FOREIGN RELATIONS: Manhattan Merry-Go-Round

Delivering that ectoplasmic commodity, Good Will, to the city of New York is a rite as carefully prescribed by convention—and fully as exhausting—as the Pawnee Sun Dance. When France's President Vincent Auriol arrived at Penn Station last week, the Big City picked him up with a whoosh; he was dusted off by blasts from the police band, photographed, hustled into an automobile, delivered to the Waldorf-Astoria behind exactly 32 motorcycle cops, bowed into a suite, led out of it again, and then formally welcomed to the city at a three-hour banquet for 1,500.

This was just the warmup; the next...