The Press: Off to Moscow

The Russians held that 20 correspondents were all the U.S. needed to cover the Moscow Foreign Ministers’ meeting. The U.S. press wanted at least 52.

Russia’s excuse for limiting the newsmen—the Moscow housing shortage—gave U.S. Ambassador Walter Bedell Smith his opening. The U.S. would pare 16 men off its 100-man official delegation, he said, and thus make room for 16 more newsmen. At week’s end, the Russians agreed. No. 35 on the new quota of 36: the correspondent of New York’s Communist Daily Worker.