Monday, Nov. 21, 1955

Expanding the Club

Amid all of Geneva's disappointments, one solid agreement was reached. Dulles and Molotov, meeting privately, agreed to new membership in the United Nations for 17 nations, four of them Communist. The package deal, in which Britain and France concurred, would break nine years of deadlock and increase U.N. membership from 60 to 77. Russia promised not to veto the West's list: Austria, Cambodia, Ceylon, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Laos, Libya, Nepal, Portugal and Spain. In return, the U.S. would not veto the Russian candidates: Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary and Rumania. The U.S. also, agreed to abstain on Outer Mongolia, but counted on this barren Soviet outpost's not getting enough votes to get in.