NEW YORK, Thursday—It was a very significant thing that the President, on leaving Bermuda, came directly to talk to the delegates at the General Assembly of the United Nations. It emphasized the fact that the U.N. is the key to our foreign policy and that we do depend on the U.N. as the great force through which we work for peace.

Unfortunately, I had to go to Boston for a meeting on Tuesday morning with the president of Harvard University and my old friend, Mrs. Lewis Thompson, and I had to speak that night in Worcester, so I was not able to be at the U.N. to hear the President's speech.

My first impression on reading about it Wednesday morning was that it was a very fine pronouncement, and I am not surprised that even the Soviets applauded at the end, for it was a real effort to make us all face realities. Of course he was right when he said "It is not enough just to take this weapon (atomic energy) out of the hands of soldiers, it must be put into the hands of those who will know how to strip its military casing and adapt it to the arts of peace."

His proposals seem practical and reasonable. The disarmament commission can now work with some hope of a new approach on the important control of our most dangerous weapon and it may make it possible for the disarmament conference to take up some of the controls over other armaments which it has seemed useless in the past to even consider.

The American Association for the U.N. announced the other day the annual high school contest on the U.N. which they sponsor. This will be held on March 25th, 1954. The competition takes the form of an examination combined with short essay answer-question on the structure and work of the U.N.

Mrs. Dana Converse Bachus has been chairman of the AAUN education committee for a number of years and she explained that the objective of this contest was the same as the objective for which the AAUN works in many other ways, namely "to educate the American people to a better understanding of the work of the U.N."

This contest was begun when the League of Nations was the international organization to which we did not belong but which some of our citizens warmly supported. In recent years the full weight of the organization has been thrown into the work for the U.N. Almost 3,000 high schools used the study material furnished by the association and took advantage of the examination last year.

Scholarships and cash are among the awards, but also trips to Europe and Mexico, and these are offered as an extra incentive to encourage youngsters in careful study of the facts about the U.N. The judges are a very fine group of people and the AAUN, at 345 East 46th Street, New York 17, urges principals and teachers to register early so the study material can be sent them as soon as possible.