"That Old Feeling"

Trygve Lie had his worst week in a long time. It was bad enough that President Truman spoke right out and said the Mediterranean problem was too "urgent" to be turned over to Lie's peace machine at Lake Success. It was even worse for an old trade-union man to be reduced to shouting to some 2,000 disgruntled U.N. staff members: "I am not a tyrant!"

One-Man Battle. To set the staff straight on a few things, Lie called a mass meeting in the long, brick-walled public lobby at Lake Success (no other chamber was large enough). Lie told his staff what most knew already--that U.N.'s member nations had cut his 1947 budget last fall from a modest $30 million to less than $28 million; that he was no magician and couldn't "take or steal money" that U.N. had not appropriated; that, far from being a tyrant indifferent to staff complaints, he had taken criticism for not working the staff longer hours.

Crimson, Lie pounded the rostrum: "I am not your employer. I am an international civil servant, like you. ... I fought a one-man battle [for more budget dollars] against 55 nations." But staffers were not appeased. They applauded hectically when Jean-Franc,ois Rozan, a 24-year-old veteran of the French Resistance, rose to tell Lie: "There is a total lack of confidence and understanding between you and the whole staff."

The staff complained of everything from windowless offices and monotonous cafeteria meals to take-home pay and job security. Although the tax-free U.N. salaries and a generous pension plan compare well with most government jobs, the end was in sight for special living allowances. These (ranging from $5 to $7 a day) had been paid to staffers brought from abroad, or other parts of the U.S., while they got settled in the New York area. After two hours of discussion, the staff decided to accept the cut in allowances because, in the words of a spokesman, "we can only take it or leave it."

Tarnished Glitter. This brimming cup of troubles, Lie said, would be handed over to the new Assistant Secretary General for administration--Byron Price of the U.S. One of Price's first jobs, in addition, will be to prune the Secretariat from its present total of 2,800 to 2,667, while weeding out the surplus of U.S. citizens who now overbalance it.

Even if Price succeeded in his new budget chores, however, not all the Secretariat's troubles would be eradicated. Many staff members now complained that their jobs lacked significance--that the small U.N. budget was a reflection of the world's small view of U.N.'s uses. Some of the first year's glitter was wearing off.

Said a staff member who used to work for the League of Nations: "One gets that old League feeling."

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