Back in Business

"It is with a deep sense of pleasure and relief," said outgoing U.N. General Assembly President Alex Quaison-Sackey, resplendent in a Ghanaian toga of orange and gold, "that I welcome all representatives present." Relief was the operative word. It had been Quaison-Sackey's fate to preside over what Britain's Lord Caradon had rightly called the "lost session" of the U.N. General Assembly. Not since December 1963 had the Assembly been able to discuss issues freely or to vote on them. But as the white and lavender saris of Indians commingled with the rainbowed robes of Nigerians and the white jodhpurs of the Nepalese at the opening of the 20th Assembly in Manhattan last week, the U.N. at last was back in business--and bubbling with a new self-confidence.

Rare Show. The no-vote impasse had been bridged a month ago when the U.S. agreed to let nations in arrears on peace-keeping-operation dues (notably Russia, and France) vote anyway--despite Article 19 of the U.N. Charter, which stipulates that debtor members shall not. Then, scant hours before the Assembly opened, the U.N. Security Council in a rare and impressive show of Big Power unanimity arranged the cease-fire in Kashmir. And in just a week Pope Paul VI, spiritual leader of a fifth of the world's people, was to arrive from Rome to wish an historic godspeed to the U.N. and its peacemaking role.

The Pope's host will be a familiar face: Italian Foreign Minister Amintore Fanfani, 57, elected president of the General Assembly's 20th session soon after it was gaveled to order last week. Fanfani, twice Premier of Italy, who won out over Yugoslavia's former Foreign Minister Koca Popovic, is the first Western European since 1960 to head the Assembly.

Nuclear Swap. For all the new optimism on the East River, Fanfani faces an agenda that gives little hope of smooth sailing. Once more, Red Chinese membership will be proposed, though with less feeling: Peking's brutal ultimatum to India has undoubtedly cost it some support among non-aligned countries. There will be demands for a vast disarmament conference that would include Peking, which the U.S. is not likely to welcome. The future of peace-keeping operations remains unresolved and controversial. To these familiar problems a new one has been added: Pakistan's threat to withdraw from the U.N. if the Kashmir ceasefire is not followed by a plebiscite in the disputed vale--something India is equally adamant in resisting.

In his opening Assembly address, U.S. Ambassador Arthur Goldberg touched on most of these problems routinely. The Assembly, he noted, could hardly even consider seating Peking--the regime that "hurls insults upon the peaceful efforts" of the U.N. But in the area of disarmament, Goldberg unveiled some new policy proposals. The U.S., he said, is now ready "to transfer 60,000 kilograms of weapons-grade U-235 to non-weapon uses if the Soviet Union would be willing to transfer 40,000 kilograms." The energy in 60,000 kilograms of uranium 235 is roughly equal to two-thirds of the total electricity consumption of the U.S. for a whole year--and the suggestion represents the first time that the U.S. has ever proposed to Russia the actual destruction of the warhead containers as well as the transfer of megatons of fissionable material to peaceful uses.

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