Thatcher’s Woes Grow: U.S. Tourism Falls, and Senate Stalls on Extradition Pact

Declining American tourism and powerful opposition in the U.S. Senate to altering an Anglo-American extradition treaty have embarrassed Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and added to her growing list of political woes.

Both issues deal with terrorism. One is the result of the U.S. raid on Libya last April 15, and the other concerns a proposal that would make it easier to extradite to Britain individuals suspected of terrorist acts in the campaign to free Northern Ireland from British rule and join it to the Irish Republic.

As layoffs mount and tourism industry executives talk of earnings falling by as much as $600 million this year, Thatcher’s political opponents and a significant segment of public opinion are blaming the problem in part on her decision to permit the use of British bases in the Libya raid.

Thatcher’s decision, the critics contend, made Britain a top-priority target for reprisal attacks and led thousands of Americans to cancel plans to vacation here.

A weaker U.S. dollar, coupled with concern over radioactive fallout from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in the Soviet Union, have added to the problem, but Belle Austin, speaking for the British Tourist Authority, said the fear of terrorism has had the greatest impact.

‘Really Big Issue’

“That seems to be the really big issue,” she said.

Highly visible security alerts at London’s main airports, last month’s discovery of a plot to blow up an El Al jetliner, and a bombing in the busy Oxford Street shopping area on April 24 have all contributed to the worries over terrorism.

The Libyan raid continues to have repercussions on Britain. On Monday police searched baggage and cars at English Channel ports for the third day as part of a multinational security alert based on intelligence reports of a Libyan-linked plot to blow up a ferry with a car loaded with explosives in reprisal for the raid. However, officials said that ferry service between Britain and the continent was continuing uninterrupted.

Britain is particularly hard hit by the decline of American tourists, because roughly half the people who travel to Western Europe stop here en route. Last year they spent $2.2 billion, nearly a quarter of the total spent by all foreign visitors.

Britain’s second-largest airline, British Caledonian, announced last Friday that it planned to lay off 1,000 employees because of reduced traffic on important Middle East and U.S. routes. This was a psychological blow to Thatcher at a time when she seemed particularly vulnerable.

She has been unable to reduce record unemployment, and she has been widely perceived as insensitive to the suffering of the unemployed. These have been her principal political liabilities; both were cited by commentators explaining her party’s defeat in the recent local elections.

Raid Unpopular from the Start

Thatcher’s support for the U.S. raid against Libya has not been popular from the start, and rising unemployment is considered likely to make it even more difficult for her to argue that the raid was in Britain’s interest.

“The decline in American tourism is the inevitable consequence of Mrs. Thatcher’s stupid decision to participate in an equally stupid attack on Libya,” Peter Snape, a Labor member of Parliament, charged.

In an effort to revive American tourism, Foreign Secretary Geoffrey Howe will be in Washington next week and is expected to press for some form of public endorsement by the Reagan Administration that Britain is safe to visit.

“It is something Thatcher is obviously steamed up about,” a Foreign Office official said.

Another Cabinet minister, Secretary of Transport Nicholas Ridley, agreed with a television interviewer that the words “chicken” and “stupid” could be applied to Americans who have canceled British vacations plans.

Americans Killed at Home

Antony Acland, the head of Britain’s diplomatic service and ambassador-designate to Washington, delivered a similar though more discreet message to a meeting of the British-American Chamber of Commerce.

“No less than 1.7 million Americans were killed or injured in car accidents in their own country last year and thousands more died in gun accidents,” Acland said, comparing these tolls with the 162 Americans killed or injured in terrorist attacks abroad last year. He carefully noted that no such attack took place in Britain.

Nevertheless, few people believe that a tourist revival is likely this year.

Thatcher’s political fortunes could also be damaged if the U.S. Senate decides not to ratify a proposed change in the extradition treaty. It has been suggested here that Thatcher expected the Senate to act favorably on the proposal in return for British support in the Libyan raid.

The treaty change, which removes the political protection clause for murder and other violent crimes, has already been approved by both governments, but it has touched off debate in the Senate over the definition of terrorism. The Senate must ratify the new wording before the change can become binding.

American Colonials

For many Irish-Americans, including some senators, the new treaty language would mean returning politically motivated Irish nationals whose only crime is fighting for an end to British rule in much the same way American colonials did more than 200 years ago.

But to Thatcher, who was nearly killed two years ago by an Irish Republican Army bomb, and to the majority of Britons, the Senate action is seen as a test of whether the United States is serious about the terrorist issue.

“It would be impossible for her to explain to the British people if the changes aren’t approved,” a close Thatcher aide said.

The prospects that the Senate will come to Thatcher’s aid are dim. Tom King, the secretary for Northern Ireland, is reported to have made little headway in a recent series of meetings with key senators in Washington. Attaining the two-thirds majority needed to ratify the changes is said to be increasingly unlikely.