NEW YORK, Friday—It is amusing to me to find General Ridgway feeling that the accusations made against us by the Communists in Korea, as to using germ warfare, gas, etc., are just a prelude to some future action planned by the Reds. Ultimately, they can use all these things, which they wish to do, and then say they have been forced to do so in retaliation. We, of the United States will, of course, be accused of starting it all. I do not think the Soviets have yet accused all the other nations in the United Nations forces of using this kind of warfare, but that will come later.

The reason this amuses me is that a Soviet policy, once adopted, carries all the way down the line, even into such unimportant realms as the Human Rights Commission. There the Soviet delegation, well supported by the Ukraine and the Polish delegations, twists every action on the part of the United States or Great Britain or France and implies that our motives are sinister. At times I can hardly keep from laughing. It must require so much imagination to think up such accusations as they make, but I find that the one thing they cannot really enjoy is to have anybody laugh at them. Perhaps they just can't understand that one can take them lightly.

I am always sorry for any group or individual that feels it essential to keep in favor with the Soviets; it requires such complete subservience. They must put up their hands and vote as the Russians do; they must tell the men of the Kremlin how wonderfully their tactics are working and what good speeches they make. But even then they do not seem quite sure that they are pleasing their masters. I watch these men together and I feel sorry for them all; they don't seem relaxed and natural.

It seems strange to read in the papers about a black market in potatoes when a short while ago we were hearing people complain about the way potatoes were being wasted, left to rot in the fields. Now there is a black market, with no potatoes to be had at ceiling prices.

Since we have given up our farm at Hyde Park I think I shall have to go share with some of my neighbors and finance the expense growing the necessary vegetables for summer use when we will have our hungry brood of children with us. Once school is out and they begin on summer activities, children and their appetites grow apace.

I forgot to tell you that I went again the other evening to the "King and I." Since I last saw this stage show I have been in Bangkok, and on seeing it again I found that fact really added to my enjoyment of the play. Mr. Brynner is really wonderful as the King and of course, my admiration for Gertrude Lawrence rises each time I see her in the part. I think also that Dorothy Sarnoff, as Lady Thiang, is remarkably good. She looks and acts just like the little ladies who piloted me around on my sightseeing tour of Bangkok.