Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1956-12-09

The ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
roles demanded of him would seem
to call for the talents of Talley-
rand at the conference table. of
an Eisenhower in commanding an
army OF many nationalitieS and of a
Lawrence Of Arabia in handling the
complex Middle East problems.
That Gen. Burns has made an
initial success has come as no sur
prise to U. N. officials here.
With knowledge of the Palestine
situation possessed by few people,
Gen. Burns has had an invaluable
f1rSt-hand experience with the i'm
mediate chain of events which led
to the Mideast war.
In his capacity as chief of staff
OF the U. N. Truce Supervision Or
ganlzation, job he held for two
years during which time he earned
the begrudging respect of both
Arabs and ISraeliS, Gen. Burns
warned the Security Council six
weeks beforehand that an attack on
Egypt was likely.
In hundreds of meetings on truce
violations, the feuding Arabs and
IsraeliS soon learned that the
general was man dedicated to
fairness and impartiality in his
job and that his counsel was often
wise and his Judgment sound.
A stickler for maintaining i'm
partiality, the unsmiling Smiley"
Burns has even gone to the extreme
OF living in house on strip of no.
mans land between Arab and
Israeli Jerusalem.
He Storted Young
The general, SO, was born in
WeStmount, Quebec, and started his
military career in World War l. be-
coming, at 81. Canada's youngest
staff captain.
After holding various staff posi-
tons in the peacetime army, he
pioneered aerial mapping programs
for which he received the Order of
In World War II, he commanded
the LIST Canadian Corps in Italy
and directed its breakthrough of
the Hitler line in the Liri Valley.
In 1949 he served on the Cana
dian delegation TO the General
Assembly and later became preSi-
dent of the United Nations Associ-
alton in Canada.
After hearing Gen. Burns re-
peatedly urge people to do more for
the U. ~, in 1854 Canadian Foreign
Secretary Lester B. Pearson chal-
lenged the Canadian war hero to do
the same thing himself and apply
for the post Of Chief of the U. N.
Truce Command.
Gen. Burns took the Job.
Then. a month ago, the General
Assembly in dramatic midnight
session adopted a resolution Gre
atlng the United Nations Emergency
Force, which led to the appoint
ment OF Gen. Burns as commander.
He made the first person-to-
person contact with the Egyptian
government on means of imple-
menting the Assembly resolution
and paved the way for the talks
between Col. Nasser and Secretary
General Dag Hammarskjold which
were held a few days later.
Breokine the Troll
Since then. Gen. Burns has been
hard at work recruiting. organizing
and deploying the first truly inter-
national army not responsible to the
command Of one nationals in
Korea-but TO the command of the
world. through the United Nations.
He has supervised the airlift of
U. N. troops from the staging area
at Capodichino Airport near Naples
and COPIED with the numerous in
tricacies of feeding and command
ing a polyglot, multi-lingual inter-
national army Of men from the four
corners Of the globe
AS things stand now, Gen. Burns
plans to have the UNEF made up OF
5000 men from Canada. Colombia.
Denmark. Finland. India, Norway,
Sweden and Yugoslavia.
Since taking over as commander,
Gen. Burns has been on a constant
round Of flying diplomatic missions
to New York TO confer with Mr..
Hammarskjold; to Cyprus TO ne
gotiate with the Anglo-French
Command TO Cairo for talks with
the foreign ministry and then 10
Capodichino.
Success seems 10 be GROWING his
efforts. for the moment. with the
entrance in force OF U. n. troops
into Egypt and the withdrawal. In
part. Of British. French. and Is
rseM troops.
But the hurdles ahead are high.
What viii develop In Egypt az the
last British and French troops
withdraw remains N be seen. the
sole guarantor Of order and tran
guilty will be the lightiy-armed
young men Of the UNEF
Whatever the final result. II
seems clear that the field leader
ship Of the .. n. effort is In firm.
impartial hands.