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The Citizen, 1987-09-09, Page 6PAGE 6. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 1987. The International Scene BY RAYMOND CANON Some of you may have read during the summer that the chairman and the president of the giant Toshiba Corp of Japan resigned after it had been announ­ ced that one of their subsidiaries had been involved in the sale of what might be considered as strategic material to the Soviet Union. The resignations came only hours after the United States Senate had voted to bar all Toshiba goods from being sold in the U.S. for a period of two years. Since Toshiba sells in the neighbourhood of three billion dollars worth of goods ayearinthat country, the ban may be considered as having considerable significancec. The strategic goods in question is a type of machinery which the Russians were able to use in connection with a Norwegian Letter to the editor product to make much quieter propellors for their submarines, thus making them harder to track. There is also a considerable amount of fur flying in Norway as well so this may not be the last we hear of the subject. Let’s take a look at what is behind all this so we can under­ stand better why the Japanese resigned and why the U.S. Senate took the action it did. When a Russian submarine comes out of one of the naval bases which the Soviet Union have along the northern shores of the country, it has to pass either between Green­ land or Iceland or Iceland and Britain. Over the years the NATO alliance has placed a great many detectors on the floor of the ocean on either side of Iceland and thus the Soviet submarine’s propellers are picked up by the detection equipment. The location is radioed to a nearby NATO submarine which is then able to track its adversary for the rest of the latter’s trip. If Canada were to get the dozen or so submarines that it would like to have, according to a recent report by our Defence Minister Perrin Beatty, this would be one of the jobs that they would do. However, that is another story. The fact is that our anti-submarine forces have a pretty good idea just where the Russians are most of the time and it goes a long way in providing an adequate defence against a submarine attack. By one way or another the Russians were able to buy from a Norwegian and a Japanese com­ pany (Toshiba) a system whereby they could make their submarine propellers considerably more quiet than they had before. The system in question was a combination of Norwegian computer equipment as well as the software for it and a Japanese machining device. Most of this equipment was prohibited under the rules of Cocom, a NATO organization which also includes Japan and which controls the trade with the Soviet Union in regard to any equipment which might be considered strategic. Let’s take a look at the Nor­ wegian company, Kongsberg The news behind the news Vaapenfabrikk, which transaltes into Kongsberg Weapon Factory. It has many times in the past denied any wrongdoing but it has come to light that at least one piece of the equipment was falsely labelled so that it would clear the export controls. Oneofthecom- pany’s officials has subsequently been charged with falsifying an application for an export licence for some of this material. All this has led Mrs. Gro Harlem Brundtland, the Norwegian prime minister, to apologize to the Americansfor her country’s part in the affair. She has closed down KV’s trading office as well as its office in Moscow and the company has been instructed not to do any business with the Soviet bloc countries in the future. The Japanese government, for its part, arrested two Toshiba employees Reinvestments BEST RATES FINANCIAL \ CENTRE Goderich I 519-524-2773 [ 1-800-265-5503 Short Term. All Deposits INSURED Within Limits which in turn led to the resigna­ tions to which I referred at the beginning of the article. The damage? In the good old days the Russian propellers could be picked up at a distance of 200 miles which made it very easy to detect them. With the new western developed equipment the range has been cut to 10 miles, a world of difference in undersea warfare. It will take billions of dollars to regain the same lead in detection and in the meantime no amount of money can buy back the years lost. Can you understand now why the two Japanese resigned? With such a fiasco confronting them, it was the only way they knew how to save face short of committing hari kari, which is pretty well out of style now. There you have it! A little bit of the news behind the news. 1 THE EDITOR, I would like to relate a problem I recently encountered. As indicat­ ed through an article recently published in The Citizen (August 19, 1987), I had planned to reopen my Blyth Medical Office on September 1, 1987. I know you appreciate only too well (working next door to my future office), that considerable effort had been made by many individuals other than myself to meet this deadline. Roughly two months before I pl anned to open, 1 contacted the business office of Bell Canada Inc., to arrange a telephone line for that location. A telephone number was assigned (although not guaran­ teed), arrangement for white and yellow pages listing was made, and an appointment agreed upon for line installation. As per the above, I awaited the arrival of the Bell servicemen Thursday afternoon, (Aug. 27). When the afternoon had nearly passed I contacted the Bell busi­ ness office to confirm their late arrival. Imagine my dismay when I was then informed that no service­ man would arrive, no phone line was available, no one could promise any new line installation for the next month, and to top it off, the business office was not aware of this problem until I contacted them that afternoon! Several telephone conversations then followed, leaving me with an apology and a commitment to expedite installation of a phone line toward the end of September, or earlier if I could fine someone else in the vicinity willing to sacrificeatelephonelinefor my use. I wish to publicly thank you and The Citizen staff, for volunteering your second telephone line so that I might strive to meet my commit­ ment to my patients of Blyth and surrounding area. Your gener­ osity is warmly appreciated. Let the record also show that at no time was I given notice that Bell Canada Inc. might not be able to provide service when required, and that no effort was made to compensate my patients, myself, nor the many others involved in this project for the inconvenience it caused. Were it not for the assistance of The Citizen, considerable more time and money would have been wasted due to the inept business practice of our telephone company. Sincerely, J. KEITH BAY, M.D. P.S. The office opening has been rescheduled for September 8, 1987. Re-elect Jack Riddell Huron’s Strong Voice on the Peterson Team •14 Year Veteran in the Ontario Legislature •Minister of Agriculture and Food •Long record of outstanding service to the residents of Huron County •A man who will serve ALL the people of Huron •A man who will protect our vital agriculture sector against Free Trade — FOR INFORMATION CALL — Clinton 482-3007 • Wingham 357-1140 • Exeter 235-1544 Goderich 524-5336 • Seaforth 527-2202 SPONSORED BY THE HURON LIBERAL ASSOCIATION ON SEPTEMBER 10 —_j» RE-ELECT figEML JACK RIDDELL ♦