Willy Brandt signs treaty with Soviets and Bobby Moore is accused of theft
This week in 1970, West German Chancellor Willy Brandt put his signature on a treaty with the Soviet Union, in which both countries renounced the use of force, then followed this with long talks with Communist Party leader Leonid Brezhnev on the future of Berlin. West Germany told the Soviet Union it would not ratify the treaty until there were guarantees that West Berlin would preserve special links with Bonn. A West German spokesperson said Herr Brandt and Mr Brezhnev spent almost four hours talking in the Kremlin, and the Chancellor gave his Government’s views about divided Berlin in detail.
In Northern Ireland, troops put aside their guns and riot shields in Belfast and joined Protestant and Catholic families in a big rescue and relief operation as heavy rain and an exceptionally high tide brought the city its worst flooding for many years. Army rafts and dinghies were used to ferry families through five feet of water to special relief centres in schools. Emergency kitchens were set up to provide hot meals as power was cut by the floods. The worst hit areas were the Falls – scene of much of the rioting during the past year – and other parts of West Belfast.
In sports news, England football captain Bobby Moore, whose wife Tina was under a kidnapthreat,mayhavehadan order issued for his re-arrest, a judge in Bogota, Colombia, said. However, a final decision was not likely until after another meeting of the three judges who were to give the ruling. Moore (then 28) had been held for four days in Bogota in May 1969 after being accused of stealing a £600 bracelet from a shop in the Tequendama Hotel, where the English team stayed before the World Cup in Mexico. He insisted on his innocence, and was released on the understanding that he would return to face a trial if the theft charge was proceeded with. In London, Moore said that a whispering campaign had been started against him and he appealed for peace and quiet for him and his family. The case was not formally closed until 1972.