Red Carpet

A couple of small-town boys--the President of France and the President of the U.S.--struck it off fine together last week.

Vincent Auriol, who speaks French with a Toulouse twang and English hardly at all, and Harry Truman, who speaks English with a Missouri twang and French not at all, grinned broadly and shook hands warmly when they met in the vaulted State Room of Washington's Union Station. Five prodigious days of partygoing, personal appearances and stiff protocol failed to erase either presidential grin.

President Auriol's schedule was the heavier. From the time he and President Truman climbed into an open car outside

Union Station and drove through troop-lined streets, until his speech before Congress on Monday, he was on the move almost constantly. On his first night in Washington, he and Madame Auriol were feted by the Trumans with a dinner at the Carlton Hotel (they drank California burgundy). The next day he dropped by the White House for a chat and addressed the National Press Club. Later in the week he received a rousing ovation when he spoke to the Western Hemisphere foreign ministers (see HEMISPHERE). Between times he made a quick trip to the Naval Academy at Annapolis, visited Mount Vernon, laid a wreath on the tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery and attended another formal dinner given by Secretary of State Dean Acheson.

The only contretemps came when the Auriols returned the Trumans' hospitality with a formal dinner and reception at the French Embassy. The 64 dinner guests had scarcely done with their sumptuous meal when hundreds of other guests, invited to the reception, started queueing up on the embassy grounds. Only a trickle of guests were admitted at a time, to avoid confusion at the cloakroom. At 11:30, an hour after the doors opened, the queue still-extended for a block. One impatient Senator was heard to mumble: "It is a strange way to wish us to vote the right way for them . . ."

Auriol hoped to get that support in a more basic way, by leaving behind this message: "We resent the accusations against France which characterize her as 'without thews and sinews' ... We have good reasons to know what an aggression is, and what it costs, and that is why we are doing and shall do all within our power not only to resist aggression, should it occur, but to deter it and to save the peace."

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