Favored Candidate

Frederick Henry Boland's chances of becoming the next president of the U.N. General Assembly next fall already seem as surefire as those of a Democratic primary winner running in a final election in the Deep South. Last week he got combined backing of the U.S., Great Britain and Canada. Besides this powerful support, Boland can count on the consistent anticolonial stand of his native Ireland to help win Latin American and Afro-Asian nations. His rival, Czechoslovakia's Jiri Nosek, can count for sure only on the nine votes of the Communist bloc.

Though Ireland is a relative newcomer to the U.N. (1955) and has one of the smallest delegations, it has made a name" for itself out of all proportion to its size. Boland arrived at the U.N. just before Suez and Hungary shocked the world. On Suez, Ireland voted against France and Britain ("We felt the attack on Egypt endangered all small countries"), but criticized Nasser for provoking the attack. On Hungary, Ireland inspired and then co-sponsored the resolution that set up a five-nation committee of inquiry. Ireland has stepped on the toes of both sides in the cold war. It was the first Western European nation to call for self-determination in Algeria. It infuriated the Communists by bringing up the Tibet issue, and annoyed others--including a good many Roman Catholic prelates--by urging the U.N. to re-examine whether Peking or Formosa should represent China.

With his beet-red face and grey hair plastered to his head, Boland resembles a jovial Irish publican, but the scholarly, Dublin-born diplomat finds as much relaxation in reading Latin and Greek classics as in Irish gin and whisky. A colleague at the U.N. considers Boland "far and away the finest chairman the Trusteeship Committee ever had." This delicate post was excellent preparation for the kind of diplomacy required of an Assembly president--knowing how to preserve decorum, when to persuade someone quietly to call for an adjournment, and when to press for a night session. The Assembly job also calls for the exercise of behind-the-scenes social as well as diplomatic skills. Fortunately, Frederick Boland is a gregarious man. "You can accomplish a lot over a steak and a dry martini," he says. "I just hope my liver holds out."

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