The Week

The brutal suppression of the Hungarian revolt re-emphasizes, one more tragic time, the nature of the movement with which some dream of coexisting. The only honorable reaction to the horror going on in Budapest is an immediate suspension of diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union.

Last week-end, the State Department directed all hands to man their phones till they found out what was really going on in Poland, even if it took them all night. Dedicated men, they labored through the long afternoon to reach the American Embassy in Warsaw, only to find that it had coding and transmission problems of its own; many tried to pump their favorite contacts at the Polish Embassy in Washington, but one cannot count on foreigners in a crisis; an entire subdivision tried to check with its most reliable spies, but all of them had left the city for the week-end. Just as the Department, with controlled despair, was reaching the end of its tether, a young bureaucrat came through! “Call,” his voice rang out, “the New York Times!” They did; and got hold of the information they needed. After such prolonged uncertainty, it was good to know.

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The brutal suppression of the Hungarian revolt re-emphasizes, one more tragic time, the nature of the movement with which some dream of coexisting. The only honorable reaction to the horror going on in Budapest is an immediate suspension of diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union.

Last week-end, the State Department directed all hands to man their phones till they found out what was really going on in Poland, even if it took them all night. Dedicated men, they labored through the long afternoon to reach the American Embassy in Warsaw, only to find that it had coding and transmission problems of its own; many tried to pump their favorite contacts at the Polish Embassy in Washington, but one cannot count on foreigners in a crisis; an entire subdivision tried to check with its most reliable spies, but all of them had left the city for the week-end. Just as the Department, with controlled despair, was reaching the end of its tether, a young bureaucrat came through! “Call,” his voice rang out, “the New York Times!” They did; and got hold of the information they needed. After such prolonged uncertainty, it was good to know.