They Never Left Home

After three months in the hurly-burly of Paris, the U.N. was back last week in its well-ordered plastic tower at Lake Success. The air was heavy with French perfume from over there. The freshly waxed green and candy pink corridors rang with cheery greetings of homing travelers. But there was little to be cheerful about.

The Security Council reconvened for its 397th meeting, to consider the war in Indonesia. In the week since the Council's last Paris session, the Dutch had made every effort to make the world forget the war and concentrate on Indonesia's future. Twelve days after the Security Council ordered him to, the Dutch commander in Indonesia, Lieut. General S. H. Spoor, had told his troops to cease fire (except for "action against roaming groups and gangs or individuals who try to cause disturbances"). Pale, tired Dutch Prime Minister Willem Drees flew to Batavia, to get Republicans to cooperate in a Dutch-sponsored Indonesian interim government. Queen Juliana promised Indonesia "order, prosperity, freedom, independence and sovereignty in a federal state."

But at Lake Success, only Dutch Representative J. H. van Royen had kind words for his country's action. U.N.'s Good Offices Committee, which has been trying to mediate between the Dutch and Indonesians, gloomily suggested it might as well quit. Philippine Representative Carlos P. Romulo deplored the Council's "labyrinthine self-justifications." Australia's peppery Norman Makin cried that the Security Council could not "bury its head in the sands of Lake Success." Indonesia's L. N. Palar warned: "This is only the beginning of our war of self-defense."

U.S. military observers considered this no idle threat, believed that the Indonesians could continue a guerrilla war for months.

On the sands of Lake Success, the Council adjourned to have another go at the case this week. It was as though U.N. had never left home.

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