Bright Pinpricks in the Gloom

Canopus is the second brightest star in the heavens. Last week the Stratocruiser Canopus roared out of the sky onto Washington's National Airport, and out popped Sir Winston Churchill, arriving on an errand which shed only enough light to call attention to the encircling gloom.

For a moment Her Britannic Majesty's First Minister leaned on his gold-headed walking stick and waved his grey Homburg at the welcoming crowd. With the caution of great age, he stepped to the ground to be greeted by Vice President Richard Nixon and Secretary of State John Foster Dulles. Then he shuffled to a battery of microphones and, as he read from typewritten notes, the Churchillian tones sounded strong and clear.

"I," said the Prime Minister, "have had a very comfortable journey from my fatherland to my mother's land. I have come, with Anthony Eden, to talk over a few family matters, and to try to make sure that there are no misunderstandings.

The English-speaking family--or brotherhood--is rather a large one, and not entirely without a few things here and there.

And if we can work together, we may get along all right ourselves, and do a lot to help our neighbors in the world, some of whom, on both sides of the Iron Curtain, seem to face even greater problems than we do ourselves." His brief speech done, Churchill turned to Nixon and Dulles and asked, "How was that, all right?" They nodded, and he marched off to a waiting convertible.

As Churchill's car rolled up to the White House,President Eisenhower jogged down the five steps and said, "Hello, Winston." Sir Winston, with his eyes fixed downward on each of the marble stairs, began the ascent to the front door. When an outstretched hand came between the steps and his eyes, he looked up long enough to identify its owner as Mamie Eisenhower, and clasped it cordially. Photographs recorded what seemed to be a low bow.

Double Negative. Of all the calamitous recent British moves, Eisenhower, at the moment of Churchill's arrival, was angriest over Britain's opposition in the U.N.

Security Council to the U.S. position on Guatemala (see HEMISPHERE) On this point, Dulles won a little victory: Eden graciously agreed that henceforth Britain would abstain rather than vote against the U.S. on the Guatemala issue.

After lunch at the White House Ike and Sir Winston had had two hours of earnest discussion and were ready for a picture-taking session in the sun-drenched Rose Garden. As they sat in a love seat, flanked by Dulles and Eden, Churchill seemed in good health, compared to his appearance last January at Bermuda. At one point they started some small talk so that the pictures would give an impression of amiable discourse. This is what they said: President: Did you bring your paints? Prime Minister: No, I didn't.

President: Well, I'll lend you a box.

Prime Minister: No.

Then, eying the throng of photographers, Churchill grumbled: "This is one of the biggest firing parties I've ever seen."

ImpatientStep. Back in the White House, the four men talked for another 2 1/2 hours. By session's end. Churchill's anxiety over exchange of atomic-energy information was appeased. The President assured the Prime Minister that Britain was getting all the atomic data permitted under U.S. law, and that it would get more as soon as an Administration bill now in Congress is passed.

They turned from that topic to Germany. A new approach was overdue because of France's procrastination on the European Defense Community Treaty.

If the French Assembly does not ratify EDC this summer, Churchill and Eisenhower decided, they will call a conference to renegotiate the Germany Contractual Agreements, which are now tied to EDC in order to grant West Germany full sovereignty--and, presumably, independent rearmament.

Unsanctified Facts. The next day the discussions focused on Indo-China and the defense of Southeast Asia. Anthony Eden did not apologize for the backhanded insults he dealt Foster Dulles in his House of Commons speech, but he did say he regretted having raised a storm of dissent in the U.S. by proposing a Far Eastern Locarno. Eden said that he had no idea the proposals would evoke such sharp dissent in the U.S.--a statement that was hard to take at face value.

Dulles explained to him some of the reasons why it had. Referring to a recurrent British criticism that the U.S. is "unwilling to accept facts," Dulles observed: "There are many facts which we accept, but which we don't believe should be sanctified." As examples of such facts, Dulles cited the existence of Red China (without U.S. diplomatic recognition), the partition of Korea, and of Germany, divided between West and East. Said he: "We don't encourage West Germany to go to war to change that fact, but we don't feel we should sanctify it." Eden's Locarno proposal would mean sanctifying whatever peace terms the collapsed French may concede in Indo-China, Dulles said. He explained: "If we entered into a Locarno-type pact in Asia, we would be pledged to maintain this Communist system." The meeting concluded with "generalized" agreement that a defense network for Southeast Asia ought to be set up.

Moody Expression. As his visit ended, Churchill stated the British theme. "I am of the opinion," he told a press luncheon in Washington, "that we ought to try for peaceful co-existence--a real good try for it--although anyone can see it doesn't solve all the problems." And he added a typical piece of contemporary British wish-thinking: "I am most anxious that the real mood of the people of Russia should be known and every opportunity be given for its expression." Except for some long-overdue agreement on Egypt and some clarification of position on Germany and other points, the Churchill-Eden visit was nearly useless.

Certainly, it did not bridge the abyss that had opened in U.S.-British relations.

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