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But Jawaharlal Nehru would have none of it. Even before he reached Brioni Nehru began to bill the conference as a casual meeting, arranged only after he learned that by rare coincidence "Nasser also would be traveling in Yugoslavia." And from the moment that Tito, resplendent in a panama white linen suit, white shoes and black pocket handkerchief, greeted him on Brioni's quay, Nehru was clearly determined to let the wind out of the whole affair. At the end of the first five-hour session, with Tito and Nasser standing sheepishly silent, Nehru wearily chided the 120 newsmen who had assembled to cover neutralism's shining hour. "It is really extraordinary," said he, "that we cannot meet in a friendly way without you gentlemen attaching the highest importance to it ... We have not settled all the world's problems. Repeat not."
This statement was thoroughly confirmed by the joint communiqué issued when the conference ended. With the exception of another demand for Red China's admission to the U.N., a cautiously worded expression of sympathy for "the desire of the people of Algeria for freedom," and a kind word for "safeguarding legitimate economic interests" in the Middle East, the communiqué carried little but vague platitudes of a pronounced Nehrunian cast. "Points on which there could be no agreement were just left out," explained one Indian diplomat. Tito, in halting English, bade his guests goodbye. "Come soon back," he said.
Problem for a Nurse. On the last day of the Brioni conference the U.S., in an astutely timed move to discourage the spread of neutralism, coldly withdrew its offer to help Egypt finance construction of the billion-dollar Aswan High Dam (see NATIONAL AFFAIRS). Flying off to Cairo with the bruised Nasser, Nehru, the high priest of neutralism, found himself at week's end playing nurse to a new and noisy member of the family. It was doubtful, however, that Nurse Nehru could offer 38-year-old Nasser much in the way of consolation or even advice.
The difficulty with the diplomatic doctrine that Nehru likes to call "nonalignment" is that it has no philosophic basis, no platform; it can only respond. Since the positive objectives of its adherents vary widely, neutralist powers, as Brioni proved, are rarely able to agree on anything but negatives.