Protocol Problems

When nearly a score of American Presidents gather, as they will June 25 and 26 in Panama, who gets the presidential suite at the leading hotel? Must troops at the airport fire a 21-gun salute for each chief executive on the afternoon of arrival--as many as 420 eardrum-blasting booms altogether? Last week Host Panama, having successfully paved the way for what will probably be history's biggest gathering of heads of state, tackled the touchy protocol problems.

Luckily the twelve-story, balconied Hotel El Panama, built five years ago with an Export-Import Bank loan, can luxuriously house hundreds in the presidential parties, including ambassadors attending the concurrent meeting of the Organization of American States. President Eisen hower very likely will stay at the spacious hilltop U.S. embassy residence near by, and other Presidents might also prefer their own embassies, technically native soil. But advisers, minor officials and many newsmen may wind up billeted at U.S. military posts in the Canal Zone.

At Panama's invitation Ike's press secretary, James Hagerty, went to the isthmus last week to confer with President Ricardo Arias and help set up press and cable arrangements. On White House instructions he also discreetly learned "Dickie" Arias' golf handicap (an impressive two) without revealing Ike's. For his part, President Arias solved the ticklish problem of the presidential suite. He reportedly decided that he himself will occupy it as his conference headquarters.

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