Evening star., 1947-08-31
High Powered Presiding Seen
AS Gronyko I Takes u. N. Chair
Russian Is Expected
To Keep Up Vetoine
With Other Hand
By Wallace R. Deuel.

Y
Veto) Gromyko gets his turn to
act as chairman of the U. N. Security
Council again beginning this week,
and the world is liable to see some
pretty high-powered presiding.
Parliamentary procedure doesn't
come natural to the Soviets.
They don't debate with their
opponents at home. They shoot
them.
/, Even when they learn the rules of
parliamentary procedure by heart
for use abroad, most of them use
the rules the way people use a for
eign language-or the way a woman
driver handles a car If she never
had her hands on wheel until
she was 40.
But Mr.. Gromyko is an exception
to this.
Good Parliamentarian::
He is one Of the smartest parlia-
mentarians at Lake Success, and he
can-and does-stall and quibble
and split hairs and raise points of
order like Philadelphia lawyer.
HE is perfectly capable of pre-
siding over the Council with one
hand and vetoing everything the
Council tries to do with the other
hand, all at the same time and
without turning a hair or once los
ing his composure," said a rueful
admirer OF, Mr.. Gromyko's technical
virtuosity.
You never have the feeling,
watching Mr.. Gromyko, that he
isn't at ease in parliamentary pro-
cedure. He seems to be perfectly at
ease. But you do have the feeling
that he thinks the whole thing is
awfully silly.
His attitude seems to imply that
being able to score a point in de-
bate Is about on par with being
able to wiggle your ears.
If everybody else is doing it, and
they're giving prizes to whoever
does 1t best, Mr.. Gromyko will do
it too. He will do it superlatively
well. But he will still think it's
childish.
The record seems to suggest that
this Is the attitude of Mr.. Gromyko's s
government, too.
Certainly the Kremlin doesn't
seem to take the U. N. very seri-
ously.
The Soviets are great believers in
poWer-preferably naked power.
Not Impressed by U. N.
Moral arguments and vows of
idealistic purposes seem to them to
be only so many fig leaves, used by
the prudish and hypocritical to con-
ceal the realities of world affairs.
Others, too, have had this atti-
tude in the past. but few have been
as stark about it as the Soviets.
They almost carry it to the point
Of indecent exposure.
THE Pope?" Prime Minister
Stain once scornfully demanded.
How many divisions has he got?"
The U. NJ, like the Pope, has no
divisions, and the Kremlin is, &C
cordingly, not overly impressed by
1t.
The Soviets give the impression
that they Joined it more in order to
humor the Western world than be-
cause they share that worlds hopes
for the organization.
The Russians don't even take part
in much of the U. MS work,
They only belong to one OF its
eight specialized agencies - the
World Health Organization-and
boycott the other seven (the United
States, Britain and Canada belong
to all eight.)
Own Interpretation Of Veto.
The Soviets take a prominent
enough part in the U. N. Security
Council and General Assembly, but
their part sometimes seems to con-
sist chiefly of voting against every
thing that everybody else wants to
do.
The original theory of the veto
was that it would be used only on
questions of substance-and of i'm
portance-not on minor matters and
questions of procedure.
In practice, however, this has
worked out the way the agreement
did that the man made with his
wife for settling their differences:
The husband was supposed to de-
eide all important questions, and
the wife was to have her way on
uninportant ones. But the wife de-
cided which questions were I'M
portant and which were unim-
portant.
The 'SoNets decide when it's all
right to use the veto.
So far, they have used 1t 1s times
In the Security Council-7 times in
one recent week alone.
Mr. Gromyko Is the agent of this
policy.
Has Cast IL Vetoes.
He has cast II of the Soviets
vetoes. deputy Foreign Minister