Presidential Visit

When the chief of a foreign state visits Washington, the wheels of Government at the highest level all but come to a stop. For three days last week, in honor of Ecuador's visiting President Galo Plaza Lasso, the men in charge of U.S. affairs put aside most of their burdens of state to observe the niceties of diplomatic etiquette.

When Galo Plaza arrived at Washington's airport in George Marshall's luxurious Constellation, not only President Truman but Vice President Barkley and the Secretaries of State, Treasury, Defense, Interior and Agriculture were there to greet him. That evening, Harry Truman gave a state dinner (trout, squab and four kinds of wine) attended by some 50 top Washingtonians at the Hotel Carlton. Next evening, Dean Acheson gave another black-tie banquet for Galo Plaza; the guests included a lot of the faces the Ecuadorian had seen the night before. Afterward, the visitor, who had no work to do, bade good night to protocol, flashed off to a gay affair given by Cuba's peppery Ambassador Luis Machado, danced and drank champagne till 3 a,m. Asked later who was there, Machado said: "Just our favorite people--and the prettiest girls in Washington."* The third night, protocol reigned again: it was Galo Plaza's turn to stage" the dinner, at the Statler Hotel, and all the people, including the President and Dean Acheson, who had attended the other formalities donned their summer jackets once more.

Even those Washingtonians who endure, rather than enjoy protocol, agreed that it couldn't have been laid on for a nicer guy than for handsome Galo Plaza, who himself loathes protocol. Senators and Representatives cottoned to a visitor who could talk their language the way they liked to hear it; they applauded him 17 times during his ably delivered, 20-minute address before a joint session. During his stay in the capital, Plaza also saw a baseball game between Washington and Detroit (Washington won 6-3), visited Mount Vernon.

This week, with pledges in his pocket of U.S. financial aid for earthquake damage repair and for more Point Four help, President Plaza moved to New York to receive a ticker-tape welcome, meet such business leaders as the Grace Line's J. Peter Grace Jr. and Nelson Rockefeller, and visit the hotel where he was born 45 years ago, when his father was minister to Washington. From his birthplace, he will fly to California to visit his old university campus at Berkeley, then head southward for a brief state visit in Mexico City on his way home.

* Among them: Society Columnist Austine ("Bootsie") Hearst; Society Hostess Gwen Cafritz; Society Divorcee Nina Lunn; Margaret Thors, daughter of the Icelandic minister; Elena Machado, the host's daughter.

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