Service Returned

"When the flowers are in bloom," Chou En-lai promised. Sure as spring, the Red Chinese returned the first service of Ping Pong diplomacy by dispatching its world champion table tennis team to the U.S. Scheduled to begin a nine-city tour in Detroit this week, the team first journeyed to Canada, where it defeated the local talent with Oriental restraint. The Chinese youngsters also showed a keen sense of diplomacy away from their paddles. As their bus pulled up to an Ottawa hotel, the team startled onlookers by bursting into a chorus of Alouelte.

It is hoped that the U.S. tour will proceed in an equally amiable atmosphere. The White House is keeping an anxious watch on events and is arranging for careful security. The team will make standard visits to New York City, Washington and San Francisco, as well as to some slightly more offbeat places, including Memphis and Huntsville, Ala. They are even slated to see California's Disneyland, where, so far, no attempts have been made to supplement Main Street, U.S.A. with the Great Wall, or the pirate ride with the Cultural Revolution. One of the signs of how far U.S.-Chinese relations have moved since the first ping is that, very largely, the team's visit is just a sports event.

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