The morning after
Sir: Frank Judd argues (30 June) `... U Thant had absolutely no alternative but to order the with- drawal of UNEF immediately Nasser requested this.... Had the Secretary-General delayed by even a day he would immediately have been discredited as an instrument of Western imperialism. . .
I have read the aide-memoire that Dag Hammar- skjold wrote after his long consultation with Presi- dent Nasser when UNEF was first established in the Sinai. It was certainly not Dag Hammarskjohrs view that UNEF had to be withdrawn immediately President Nasser ordered it to leave. UNEF was to stay until its task was completed. It was plainly up to the Security Council to decide when its mission had been fulfilled. Mr Judd argues that if the Secretary-General had 'delayed by even a day he would immediately have been discredited as an instrument of Western imperialism.' By not delay- ing for even a day the Secretary-General has been discredited in many eyes as an agent of Arab/Soviet aggression. Frank Judd and his colleagues must appreciate that this episode has severely diminished the Secretary-General's credibility as an effective man of goodwill.
One of the many reasons why I am attracted by Mr Eldon Griffiths's imaginative scheme for hand- ing over the island of Perim to the United Nations as an international base is the hope that U Thant will spend his declining years on this hitherto inhospitable island where his ability to let down his erstwhile friends and supporters will be necessarily limited.
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