Reporter’s Notebook : 2 Leaders May Have a Cold in Common

Reporters dubbed it “the cold war,” but instead of driving a wedge between the superpowers, it might bring the two leaders closer when they meet today in this city of frigid temperature and chill winds. Both President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev appear to have picked up a touch of the common cold.

Press spokesmen on both sides vehemently denied any infection, but Gorbachev rubbed a bright red handkerchief against his nose twice during his Monday arrival ceremony, and reporters covering Reagan noticed the presidential proboscis was congested.

“Is he taking any medication for his obvious stuffiness?” a reporter asked White House spokesman Larry Speakes.

“I don’t think there was stuffiness,” Speakes said. “There could have been, you know, a cold nose.”

With the world wondering what Reagan and Gorbachev will say to each other when they are alone at the start of the summit, there may be an answer. Like any two strangers meeting for the first time, they may begin by commiserating about their colds--or non-colds.

President Reagan, at the request of an 11-year-old boy, is running a tropical fish feeding service at the Maison de Saussure, the 18th-Century villa where he and his wife are staying.

The boy, Hussain, is the son of the Prince Aga Khan, leader of the Ismaili Muslim sect, and Princess Salida, who normally rent the villa. Hussain left a note in his bedroom, which Reagan is using as a study, asking the President to feed his pet goldfish.

“The boy wrote a personal note to the President,” said Elaine Crispen, press secretary to Nancy Reagan. “The President is following his instructions.”

The Reagans’ stay in the Maison de Saussure and the President’s use of another mansion, the Fleur d’Eau, as a site for his meeting with Gorbachev has denuded a historical Geneva chamber of all its furniture for the week. The chamber--the Alabama Hall of the City Hall in the old quarter of Geneva--is of special interest to the United States.

It was in that chamber that a commission of three arbiters--a Swiss, a Brazilian, and an Italian--heard testimony about the damages inflicted by the British-built Alabama warship during the American Civil War and in 1872 awarded the the United States $15.5 million. The Swiss later renamed the chamber the Alabama Hall.

The city of Geneva is proud enough of the chamber to exhibit it to visitors. But an interior decorator, looking for antique furniture to outfit the two villas that Reagan is using, asked for temporary use of the Alabama furniture, and city officials agreed.

The Reagans’ new neighbors are becoming fed up with all the police cars, diplomatic limousines, Swiss army armored cars, and helicopters constantly moving through and above the neighborhood around the Maison de Saussure. The Journal de Geneve, a local newspaper, quoted one irate resident as asking, “Why can’t they hold their conference in the desert?”

Standing in below-freezing temperatures while waiting for President Reagan at Le Reposoir, the official residence of the Swiss president, was too much for three Swiss army soldiers. They fainted and were carried away moments before the President arrived for the official welcome by Swiss President Kurt Furgler. The remaining soldiers repositioned themselves to fill in the fallen soldiers’ spaces, and when the President walked up and down during the ceremonial inspection of the troops, he did not notice three were missing.

White House Chief of Staff Donald T. Regan told a Washington reporter that most women will want to read about the activities of the leaders’ wives, because they won’t understand the rest of what goes on at the summit.

“They’re not going to understand throw-weights or what is happening in Afghanistan or what is happening in human rights,” said Regan. “Some women will. But most women . . . believe me, your readers for the most part, if you took a poll, would rather read the human interest stuff.”

Nancy Reagan has summoned her California hairdresser, Julius Bengtsson, to attend to her in Europe. This is not the first time that she has called on him for distant assignments. Bengtsson also accompanied Mrs. Reagan to Rome last spring when she met the Pope. In fact, she included Bengtsson in a small group of people who met the pontiff with her.

Times staff writer Eleanor Clift and Betty Cuniberti also contributed to this story.