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PAStOR GENERAL'S REPORT, March 13, 1980
Page 13
Republic of Germany. There is a great amount of talk about human rights.
We have been able to give human rights to almost a quarter of a million
people within five years. And there are still some waiting to be given
the same opportunities. All this could come to a standstill .... "
No More Zig-Zag
What angers Mr. Schmid t and other European leaders is the total hot-and
cold unpredictability--"le zig-zag" the French call it--of the current
Administration in Washing ton.
Presidently, America's allies are supposed to follow a hard-line toward
Moscow. Yet, who knows what tomorrow may bring--Mr. Carter is already
speaking of taking the SALT II treaty out of the deep freeze this spring.
Will Europeans be left clinging to an anti-Soviet limb again in the near
future, with Mr. Carter ready to saw it off in the interest of renewed
detente?
The Europeans have been burned more than once. The neutron bomb is the
prime example--and they weren't consulted beforehand on Mr. Carter's
Olympic boycott ultimatum either.
Little wonder that the Germans want to create for themselves, as one aide
to the Chancellor says, "more elbow room tto) protect the interests of
Western Europe, and within it, West Germany." Despite inner frustration
and anger, Schmid t is cautious in his remarks about Washington and the
Atlantic Alliance. Not so his close friend, President Giscard who, a
few days ago in a televised interview, talked glowingly of the "reappear
� of Europe as�� center of influence and decision in the world."
--Gene H. Hogberg, News Bureau