NEW YORK—According to the exciting newspaper stories these days, it looks as though there must be trouble within the Soviet Union. Otherwise they would not be accepting the Polish insistence on independence in the way they are evidently being forced to do.

One cannot help feeling that the Soviets' acceptance of President Tito and his regime has been a very encouraging sign to the other satellite countries. Now the Hungarians seem to be following the Poles, and there is not much doubt that there will be support in Western countries for this kind of move in the satellite nations toward independence. They may continue to be Communist nations, but it will be their own kind of Communism—which is, after all, the pattern Tito established in Yugoslavia.

This whole situation puts a new complexion on the possibility that Western Germany and Eastern Germany may decide to unite without asking anybody's permission. This will, of course, be weighed in the light of whether the Soviet Union can use force to prevent it. Yet it will certainly be a temptation and perhaps an incentive to the West and East Germans to work together to try to find a way of joining. This may make a tremendous change in the whole European situation.

As I read the carefully prepared statement of the President's advisers in answer to Adlai Stevenson, I could not help having a feeling that here was a willingness to accept the philosophy of standing still. If you cannot even move forward at a moment like this, with an agreement on the H-bomb, then how are you ever going to move forward, since we have been pressing for inspection for a long time without any success.

The President's statement noted that there was fallout from other nuclear weapons. Perhaps in time we will be faced with the problem of whether we should stop all tests. But in the meantime the one to be considered the most dangerous is the H-bomb, knowledge of which is shared with us by the Soviet Union. If we know that we risk extinction of our own people and the whole human race, they know that they risk the extinction of their own people also, as well as the whole human race. The strongest instinct in human nature is self-preservation; and that may be more of an incentive than anything else could be to live up to an agreement if they enter into it.

Just in case any of my readers are going over their Christmas lists, I want to mention a particularly interesting cookbook which might be a nice gift at Christmas time for one's friends. It is called "Look Who's Cooking," costs $2.15 and can be purchased from the Women's National Press Club, Washington, D.C. It is interesting reading, as well as a guide to interesting eating, for every recipe has a story attached to it. I will not say that you will find only recipes of a nice thinning variety, but you will certainly find recipes which in anticipation will make your mouth water.