European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 02, 1977, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 12 the stars and stripes Friday september 2, 1977 Tom Wicker Lance May have peaked through cozy deals new York not surprisingly. Presi Dent Carter and his lieutenants have failed to put an end to the Bert Lance controversy by their Contention that a recent report of the comptroller of the currency proved Lance s Good character and competence. Not Only were congressional Commil tees press critics and much of the Public unsatisfied by that report but a new clo sely related investigation is going Forward to determine whether the comptroller s at Lanta regional office was less than even handed and thorough in a 1976 review of the operations of a Bank Lance headed Calhoun National. Actually Lance s freewheeling banking involvement and prodigious spending have been on the Public record though largely unnoticed outside Georgia since his 1974 Campaign for governor of that state he lost. Current investigations have shown of course that Calhoun National permitted Lance to make heavy overdrafts at no interest until the comptroller forced the Bank to charge it to help pay for his Campaign. But the Georgia Campaign financing Law in effect for the first time in 1974, required gubernatorial candidates to make other disclosures. Howell Raines then a reporter for the Atlanta Constitution now political editor of the St. Petersburg Fla. Times studied those 1974 disclosures in detail for an article in Campaign Money Reform and reality in the states a Book published by the free press in new York in 1976 among other things Raines found Georgia Banks Long heavily involved in financing Georgia political campaigns had a special incentive in 1974. They were strongly supporting proposed legislation to James j. Kilpatrick allow the formation of statewide Bank holding companies. First disclosure reports filed june 29, 1974, showed Large Bank Loans to Candi dates Lester Maddox David Gambrell. Harry Jackson and Bert Lance. Lance re ported Loans totalling $350,000 from six North Georgia Banks although his Campaign contributions from persons other than himself totalled Only $226,554. From june 1973 until february 1974, Lance had spent $235.253 of his own Money to run his Campaign. Even so. And despite the $350,000 in Bank Loans Lance s Campaign revenues ultimately fell $200.910 Short of his spending total a deficit that Lance said in 1975 he had made up out of his own pocket. At the end of the Campaign the $350, 000 in Loans was outstanding and Lance was personally paying the debt service. Presumably he ultimately had to pay the principal too since the Banks were pre vented by Law from forgiving the Loans and it s unlikely that he could have raised that much after having lost the democratic primary. The Georgia disclosure Law did not require him to report How he disposed of the debt. The Loans consisted of $40.000 from the citizen s Bank of Calhoun whose Board chairman. J. Mack Robinson was a Campaign adviser and owned Stock in numer Ous Small town Banks giving him a Strong interest in the holding company Bill $40, 000 from the Roswell Bank of which Rob Inson was a stockholder $140,000 from the Northwest Georgia Bank of Ringgold. Of which Lance was a stockholder and Tom Mitchell a Campaign adviser was a director and $40,000 apiece from three Banks in much Ell s Hometown. Dalton each of which had a Lance contributor on its Board of directors. Lance s involvement with Banks was by no Means the most questionable among the gubernatorial candidates. Raines accords that dubious Honor to the eventual Winner and present governor George Busbee who had been a director of the citizens and Southern Bank of Atlanta and As House majority Leader the sponsor of the Bank holding company Bill. Raines says Busbee managed to disguise $205.850 in Bank Loans to his Campaign. Raines gives Lance High Marks for filing Complete disclosure reports and for voluntarily reporting his net Worth $3.1 million at the time. He quotes another candidate state sen. Bobby Rowan As sure As we re sitting Here Bert Lance was not in the Runoff because he told his net Worth. He peaked when he said he was Worth $3.1 million because the people of Georgia feel that Money is what s wrong with politics Lance May have peaked on the National scene for a somewhat similar reason. All those Loans overdrafts cozy banking relationships and convenient oversights just look too much like High rolling. C new York times ipod care if w we let her 5e the banker the Price is too High for More  ties Back in june of 1976, Jimmy carte delivered himself of a formal statement on the matter of China. He then had the democratic nomination locked up. He was under no pressure to make promises he might later regret. Or. Carter said that he favored Restora Tion of full diplomatic relations with the people s Republic of China but he added a condition. He favored normalization he said Only on a basis in which there Are assurances that the people s Republic will not interfere with Taiwan and will respect our Trade and commitments to  a Little More than a year earlier speak ing to the american chamber of com Merce in Tokyo or. Carter Laid Down a general principle applicable a to the Case at son of hand. A policy of detente with China should be pursued he said but not at the expense of close cooperation and Consulta Tion with our friends and  or. Carter emphasized that we must again reorient our foreign policy attention toward our  the United states has no firmer Friend in the world than it has in Taiwan. Our commitments wrapped up in the Mutual defense treaty of 1954, Are too Plain to be misunderstood. The treaty., by constitutional definition is part of the supreme Law of the  for the Carter administration to abandon our friends on Formosa and to abrogate a treaty of More than Twenty years standing would be an act of palpable Dishonour. And if Honor no longer matters in the conduct of foreign policy the abandonment of Taiwan May be de scribed As simply stupid. What is this talk of normalization ? it is Little More than the Chaiter of a few intellectuals who tend to put form ahead of sub stance. By normalization apparently is meant the Exchange of lesser diplomats. The term involves embassies instead of Liaison offices it involves limousines in Stead of four door sedans it involves Large and expensive staffs instead of Small and frugal staffs it involves of dear who is to sit where at formal dinners. A Mere Liaison officer sits somewhere South of left  Vance s purpose in going to peking last week was to pursue this vapid business of  Why seriously Why the Carter administration has made no Case whatever in support of such a policy. It is not As if we had no Means of communication with the people s Republic at China. The communists have a Liaison office out at Connecticut Avenue and Kalo Rama Road headed by an efficient fellow named Huang Chen. We have a Liaison office in peking headed by Leonard Wood cock. When our state department has business to transact our Guys Telephone their Guys. The arrangement works just Fine. What would be gained by normalization some putative benefits could be cited limited tourist travel limited press coverage More frequent interchange of scholars and Ping Pong players. But these advantages would be purchased at a Terri ble Price the Price of treachery the Price of Dishonour. Is this what or. Carter pro poses to pay the Price is too High. The communists have not budged from their position that normalization can be Pur chased Only at the Cost of Taiwan. We must scrap the existing treaty close our embassy in Taipei withdraw the 1,200 . Troops now stationed there and leave the 17 Mil lion formosan to defend themselves against 900 million on the Mainland the next regime in order to make its task of liberation a Little easier. Any such policy would be rooted in Folly. The masters of peking need us far More than we need them. Their needs cry out for machinery for technological know How for sophisticated tools of production. Trade As such is not that significant the volume of Trade actually has dropped in the past two years despite efforts to encourage it. Compared to peking s other problems the problem of Taiwan is no More than a tiny splinter in a  it is said that if we Don t snuggle up to peking peking will snuggle up to Moscow. This is the kind of conjecture that bubbles up from experts swimming i their think tanks. No convincing reasons support the hypothesis. Last week s major address by party chairman Hua Kuo Feng contained no hint of any such thing. But even the spectre of a sino soviet Alliance holds no compelling terror. What will be will be and the forging of such an Alliance will not be affected in the slightest by put Ting Leonard Woodcock in a pair of striped pants. C Washington Star