For the Record

■ The battle over the Panama Canal treaties gets going in earnest this week. John Sparkman, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, says his committee will start hearings on Jan. 26—after he and five influential members of the committee come back from Panama. . . . Senate Majority Leader Robert Byrd expects to bring the question to the floor in late February or early March (if action on the energy program has been completed by then). . . . Both Byrd and Minority Leader Howard Baker came back from Panama, and the Christmas holiday break, cautiously in favor of the treaties, provided they are amended (or an article of understanding is attached) clearing up two major reservations on the part of many senators: priority for U.S. warships through the Canal in times of crisis, and the U.S. right to protect the Canal after 2000. . . . Senator Byrd says there will be one whale of a fight over the treaties in the Senate, but he is now “cautiously optimistic” that they will pass. . . . Most of the Washington press corps also senses passage although the most recent New York Times-CBS poll indicates the nation at large is still opposed. The latest figures show 51 per cent against (as compared to 49 per cent in October) with the same 29 per cent approving. . . . Barry Goldwater, who has been listed in the anti camp, says he thinks the Senate will okay the accords if Jimmy Carter goes to Panama and signs the understandings which he and President Torrijos worked out, but didn’t sign, last October 14. Goldwater says that when he talked to Torrijos he found him “receptive” to the idea of a joint signature on the undertakings. Howard Baker says he found Torrijos “flexible” on the question of revisions. . . . Sen. James Allen (D., Ala.) disagrees with Goldwater. “No Band-Aid amendments will cure the treaty,” says Allen. . . . Richard Viguerie says the New Right thinks Panama more important than SALT. “Panama is the one we’re going to remember.”

Donato, Toronto Sun Rothco

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■ The battle over the Panama Canal treaties gets going in earnest this week. John Sparkman, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, says his committee will start hearings on Jan. 26—after he and five influential members of the committee come back from Panama. . . . Senate Majority Leader Robert Byrd expects to bring the question to the floor in late February or early March (if action on the energy program has been completed by then). . . . Both Byrd and Minority Leader Howard Baker came back from Panama, and the Christmas holiday break, cautiously in favor of the treaties, provided they are amended (or an article of understanding is attached) clearing up two major reservations on the part of many senators: priority for U.S. warships through the Canal in times of crisis, and the U.S. right to protect the Canal after 2000. . . . Senator Byrd says there will be one whale of a fight over the treaties in the Senate, but he is now “cautiously optimistic” that they will pass. . . . Most of the Washington press corps also senses passage although the most recent New York Times-CBS poll indicates the nation at large is still opposed. The latest figures show 51 per cent against (as compared to 49 per cent in October) with the same 29 per cent approving. . . . Barry Goldwater, who has been listed in the anti camp, says he thinks the Senate will okay the accords if Jimmy Carter goes to Panama and signs the understandings which he and President Torrijos worked out, but didn’t sign, last October 14. Goldwater says that when he talked to Torrijos he found him “receptive” to the idea of a joint signature on the undertakings. Howard Baker says he found Torrijos “flexible” on the question of revisions. . . . Sen. James Allen (D., Ala.) disagrees with Goldwater. “No Band-Aid amendments will cure the treaty,” says Allen. . . . Richard Viguerie says the New Right thinks Panama more important than SALT. “Panama is the one we’re going to remember.”

Donato, Toronto Sun Rothco