You Never Know

Budapest sewer-jacks stared in astonishment: the Direktor--the chief of sanitation himself--leading a bomb-hunt through the city sewers! Up in the daylight, too,' strange things were going on. Along all the main streets, police searched apartments, checked residents' identity documents. "On a certain day," the police explained, an order would be given for "strict security." All windows must be shut tight and kept that way. "And don't forget to hang out flags," the police added.

What was up? Budapest found out. Hungary's great & good friend, Marshal Tito of Yugoslavia, arrived to sign a treaty of amity and mutual aid.

The Hungarian government of Premier Lajos Dinnyes was taking no chances with the untoward. Neither were Tito's security boys. Hungary's friend made a formal entry by private train--but not until another train, crowded with soldiers, had tested the track. Resplendently panoplied, Tito strode into the Parliament building and marched to the elevator. Then he stopped short, shook his head and gestured with one hand. Obediently, a functionary rode the elevator to the top, descended again in a trial run. (The elevator worked for Tito, too, but stalled on the next trip, trapping President of the Republic Zoltan Tildy between floors for 20 minutes.)

The treaty signing did not take long. Tito stepped into his bulletproof limousine and--making a last-minute selection of one of three previously cleared routes --receded from the scene at a discreet 60 m.p.h. As the cavalcade flashed along, little jets of water spurted up through manhole covers; the sewers had been flooded as an extra precaution.

"Why is all this necessary?" a Budapester asked a policeman. Came the explanation :

"You never know what these Americans are up to."

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