"No Relevance"

Veto? What veto?

Vyacheslav Molotov did not exactly say it in those words, but if he had, the effect could hardly have been more startling. Some observers thought it was the brightest day in U.N. history.

Just a Misunderstanding. Last fortnight the talk on disarmament had got to the point where everyone agreed that international inspection and control were necessary. But Russia's Andrei Vishinsky had insisted on holding a veto against the day-to-day activities of the inspectors (TIME, Dec. 9). This seemed more political than practical. If a couple of U.N. inspectors were headed one morning for, say, Magnitogorsk, and Russia vetoed the trip, the action would indicate guilt almost as clearly as if a violation had been detected. The U.S. proposed that the Security Council be instructed to draw up treaties outlawing not only atomic weapons but guided missiles, poison gas and disease warfare. Any nation could exercise a veto by refusing to sign the treaty. Once the agreement was in force, however, the rules for enforcement and supervision would be binding. After two days of study (and possibly of communicating with Moscow), Mr. Molotov said:

"The question of the veto will have no relevance to the work of the control commissions. It is wrong, therefore, to allege that any state possessing the veto may nullify the implementation of control and inspection."

Molotov said that trouble over the veto, in this instance, had been due to "misunderstanding." But obviously his new attitude was a vast improvement over Vishinsky's stand of the previous week. Of course Russia still can, and probably will, make plenty of trouble over the formulation of treaties.

By-Pass. Since atoms were being discussed outside the Atomic Energy Commission, Chairman Alexandre Parodi called an A.E.C. meeting to protect its prerogatives. Bernard Baruch of the U.S. summarized the A.E.C.'s findings to date, repeated the proposals which he had been making all along. For reasons entirely outside the A.E.C. negotiations (possibly including lack of progress in Russian laboratories), the U.S.S.R. was now making the sort of concession that Mr. Baruch had been stubbornly demanding. But the Russians last week were bypassing Baruch, whom they still attack bitterly. Pravda recently printed a cartoon showing the silver-haired elder statesman gardening among the atoms (see cut). The words on the sign at left ("Made in U.S.A.") are understandable to all Russians, so familiar have they become on Lend-Lease supplies. Under the cartoon were 20 lines of doggerel. Sample verse:

He proposes to control strictly

All the world's uranium.

And to the U.S. he gives the modest role

Of keeping its bombs in secrecy.

This week, in the small hours of a long session, Molotov dampened the general optimism by resorting to one of his old tactics: reopening an issue which the Western bargainers had thought, or at least hoped, was settled. Without reversing his stand on long-range inspection and control, Molotov said that Russia would not submit to a quick (i.e., pre-disarmament) census of home troops unless a survey of armaments (including atomic weapons) was included.

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