Evening star., 1958-07-13

A New Tradition
UNEF is, however. establishing
kind Of pioneer tradition. It
is paving the way for a permanent
U. N. army some day.
Many of the best stories which
have grown up around 1t deal
with improvisation. No army ever
was put together so fast with so
little.
There were days when the of
ficers had no idea how they woqld
feed the men. Supplies came In
by ar, and when the flying
weather was bad, food stores
dwindled. At one point In De-
cember, 1856, there was enough
for only two more meals when
--as II in some Hollywood melo-
drama-the skies broke and the
planes came through.
Nowadays much food is bought
from Egyptian farmers. Bids are
taken, and the man offering the
best price gets the business. Ac-
countants noticed recently that
one vegetable dealer always Of
fered prices way below those Of
everyone else, although the quail
lity of his goods was high. Get
ting suspicious, UNEF ordered an
inquiry.
1t turned out that the "veg-
etable" dealer was actually the
local hashish (dope) pusher. He
had devised perhaps the worlds
best cover. If anyone stopped him,
he would point to his cart Of
vegetables and say, "It's for
UNEF." If he hadn't overdone
the gag, he might have gone on
forever.
There have been times when
UNEF has had its troubles with
the Egyptian army. Local officers
used to insist on acting as middle
men between UNEF and the farm
ers. buying the food from the
farmers and reSelling it to UNEF
with 10 per cent Service charge"
tackled on. Protests to Cairo finally
put stop to that racket.
The Indians still tell the story
of their first shipment of rice
from home. Indians and Indo-
nesians like long-grained rice; the
kind to be had in Egypt is short
grained, and tastes very different.
So UNEF sent to India for ship
load of the rice the boys wanted.
When it arrived, there was a
general celebration in the Indian
and Indonesian units-until they
opened up the bags. Inside each
one was a second bag which bore
the legend, grown in the U. S. A."
1t was a reshipment of what orig
inally had been American aid to
midland this American rice was
Just as short-grained as Egyptian.
Morale Stays High
Morale is good in UNEF, all
things considered. There is grip
ing, Of course, as there is In any
army. Life is dull, despite all the
movies and books and ping-pong
tables and guitars that people at
home can send.
Days are hot and nights are
often cold. Eating in a desert
mess hall is no picnic. Most of
the girls in GAIA are in purdah-
that is, only their eyes peek out
from behind heavy wells. They
are totally undatable.
The men have devised original
ways of carrying out their assign
ment, which is to seal off the bor-
der between Egypt and Israel. In
some areas where mines are still
buried. the Swedes use dogs espe-
cially trained to detect them.
The dogs go out on leash, sniff
the ground, and when they smell
a mine, they gently scrape with a
forepaw and sit down. They even
detect plastic mines. and mines
equipped with trip wires, refusing
to go forward when wires are
there.
UNEF commander 1t. Gen.
E. L. M. Burns of Canada has not
forgotten to keep relations with
the local populace friendly. Re-
Gently the Canadian contingent
organized a fair, with sports, en-
tertainment, and a carnival-all
of which raised $3.50 fo1 the bene-
fit of tattered and hungry Arab
refugee children in GAIA.
The feature of the day was
donkey polo' match between In
dian and Canadian teams, played
astride burroS, with brooms and a
volley ball The Indians won. Local
children were sold rides on DON
keys and camels; there was a
prize fight, a vaudeville show,
shooting gallery and a dart game.
Secretary General Dag Ham
marskjold has ordered a full rec
ord prepared of all the trials and
tribulationS of UNEF, so that
there will be kind of encyclo-
pedia of experience available if
U. N. member countries ever do
decide to set up another force.
Other diplomats are proposing
that the U. N. go further, and ask
member countries to earmark
troops fol use on this kind of duty.
That much would not cost the
U. N. a cent. The United States is
considering proposing to the next
General Assembly that this be
done.
Already there have been places
Algeria and KaShmir, for ex-
ample, as we'll as Lebanon-where
such a force might have been
used. Most U. N. diplomats are
sure there will be more such crises,
and many are saying the U. N.
should be prepared.
%cS(<IDDfl |
NJ = - n