She Praises Embattled Leader for Anti-Drug Efforts : First Lady and Thai Premier Meet

First Lady Nancy Reagan had lunch with Thailand’s embattled Prime Minister Prem Tinsulanonda on Sunday, but neither of them made any reference to his current political troubles.

Thailand’s Parliament voted last week not to ratify the prime minister’s budget, a move amounting to a vote of no confidence. Prem dissolved the legislature and called new elections for July 27, but he has declined to say whether he will be a candidate.

According to Reagan Administration officials who have asked not to be named, Mrs. Reagan is here in part as a gesture from the United States to commend Thailand’s government for the progress it has made in stemming the production and flow of illegal drugs.

It is also hoped that her visit will help soothe any hurt feelings over the President’s decision to cancel a scheduled 1983 trip here for a meeting of the Assn. of Southeast Asian Nations. Reagan decided not to attend after the assassination of Philippine opposition leader Benigno S. Aquino Jr.

Clear of Politics

Mrs. Reagan, who is technically here as a guest of the king and queen, has steered completely clear of the subject of Prem’s political situation.

“I don’t pay attention to that part of it, just the drugs,” Mrs. Reagan told reporters on her airplane on the way here from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Bangkok is the third city on Mrs. Reagan’s four-stop tour of the Far East, in which she is seeking to draw attention to the problem of drug abuse while participating in a heavy schedule of cultural activities along the way.

She leaves Bangkok today to rejoin the President, from whom she parted company in Bali, Indonesia, at the summit in Tokyo.

On Sunday, the First Lady and Prem praised one another’s countries in fairly lengthy speeches at a luncheon of Thai dignitaries at the plush Oriental Hotel.

Prem, speaking first, praised Mrs. Reagan for making this trip to fight drug abuse, adding, “Your mission is all the more significant to Thailand because it is one which well complements the determination of President Reagan to promote world peace and prosperity.”

“For myself and Thailand, President Reagan is a leader of vision, a leader with the whole-hearted trust and mandate from his people and a staunch leader of the free world,” Prem said. “We wish you to know that we value highly our close friendship with the United States. Your visit will further add to the strength of that friendship.”

In her speech, Mrs. Reagan stuck to the topic of drug abuse, relating some of her experiences in studying the problem and congratulating Thailand “on what you have ac complished in utilizing government resources, the private sector and the power of the family to halt drug abuse. The involvement of their majesties the king and queen in anti-drug efforts has had a tremendous effect.”

Mrs. Reagan began her day by touring the Grand Palace, a compound of dazzling 200-year-old temples and office buildings that are covered with gold leaf, flowered Chinese tiles and brightly colored glass, combining for an effect that would make the Emerald City of Oz look like a reclamation project.

Mrs. Reagan took off her shoes to enter the Chapel Royal and see the most revered statue of Buddha in Thailand, the so-called Emerald Buddha, which is made of one huge piece of jade and is dressed in gold outfits three time a year by the king himself.

“It defies description,” she said after viewing it. “You have to see it.”

Mrs. Reagan found the Grand Palace to be nothing less than mind-boggling.

“I don’t know what I did expect, but I didn’t expect all this.

“I’d like to take some of those things that are supposed to keep off the bad spirits with me,” she said.

Views Exhibits

At the Grand Palace complex Mrs. Reagan also viewed handicraft and drug abuse exhibits.

In Bangkok, the First Lady stayed at a former king’s palace, the Boromabiman Mansion, where former Presidents Richard M. Nixon and Lyndon B. Johnson and Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II also have stayed.

After her tour, Mrs. Reagan took a boat ride down the Chao Phraya River to her luncheon at the Oriental Hotel, stopping as she boarded to play some bamboo reed pipes with a band of Thai orphans who were there to see her off.

Security measures were extraordinary for the 20-minute ride, which may have been the most public and risky appearance she will make on this trip. Three helicopters with armed security agents roared overhead, and the boat was flanked by a military gunboat, several police boats and frogmen on rafts.

The ride took her through downtown Bangkok, past temples, office buildings, piers, run-down housing and elegant hotels.

All along the way, Thais lined the riverbank and waved, but Mrs. Reagan could be seen topside only for a few moments. Then a Secret Service agent, the same one who was wounded in the attempt on President Reagan’s life in 1981, took her arm rather roughly and led her back inside.

The First Lady was guest of honor at a dinner hosted by the king and queen of Thailand. In View, Part V.