Lobbying for Nobel prize

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33665, 15 October 1974, Page 19

Lobbying for Nobel prize

(N.Z. Press Assn —Copyright) OSLO, October 14. The Norwegian Nobel Institute confirmed today that it had been urged by a Japanese diplomat to award the Nobel Peace Prize to a former Japanese Prime Minister, Mr Eisaku Sato, but it denied that there was any pressure. “There was quite a high amount of activity, but not abnormally high,” Mr Tim Greve, the institute director, told reporters. The 1974 peace prize winners announced last Tuesday were Mr Sato and a former Irish Foreign Minister, Mr Sean JtMacßride. Mr Mac-

Bride’s award was well received but the choice of Mr Sato was widely criticised. This week-end, newspapers both in Oslo and Wasnington reported that a 14-month campaign financed by Japanese industrialists and lobbied for by Mr Toshikazu Kase, a former Japanese ambassador to the United Nations, helped win the prize for the 74-year-old Mr Sato. Mr Greve confirmed that Mr Kase flew to Oslo earlier this year to lobby for Mr Sato. But he denied reports of any unusual pressure. Mr Greve said that he had been given a copy of a book containing a number of Sato speeches, mainly dealing with the promotion of peace. He was aware of a Washington report, published after Mr Sato won the prize, that 500 copies of glossy book

of Mr Sato’s speeches translated into English were published solely because the Nobel committee prefers that a candidate have written at least one book. The Washington report said that the book was ghost-written by Mr Kase. Mr Greve said that there was nothing extraordinary in the fact that special groups campaign for Nobel peace prize candidates. “There is a permanent office in the Netherlands campaigning for the candidature of the Brazilian Archbishop, Dorn Helder Camara, and in Buenos Aires an organisation has campaigned for giving the peace prize to the late President, Juan Peron,” he said. The Nobel peace prize committee’s 4 by-laws state

that in addition to committee members, “members of the national assemblies and governments of the different States and members of the Inter - Parliamentary Union” are eligible to recommend candidates. In addition “university professors of political science and jurisprudence, history and philosophy and Nobel laureates of peace, are allowed to submit names. The “Washington Post,” reporting from Tokyo, said that the Sato campaign for ;the prize was led by Mr ■Morinosuki Kajima, board! chairman of the Kajima Cor-i poration, and Mr Kase. “We just thought it wasj just about our time to get the prize,” the Washington! Post quoted Mr Kajima as saying. J