What They Bought

Even the worldly San Franciscans were impressed by the hot shopping pace of UNCIO's 7,000 delegates, secretaries, wives, correspondents and observers. Last week, with retail trade back to its hectic-enough wartime normal, businessmen figured that the conference had dropped $10 million into their cash registers in 63 days.

Gaudiest spenders were the burnoosed Saudi Arabians, who swished tirelessly in & out of department stores (for dozens of bolts of raw silks, fine woolens, chiffons), men's shops (for socks, shirts, $25 hand-painted neckties), women's stores (for nightgowns, the filmier the better).

At Bullock & Jones, Mme. T. V. Soong bought silk dressing gowns for T.V. and other men of the family. France's Admiral Georges Thierry d'Argenlieu* shopped in Gump's lush Mandarin Room. Mexico's Ezequiel Padilla went to the same famed Post Street store to get Mexican silver plates, gifts for the American delegation. Brazil's Carlos Martins pounced on cocktail sets and identification bracelets at jewelers like Shreve's.

The women made off with all the rayon hosiery in sight, stocked up on lingerie, California sportswear. Haberdashers unexpectedly sold dozens of dark Homburgs to diplomats who wanted to look like Eden. White shirts, scarce anyway, vanished from store shelves under the visitors' onslaught. Merchants who set up translating departments found them unnecessary. The UNCIO shoppers, discriminating but disinclined to haggle, just wanted to know "how many can we have?"

*In civilian life Father Louis de la Trinite, head of the Carmelite monastic order in France.

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