TRADE: Going to the Fairs

An American in Damascus was worried about the prestige of his country. Here the Russians had spent half a million dollars building the biggest pavilion at the Damascus Fair, while the U.S. Government had refused to let him spend even $15,000. Harris Peel, the USIS chief in Damascus, cast about for “something that would steal the show” yet cost nothing. His solution: Cinerama, which had never before been shown outside the U.S.

Peel talked the Cinerama people into providing the film, Warner Bros, into lending projectors, the U.S. Air Force into ferrying 35 tons of equipment (four projectors, 72 speakers and a special 62,000-watt generator, since Cinerama alone could use all of Damascus’ electricity). Last week, by special engraved invitation, the first audience—1,500 Syrian bigwigs and their families—rode the roller coaster, toured the U.S. by airplane, while the sound track chorused America, the Beautiful. The bigwigs (and 400 others who crashed the gates) seemed a little bewildered by it all. Undaunted, Peel decided Cinerama’s real test would come when Syria’s kaffiyeh-topped shepherds and camel drivers start thronging into the free, two-a-day show.

Even so, it was hardly a match for the Communists, who are going all out for international fairs this year, erecting the biggest exhibition building at Damascus, at Izmir (Smyrna) in Turkey, at Salonika in Greece, at Djakarta in Indonesia. Gone were the days when the Soviets sent a few heavy tools and a few heavy-handed “salesmen” with propaganda pamphlets. Now the Communists were smooth fellows, showing off automobiles, caviar, medical equipment and agricultural implements and talking grandly (though also vaguely) of delivery dates and competitive prices. They were courteous as could be. “After all,” explained a Red trade weekly, “politeness and hospitality have nothing to do with capitalist customs. Both were practiced in the ancient days.” At Izmir, record crowds of Turks were enticed by shiny Russian goods and a natural curiosity about their hated neighbors. A Turk examined a Russian automobile, turned to his companion and said: “They, like us, also came back from nowhere. Now look at what those unmentionables have achieved.”

U.S. trade specialists are generally relaxed about the Russian fair displays. U.S. businessmen see little value in exhibiting in, say, Indonesia, which suffers from a lack of foreign exchange and a bewilderment of trade controls. Said one expert: “A foreigner owning a factory built around American equipment isn’t anxious to install Russian equipment, because the Russians haven’t yet proven themselves on performance or maintenance like the Americans have.”

But the suspicion remained that Russia may be successfully selling itself, if not its machinery. Last week President Eisenhower signed a special $5,000,000 congressional authorization to participate in international fairs too, with something more than a borrowed Cinerama outfit.