NEW YORK, Friday—On Wednesday I had the pleasure of christening a new airship for Capital Airlines. Named "Spirit of World Peace," the plane will tour the country to remind our people that the history of aviation is closely tied to world development.

The aviation industry does, of course, bear a great responsibility. Passenger airships can transport people for peaceful or for warlike purposes, and the very fact that they have brought the world so much more closely together requires of the people of the world a greater effort in their understanding of one another and a greater desire to work together for mutual benefit.

Every traveller today is an ambassador. But those who most often travel by air are business people who are looking for new ways to develop contacts with other countries.

In order to do their business well, they require a greater background on the history and economic conditions of any country where they intend to promote new associations. They also must manifest a greater human interest in the people they meet.

The average sightseeing traveller is never long in any one place. The businessman, however, may return again and again and spend long periods of time developing the particular phase of business that he expects to do in a foreign country. Therefore, he has the opportunity for observation and the development of real friendliness as well as the chance of making peoples of other countries understand how we live in a democracy and what the principles are by which we live.

Representatives of the United Nations Secretariat and delegations from several nations were at the christening—evidence that, they recognized the tie between American aviation and the rest of the world.

For those of us who had to speak briefly there were occasional interruptions. Planes taking off roared over our heads and we discovered that hangars are not designed for their good acoustics!

The Wednesday afternoon session of the General Assembly was short and I was able to get to Mr. and Mrs. Nelson Rockefeller's home to meet a few of our South American colleagues whom he had invited. Mrs. Warren Austin and Mrs. Dean Acheson arrived soon after I did, and I could not help thinking they must be grateful to have wives who can go to social functions for them.