Correspondents' Correspondence

...At the moment, however, most citizens are probably more interested in the cricket tournament at Leeds, or perhaps the chess match at Reykjavik, than in any political event...

...Though Rhodesia is partially alive as an issue, one has to remember that about 70 per cent of its white population consists of first generation Britons who emigrated there after World War II...

...Though a strong voice in the local government a year ago, it now consists of only a few powerless spokesmen whose painted slogans are peeling in the monsoon wind...

...The British Labor leader attacked the world press in general and his own nation's in particular, accusing it of deliberately and maliciously distorting Labor's stand on Britain's entry into the European Economic Community (EEC...

...But several highly placed Socialist officials were on hand from governments that, as Mrs...

...industry and capital were steadily fleeing the state as labor trouble increased, creating in turn more unemployment and unrest...

...today, the Prime Minister is almost universally admired...

...Last year the city center was under siege by several million Bengali refugees from what was East Pakistan, and police outposts were fending off an influx that threatened to destroy its decaying facilities -a fate predicted as imminent by local and foreign Cassandras for two decades...

...According to the International Herald Tribune, whose correspondent quoted "experienced commentators," the program drawn up by the two parties goes much farther than any past cooperation, including the 1936 Popular Front...

...Yet no one on the floor of Vienna's Konzert Haus asked Wilson whether he thought the sizable group of Labor-ites who had voted in favor of Britain's entry were also guilty of distortion or malice...

...Ultimately, in fact, it appears that the '60s will be judged by the kind of liberal legislation passed under Roy Jenkins and his predecessor: by the reform of the divorce laws, the banning of color discrimination in jobs, the abolition of capital punishment, and the repeal of penalties against homosexuality and abortion...

...Indeed, the harsh physical realities of life here have not eased since the liberation of Bangladesh and the rise of India to unquestioned supremacy on the subcontinent...

...President, many Israelis would question the diplomatic propriety of his remarks...

...Failure to do so constitutes a cognizable offense under the Prevention of Insults to National Honor Act, 1971, as it brings into contempt the Indian national flag in a public place and would be punishable under Section C of the Act with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years or with fine, or with both...

...He is not even very concerned about Europe-ostensibly, the Great Alternative...

...Can we, or the Commonwealth, influence U.S...

...Among English Catholics-who are overwhelmingly of Irish extraction-an understandable sympathy persists for the Old Cause...

...Are we going into Europe...

...No Arab countries belong to the Socialist International, so the -or an-arab position on the Mideast conflict could not be presented first-hand...

...No, we cannot...

...Let us be worthy of India...

...In Calcutta the change is of a different order...

...Consulting the opinion polls only serves to confuse...

...When I left 12 months ago, the mood was gloomy, reflecting a gnawing mistrust of Indira Gandhi's ability as a leader, for other than win handily at the polls she had done nothing to merit confidence...

...The Israelis have also concluded that the Russians regard Nixon as more hawkish or unpredictable than a Democrat would be, and so are less willing to take risks, for example, by becoming too directly involved in any Mideast shooting...

...The warm-hearted and hard-headed Mrs...

...Can we extinguish the centuries-long hatred between Protestants and Catholics in Ulster...

...policy in Vietnam and nobody defended the American stand, there was reason to expect a motion of censure...

...That seems a fair measure of the progress visible in India: A year ago the corner was not even in sight.-B...

...Furthermore, this evidently is one of the few countries where people still remember that the Communists in the North, and not the South, started the Vietnam war...

...See you in two years, comrades.-silvio F. Senigallia The Israelis' Choice Tel Aviv-when the Israeli press reported that some U.S...

...A few hundred yards away, the answer is painted on a building: "We are proud to be Indian...

...they are to the British what the Afrikaners are to the present-day Dutch...

...But rabbi, you know it is not true,' the man pleaded...

...Traffic conditions worsen in the city, where every other building is defaced by political slogans...

...foreign policy-even in the Middle East-under Nixon than under previous Presidents...

...Will it be tough on us in the short run...

...Democrats had complained about Ambassador Yitzhak Rabin's alleged expressions of support for Richard Nixon in the forthcoming Presidential election, a Cabinet member here commented privately: "You know, it reminds me of the story about the rabbi who called in one of the leading citizens of the shtetl and gave him a harsh dressing down because rumors were spreading that he had shown undue interest in another man's wife...

...Meir pointed out, regularly take the Arab side at the UN, vote for motions condemning Israel, and even brand its leaders as war criminals...

...Gandhi's sari hem is stable, and the old wounds of partition are substantially healed...

...A billboard erected by the Junior Chamber of Commerce on Bombay's Marine Drive fronting the Arabian Sea asks: "How does it feel to be Indian...

...With the sole exception of the Israeli Premier, however, none of the speakers made any significant contribution to the analysis, let alone the solution, of the problems facing the Socialists and the world today...

...The Shiv Sena, the Bombay fascist group that occupied itself with harassing South Indians it held responsible for unemployment among the local Maharashtri-ans, has been virtually wiped out...

...Still, the question remains whether a McGovern who would cut the American defense budget 40 per cent could, even with the best of intentions, deter Moscow from engaging in Middle East adventures...

...The flies and filth of Calcutta remain, along with its myriad poor and unemployed, but there is hope...

...To be sure, a number of prominent statement-including Willy Brandt, Harold Wilson, Golda Meir, Bruno Kreisky, Pietro Nenni, and Francois Mitterrand-spoke on impressive themes like "The International Situation" and "A Socialist Policy for Europe...

...The foreign tourist who looks beneath the surface will find that Britain in 1972 is a far more liberal country than it was in 1962, evidence that the Left-wing conscience has not been as ineffectual as might appear.-John Mander Return to India Bombay-My first impression upon returning home after a year in the United States was that little had changed...

...The loyalist Protestants may be passionately British, but they find little response here...

...Yet it cannot be said to have given British youth, as it were, "a Vietnam on their doorstep...

...Not unless we are prepared to resort to outright war, which we are plainly not...

...Mitterrand arrived here at the very moment the French Socialists and Communists unveiled a joint platform for the 1973 elections...

...pimps, prostitutes and pickpockets still crowd the potholed road...

...The former Prime Minister's angry criticism of the Common Market countries was given a cool reception-hardly a substitute for constructive debate...

...There has been practically no response to recent events in Vietnam-not that there was much even back in 1968...

...Apparently carried away by this new spirit, the city's police commissioner has prominently posted a notice in the movie theaters: "Patrons are requested to maintain proper decorum and show respect to the national anthem by standing up and keeping still while it is played...

...P. Menon Socialist Monologues Vienna-The 12th congress of the Socialist International, held here June 26-29, was marked by a singular lack of dialogue...

...Once again, however, blandness prevailed: A noncontroversial resolution, urging concessions on both sides, was unanimously approved...

...And that appears to be as true of the activist Left as of the traditionally staid Right...

...somehow it seems more conceivable that he could be flexible on other issues, yet remain firm on Israel...

...In a brief tribute to the short-lived Czech Socialisme hu-main, which followed the inevitable homage to the downtrodden comrades of Spain, Greece and Portugal, he noted that his party's deal with the Communists was designed to protect the workers' interests...

...Yes, it will...

...The beggars endure in their wretchedness, running up to cars stopped at lights and uttering the eternal whine of degraded poverty...

...Swedish Premier Olof Palme, for example, spoke twice...

...Since it is well known that Nixon received few Jewish votes and can not be accused of acting mainly for domestic reasons, his support confirms what most people here want to believe: Not only sentiment but a hard-nosed evaluation of American interests has induced the U.S...

...The noisome slums of suburban Bombay, through which one passes on the way from the airport, are as depress-ingly ugly as ever...

...Nixon's popularity has been enhanced, of course, by the general assumption here-made long before the Democratic Convention opened in Miami Beach-That George Mc-Govern would be his opponent in the November election...

...Since a number of the participants severely criticized U.S...

...Englishmen vacationing on the Continent will have noticed that their pound has shrunk, but few are aware that floating it has caused an international furor...

...On the other hand, pollution, civil rights, women's liberation, etc., are issues that can be confronted at home, and much has been done, in these areas, by both the Conservatives and the preceding Labor government...

...shipments were arranged by Lyndon Johnson, most of them were approved by Nixon-as the man in the street is keenly aware...

...Can we influence the course of events in Rhodesia...

...The ordinance, originally promulgated to inhibit the flag-burning and Constitution-ripping activities of various regional and separatist movements, no longer seems necessary, for Mrs...

...Yes, we are...

...And yet no one challenged "war criminal" Meir's comments: Apparently it never occurred to the pro-Arab delegates that she could not be a wonderful comrade and a war criminal at the same time...

...While the extreme Left has shown some sympathy for the IRA, the Provos are seen far more as Irish Nationalists than as the Left-wing revolutionaries they claim to be...

...policies in Vietnam...

...Today the city is like a patient convalescing after a prolonged and wasting illness...

...Indeed, the possibility of that occurring at this meeting was virtually eliminated in most cases by the participants' rapid departure immediately after delivering their addresses...

...Clearly, the average Briton no longer cares about his Commonwealth, nor about Russia or China...

...Gandhi's popularity has overwhelmed the separatists almost everywhere...

...Most Israelis are extremely uneasy about the extent and reliability of the South Da-kotan's support for the Jewish State...

...The refugee camps are gone, the new state government that rode into office on Mrs...

...Nonetheless, to conclude that Englishmen are merely apathetic would not be correct either...

...After all, their ancestors left England and Scotland for Ulster in the 17th century...

...I soon discovered, however, that for the first time I can remember in all of my 26 years, the people seem to believe things will improve...

...Had Bangladesh lost the war, Calcutta most certainly would finally have fallen into chaos...

...The nation's leading daily, Ha'aretz, recently editorialized: "It may be that the doubts about Mc-Govern's attitude on Israel were intentionally exaggerated by his opponents, including those in his own party...

...New Delhi had dissolved the local government because of its instability...

...You want it to be true, too?' " If, in fact, Rabin indicated a preference for the incumbent U.S...

...This impression has been reinforced now that Nixon appears to have quietly put the unpopular Rogers Plan on ice...

...Eliahu Salpeter...

...The "ties of kith and kin" do not apply to Northern Ireland...

...Perhaps the organization has become the kind of prestigious club in which it is considered bad form to ask questions or make comments that might embarrass a fellow member...

...All this, of course, contradicts the notion that the average Briton is a more political animal than, say, the average German, Frenchman or American...

...President to stand up for Israel...

...Their attitudes may simply reflect the high degree of political realism that, deservedly or not, the British are usually said to have...

...With a known, tested friend like Hubert Humphrey heading the Democratic ticket, the picture would have been different...

...While marshaling a barrage of quotations aimed at proving the consistency of his and Labor's EEC record, he avoided a single mention of former deputy leader Roy Jenkins, who had broken with him on the issue...

...If something else drastic doesn't happen," a Bengali friend told me, "we might have turned the comer...

...In any ordinary congress, delegates would have had time to challenge a display like Wilson's...

...For example, it seems that a large majority of Englishmen (roughly two-thirds) opposes joining the Common Market, yet an even greater proportion is quite convinced that we shall be going in, like it or not...

...What looms largest in their minds is his demonstrated willingness to sell Israel Phantom jets and other advanced weapons vital for the maintenance of qualitative superiority vis-a-vis the enormous flow of Soviet armaments to the Arabs...

...But the majority would not disagree with their substance, for most people here believe Nixon has given them a good deal from the very outset...

...The rabbi sternly replied, 'It's bad enough people are talking...

...England's Progress London-This is the time of year when great swarms of foreign tourists arrive, asking perplexing questions like "What do the British think about this, that or the other...

...Of the Leftist movements that have made headway, most are American imports: women's liberation, civil rights for blacks, antipollution, etc...

...And it is felt that Foggy Bottom has wielded far less influence over U.S...

...Though the first U.S...

...Nonetheless, the French Socialist leader made only a passing reference to the new alliance at the congress...

...One can hardly blame the visitor who goes away convinced that the proper way to put it would have been, "Do they think at all...

...Meir presented Israel's case in a moving and convincing speech that was the high point of the meeting...

...Moreover, since the days of the Truman Administration, the Israelis have considered the State Department to be pro-Arab and the White House pro-Israel...

...nor can the Commonwealth over which we have voluntarily relinquished control...

...Despite the Frankfurt Charter's explicit condemnation of totalitarian ideologies, no delegate chose to voice concern or request elucidation...

...No, though if anybody can bring about the semblance of a solution, it is probably William White-law, the government's secretary of state to Northern Ireland...

...He is viewed as a darling, if not a spokesman, of the New Left-which is usually pro-Arab and anti-Israel...