Friday, October 15, 1971
THE NEW BERN MIRROR, NEW BERN, N. C.
Page Five
The Senate has approved a
much needed change in U. S.
trade policy toward Rhodesia.
The battle over this issue
began as a legislative matter in
early spring when Senator
Hariy Byrd introduced S. 1404,
which I cosponsored, to free the
United States from dependence
on Russia for its supply of
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chrome ore which we have been
purchasing from the com
munists since we ceased
trading with Rhodesia five
years ago. Chrome is a
strategic material that is vital
to the production of aircraft,
missiles, submarines. It is also
essential to much of our heavy
industrial output. But S. 1404 got
nowhere when it was referred to
the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee.
Then when the Senate Armed
Services Committee began
consideration of the military
procurement bill. Senator Byrd
Scott S'
TILE AND
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offered the language of S. 1404
as an amendment to that
measure. It was unanimously
approved by that Committee as
Section 503 of the military
procurement act.
Simply stated. Section 503
denies the President the power
to prohibit imports of a
strategic material from a free
world country so long as the
importation of the same
material is permitted from a
communist dominated country.
It happens that the principal
sources of chrome ore are in
two countries—Rhodesia and
Russia. Today we are buying
about 60 percent of this material
from Russia.
It will be remembered that we
got into this odd state of affairs
in 1966 when President Johnson
with the consent of the Congress
put an embargo on all trade
with Rhodesia under a sanction
imposed by the Security Council
of the United Nations.
When the Senate considered
this provision of the military
procurement bill in late Sep
tember and early October,
there was intense opposition by
some members of the Senate to
Section 503. Their principal
arguments were that our State
Department did not favor this
provision, that it might in
terfere with some negotiations
which Britain is having with
Rhodesia to effect a permanent
settlement of the mother
country’s controversy with that
small nation, and that there
might be repercussions in the
United Nations if the Senate
took any such action. Even so,
after three votes, the Senate
decided that Section 503 ought to
stay in the bill and that we ought
to end the chrome embargo.
The Rhodesian embargo has
from its inception seemed to me
to be both an unwise and a
damaging action from the
standpoint of our national in
terest. The whole matter came
about over an internal affair in
Rhodesia, and as I read the UN
Charter, it plainly says that the
United Nations wiU not in
terfere in the domestic affairs
of a nation.
Nor do I think that the
President should have declared
an embargo on trade with
Rhodesia over that nation’s
internal affairs. This has been a
costly action for the American
taxpayer and it has robbed
American businesses of some of
their ability to compete in the
world market. The price of
chrome coming into the United
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States has risen about 288
percent since we began this
embargo; which incidentaily
has been recognized as a
monumental faUure. Moreover,
it makes no sense to me to say
that because of ideological
considerations we are forbidden
to trade with Rhodesia, a free
world nation, but we are per
mitted to trade with Russia, a
communist nation.
Apart from these con-
siderati(ms, there is a most
serious national security issue
involved, and that is we have
placed ourselves at the mercy
of a potential enemy power for
the supply ot a vital strategic
ore which we must have if we
are to build essential weapons
for our survival.
I am hopeul that the House
will go along with this Senate
action so that we can remedy
this matter which affects both
our security and our economy.
First love is an instinct, at
once a gift and a sacrifice.
Every other is a philosophy, a
bargain.—A. S. Hardy.
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