Henry or Dorothy?

U.N. was having admission trouble. According to the rules, new applicants merely had to be peace-loving, but that left plenty of room for disagreement. Either an international Dorothy Dix would have to define the difference between true love of peace and mere flirtation; or else a contemporary Henry Clay would have to find a new kind of Missouri Compromise to preserve U.N.'s uncertain balance.

The nine small nations (all peace-loving in their own opinion) whose applications were up before U.N.'s membership committee last week fell into four groups:

P: Those sponsored by Russia and blackballed by the West were Albania (Greece complained that it had a Communist-dominated, dictatorial, warlike regime) and Outer Mongolia (China observed that it had been an "independent" nation only since last year, had not shown yet whether it was peace-loving or not).

P: Those sponsored by the West and likely to be blackballed by Russia: Trans-Jordan (still tied to British apron strings), Eire (the anti-Communist slant even exceeds the anti-British) and Siam (still technically at war with France).

P: Those wooed by both sides for their important strategic position, like Iceland and Afghanistan.

P: Neutrals who, from pride or from lack of friends, applied without big-nation sponsorship, like Portugal and Sweden.

The membership committee would have to make its report to the Security Council next week. There, the differences might well deadlock the admission proceedings. But, reported the New York Times reassuringly: "U.N. circles hoped [for] a certain amount of horse trading"--which would be in the tradition of Henry Clay, if not of Dorothy Dix.

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