.'' A fragile Somali in an embroidered cap added, "We are interested in what concerns Africa. We do not care to become involved in the struggles between the great powers." But they also found a new pride in themselves, an awareness of growing importance.

For the Small. As the week began, the uncommitted scarcely realized how important they had become. Then Nikita Khrushchev strode to the podium to roar Dag Hammarskjold into submission. Hammarskjold, cried Khrushchev, had tried to justify "the bloody crimes perpetrated against the Congolese people by the colonialists and their stooges. It is not proper for a man who has flouted elementary justice to hold such an important post as that of Secretary-General." Khrushchev demanded that Hammarskjold "muster up enough courage to resign."

Hammarskjold sat, his head bowed, listening to the blast. Replying, he leaned forward in his seat, spoke over his folded hands. "It is very easy to resign," he said. "It is not so easy to stay on. It is very easy to bow to the wish of a big power. It is another matter to resist."

He reminded the hushed Assembly that if he resigned, Khrushchev would insist on replacing him with a three-headed Secretariat. This, said Hammarskjold, "would make it impossible to maintain an effective executive. By resigning, I would, therefore, at the present difficult and dangerous juncture, throw the organization to the winds. I have no right to do so because I have responsibility to all those member states for which the organization is of decisive importance—a responsibility that overrides all other considerations."

The assembled delegates burst into applause. When it subsided, Hammarskjold continued in his careful English: "It is not the Soviet Union or, indeed, any other big powers which need the United Nations for their protection; it is all the others. I shall remain in my post during the term of my office as a servant of the organization in the interests of all those other nations, as long as they wish me to do so." All across the big semicircle, delegates, white, black and brown, rose in a standing ovation. In their midst, Nikita Khrushchev derisively pounded his thick fists on his desk.