Nation: Exodus Goes On

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But Carter's curbs take effect

Still they keep coming. Standing in a long line on the sun-baked cement pier of the old submarine base at Key West, the Cubans look dazed, frightened, seasick, hungry.

Having survived the hazardous voyage, they are waiting to get a medical checkup and ID cards, a cold drink and a cigarette. Several of them have dog bites, which they say they got from dogs turned loose on them by the Cuban police.

The two-month tide of refugees is hardly abating. Last week 18,000 arrived, and there are still some 500 American boats at the Cuban port of Mariel, held there by the Cuban authorities until they decide who should be piled aboard. The overcrowded craft are often ordered to depart at night now, making the 110-mile journey even more dangerous. The estimated death toll of refugees so far: at least 25. "Mother Nature has been kind to these people," said one Coast Guard officer. "Only good weather has prevented a real disaster."

The flotilla of ships heading for Mariel has nearly disappeared, however, thanks to President Carter's order two weeks ago setting up a 200-mile Coast Guard and naval blockade of the Florida Straits. U.S. Customs is seizing any vessel that brings back refugees.

More than 70,000 Cuban refugees have so far landed on U.S. soil, with thousands more still expected to arrive on the boats now at Mariel. Authorities opened a new refugee processing center last week at the military reservation in Indiantown Gap, Pa., to handle the spillover from Florida's Eglin Air Force Base and Arkansas' Fort Chaffee. By week's end the new camp held a capacity crowd of 20,000 and a fourth center, Camp McCoy near Sparta, Wis., opened its gates.

Washington repeated its offer to send U.S. ships and airplanes to Cuba to pick up refugees if Castro agreed to let U.S. officials screen the would-be exiles. Havana rejected the proposal—but not outright. In a front-page editorial in the official newspaper Granma, Cuba expressed its willingness to discuss the "isolated" problem of the refugees if Washington agreed to talk about other issues such as the U.S. economic blockade and the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo. The relatively mild language led Washington to believe that although Castro is not in any real trouble, he may have begun to realize that the exodus is making his tattered regime look like a dismal failure throughout Latin America. Says a senior Administration official: "The signals have gone from appearing berserk to showing some restraint. The question now is: Will the real Fidel Castro stand up?" ∎