In the Salt

Most of the 1,248 employees around Radio Free Europe's Munich headquarters liked to grumble about the food in the small, spartan cellar cafeteria. Nonetheless, they were irked when without explanation the cafeteria was closed down last month. The union representing RFE's polyglot American, East European exile and German staff went to management to find out why.

The explanation that came from high-powered RFE Director Erik Hazelhoff, 42, onetime NBC executive, was really bizarre, even to those who work in an atmosphere of exposing intrigues. By the sudden closing, Hazelhoff announced dramatically, RFE had averted "an attempted mass poisoning"; a double agent in RFE's employ had tipped off authorities that he had been assigned by a Communist diplomat to replace the normal cafeteria salt shakers with others that he was told contained "a mild laxative." When contents of two suspect shakers were analyzed, their salt was found mixed with 2.36% by weight of atropine, a deadly white, crystalline alkaloid poison made of the nightshade plant. For adults, as little as 10 mg. of atropine can cause coma, and a salt-hungry canteen customer might presumably have shaken enough on his food to make himself pretty sick. "Tragedies were prevented," said Hazelhoff.

To counter skepticism, the U.S. State Department stepped in to confirm "a nefarious plot," and U.S. Army Headquarters in Heidelberg reported that its counter-intelligence agents had discovered the guilty Communist, one Jaroslav Nemec, who works in the Czechoslovak consulate at Salzburg, Austria.

At week's end Radio Free Europe decided it was safe to reopen the cafeteria, and on the RFE bulletin board, Director Hazelhoff described the affair of the poisoned salt shakers as a "dramatic illustration of deep Communist concern about the effectiveness of our broadcasts," which would hopefully cause all in this "front line" to "redouble our efforts in a mission proved of crucial importance."

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