Reagan Urged to Act Against Apartheid

Protesting that “France beat us to the moral punch” when it imposed economic sanctions last week to penalize South Africa for its system of racial separation, Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.) called Saturday on President Reagan to “stand with Congress four-square against apartheid.”

“Help us formulate and pass a strong final bill, and declare to the world that you will sign such a bill and sign it proudly,” said Cranston, speaking for the Democrats in response to Reagan’s weekly radio broadcast, in which the President mentioned neither apartheid nor South Africa.

As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Cranston said he expects to participate next week when Senate and House conferees meet to reconcile differences between bills that impose sanctions on South Africa. The varying measures, with the House version stronger, have passed both congressional chambers.

Although the proposal has bipartisan support in both houses, he said, “far from supporting us, the White House threatens to veto any economic sanctions legislation.”

Cranston, the Democratic minority’s whip, or No. 2 leader, asserted that the Administration “stands passive and quiescent” in the face of South Africa’s repression of protests against apartheid.

Without referring to the increasingly stiff language used by Administration spokesman to denounce apartheid--on Friday, White House deputy press secretary Larry Speakes demanded that South Africa lift the state of emergency that has effectively suspended civil rights--Cranston said the U.S. government “refuses to change its basic policy.”

He called that policy, known as “constructive engagement,” a failure and “a form of quiet diplomacy, another favorite Administration euphemism for doing nothing.”