Neutrals: Run for Cover

With all the world watching, the neutralist leaders meeting in Belgrade abjectly abandoned all title to the role of "conscience of mankind,'' and ran for cover.

Nikita Khrushchev scattered them with one loud boo and the remote thunder of atomic explosion deep inside Russia. After that, it was every neutralist for himself, and the Conference of the Nonaligned Nations was soon lined up in splinters tremulously blown one way or the other. Yugoslavia's President Tito condemned France for failing "to comply with the resolutions of the United Nations on the discontinuance of atomic tests." He was willing to forgive Russia, "because we can understand the reasons adduced by the government of the U.S.S.R." Indonesia's Sukarno and Ghana's Nkrumah echoed Tito.

Senior Neutralist Jawaharlal Nehru proved to be the statesman, stubbornly and persistently trying to restore some balance and perspective to the quivering delegates. "The era of classic colonialism is dead," he told them flatly. "Of course it may give us a lot of trouble yet, but essentially it is gone, it is over. Colonialism, racialism are important, but they are overshadowed by this crisis—because if war comes, all else goes." He got surprising support from the U.A.R.'s Gamal Abdel Nasser, who opposes the Soviet demand for two Germanys since, if he sanctioned the principle of partition, it would prejudice the Arab case against Israel. Six other neutrals showed some understanding of what nonalignment means, and backed Nehru: Burma, Ceylon, Cyprus, Lebanon, Nepal and Tunisia.

Fringe Benefits. Many of the neutrals abandoned any pretense of judging the cold war, pushed their own pet projects. The Congo's Vice Premier Antoine Gizenga. arriving late with Premier Adoula, claimed the floor in violation of the rule that only heads of delegations could speak, used it to subtly pump up his own prestige as Patrice Lumumba's spiritual heir. Equally busy was the F.L.N.'s new Premier Benyoussef Benkhedda, who succeeded in persuading Afghanistan, Cambodia. Ghana and Yugoslavia to extend formal recognition to his provisional Algerian government.

During the feverish, all-night attempt to draft a final communiqué, Indonesia's Sukarno begged the conference to support his demand for West Irian; Morocco's King Hassan II urged his claim against Mauritania. Nehru's coalition vetoed mention of either. An Arab resolution condemning Israel was knocked out by Burma's U Nu, a good friend of Ben-Gurion's.

But not even Nehru could bring himself to an outright condemnation of Khrushchev's new tests. Instead, the conference blandly urged that "all countries" resume the moratorium. But Nehru did succeed in getting the delegates to approve a special message addressed to both Kennedy and Khrushchev, urging immediate summit talks between the Big Two, because of the "deterioration of the international situation and the possibility of war which jeopardizes humanity."