A Little of Everything

Even while the Byrnes-Wallace controversy raged and U.S. foreign policy was, in effect, in suspension, the U.S. last week made significant moves on the diplomatic chessboard.

Trade Charter. To all nations the State Department offered a proposed charter of world trade to establish a common code of commercial practices, set up an international trade organization, and work for the gradual elimination of discriminatory and preferential tariffs. Russia was eligible to join; in fact, the charter had been tailored to fit Russia's state trust setup.

Iceland Bases. Pummeled in the Russian press and chided by Icelanders for hanging on to its wartime bases in Iceland, the U.S. last week gave them up. It agreed to get its military personnel out of Iceland in six months, turn the war-built bases over to the infant republic. The only exception: U.S. civilians will man Keflavik airdrome, and U.S. planes may use it as long as occupation forces are in Germany. But pro-Soviet Icelanders immediately boggled even at that.

Mediterranean Fleet. In one vital spot the U.S. did not back down. The Navy made it clear that its Twelfth Fleet will remain in the Mediterranean indefinitely. The supercarrier Franklin D. Roosevelt was homeward bound but would be replaced by the Randolph. Usually the force would comprise one carrier, three cruisers, seven destroyers.

This was a reversion to the policy the U.S. had followed in the days of the Barbary corsairs, and a complete reversal of 20th Century peacetime practice, when U.S. naval forces had made only occasional cruises and courtesy calls in the Mediterranean. To avoid the need for billeting sailors ashore, the Navy decided to rotate its Mediterranean units twice a year.

To execute the new policy, the Twelfth Fleet got a new boss: Richard Lansing Conolly, upped from vice admiral to admiral. Stocky, straight-shooting "Close-in" Conolly knew the shores of Tripoli and Italy from wartime command of amphibious forces. From 1946 administrative duty in Washington and current service at the Paris peace conference, he was fully rigged to sail as a seagoing diplomat.

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