Vigorous GDR initiatives
fo promote trade, detente

By FILS DELISLE
Tribune Berlin Correspondent

BERLIN — A state visit to Mexico by GDR
leaders and successful trade negotiations between
this country and Canada are typical of the vigorous
foreign policy of the GDR.

There is general agreement, even among West-
ern observers, that new ground was broken in
international relations when State Council chair-
man Erich Honecker, accompanied by other GDR
leaders, was welcomed by the leaders and the
people of Mexico last week on their official visit as
guests of Mexican President Lopez Portillo.

In Mexico City, Portillo spoke of the friendship
and solidarity with the GDR, and said that what
was important in relations between countries with
differing social systems was not what separated but
what bound them together.

In negotiations between Honecker and Portillo a
number of economic agreements were signed and
the Mexican President accepted a GDR invitation
to. visit the socialist German state. Both sides de-
Clared that the overriding issue in the world today
is disarmament and the maintenance of peace.

Honecker said that, in view of Portillo's uphold-
ing of ‘‘the rights of self-determination, of freedom
and independence for the peoples in the Caribbean
area, as well as his support for the national libera-
tion movement in southern Africa, our visit had a
special significance for the foreign policy of the
socialist countries.’"” The Mexican press. and
media, it was noted, gave extensive and favorable
coverage to the visit and GDR-Mexican consulta-
tions. A leading newspaper El Nacional, carried a
front page banner headline on one of its reports:
“*Mexico and the GDR — an example of the road to

On his way back to the GDR, Honecker visited
Havana at the invitation of the Cuban government.

x * &
An interesting development in GDR-Canadian
relations was the announcement by Canadian
diplomats at the Lefpzig Autumn Trade Fair that a

trade agreement has been drawn up between the ©

two countries and will be signed soon. The an-
nouncement was made by Bruce Jutzi, Charge
d’ Affaires in the Canadian Embassy in Warsaw,
which represents Canada in diplomatic relations
with the GDR, and by Hans Himmelsbach, Com-
mercial Attache at the embassy:

They received Honecker at the Leipzig exhibit
of the Asbestos Corporation of Montreal. Jutzi
praised the fact that the participation of the Asbes-
tos Corporation at Leipzig had led to good trading
contacts with the GDR.

He expressed satisfaction with the new trade

agreement between the GDR and Canada, on
which negotiations began in the spring. He held
that the agreement would open up new areas of
trade between the two countries.

ES

In European affairs, there has been an exchange

of letters between West German Chancellor Hel-

mut Schmidt and Honecker. Schmidt proposed
once again, after having himself cancelled several
previous agreements for such a meeting, that the
leaders of the two states now resume planning joint
consultations.

Honecker has replied that he is ready to meet the
Chancellor to discuss matters requiring solution
between their two countries and the maintenance
of peace. Since the greatest military confronta-
tion is to be found on the GDR-FRG border, rela-
tions between the two states is seen by realists
cares 6 as decisive for peace in Europe and the
world.

place is still something to be negotiated,
Subtle positive changes in public opinion that
have taken place in the FRG recently are reflected

in the fact that there is a very obvious public desire.
in West Germany that Bonn talk to the GDR in the °

interests of both states.

* * *

These changes are also evident in the very wide-
spread peace movement developing in West Ger-
many and West Berlin among social democrats and
even some leaders of the government party, intel-
lectuals, Christians, trade unions and others.

Leading writers in the FRG, including Nobel
prize winner Heinrich Boell have joined with other
famous writers from London to Moscow in a joint
declaration denouncing the armaments drive, the
me bomb and the “infamous thesis of General

In West Berlin more than 80,000 young social-
ists, communists, free democrats, Christians and
others came out in a demonstration to protest the

’ visit of U.S, Secretary of State Haig who was in the

city for one of his rabble-rousing speeches against
coexistence.

An important appeal for peace was also made
here at a meeting of Catholic representatives,

’ primarily from the circles of church publicists,

which sondemned -Washington’s neutron bomb
plans and declared peace to be the main issue in the
world for Christians. The meeting was arranged by
the “‘Berlin Conference of European Catholics”

- and was attended by 70 catholic priests and pub-

licists from 20 European countries.

"AND NOW FROM THOSE SAME WONDERFUL
FOLKS WHO BROUGHT YOU 4 VIETNAM!

CIRLOTE OBSENER i
PACIFIC TRIBUNE—SEPT. 25, 1981

NERS <3 ZX \
7 yr

| mer NELWTRON BOMB

—Page 6

When the Schmidt-Honecker meeting will take | °* = '
a ee TOKYO—More than 400,000 peopien marched ti

Yoyogi Park against the build-up of the United Sta
_. tary alliance and its consequences for peace.
_ Far East. The marchers protested U.S. intentions to deploy nuclear
; in the region and the entry of nuclear-armed U.S. war-
- ships” into Japanese ports in violation of Japan’s non-nuclear |
. Status. They demanded cancellation of the U.S.-Japanese Secur-
a policy of uniting behind the country’s con- -
nce of peace. The banners read: “Defend the |
three: non-nuclear palocipien! No sevinkan mene penneti cone

- ity Treaty and ur
“Suton and for

er

JAPANESE PEACE —
FORCES TURN OUT

the capital's
mili-
and stability in the

Dominica

gov't backs

Royal Bank of Canada

Special.to the Tribune
The Dominican government of

~Prime Minister Eugenia Charles —

has come out on the side of the
Royal Bank of Canada in a labor
dispute which has resulted in a
sit-in by workers at the Royal
Bank branch in the island’s capi-
tal.

The siding with the bank, came
after 42 bank workers had oc-
cupied the bank premises since
Aug. 27. On Sept. 8, the workers,
who are all members of the
Waterfront and Allied Workers

‘Union, -were ejected from the.

bank by police.

The workers engaged in the
sit-in to pressure the bank’s
management for a 27% salary in-
crease over the next two years.

The bank had offered annual pay
hikes of 18 and 11% respectively
for the two year period.

It is likely that WAWU, which
also represents seaport and air-
port workers, will now move to
broaden the struggle into other
sectors of this Eastern Caribbean
island’s economy. During the sit-
in, WAWU President Louis Be-
noit warned that if the Charles
government locked out the work-
ers ‘‘then the government will

have much more than the bank to

deal with’’.
However, before a decision is

taken it appeared that the union —

will wait until Charles’ returns to

the island from Jamaica where ’

she is attending a Finance Minis-
ter’s conference.

Canadian aid to Grenada

ST. GEORGES — The People’s Revolutionary Government

(PRG) and the Government of Canada have signed an agreement of

_ economic assistance for the development of Grenada’s Cocoa Re-
habilitation Project. Lhe Denis SOK place inks 56 8 Sey

‘ceremony at the Office of the Prime Minister.
“The economic agreement, which is a Canadian International:
Agency (CIDA), Project, was signed by George

Louison, Minister of

Agriculture, on behalf of the PRG and Alan

Rogers, Canada’s High Commissioner. to the Eastern Caribbean. ° x
Louison said that the agreement was another in a series of —
projects in Grenada which were being assisted by the Canadian

eee tes he cue GMN te Ce