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8
The
PLAIN TRUTII
March-April 1972
the [Common Market] undertaking began 10 or 12 years
ago, it was to the East that one looked when there were
hostilities to be disarmed, and now one realizes that there
are big problems in store with regard to the United States."
•
Sharing Nuclear Know-How
British Nuclear Design and Construction, a nuclear
consortium, has announced what it calls "the first step in
tangible association between the U.K. and the growing
European nuclear industry."
lt
has signed an agreement with
the West German concern Hochtemperatur Reaktorbau for
the design and construction of the pre-stressed concrete pres–
sure vessel for the 300MW high temperature reactor being
built at Schmehausen, near Dortmund.
In a related development, the Britisl1 Central Electricity
Generating Board recently took the initiative in setting up
an association in Germany to pool knowledge and resources
on high temperature reactors to prevent the emergence of
duplicated effort and different systems emerging in the indi–
vidual European countries.
The idea of European cooperation in the nuclear industry
field is one that has been preached for sorne time on both
sides of the English Channel. But until these two events,
little had been accomplished.
•
Asian Quadrangle
President Nixon's historie journey to China is but one
of many interesting developments in Asia.
On January 29, Japanese leaders called for direct talks
with Peking to restore normal relations between Japan and
China.
In major policy speeches at the opening of Parliament,
both Prime Minister Eisaku Sato and Foreign Minister Takeo
Fukuda said frank government-to-government talks with
Chinese leaders had become an urgent necessity.
Both stressed, however, according to a
Re11ters
rdease
from Tokyo, that Japan's relations with the United States
werc still "more important than those with any other
country."
Signific~ntly,
the session of parliament opened a day
after Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko had left
Japan after a four-years-overdue visit.
In a reaction to fears of a "Tokyo-Peking-Washington
axis" the Soviet Union has been doing sorne courting of its
own with Japan. Involved in Gromyko visit were: an agree–
ment to start negotiations between the two countries toward
the conclusion of a World War II peace treaty before the
end of this year, discussing the status of former Japanese
islands of the Kurile chain seized by the Soviets in the
closing days of World War II, resumption of foreign min–
ister consultations after a five-year lapse, and an exchange
of visits by Soviet and Japanese Prime Ministers.
Exploitation of the mineral riches of Siberia is a big
key to any future ties- between Moscow and Tokyo. The
Soviets are holding out the prospect of making Siberian oil
available to Japan through a proposed pipeline to the Soviet
Far East port of Nakhodka. The Japanese might be ínter-
ested because of their near-total dependence upon the oil
of the volatile Middle East.
In another development, a new rail line is now being
laid which will ultimately connect the coal-rich Yakutian
region with the Trans-Siberian Railway. The new link could
thus provide Japanese steelmakers with access to a new source
of coking coa!.
The big sticking point to doser cooperation between
the number two and number three industrial powers in the
wor!d remains the Kurile Islands issue. Tokyo still insists
the Soviets return the four disputed northern islands. The
Russians have unsettled territorial squabbles with a number
of nations, not the least China, and relinquishing the Kuriles
could be for them a dangerous precedent. At best a compro–
mise might be arraoged.
•
Balkan Crisis
Yugoslavia, the largest of the Balkan nations, is
threatening once again to give the world a demonstration of
just what "Balkanization" means.
The present trouble - as usual - stems from the ani–
mosities tbat have smoldered on and off since the creation
of Yugoslavia in 1918, between the two largest of the many
national groups in the country, the Serbs and the Croatiaos.
(See Nov. 1971 issue of
The
PLAIN
TRUTH).
The Croatians have been pressing for greater autonomy
for their region which, together with neighboring Slovenia,
is economically more advanced than the other Yugoslavian
areas. Croatia earns about 40 percent of Yugoslavia's foreign
exchaoge, but gets back a much lower proportion from the
central goverrunent in Belgrade. The Serbs, for their part,
fear wbat the Croatians are really after is total independence,
something the Croatian exiles in other countries do not
necessarily deny.
The man to watch in Yugoslavia is of course President
Tito. The 79-year-old leader, tbough a Croat himself, has
fully and firmly committed bimself to the continuance of one
independent Yugoslavia. To this end he is now conducting
what is probably the Jargest purge in the history of the
Yugoslav Communist Party.
In sorne cirdes in his country, President Tito has been
called the first and last Yugoslav. And when Tito goes, what
then? The Yugoslav leader, however, is in good health, and
indications are he could be around for quite a while to come.
Croatians are not the only ones, however, who feel they
might have something to gain from the dismemberment of
Yugosiavi~.
There is evidence that the Soviet Union is making
common cause with the Croatian extremists in attempting to
undermine the federation. Having lost both pro-Peking
Albania and neutralist Yugoslavia from its Warsaw Pact,
Moscow is said to be anxious to regain an outpost on the
vital Mediterranean.
"The Soviet high command has been seeking for a long
time to gain airport and naval facilities in this pivota! stra–
tegic region," reported London's
Financia/ Times.
"In short,
the failure of Yugoslavia to survive in its present shape
would alter the strategic pattern of Europe as a whole."