By The
Associated Press
Edited by Jana Pedersen
Conservative Party records Major win |
LONDON - John Major, endorsed
by Margaret Thatcher as the politi
cian closest to her heart, was elected
by the Conservative Party on Tues
day night to succeed her as prime
minister.
Major, 47, fell two votes short of
winning a majority in voting among
the 372 Conservative Party members
of Parliament, but his two opponents
quickly conceded defeat and the party
confirmed Major as the winner.
Thatcher, ending 11 1/2 years in
power, intended to submit her resig
nation to Queen Elizabeth II this
morning, and Major would then be
called to lead the government.
Major, the chancellor of the ex
chequer, emerged from his official
residence at 11 Downing St. Thurs
day night smiling and holding hands
with his wife, Norma. He had first
accepted congratulations from
Thatcher, who stepped in from the
prime minister’s official residence next
door.
Major received 185 votes, two short
of a majority. Former Defense Secre
tary Michael Heseltine received 131
and Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd
had 56.
Hurd and Heseltine conceded within
minutes, and party officials declared
Major elected.
“It is a very exciting thing to be
come leader of the Conservative Party,
and particularly exciting, I think, to
follow one of the most remarkable
leaders the Conservative Party has
ever had,” Major said.
“Our job now I think is quite clear.
We are going to unite totally and
absolutely, and we’re going to win
the next general election,” said Ma
jor, who will be the youngest British
prime minister in this century.
Thatcher said she resigned to let
someone from the Cabinet stand against
Heseltine. Major and Hurd both joined
the race, but before the vote Thatcher’s
aides spread the word that she was
backing Major.
“I am thrilled and delighted John
Major is to succeed me as prime
minister of this country,” Thatcher
said in a statement.
The son of a circus performer and
at one time a welfare recipient, Major
personifies the values of self-reliance
and hard work that Thatcher had
preached to the nation.
Heseltinc, 57, who precipitated
Thatcher’s downfall, said Major’s
election “lays the basis for the unity
of our party.”
Hurd said the party needed to unite,
and “John Major is the right leader for
this task.”
Opposition leaders derided Ma
jor’s election as “Thatcherism with a
different face.” The Conservatives’
main rivals, the socialist Labor Party,
demanded a general election.
“John Major is a Thatchcrette,”
said Labor Party leader Neil Kin
nock. “It means that the policies that
brought the poll tax, recession, heavy
mortgages and rising unemployment
will go on.”
During his five-day campaign,
Major had said he would review the
“poll tax,” an unpopular local tax
brought in by Thatcher, but he gave
no other hints of differing with her.
While adopting a gentler tone on
the contentious issue of Britain’s
involvement in Europe, he shares her i
opposition to a single European cur
rency and shares her belief in tight a
Great Britain’s New Prime Minister!
Conservative Party legislators elected John Major | “ “
Tuesday to succeed Margaret Thatcher as the
country’s leader.
Profile of John Major
Bom: March 29, 1
Education: High school drop-out
Family: Married Norma Johnson in
1970; they have a daughter,
and a son, 15.
Early career: Executive of Standard and
Chartered Bank for 14 years.
Prior to his success In banking, Major worked as
a iaborer and spent eight months on welfare.
Political career: Elected to Parliament in 1979; appointed chief
secretary to the treasury after the June 1987 general
elections; chosen by Thatcher as foreign secretary in
July 1989; named chancellor of the exchequer, the
nation’s top treasury official, In October 1989.
estraini on government spending.
However, he insisted over the
weekend, “I am not running as ‘Son
-a
Mr
of Thatcher.’ I am running as myself,
with my own priorities and my own
programs.”
US., Soviet Union set date
of Iraqi withdrawal deadline
The United States and the Soviet Union have fixed Jan. 15 as a
deadline for Iraq to get out of Kuwait or face the possibility of a military
strike to drive it out, diplomats said Tuesday.
Three Americans, waving Iraqi flags and criticizing their govern
ment, arrived in Jordan after being freed by Saddam Hussein.
The deadline for an Iraqi withdrawal had been the only sticking point
] in a draft U.N. Security Council resolution agreed upon by the five
permanent members of the council. The measure is expected to be
voted on by the full council on Thursday.
In a fresh sign that the Baghdad government is bracing for war, the
Pentagon said Iraq is rapidly increasing its troop strength in Kuwait and
southern Iraq. It said Iraq has 450,000 troops in the region, an increase
of 20,000 over last week.
: The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, mean
wmic,qucsuuncu wiicuici uisreauy hi uic viunnncicsi uiincuinicu
Slates to use military force to liberate Kuwait, the oil-rich emirate Iraq
seized on Aug. 2.
The freed Americans, whose families had traveled to Iraq to plead
with Saddam for their release, told reporters at the Amman airport that
the Bush administration had ignored their plight.
“I was not released with help from my government,” said John
Stevenson of Panama City, Fla. “It was my family who did it.”
The United States has demanded the unconditional release of all of
i the hundreds of foreigners held hostage in Iraq, and the Stale Depart
ment has discouraged private hostage-freeing missions.
Another freed American, Clyde Jesse of Buffalo Grove, 111., sug
gested the United States should negotiate with Saddam.
“I believe it is time we started talking,” he said.
The third freed American was Fred Harrington of Bellevue, Wash.
Ten Britons and five Germans were released as well. The women in the
British group carried flowers; the Americans waved the U.S. and Iraqi
flags.
At the United Nations, the stage was set for a Security Council
meeting on Thursday to consider the strongest measure yet against Iraq.
| The resolution calls on Iraq to release all foreign hostages, withdraw its
troops and restore Kuwait’s government by the first of the year.
Western diplomats speaking on condition of anonymity said Secrc
I tary of State James A. Baker III and Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard
Shevardnadze had settled on Jan. 15 as the deadline for an Iraqi
| withdrawal. The diplomats said they had reached the agreement in the
| past 24 hours,
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senate Democrats asK questions
about White House’s Gulf policy
WASHINGTON - Senate Demo
crats on Tuesday challenged Presi
dent Bush’s Persian Gulf policy,
questioning the immediate need for
offensive military action to oust Iraqi
forces from Kuwait and demanding a
greater role in the crisis.
“The question is not whether mili
tary action is justified. It is,” said Sen.
Sam Nunn, chairman of the Senate
Armed Services Committee, which
began several days of hearings on the
gulf crisis. “The question is whether
military action is wise at this time and
in our own national interest.”
The hearings were called in reac
tion to Bush’s decision to send an
additional 200,000 troops to the Gulf
to provide an “offensive military
option.”
With the administration seeking
U.N. approval for the use of force in
the Gulf, some committee members
said the president also must make the
same request of Congress.
House Speaker Thomas Foley, in
remarks to newly elected House
Democrats, underscored the point.
“I would personally want to have
some assurance from the administra
tion that no action would be taken
prior to this Congress meeting, or it
would be necessary to think seriously
about calling in the previous Con
gress,” he said.
- 66 -
The question is not
whether military action
is justified. It is. The
question is whether mili
tary action is wise at
this time and in our own
national interest.
Nunn
Senate Armed Services
Committee Chairman
-ft -
The opening day of the session
also was marked by the conspicuous
absence of the administration’s top
military officials — Defense Secre
tary Dick Cheney and Gen. Colin
Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs
of Staff. The two will testify Monday
morning.
Sen. Bob Kerrey, D-Neb., said the
policy change to underline a U.S.
attack capability undermines the na
tion’s attempts to maintain interna
tional support for the sanctions “by
declaring, through its own word and
those of the imminent U.N. resolu
tion, that our patience was almost
spent.”
Committee member Edward Ken
nedy, D-Mass., declared, “If ever there
is a case for giving peace a chance,
this is it.”
John Glenn, D-Ohio, said the
administration has yet to make its
case for military attack in the Gulf,
arguing that the nation “cannot gel
into a war that is not fully understood
and backed by the American people.
We need more than sound-bite justi
fication.”
The panel heard from former CIA
Director James Schlesinger, who tes
tified that the United States believes
it will take about a year for interna
tional sanctions against Iraq to take
full effect.
Schlesinger told the panel that was
“an official estimate.” The one lime
CIA director and defense secretary
did not indicate the basis for his state
ment.
“A year, to me, seems to be in the
right ballpark,” Schlesinger said, time
enough “to drain off the cash that is
now sustaining the smuggling opera
tions that bring in food.”
“His society is bleeding and it’s
going to get worse with the passage of
lime,” Schlesinger said. But it may
lake somewhat longer for those diffi
culties to lead Saddam to change his
mind and withdraw from Kuwait, he
said.
Schlesinger said the United States
must show tenacity and “we must be
prepared to stay a year” in the desert
of the Mideasl.
Bush pledges better relations,
makes trade deal with Mexico
MONTERREY, Mexico - Presi
dent Bush said Tuesday the U.S.
economic slowdown could make it
harder to obtain a free trade pact with
Mexico, but pledged to “write a new
page in North American history” with
his veto pen if necessary to stop pro
tectionist bills.
Bush wrapped up a two-day slate
visit and talks with President Carlos
Salinas de Gortari with new agree
ments on oil investment, border cross
ings and on educational exchanges.
In a joint statement issued shortly
before the president headed home from
this northern Mexico industrial city,
Bush and Salinas proclaimed “excel
lent cooperation” between their gov
ernments and reiterated a mutual call
for a free-trade agreement.
In a key agreement, the pair re
solved a U.S.-Mexican disagreement
over the question of whether Mex
ico’s vast oil industry should be open
to U.S. or other foreign investment.
Salinas has insisted the slate-run and
subsidized oil industry be exempt from
the free-trade talks.
Treasury Secretary Nicholas Brady
told reporters here that the dispute
has been eased by Mexico’s agree
ment to allow an Export-Import Bank
loan for drilling and supplying equip
ment in Mexican oil exploration.
Brady said “for the first time, the
services of American companies will
be welcome and sought after with
regard to drilling and other supplies
in the Mexican oil fields.”
The two presidents also announced
that both governments would work
toward opening nine new border points
of-entry to ease congestion at cross
ing stations and to make it easier for
both Americans and Mexicans to travel
across across each other’s borders.
Roman Popadiuk, a White House
spokesman, said “both the United
States and Mexico favor having new
and additional ports of entry between
the two countries where feasible, and
alter study and approval, by both sides.”
He said specific sites for the nine new
crossings had not been determined.
Economists say
recession’s here
WASHINGTON - Three out
of four of the nation’s top busi
ness economists believe the
United States has skidded into a
recession, in part because of die
rapid rise in oil prices following
the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.
“Recession is here,” the
National Association of Busi
ness Economists said Tuesday
in a report on its canvass of 51
professional forecasters.
The report reflects a sharp
jump in pessimism among the
economists, who just three
months ago still felt the country
could avoid an imminent down
turn.
In a survey following the Iraqi
invasion, only 45 percent of the
forecasters said a recession ei
ther had begun or was immi
nent. Just a year ago, 62 percent
of the forecasters predicted the
economy would escape a reces
sion through 1992.
