FOREIGN RELATIONS: Neutral but Nice

Maneuvering amid the personalities and protocol of sticky Washington last week was an open-faced, roundly smiling, improbable-looking man in a gaung baung (gauze turbanlike cap with side bow), ingyi (short-waisted, high-necked jacket) and longyi (skirt). Improbably, for a potentate from a faraway land, he came bearing thoughtful gifts: a pint of his blood for a U.S. hospital; a silver gong suspended between ivory elephant tusks for the President; a check for $5,000 for distressed families of G.I.'s killed or incapacitated in the liberation of his country, Burma, during World War II.

"The Premier of Burma, U Nu, is visiting us,"...

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