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U.N. members were sharply divided over what to do in Katanga. Britain called for a ceasefire. France condemned the action. Ireland, worried about its soldiers and this fall's national elections, dispatched its Foreign Minister to the Congo. In the neighboring Central African Federation, Sir Roy Welensky, openly friendly to Katanga's pro-European attitude, arranged to send food and medical supplies to the Tshombe troops, remarking that "I really don't care if the United Nations likes that or not." The U.S. cautiously supported the U.N. operation, finally urged that fighting be stopped. Radio Moscow charged that the U.N. did not really want to oust Tshombe and unite the Congo. And there were those who wondered if Dag Hammarskjold's U.N. forces would have been as ready to fight if Gizenga and not Tshombe had seceded.
At week's end, Hammarskjold, jolted by the military setbacks and looking drawn and pale after three days of harried talks in Léopoldville, got another jolt from across the Congo River in Brazzaville. His scheduled take-off for the opening of the U.N. General Assembly meeting in New York was forbidden by authorities in the former French Congo, who said that they could not guarantee his safety "because of the discontent and agitation provoked by events in Katanga." When Hammarskjold heard the news, his only reaction was to stare vacantly in the direction of an Indian pipe drum band, which was playing Over the Sea to Skye—a Scottish funeral dirge.