ITALY: A Letter from Aldo Moro

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Even as Italians puzzled over the letter and awaited the terrorists' next message, the country seemed to have recovered its nerve after the initial shock of the kidnaping and the murder of Moro's five bodyguards. The trial in Turin of 15 Red Brigades defendants resumed as scheduled, and the government intensified its effort to strengthen its legal recourses against terrorism. Following new measures introduced the week before—life imprisonment for kidnap-murder and wider discretionary powers for police—the Justice Ministry announced a $94 million plan aimed at improving the judicial system and prison facilities.

Premier Giulio Andreotti made a deliberate effort to show that the government was operating as usual. He conducted meetings on the economy and distributed a promised economic policy report. This week he will receive Greek Premier Constantine Caramanlis in Rome, then travel to a Common Market summit meeting in Copenhagen. Said a Cabinet official: "The greatest danger of the kidnaping is that the normal activity of the government might be diverted. To forget the economy would be to play into the hands of the terrorists."

At the same time, the exhaustive hunt for Moro and his captors continued. Police threw everything into the search, including dogs and helicopters. Military and police roadblocks created long but patient queues on the autostrade. Not so patient was the tone of a message sent to Rome's daily Il Messaggero. Italian underworld bosses, supposedly annoyed that the intensive police presence was hurting business, issued an "ultimatum" demanding Moro's release by 4 p.m. last Thursday —or else the boys from the mob would see to it that their colleagues behind bars would bump off Red Brigades members who were in prison.

The warning was believed to be a hoax, but criminals nonetheless had good reason for wanting Moro found. Common crime in the capital has dropped 60%. Car thefts, which total as many as 150 a day in Rome, have declined dramatically. Police are recovering between 40 and 60 stolen autos a day: the thieves abandon them for fear of being caught at a roadblock.