Dangerous Sedative

"One of the two votes against this proposal," rasped Council President El Khoury of Syria last week, "was cast by a permanent member. . . . Therefore, he frustrated the proposal." This time, El Khoury was not talking about the Russians, who have cast 18 vetoes. He meant Alexandre Parodi, delegate of France, whose only previous veto had been a joint affair with Andrei Gromyko more than a year ago. Last week, on his own, Parodi had parodied Gromyko.

Judged by assurances at San Francisco that the veto was really a last resort, Parodi had gone rather far. The Russians had proposed to send a U.N. mission to Indonesia to see what was going on between the Indonesians and the Dutch. A majority was agreeable. The French vetoed it because they feared a precedent which might some day lead to similar missions into France's own troubled colonial world. The French seemed to be helping to establish another precedent: that the veto could be used for almost anything, including weak nerves.

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