Bucharest Embarrassed

Rumania's President Nicolae Ceausescu, the only Soviet bloc leader to have visited both Disneyland and Peking, is justly famed for his independent foreign policy. Still, he has problems.

Tokyo is in a swivet over Ceausescu's abrupt cancellation of a visit to Japan that had been planned for early this month. Ceausescu begged off, lamely claiming that he was simply too busy.

He cited Fidel Castro's impending Rumanian tour in late May and the need to prepare for a party conference coming up in July, but the Japanese are unconvinced. They suspect that Ceausescu, who talked to a dissident Japanese politician in Bucharest early last month, simply decided that it would be better to wait and deal later with whoever succeeds lame duck Premier Eisaku Sato.

The Japanese also detect the hand of the Chinese in the affair. Just before the cancellation, a high Rumanian party official named Emil Bodnaras returned to Bucharest from a visit to Peking. Reportedly he brought word of a deep Chinese suspicion that Sato would try to score some points in Japanese domestic politics by getting Ceausescu to act as his go-between in Peking, which has turned aside Sato's efforts to improve Sino-Japanese relations. The result has been ill feeling in Tokyo, embarrassment in Bucharest, and no doubt satisfaction in Peking.

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