The Press: The Big Hello

In a column-long story in the Richmond Times-Dispatch last week, 24-year-old Carl Shires, an ex-copy boy in the T-D office and now a journalism student at Columbia University, told how he got an exclusive interview with Russia’s Jacob A. Malik. In the delegates’ lounge at Lake Success, Newshawk Shires simply walked up and buttonholed the Russian.

Startled by such boldness, Malik pricked up his ears at the mention of Columbia—and got in a sly dig at President Ike Eisenhower’s presidential boom. “A great peace-loving nation like America,” said Malik, “should have an ex-general in the White House.”

At this point, Malik began to interview the interviewer. “Has the general at Columbia militarized everyone?” he asked solicitously. When Shires reassured him, Malik demanded: “What do you study for, war or peace?” “For neither,” answered Shires. “I’ll let you boys at the United Nations do my war and peace studying.” This Malik seemed to like; he grabbed Student Shires’s hand and shook it. “During the interview,” wrote Shires, “we shook hands four times—at the introduction, at the departure, and twice spontaneously at Malik’s instigation. I still don’t know why we got in those two extra ones.”