From the S&S archives: Lindsay to decide on '72 race soon

TOKYO — New York Mayor John V. Lindsay said Friday he will decide whether he will he a presidential candidate "sometime in January of 1972."

Lindsay, a controversial Republican turned Democrat, told members of the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan that his deputy, Richard Aurelio, "will leave the government of New York shortly to set up a political office to examine just that question.

"It may well be that the best way to test my chances (as a Democratic presidential candidate) would he to run in a few primaries, probably in Florida and Wisconsin," Lindsay said.

Lindsay, who is in Tokyo with his wife as the guest of Tokyo Metropolitan Governor Ryokichi Minobe, said "I am here to learn." He and Minobe are discussing mutual problems of big city management — crime prevention, gun controls, police performance, drug controls and environmental issues.

Lindsay highly praised Minobe saying his host "has set an enviable record in the areas of crime control and solid waste disposal which are two of the biggest problems facing New York at the present."

Lindsay and Minobe also discussed the prospects and possible agenda of an international conference of mayors which Lindsay described as Minobe's dream.

Lindsay said he likes to think of New York as a city state, pointing out that its budget of $8.6 million is "next highest to the Federal Government." He said New York was "threatened" by California but that he "added $200 million whit a stroke of the pen, thereby saving New York's civic pride and also rescued Governor Reagan's reputation as an economizer.

"I am thoroughly convinced that the suffering citizens and mayors of the great cities are well equipped and prepared to play an effective part in international politics if given the chance, a view which is also shared by Governor Minobe."

One newsman, noting that Minobe had recently carried a letter from his government to Red Chinese Premier Chou En-lai, asked Lindsay if he should have been selected over Henry Kissinger to play a similar role.

Lindsay replied: "I find my popularity grows in direct proportion to my distance from New York City. It might be very useful for me to go to China under those circumstances."