Two Can Play

The U.S. unwelcome wagon

For U.S. diplomats in Moscow, there is a ubiquitous Big Brother: the Administration for Services to the Diplomatic Corps (UPDK). A foreign service officer wants an apartment? The UPDK is the landlord. A junket to Leningrad? UPDK is the indifferent travel agency. The bureau also supplies nearly 100 workers to the U.S. embassy. Some of them, it is assumed, are Soviet intelligence agents.

Now Washington has decided two can play the harassment game. The State Department has established an Office of Foreign Missions (OFM). There is not yet a director or a staff, but the OFM is authorized to exercise broad control over all embassies and consulates in the U.S. If a foreign government wants to rent or buy real estate, arrange utility service, hire Americans, purchase supplies or travel, it may be required to see the folks at OFM. The OFM is not to be indiscriminately obnoxious, but if petty bureaucratic retaliation is in order, the OFM will be ready.

Washington, however, would find it hard to plant spies; Soviet diplomats bring along their own laborers. Even so, America's diplomats in Moscow are pleased. Says one: "Three cheers!"

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