NEW YORK, Friday—I drove home from Flushing yesterday afternoon after all the items from Committee Three had been finally passed on. There will be a delegation meeting this morning and then I think my own particular responsibilities for this session will be over. Committee One, however, will stay in session. This means the General Assembly will recess and not actually come to an end, so that all of us will be on call if we are needed. I am quite sure that I will not be needed, however. The permanent members of the mission here in New York City are quite accustomed to handling anything that comes up.

The final vote that came up in the Assembly before I left yesterday was that on naming a High Commissioner for Refugees. The Secretary-General named two candidates and they were voted on by secret ballot. The United States and France had hoped to elect J. Donald Kingsley who has been in charge of the International Refugee Organization for some time and is fully cognizant of all the problems. The United Kingdom and several other European countries came out for Dr. G. J. van Heuven Goedhart of the Netherlands, a very fine person but not especially associated with the work of the refugees as is Mr. Kingsley.

As Dr. Goedhart won, we all wish him every success in his new and very difficult job. Perhaps the United States should be rather glad that it will not carry as much responsibility as would have been expected had the position fallen to our national.

Washington must be becoming a most exciting place in which to live. I think the account of the latest encounter between Drew Pearson and Senator Joseph McCarthy makes one feel that self-control has become a rather rare commodity.

The only real thing that emerges from this occurrence or any other of the Washington goings-on at the present time is the fact that people's nerves are growing frayed. It is more and more difficult for them to accept criticism, meet people whom they do not like, and feel calm inside in a world that is anything but calm outside.

Very solemnly yesterday President of the General Assembly, Nasrollah Entezam, and Sir Benegal N. Rau and Lester B. Pearson accepted the responsibility to act as a committee of three to try to find some basis for understanding in the present Korean situation. It is a very tough assignment. Mr. Entezam made an appeal to every delegate present to help him. One can only hope that even the recalcitrant Russians may realize that peace is something to be desired!

I must congratulate Governor Mennen Williams of Michigan whose vote has been in the process of recount ever since Election Day. At the end of the recount last night it was discovered that he had tripled his lead! Anyone who has watched his work and knows how he has traveled about his state to know conditions, will be glad that such a responsible attitude has won him his reelection.