European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 30, 1977, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 12 the stars and stripes Roy Wilkins Friday september 30, 1977 Biko was a victim of his country s sickness Biro s death leaves me ? inhumanity the speaker was Justice minister James t. Kruger of the Republic of South Africa commenting on the death of Steven Biko while in the custody of the police. The police claim Biko a Black Leader who opposed apart Heid age 30 and a husky Man died after an sight Day hunger strike. Minister Kruger led off this discussion of Steven Biko s death with the assertion that he was indifferent to the Black Leader s death he added i am not pleased nor am i sorry the government s position was outlined in a speech to the delegates to a Congress f the ruling National party in Pretoria. There was no disagreement with the Posi lion of the speech As condensed above Al though Many delegates on their own would have shown More feeling. One wonders with columnist Anthony Lewis what makes South african Whites go in for a deafness in a world where they themselves have time and again demonstrated they Are possessed of the gifts and the courage wanted by the world. The answer is that they never had it the profundity the courage and the gifts. Maybe some had it but they were too few in number. They did not count in elections or in any other poll. Most South african White people were occupied with the next meal or a Job that would guarantee that they would get More meals jobs even a Way of life. They did not see that the subjugation of their Blacks would Lead them to the awful Choice Between their country As they have known it and the Slaughter of thousands of lacks and Whites. This is what the present course threatens to bring. What does the government say to men like Biko they silence them banish them to places off the beaten track. Nelson Mandela a head of the african National Congress is a prisoner on Robben Island. His wife Winnie Mandela was banished to one of those towns where she knows no one and has been having trouble with officialdom. Robert sob Ukiwe is restricted to the Small town of Kimberley. In every Case and there Are hundreds More the government has Cut him or her Down. This is a political fact in South Africa. Talks have been in Progress for months Between prime minister John Vor Ster and the homelands representatives but these have been dubbed talking to the deaf on both sides of the  some idea of the possible consequences of the death was seen in the statement issued by chief gats a but Elezi Leader of the 6 million zulus in the country. Chief by thelezia cast doubt on the official announce ment of the death by saying or. Biko had joined the Long list of those who have died for a just cause in South  he added i will not be Able to curb my people and indeed i May not want to curb my people when they adopt an attitude of an Eye for an Eye and a tooth for a  or. Kruger is a part of the government that has a terrorism act a trading with the enemy act and god knows what else de signed to control Black people. Or. Kruger raised the communist cry the familiar and convenient Label for dissenters to oppression. Sooner or later South Africa must face up to the lesson of history that the spirit of Freedom in the human soul cannot be destroyed or controlled. C Register and Tribune Syndicate James Reston change apparent in Carter approach to Job when Jimmy Carter came to Washington proclaiming the essential goodness of human nature even his closest friends wondered How he would react when his ideals were challenged by the brutal Politi Cal facts. Now we have some clues. It is not the inevitable conflicts of politics or of philosophy that test presidents but How they Deal with them. And looking at what he has done rather than what he has said in his first nine months in the presidency he seems More moderate and flexible now than he was at the beginning. He is adjusting to the realities. He did t spend three hours in the White House these last few Days lecturing the soviet foreign minister Andrei Gromyko on the importance of human rights but on the necessity of controlling the military arms race and avoiding War in the Middle East. He did t play Domestic politics in his talk with Moshe Dayan the foreign minis Ter of Israel but told him frankly that the israeli government s policy on the West Bank and on the palestinians was t going to get the support of Washington the arabs or the United nations. He did t admit any mistakes in the Bert Lance Case but he let Lance go and anybody who believes that he left it All to Bert misjudged them both. As the president said they under stand each other and Lance was left in no doubt that whatever Carter said in Public he was dealing As usual with the practical problem and wanted Bert to go Home. On the Side it is a Long time since Washington has watched a president handle the dilemma of a personal tragedy and a Politi Cal problem so deftly. He defended his Friend to the Point of tears but let him go and almost shamed the press into avoiding the difference. Meanwhile much More than is generally realized he kept in personal touch not Only with Lance but with the chairman of the Senate government operations com Mittee. Sen. Abe Ribicoff of Connecticut and at length with the minority Leader of that committee and chief critic of Lance sen. Charles Percy of Illinois. And particularly with the democratic majority Leader of the Senate Robert Byrd of West Virginia whose judgment was that Lance had to go if the More important issues of Panama welfare taxes arms control and Energy were not to be made More difficult. Two troubling issues have come up in these recent controversies. First in the Lance Case a cry from the South that he was being drummed out of office by the lib eral politicians and newspapers of the North. Second that Carter was now vulnerable and in political trouble and that the republicans were beginning to Cut him up. It is interesting that the president even in the agony Over Lance at no time gave the slightest support to this regional or to i found another Case of legionnaires Iii Lotical argument. He recognized that the Lance affair was not a regional ideological or political Issue. He defended the Senate committee s investigation bad As it was. He said the press had been fair with some exceptions. In Short he kept in touch with everybody and concentrated on the future. The regional Point is especially important. Carter s presidency is a Symbol of unifying the North and South. Lance s res ignation has in some parts revived North South contentions by Many who think he was unfairly dismissed. For a while in the Lance controversy the georgians in the White House contributed to this North South tension. But the president publicly and privately has rejected this thesis. If my information is Cor rect he was appalled by Jody Powell s attempt to defend Lance by circulating untrue rumours about Lance s critic Percy of Illinois. So after nine months in the White House Carter seems to be changing his approach. After running into opposition in the con Gress and with the russians he is Chang ing his tune if not his objectives. He is moderating the moral dogmatism of the presidential Campaign. He is recognizing that he can no longer lecture the world on human rights without dealing with the political consequences or announce solutions for the Middle East crisis without checking them out in and Vance with his own people or the israelis or the arabs. Having done so in the past and after the Lance affair he is beginning to get into political trouble with the republicans who think that for the first time he is vulnerable. Even that most sensible and moderate Man John j. Rhodes of Arizona the House Republican Leader went to California the other Day and started the political Campaign of 1978 by charging Carter with uncertainty and ineptitude compounded by moral blindness and Lack of understanding of the processes of  i very much dislike saying this he added but i believe it needs to be said. If there is one strand of behaviour discernible through the fabric of the Carter administration s policy it is the strand of Duplicki  Rhodes is a decent Man but this is probably a wild distortion of the truth. If there is a strand of behaviour in the Carter administration it is not moral blindness or duplicity but inexperience isolation and a kind of stiff necked personal Confidence and Georgia Pride. But this is changing now. Carter is amending his original assumptions trying to reach out to the con Gress for a partnership and even trying to come to terms with the soviets. C new York times