"It Was Nice . . ."

The Security Council was trying hard, but it was getting nowhere at all on the two ticklish cases before it--Iran and Spain. Both cases turned on the extent to which the Council could act on the "internal affairs" of nations. The Russians thought the Council could go as far as it liked on Spain; the U.S. and Britain thought not. The Western powers thought the Council ought to know what was going on in Iran; Moscow couldn't see why.

Iran. Last week the Council received a report from Teheran that the Red Army had withdrawn from Azerbaijan. Iran's Ambassador Hussein Ala wondered how thorough were the findings of his Government's investigating commission to Azerbaijan. Poland's Oscar Lange asked Ala: "Did the commission make its investigation from an airplane by telescope?"

"As regards a telescope or even a microscope . . ." answered Ala, "I know they went by air and they went by Soviet airplane." Even Lange joined in the laugh that swept the chamber.

There was no laughter when Ala told how Russian Ambassador Ivan Sadchikov, acting as a "friendly mediator," had urged Premier Ahmed Gavam to grant the Azerbaijan autonomists' demands. Said Ala quietly: "That, to my mind, is an interference." Said Stettinius: "I believe more than ever that it would be a mistake to drop the case. . . ." The Council agreed. But Russian-sponsored rebels continued to hold Azerbaijan.

Spain. Next day mild, dapper Jose Giral, Premier of the Spanish Republican Government in exile, appeared before the Council's subcommittee on Spain to warn that Franco had 1,590,000 soldiers. Earlier in the week the U.S. had reported that Spain's "armed forces have continued their overall trend of gradual reduction in size."

After the session, Giral hurried to his limousine. He popped out when he remembered he had not said goodbye to Lange, his keenest supporter on the subcommittee. Lange said: "It was nice to have met you."

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