American Notes Foreign Exchange

When Congress voted in 1975 to grant most-favored-nation trading status to Rumania in recognition of improvements in that nation's emigration policy, some conservative members supported the move because they had been impressed by an unusual concession from the Communist regime. Rumania had agreed to import and distribute 20,000 Bibles supplied by churchmen in the West to members of its Hungarian Reformed Church. However, outraged clergymen and conservatives displayed proof in the Rayburn House Office Building last week that the Bibles had not been put to their intended use. Close inspection of a roll of toilet paper manufactured in a Rumanian factory and smuggled out of the country revealed the Hungarian words for God, Jeremiah and other biblical names. Instead of distributing the holy books, said Calvinist Minister Alexander Havadtoy, Rumania's Communist rulers recycled them into pulp "to show their contempt."

Several human rights organizations and church groups said this was only the latest instance of the regime's repression. With Congress due to consider renewal of MFN trading relationships this summer, conservatives want to strip Rumania of its special status.