Evening star., 1955-06-06


very drastic was done about it
From then until the final session
when the Kremlin crew sal
blinking uncomfortably into
f1oodlights while their joint
agreement with Yugoslavia wa;
signed. the dictatorship of the
photographer was supreme.
Until, with what must have
been a profound sigh of relief
their plane took off for Moscow
these mighty moguls were sub.
jected at regular intervals to the
kind of bullying of which only
Ia news photographer, brought
up in the tradition of a free
press, is capable.
Messrs. Khruschev, Bulganir
and Mikoyan found themselves
being ordered to put on then
hats, take them off again, smile
shake hands and "look this way
whenever they ventured abroad
The most curious part of the
whole thing was that they
obeyed almost as meekly as any
Western official. And their Sc
curity guards. who would GER
tainly have dealt swiftly with
such impertinence on their home
grounds, never raised a finger.
kruSchev and His Orange
1t made for some fantastic
situations. At Postunia, where
the Russians for some unex-
planned reason had gone to in
spect a Yugoslav cave, Kruschev
emerged from lunch eating an
orange. Before the photograph
ers were through with him his
orange-eating technique was not
only immortalized for all time
but Mr.. K. had repeated the pro-
cess with another orange for
the benefit of those who had
the first show.
There is also the story of the
photographer for a weekly Brit
ish journal who crashed a Yu-
goSlav reception for the Russians
by simply climbing up on a
fioWerpot. sticking his camera
through the dining room window
and banging away.
Although some of the details
OF this exploit are obscure. it
seems that he managed first to
charm Mrs. Tito and finally
Bulganin to the extent that the
entire company wound up by
drinking to his health in cham
payne and giving him a series
OF the finest informal studies
ever made of Communist COM
raderie.
Some observers here found
interesting food for thought in
the reflection that a photogra-
pher trying a similar stunt, say
at the White House, would run
a lively risk of being shot dead.
Measured against this kind of
Journalistic heroism, the feats
OF reporters in Belgrade during
the conference seem a bit pallid,
1t was something. of course, to
be permitted to stand within a
few feet of such legendary fig
ures - to note that Tito was
more statuesque than his innu-
merable statues, that Mikoyan
had forgotten to shave, that
Khruschev's fingernails were
dirty or that Bulganin could
pass as somebody's benign old
grandfather.
BlackOut of Information
The trouble lay in the de-
termlned blackout of informa- =
ton on what these men talked
about when reporters weren't
around. Such leaks as occurred
came from Yugoslav or Russian
NJ wSmen whose semiofficia]
status gave them an inside track
over most of their colleagues.
The natural inclination of
most visiting correspondents,
schooled in the well-regulated
system of Western press rela-
tionS, was to wait patiently for
their daily ration of news and go
where they were told. When no
news was forthcoming and when
every carefully detailed plan
could be counted on to change
at least four times q day the
reaction of many reporters was
to lodge protests.
In both volume and vehe-
mence, the protests lodged in
the course of the meeting prob
ably set an all-time conference
record. They came in an un-
ending stream - in telegrams
signed by scores of outraged cor
respondents at a time; in let