Neutral but Nice

Maneuvering amid the personalities and protocol of sticky Washington last week was an open-faced, roundly smiling, improbable-looking man in a gaung baung (gauze turbanlike cap with side bow), ingyi (short-waisted, high-necked jacket) and longyi (skirt). Improbably, for a potentate from a faraway land, he came bearing thoughtful gifts: a pint of his blood for a U.S. hospital; a silver gong suspended between ivory elephant tusks for the President; a check for $5,000 for distressed families of G.I.'s killed or incapacitated in the liberation of his country, Burma, during World War II.

"The Premier of Burma, U Nu, is visiting us," the President said at his press conference expressing "great gratification that he came over. The returning travelers and observers in that area have spoken of him in the most glowing terms as to ability and his leadership qualities." At midday in the White House, the President and his guest had lunch, and the President happily bonged his new gong.

"We Fight the Same Evils." U Nu, 48, has been Prime Minister of Burma (pop. 19 million) for all seven of its years as a free country. Beset by two Communist and several factional rebellions, by the legacy of war's chaos, by the inexperience of his young civil servants, U Nu has striven to lift his country toward new hope of survival (TIME, Aug. 30). Modest and meditative U Nu fought the Communists at home, plumped for Nehru's neutralism abroad, but concentrated on leading an extraordinary Buddhist revival which is now the focus of his country's anti-Communist potential.

U Nu is a pious man, no sophist, of simple origin and sympathies, no snob; he is neutral by dint of his small country's powerlessness, but his political ideology is that of the West. "Burma and America are in the same boat--we fight the same evils," he once declared. And although he was awed and impressed by Red China during his recent visit to Peking, U Nu did not shrink from publicly proclaiming to Mao: "Americans are a very generous and brave people."

Addressing the Senate and the House of Representatives last week. U Nu developed his theme of friendly neutrality, recalling that Burma and the U.S. were both ex-colonies of Britain, "Both had to struggle to win our rights for self-government." He is trying to lead Burma, said U Nu, by following the U.S. example and working its salvation "by methods of democracy."

"Get the Elevators Ready." In Washington, U Nu made summer headlines in unexpected ways. Secretary Ezra Taft Benson invited him to the Department of Agriculture and Benson's aides kept U Nu waiting too long (five minutes) for U Nu. "Tell them we'll see them some other time," politely said U Nu, and walked out. Gasped a State Department man, "If it had happened here, everyone in protocol would have been fired by now." Secretary Benson made an adroit recovery, speeding over to Blair House to apologize to U Nu, taking Mrs. Benson along. She was glad the incident happened, allowed Mrs. Benson diplomatically, "otherwise I would not have had the chance to meet the Prime Minister."

Next day there was no trouble at all when U Nu walked into the sprawling Agriculture building at 8:40 a.m., five minutes ahead of schedule. "Get the elevators ready--here they come," bellowed an Assistant Secretary and Ezra Taft Benson beamingly presented U Nu with a picture of Ezra Taft Benson and his family, plus a 4-H Club tie clasp. Burma's Premier observed that he was for all four of the H's:"Head, Heart, Hands, Health."

Certain Noble Concepts. At the National Press Club, at lunchtime, U Nu delivered a formal speech. He did not bother to make an excuse for his neutrality, quoting Washington's Farewell Address on the need to steer clear of entangling foreign alliances. But as for his country's Communists, U Nu cracked that "those who long for distant aunts over the heads of their mothers . . . are trying hard to keep out of the reach of the very people to whom they promised a heaven on earth." Ten days after Jawaharlal Nehru signed what amounted to a Communist policy statement in Moscow, U Nu signed a joint communique with the President of the U.S. to the effect that the U.S. and Burma share "a wide area of agreement and traditional friendship . . . resting firmly upon certain noble concepts . . . Our two peoples . . . share two fundamental goals, a peaceful world and a democratic way of life."

After that, U Nu set off in his gaung baung, ingyi and longyi to see the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Philadelphia's Independence Hall, and the Wild West. On July 12, he has a flattering date at California's Pasadena Community Playhouse; it will be there that U Nu will watch a performance of a Burmese play he once wrote called The People Win Through. This is the play that contains U Nu's perhaps most celebrated, least neutral thought on the Communist way of life, to wit: "Break wind and you're hauled off to the People's Court."

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