Poker with Dom

With the approach of Prime Minister Dom Mintoff's Jan. 15 deadline for Britain to either pay more money or give up its bases on Malta, the negotiations took on some of the overtones of an international poker game. Mintoff kept insisting that Britain pay a $33.8 million rent hike over last year's $13 million. The British, holding the line at a proposed $11.7 million increase, evacuated 6,000 military dependents and began moving R.A.F. planes and personnel to bases on Sicily and Cyprus.

At home, "Deadline Dom's" bluff was psychologically strengthened by 2,000 or so of his Laborites, who marched through the streets of Valletta, chanting slogans and stoning buildings. Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Edward Heath was being urged to up the ante by two of his NATO partners, Italy and the U.S. The Nixon Administration reportedly suggested that NATO could help raise the package to $35.1 million; just before the NATO Council held a round of meetings on the Malta situation, its secretary-general, Joseph Luns, flew to London to talk to Heath.

At first, the very suggestion of a compromise infuriated the British, who felt that a surrender to Mintoff now would only encourage him to ask for even more money in the future. Then both sides had second and more sober thoughts. Mintoff flew to Rome for a series of bargaining talks with Luns and British Defense Minister Lord Carrington. At week's end Mintoff came out smiling from one session to announce that his deadline, six hours before it was due to expire, had been extended. No agreement had been reached, and the game goes on.

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