International Carter proposes help for Poland

Press, 4 September 1980, Page 6

International Carter proposes help for Poland

MZPA Washington President Carter has approached key Western leaders to propose that they consider ways the West could respond sympathetically to expected requests from Poland for large-scale economic help once the crisis is ended Carter Administration officials havesaid.

The messages from Mr Carter to' the West German Chancellor (Mr Helmut Schmidt), the British Prime Minister -; (Mrs ’ Margaret Thatcher), and the French President (Mr Valery Giscard d’Estaing) were sent last Friday and .were supposed to be kept secret because of the sensitivity of-the Polish crisis and a desire not to give the impression of Western interference in Polish affairs, officials said. But Mr Schmidt, faced with partisan attacks on his policies, divulged the fact of the message to show that the United States and West Germany shared similar views on Poland.'

To protect the confidentiality of the messages, officials said, they were sent directly from the White House to the offices of the respective leaders, by-passing both the American and* European embas-sies’-involved. This could now be done, aides said, because of an improvement of existing communciations that allowed secure messages to be sent from Washington to the various capitals without having them handled by an embassy; Officials said that Mr Carter did hot propose any specific, course of ’ action, . but rather discussed in general terms the fact that the Poles, who : already owe about $20,000 million to the. West would probably. .be seeking

Pmore economic help in com- ; • ing months once the strike ■ was settled. < - Mr Carter was reported to I have urged ; the leaders to i consider what the West could ■ do to be responsive to .Po- i : land's expected requests? I • The Polish strike leader, i Lech Walesa, has been quoted as saying that- he hopes 1 for gifts to. help finance an independent . shipworkers’ 1 union and plans to contact - trade unionists abroad. ' ’ Mr Walesa told the popular < West German “Bild Zeitung” . in an interview that the union ] would • introduce) membership 1 subscriptions to. raise funds and was now going to work ( out its programme. According to “Bild,” Mr Walesa said that he and ;his ! colleagues were “hoping for donations,’’ though he avoid- . ed inviting Western ' trade . unions explicitly to contri- ! bute. . ' ■ ■ . East Germany yesterday t presented the. Polish Government’s agreements with stri- ( kers on the. Baltic coast as a ( capitulation which could x have dangerous con- < sequences. ( A commentary in the So- j viet Communist Party daily, j “Pravda”, was carried in all . East German newspapers in £ an abbreviated and more' critical form. j The East German version 5 of the “Pravda” article fol- £ lowed the original in saying , “anti-socialist elements” had j used the labour crisis in the northern seaports to fur- j ther “counter-revolutionary i aims”. a It then added that “the r Government negotiating I commissions effectively v accepted these demands”. C The “Pravda” ■ original, e published on Monday, said s the commissions “effectively "V

agreed to examine the demands of the representatives' of the workers.” The East German trans- j lation turned the careful So-j viet phrasing into a direct attack on Warsaw. Having said that the Government had accepted the strikers’ demands, it went; on- immediately to say these would “inflict direct damage' to socialism on Polish soil”; ■ So. far the state-run East German mediaEhave avoided all independent comment on the crisis, in the neignbouring Communist State, seen by Western diplomats as a sign of nervousness and uncertainty. .1 - The media have also failed to give any details of the demands put forward by the Baltic strikers or the agreements they reached with the Government at the week-end allowing ■■ them to set up independent trade unions and granting them the right to strike. East Berliners also report that in the last., few days copies of the Polish Communist Party newspaper, “Trybuna Ludu,” carrying details of the labour crisis have been difficult to obtain' in the city. Normally they are available at newspaper stands. Most East. Germans can receive West German television and radio and have thus been able to keep up with the developments in Poland. Government officials approached at the Leipzig Trade Fair, where contact with Western; journalists is more relaxed than in East Berlin, made clear that there was no chance of the East German leadership considering trade-union reforms similar to those granted by ; Warsaw. .. ,