Correspondents' Correspondence

...And the government's copying machine operators are working overtime to churn out press releases by the bale...

...There are the obvious things-the sudden flurry of press releases and the number of news conferences around town-but there are also more subtle changes...

...What you do is leave your number, your name, your organization...

...According to those pleasant, friendly secretaries who field the telephone calls for our public officials, they generally (a) "are in a meeting," (b) "are away from the desk," (c) "have someone in the office with them," or (d) are "in with someone,' as "sorry, he's in with the chief," or "in with the director," or "in with the President...

...That is the average day in Washington...

...Although the deals would bring in more than $1 billion, unlike this country neither of the prospective buyers is a party to the nuclear nonproliferation treaty (NPT...

...By that time, you are generally involved in something else anyway...

...Cabinet officials who simply could not work in that background interview you requested months ago have now become available...

...The way it changes the capital city is a wonder to behold...

...There was no question then of his less passive daughter Indira ever attaining power...

...Thank you for waiting.-Bob Schieffer, CBS News...

...As for the third alternative of banning sales entirely, this would mean giving up an estimated $3 billion in exports, and not even the moralists inside the Cabinet imagine they could survive that kind of political decision...

...Is he in...

...moreover, the Department of Industry, Trade and Commerce, the Canadian International Development Agency, and such government-owned corporations as Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd...

...it could ban the export of reactors, materials and technology altogether...

...and the Export Development Corporation measure their success by sales secured abroad...

...With the full court press on as it is now, however, it's a different ball game-not only at the dozens of news conferences that suddenly blossom around town, but behind the scenes, too...

...There is growing skepticism within Canada's economic community over the benefits derived from the reactor program since, as the influential and conservative Financial Post has pointed out, the nuclear industry is capital-rather than labor-intensive, and sales, tying up vast export credits, are often extended to customers who are poor financial as well as political risks...

...Calls from government officials are returned with lightning speed...

...The treaty, still supported by Ottawa, comes up for review in the spring and outlaws the provision of nuclear technology or fissile materials to nations refusing to be bound by its rules...

...In the case of South Korea, many diplomats see little to insure restraint by a dictatorial regime under constant military threat from its Communist neighbor to the north...

...The lifespan of a nuclear reactor is something like half a century, but diplomats are reluctant to make predictions about political behavior beyond half a decade...

...It's a local tradition that predates the Cherry Blossom Festival...

...it could restrict purchases to customers likely to remain peaceful and stable during the lifetime of the reactor, and willing to facilitate rigorous international checks...

...After developing a viable system, should we not sell it internationally...

...It means that once again we are experiencing one of Washington's oldest and most honored rituals-the White House-inspired, full-scale public relations campaign...

...Canada itself has consistently refrained from committing its sophisticated nuclear energy industry to military purposes, yet it has emerged as one of NPT's major offenders...

...This is the course favored by the "moralists" in the Cabinet, though its terms seem unfulfillable...

...Sometimes they are simply "out...

...On your average working day, if you're a reporter, you will call up dozens of public officials...

...Both can also be expected to follow India, an earlier nonsigna-tory purchaser of reactors here, in using the plutonium by-product from the reactors to construct nuclear weapons of their own...

...I could go on and on, but I won't because I have several phone calls to make...

...Secretaries who could never quite remember your name develop an instant talent for tracking you down in the oddest places...

...Unless there is a strong pressure from Canadian public opinion," comments a senior spokesman for the Atomic Energy Control Board, "we are going to sell Argentina a reactor under conditions that are completely unsafe...

...The word is spread discreetly that certain government officials have suddenly found time to appear on this or that TV interview program...

...You almost never reach them, of course...

...Take telephone calls as an example...

...And the telephone switchboard is suddenly and simply a joy to see...

...In the recently departed, sports metaphor-loving Nixon Administration the ceremony was usually referred to as the full court press...

...Should it actually set off a nuclear device, proliferation in Latin America would be a rapid affair, with Brazil and Chile certain to follow suit...

...They call it the old dog and pony show at the Pentagon...

...In what appears to be a compromise between the first two positions, External Affairs Minister Allan MacEachen has promised the United Nations that "until more adequate internationally agreed measures are instituted, Canada intends to satisfy itself that any country using Canadian-supplied nuclear technology or materials will be subject to binding obligations that they will not be used in the fabrication of nuclear explosive devices for whatever purpose...

...Following the Indian explosion, the Trudeau Administration managed to effectively postpone the sales to Argentina and Korea by dispatching an interdepartmental team of officials to canvass opinion in friendly capitals...

...it plans to buy two more...

...The next day you start all over again...

...With the full court press on, I have a hunch that I'll be getting through to several government officials who have been awfully busy in recent weeks, and I do want to leave word that I'll (a) be out of touch and (b) in a series of meetings most of the day...

...Weeding out unstable customers, the second option, would disqualify several countries currently flirting with Canadian-supplied reactors, including Iran...

...A Nuclear Dilemma Ottawa-The Canadian government is deeply divided over the sale, virtually completed, of advanced nuclear reactors to Argentina and South Korea...

...Still, they might be wrong...

...Only the Canadian Atomic Energy Control Board, charged with the task of defining MacEachen's "binding obligations," has a professional commitment to sales limitations...

...Canada's original deal with India, for instance, was concluded 20 years ago with the peace-loving Pandit Nehru...

...Indeed, Argentina has publicly stated its intention of becoming a nuclear power, and less than two weeks after India's Rathajan explosion last May it signed an agreement with New Delhi to exchange nuclear secrets...

...Cabinet members hold almost hourly news conferences to back him up...

...Civil service advisers, usually the source of ministerial inspirations, tend to favor this commercial approach...

...State and local officials and civic groups are invited to the White House for specially arranged briefings...

...It recently returned with three rather obvious options, each unattractive for different reasons: Canada could continue its present policy of selling reactors at competitive prices in return for the promise of good behavior...

...Energy Minister Donald Macdonald has insisted more bluntly that the issue of nuclear safeguards is "an international problem, not a Canadian one...

...Well endowed with uranium ores, Argentina already has an atomic research organization and one power station...

...Later, when the officials conclude their meetings, return from being in or out and doing whatever it was they were doing, they presumably take all this information and (a) some call back, (b) some have the secretary call back, (c) some have an assistant call back, or (d) none of the above...

...Call it what you will and regardless of who happens to be President, when the White House cranks up the publicity machine and turns on the PR faucet, it produces a torrent of activity that can't be matched anywhere in the free world...

...often the secretary will ask you to leave a little summary of whatever it was you wanted to talk about...

...Thomas Land Full Court Press Washington-The President goes on TV to explain his economic program...

...They are never just there, alone at the desk, working or waiting for a call...

...No, he's in a meeting," and so on...