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few. These would be wise and able men in any context. To offset their personal quality and cennetence, however, is the sad lack of able supporting staff, the ab- sence of @ iramework or tradition of vigor and competence in public service, the lack of a canmoa toncue == even within sinnle countries -- which forces all public of fi- clals in this modern, swift-paced world to think and to work in a second language. One often has the feeling Chat these able men are lost in a sea of ineffictency ani lassitude. Thcir staff seen entirely unrelated to events as they are. Onc doesn't, afrer a while, ask too much, An American ambassader told me he counted it a hearten- ing resule of the current U.S. Leadership Grant Proaram that ane African public of- ficial came back from his four months in the U.S. and answered his countrymen's ques- tion: "No! There is no siesta hour in the U.S.{ I have seen men who work. And we must learn to work, too, if we are to progress." We of the West haven't always been helpful. Take these two cases in point: In the farcus de Gaulle referendum of 1958 in French Africa, Guinea was the only colonial territary to opt for freedom rather than membership in the French Community, Overnight, the stiff French reaction was to step French assistance propremg and to withdray French personnel; it is even said -- theugh I cannot personally vouch for ie -- that what equipment the French could not take with them was destroyed. The ite evitsble happercd. President Sékou Toure, who came up through a tough labor movement fount a ready friend in the U.S.S.R., and there emerged in Conakry the only coapul- Bively left-leaning state on the continent. There is a sizable Russian prepram of technical assistance in Guinea as a result. Guirca is the only Black African country to which a Cowrinist airline flies a regular weckly service -- Prague te Conakry. Now after the facious snowplow story -- for which in any versien whatever I do not vouch -= President Touré is said to be somewhat disenchanted and his relations with the West are said to be on the mend, Then consicer the case of the last srall Portubuece enclave in Dahomey. When I saw it last summer, it consisted of a block-square overgrown park on the sea some miles froin Cotanou, surrounding a burned-out mansion, The story was told to me hy a responsible Western diplomat. A relic of the l?th century, this quite uscless little grea housed a Portunuese official and a library in which had been collected documents from the time ef the enrliest Portupucse visitors -- something like 1482. he date doesn't matter. This last bit of forcign property was a bit of a thern in the side of the newefledzed Republic. Apparently Bahomey offered all sorts of scttlements which the Portuguese refused, The enclave might, for instance, have been given recor nized diplomatic status, or been made a consulate, No. It was Portuguese property, and notuing could be done. After months of effort, their paticnce at an end, the Dahomeyan authorities set a final-date for the removal of this irritating reminder of the bad old colonial days Seeirs Char the Cevern.car of Dahumey qeant business, on the eve of the desdline in 1901) the Portegucse residcoat buracd the mansion, the irreplaccable Library, and even his own car. die was tuken to the boarder by Dahewevan authoriiies to be expelled, and had the gall to announce that by his aetion the hoaner af Portusal had been saved. Wwe Americans lave done nothiu,, quite Tike this, ber we cannot expect to be coc pletely dissociated from the actions of our French and Portuyuvese friends. Americans haven't always been helpful at home, either. IT have recently visites aos cict triend in French-speaking Airica, a mesaber of his country's Supreme Court. 4 We hes visited the U.S., Lut savs he likes us anyuiy. Here is the stery he told me ane: looked over his treasured serapbsovks of the trip: