WHY EISENHOWER WAS WELCOME

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5302, 15 January 1947, Page 3

WHY EISENHOWER WAS WELCOME

TRIUMPHAL TOUR OF BRITAIN LONDON . . General Dwight D. Eisenhower's receftt triumphant return to the United Kingdcm affordedi concliisive 'proof of the uninhibited affectionate esteem. in which he his held by the British people. No precedent existed for such an unqualified lionising of an American visitor by all classes of the King's isubjects. Colourful civic and academic ceremonies which made General Eisenhovver and Honorary Doctor of Laws at the University of Edinburgh and at Cambridge and a Freeman of tbe Scottish Capital and of the ancient burgh of Maybole, coveted distinctious thoug'h they are, merely were Ihe i formal manifestations of a -regard exj pressed most significantly on the >sidelines. The measure of popular feeling was found in what people said to one another as they awaited a g-limpse of the General and in comment on the street, in the subways and buses. Always the Right Word Disappointment was keen when he deprecated rumours that he might succeed W. Averell Harriman as United States Ambassador to Great Britain. "No American visiting this country has had his unfailing gift of saying .the right thing at the right time with such faultless taste," cne woman novelist observed. , "Ike is worth the "Ujhoi'J lot of pi-ofessional diplomats," said a major of artillery. When the General landed at Prestwick, crowds of stenographers, telephonists, waitresses, hostesses and j others surged toward his plane. The Waafs on duty would have been more fluttery only if the visitor had been Tyrone Power or Bob Hope. Children piled into city streets, waving small United States fiags and yelling "Ike." Humour Never. Ruffled Nothing cracked General Eisenhower's good humour, neither rain nor cold, the meals he missed, the delays in some of the rituals, the importunate adulators nor pointed questions fired at him by news wri> ers. Asked at a press conference such a personal question as why he didn't wear more of the medals and ribbons to which he was entitled, he dismissed the subjeet with an airy, disarming pleasantry. Good humour was the lceynote of every conference. Mdmbers of the Royal h'am'ilyi made no bones about their delight in entertaining him and his family. They found him charming and sharp of wit. Queen Mother Mary, herself as direct as a machine-gun burst, was taken especially with his forthrightness. From the Royal menage right down to the scullery help, Ifish peddlers and .^crubwomen, Ike "neally ra'tes, and now that he has a home-in Ayrshire's Culzean Castle to come to- whenever he wants, a lot of people feel that he is an ex-ofiicio citizen who can t'hroAV just aboufc as much weight in Empire councils as Canada, say, or Australia. 1