"The Most Possible Fuss"

The day Bronx Borough President James J. Lyons spread his neo-Babylonian banquet for the Security Councilmen at the Grand Concourse Plaza Hotel, Iran seemed far away indeed. Marshaled (vainly) to convince the U.N. that they should not move out of the hospitable Bronx were steaks, caviar, champagne and a three-piece band to play Meadowland for Delegate Gromyko. But no sooner had the last mellow tones subsided than the jarring discords of the supposedly settled Iran issue again filled the air.

When the Council reconvened six days later, Andrei A. Gromyko lumberingly repeated his country's demand that the "socalled" Iran issue be dropped from the agenda without waiting for the Red

Army to move out of Iran on May 6. Surely there could be no further objection, since Iran herself now made the same request ("The Iranian Government has complete confidence in the Soviet Government and, for this reason, withdraws its complaint").

The other delegates were not impressed. Led by the U.S.'s Edward R. Stettinius, one after the other tore into Gromyko. They said in effect that the Council could not look the other way every time the complainant in a dispute decides (or is made to decide) that all is well again.

Poland, of course, sided with Russia. France's suavely soothing Henri Bonnet gave Russia some unexpected comfort by observing that it would be setting a possibly embarrassing precedent to deprive a small nation of her right to withdraw a complaint against a big nation. But his colleagues were in no mood for compromise.

When Gromyko spoke for the third time, his usually dry, level voice shook with anger. Fiercely, he called Stettinius a "troublemaker," charged the "most possible fuss" had been made of the matter. Britain's usually impassive Sir Alexander Cadogan, his face flushed with indignation and the Council chamber's oppressive heat, pointed out that the Iran matter would have been disposed of by a routine report on May 6. "If Russia hadn't brought it up today, this wouldn't have happened." Later, in the bar, Brazil's Pedro Leao Velloso remarked to Gromyko: "You know, I am learning Russian." Replied Gromyko: "Oh no. You are learning to vote against Russia."

Thunder on the Right. Meanwhile from Iran, came an explanation of why the Iranian Government was playing up to Russia. Teheran needed Russia's support in domesticating Azerbaijan's Russian-inspired rebels. Trouble was brewing elsewhere in Iran. As the Red Army withdrew, rightist politicians and landowners, who consider Premier Ahmed Gavam's Government proSoviet, were going on the warpath. In Mazanderan, along the Caspian coast, armed bands were attacking left-wing peasants and workers. In Khorosan, fundamentalist Mohammedans were organizing to combat Communist influence by abolishing the reforms made a generation ago by Reza Shah Pahlevi. Among their chief aims: return to veils for women and beards for men.

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