Page 4-Friday, May 21, 1982-The Michigan Daily
Common Market
relations with
Britain suffer
LONDON (AP) - Britain's relations
with its nine Common Market partners
have plunged to an all-time low, with
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher ac-
cusing her allies of a "breach of faith"
in a crisis that may jeopardize British
membership in the community.
London is buring with resentment
over three major rebuffs this week,
while its age-old antagonist, France,
has raised the fundamental question of
whether Britain really wants to stay in
Europe.
"WHAT IS at stake at the moment is
not any rule about unanimity, but the
very existence of the European Com-
mon Market," French President Fran-
cois Mitterand said yesterday.
"The problem is over the role that
Britain plays in the Common Market.
The answer to this question will deter-
mine the current and future role of
Great Britain in the community," Mit-
terrand said.
For Britain, the clash with Europe -
coming in its hour of need as war looms
with Argentina - climaxes years of
quarrels centered on Britain's con-
tributions to the trading bloc's budget.
AT THE same time, the ministers of
NATO, the Western defense alliance,
have offered their support to Britain in
its dispute with Argentina over the
Falkland Islands.
But the strains in the economic
alliance reflect deep national divergen-
ces, from Ireland's insistence that as a
neutralscountry it cannot back Britain's
military conflict with Argentina, to
French suspicion that London will
never feel an integral part of Europe.
To some observers, members of the
25-year-old Common Market signaled
this week that they have lost patience
with years of complaints and demands
from Britain, which joined in 1973.
rT
Thatcher g
to attack A
(Continued fromPage 1)
BRITAIN HAS been flying bombing
raids against airstrips on the Falklands
for weeks. It launched its first com-
mando raid last Friday night on Pebble
Island, to the north of West Falkland,
and claimed it destroyed up to 11
Argentine planes and a big ammunition
dump.
The British Broadcasting Corp. said
that under the latest orders to launch
raids on the Falklands, the British
would likely seize a bridgehead from
which to operate Harrier vertical-
takeoff jets, and quoted a government
source as saying:
"This is now a war of attrition. To be
blunt, that means Argentine forces go
on taking losses until they surrender
their grip on the islands."
MILITARY sources in Buenos Aires
said Argentine troops were "on total
alert" on the Falklands.
Argentina's official Telam news
agency, the .only,news-gathering
Mitterrand
... questions Britain's role
IN THREE days, starting last Mon-
day, Britain received the roughest
treatment yet from its partners: Fran-
ce, Italy, West Germany, Ireland,
Denmark, The Netherlands, Belgium,
Greece and Luxembourg.
Because of Irish and Italian objec-
tions, the community refused to renew
trade sanctions against Argentina for
another full month as Britain had
requested, approving only a one-week
extension.
It laid down tough terms for Britain's
budget contributions, and pushed
through, against strenuous British ob-
jections and with Greece and Denmark
abstaining, a 10.5 percent hike in farm
prices.
THE LAST move trampled a 16-year
tradition, established by France, that
allows a country to veto measures con-
sidered vital to its national interests.
,ives OK
rgentina
organization allowed access to the
Falklands, said that "all measures
necessary to confront any enemy action
have been taken."
An estimated 9,000 Argentine troops
were believed to be dug in on the islan-
ds, where some 1,500 civilians of British
descent were reported sheltering on
sheep ranches in the interior.
"THE IMMINENCE of a landing at-
tempt can not be discarded," Telam
said. "But from the viewpoint of
military strategy an attempt at landing
would be suicide."
In London, Thatcher said it was "in-
conceivable" that Argentina would ac-
cept U.N. Secretary-General Javier
Perez de Cuellar's ideas because it
already rejected similar suggestions.
"We really cannot go on and on," she
told the House of Commons.
THATCHER SAID Argentina's aim
was "procrastination and continuing
occupation" of te Falkland.
In Brief
Compiled from Associated Press and
United Press International reports
U.S./Soviet arms talks resume
GENEVA, Switzerland- The United Ststes and Soviet Union resumed
talks on limiting medium-range nuclear weapons in Europe yesterday, still
holding to the positions that deadlocked the talks when they recessed two
months ago.
Maintaining the secrecy agreement imposed when the talks began last
fall, chief U.S. negotiator Paul Nitze and his Soviet counterpart Yuli Kvitsin-
sky made no comment on their two-hour, 40 minute session at the Soviet
diplomatic compound.
The negotiators said only that they would meet again next Tuesday.
Nitze said Tuesday that there still has been "no progress on the central
issue" of what weapons to include in any limitationagreement.
He said the United States was maintaining its proposal that all Soviet and
U.S. medium-range missiles-those that can only be used in Europe-be
eliminated from the continent.
Storms ravage plains states
Another round of thunderstorms pounded the Plains yesterday, triggering
street flooding in parts of Oklahoma and Nebraska and ripening conditions
for still more tornadoes.
Steady rains across much of Oklahoma threatened to end a brief respite
from three days of flooding that drove hundreds of people from their homes
earlier in the week and caused $12 million damages n ingfisher.
Nearly 4 inches of rain flooded low-lying streets in Oklahoma City, but
buildings and homes were spared.
"We lost some cars in it; that's how deep it was," said Patrolman Glenn
White. "We found one lady simply sitting on top of her car. It got pretty
rough."
Rain was forecast across much of Oklahoma through today but a dry
respite was expected to arrive for the weekend. Monsoon-like rains have
threatened to wash out Oklahoma's multimillion dollar wheat crop.
Milliken plugs tax reform
LANSING- Gov. William Milliken plugged a new property tax reform
petition drive yesterday, denying suggestions he was merely paying off a
debt from the recent income tax battle.
Milliken made the endorsement at a news conference attended by its chief
backer, Rep. Roy Smith, members of the Michigan Townships Association,
which is helping to spearhead the efforts and other lawmakers.
Under the plan, homes and owner-occupied farms would be exempt from
75 percent of the operating millage levied by the local schools-a 43 percent
property tax cut for the average homeowner according to one analysis.
The state would be required to reimburse the schools for their losses and
the sales tax would be raised from 4 percent to 5 percent for this purpose.
Hinckley called illogical and
confused
WASHINGTON- John Hinckley was pictured yesterday as so sick and
illogical that in the most critical hour of his life he said to himself: "I'll shoot
the president and die, but it depends on whether it rains."
Dr. David Michael Bear, a Harvard psychiatrist, insisted that the gover-
nment's evidence demonstrates Hinckley's confused and bizarre thinking at
a time when "he was going to throw his life into history."
The government contends Hinckley's actions on the day of the shooting-
showering, going for breakfast at McDonald's, browsing in a bookstore,
writing a letter to actress Jodie Foster that he was going to "get" Reagan to
prove his love, and taking a taxi to the Hilton Hotel show a competent mind
at work. Bear disagreed vehemently, saying Hinckley was "in a paradoxical
rage."
"The rage I'm talking about would not be observable," he said. "When I
speak of internal frenzy, I mean a state in which the man is trying to sift
through his delusions."
Bear left the witness stand after 2 days without testifying about X-rays
called CAT scans-for "computer-assisted-tomography-that the defense
claims are physical evidence of Hinckley's mental illness.
Republicans reject budget
proposal
WASHINGTON- Senate Republicans protected their 1983 budget proposal
yesterday by rejecting Democratic attempts to cut foreign aid and to
provide more money for toxic waste dumping enforcement.
The last major hurdle before approval of the $783.5 billion budget
resolution written by GOP leaders was expected to be a Democratic
proposal to repeal next year's 10 percent income tax cut-a key part of
President Reagan's economic program.
-The Senate budget plan for fiscal 1983 would freeze non-military spending
for the next three years at 1982 levels; eliminate cost-of-living increases for
one year in retirement benefit programs other than Social Security; reduce
defense growth by about $22 billion from Reagan's request; freeze federal
civilian pay raises in 1983 and limit them to 4 percent the next two years ; and
seek $95 billion in new tax revenue.
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