Nation: A Display of Affection

When Ethiopia’s Emperor Haile Selassie pleaded gallantly but in vain for League of Nations help against the invading troops of Benito Mussolini in 1936, the wiry little Lion of Judah won the affection of the U.S. That continuing affection was displayed throughout the Emperor’s official state visit to the U.S. last week. He was applauded and pursued by an unusually spirited noontime crowd of parade watchers in Washington, by delegates to the U.N. in New York, by autograph seekers along lower Broadway. In Philadelphia, even union pickets on strike at a hotel cheered when he strode across their lines to reach his suite.

Since there are no weighty differences between the U.S. and Ethiopia, the glittering round of gold-plate lunches, dinners and receptions thrown by official Washington were full of sentiment. Said President Kennedy in a dinner toast: “There is really no comparable figure in the world who occupied and held the attention and the imagination of almost all free countries in the mid-’30s and still could in the summer of 1963 in his own capital dominate the affairs of his continent.”

Responded the Emperor: “I recall with most poignant emotion the moral support that Ethiopia received from the U.S. in the dark hour when my country was ravished by fascism 27 years ago.”

Leopard in the Garden. Such an occasion clearly called for an exchange of gifts, and they were lavish. The President gave the 71-year-old monarch a steel-and-silver replica of the sword General George Washington carried throughout most of the Revolutionary War, a Tiffany silver desk set, a 16-mm. movie projector with films of Selassie’s red-carpet arrival at Washington’s Union Station and an autographed photograph of himself in a silver frame. The Emperor presented the President with an Ethiopian Bible copied by hand on parchment bound in silver and overlaid with a gold crucifix, a 200-year-old Coptic church book, a silver fruit bowl inlaid with gold, a silver miniature of the Lion of Judah statue in Addis Ababa, and an autographed photo of himself in a silver frame.

For Caroline and John Jr., the Emperor brought figures of a soldier and an Ethiopian girl, each carved in ivory. Jacqueline Kennedy, making her first ceremonial appearance since the birth and death of her infant son, presented the Emperor’s granddaughter, Princess Ruth Desta, 33, with a leatherbound guidebook to the White House, three art books and a vermeil dresser set.

Then Jackie, looking pleased, appeared in the White House rose garden in a full-length leopard skin coat despite the warm afternoon. “He gave it to me,” Jackie explained to the President, with a nod toward the Emperor. “I was wondering why you had it on in the garden,” replied Jack.

Wreath of Coins. Selassie did, however, have something serious on his mind: his sympathy for U.S. Negroes in their drive for civil rights and his high regard for President Kennedy’s efforts to aid that drive. The Emperor insisted on meeting N.A.A.C.P. Executive Secretary Roy Wilkins, laid a 50-lb. solid silver wreath, fashioned from Ethiopian coins, at the Lincoln Memorial. In his forthright speech to the U.N.’s General Assembly, Selassie declared: “The Administration of President Kennedy is leading a vigorous attack to eradicate the remaining vestiges of racial discrimination from this country. We know that this conflict will be won and that right will triumph.”

On such matters Selassie is in a position to speak for much of Africa. His effective leadership as honorary president of the summit conference on African unity in Addis Ababa last May established his position as a moderate who might bridge the communications gap between the widely divergent African factions. In his own land his tight rule is controversial, but from a pragmatic U.S. point of view it has been effective. Ethiopia is fiscally sound, is one of the few nations to repay its lend-lease obligations in full. Selassie dispatched troops to U.N. combat in both Korea and the Congo. He has eagerly accepted 244 U.S. Peace Corpsmen as schoolteachers to raise the literacy standards of his people.

The visit was meant to cement such harmony. Toward that end, Selassie had long talks not only with Jack Ken nedy, but with Bobby and Teddy as well. He was even accorded a full-fledged Washington press conference. Unfortunately, he had to deal with questions just as inane as some of those Kennedy fields. Inquired one lady reporter: “How do leopard skins of Ethiopia Somalia?” compare in Selassie quality smiled with gamely, those said of there was no difference.