At Lake Flamingo

Alice thought she had never seen such a curious croquet-ground in her life; it was all ridges and furrows; the croquet-balls were live hedgehogs, and the mallets live flamingoes, and the soldiers had to double themselves up and stand on their hands and feet to make the arches.

The chief difficulty Alice found at first was in managing her flamingo . . . When she had got its head down, and was going to begin again, it was very provoking to find that the hedgehog had unrolled itself, and was in the act of crawling away . . .

The players all played at once without waiting for turns, quarreling all the while, and fighting for the hedgehogs.

--Alice in Wonderland

A large gallery was on hand for the contest. China's delegate, Dr. T. F. Tsiang, was in the Security Council chair because it was his month, by rotation, to preside. He recognized the Soviet delegate, Jacob A. Malik. Delegate Malik did not return the compliment: he said he did not recognize Dr. Tsiang's right to preside or even to sit at the Council table. Dr. Tsiang, as a Chinese Nationalist, was just a "person who represents nobody," said Malik.

Angry Joker? Dr. Tsiang suggested that the matter of whether he was officially present should be taken up at a special meeting. But Malik said that any meeting with Tsiang was a "parody." Then Malik (having less difficulty than Alice had had with her flamingo) tucked his papers under his arm and stalked out. He did not even wait to hear the translation of his speech into French and English. For all he knew (officially), a majority of the Council members would agree with him when they learned what he had to say.

Malik had seemed very angry when he was speaking, but as soon as he left the Council room he laughed and joked with newsmen. Even Malik's chauffeur plays the curious Security Council walkout game: he drove up like clockwork as Malik reached the door.

Two days later, although Tsiang was still present but not presiding, Malik came back to the Council to argue further against recognizing Tsiang as China's representative. Malik, saying that he would not "participate" in a meeting at which Tsiang was present, went right on participating vociferously.

Britain's Sir Alexander Cadogan was well entangled with his flamingo. His government has withdrawn recognition from Dr. Tsiang's government, and recognized that of Malik's Communist friends. Yet Sir Alexander voted for Tsiang and against Malik. The Briton spoke acidly of Malik's "valuable cooperation," meaning just the opposite. Sir Alexander said he would not repeat his remark of the previous meeting, that Malik's demand for Tsiang's ouster was "premature." By this Sir Alexander meant that he would repeat his remark.

Double Whammy? To figure out the next step, everybody at the meeting fluttered yellow booklets called Provisional Rules of Procedure of the Security Council. If a majority of the Council nations follow the fashion of recognizing Red China, can the Council oust Tsiang? Or can Tsiang use China's Big Power veto to block this? The answer depends on whether the question of ouster is procedural (not vetoable) or substantive (vetoable). If the Council majority tries to decide that an ouster is procedural, then China may try to veto this decision before the Council goes on to a second vote on the ouster issue itself. Such action would raise the old, delicate question of the procedural-substantive redundant veto, or double whammy.

India's Sir Benegal Rau said the U.N. had better straighten out some rules, otherwise "a government of party A might be recognized by the General Assembly while that of party B would be recognized by the Security Council." Clearly, that would never do.

Hardly had the excitement abated and U.N.'s normal boredom been restored, when the Russians this week announced a general walkout from all U.N. agencies and committees. The strike was to continue until the Chinese Nationalists were turned out of U.N. Everybody fluttered the rule books again. Not in months had the Lake Success croquet-ground seen such a scurrying of hedgehogs, such a squirming of flamingoes.

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