By TIM SANDLER CONCORD, N.H. (UPI) _ Lawrence Guay, a $100-a-year state legislator f

By TIM SANDLER

   CONCORD,  N.H.  (UPI)  _  Lawrence  Guay,  a $100-a-year state
legislator from the North Country, returned a changed man from an
anti-communism  conference  in  Washington   sponsored   by   the
political arm of the Unification Church.

   The   group,  Causa  International,  has  sent  New  Hampshire
legislators on all-expense-paid  trips  across  the  country  for
years.   Last  week, at least one state representative attended a
similar four-day conference in Miami sponsored by the group.

   All-expense-paid trips are not new to  New  Hampshire  elected
officials.  Last  month, Rep.  Robert Cushing, D-Seabrook, took a
guest trip to South America.  Former Senate President  Vesta  Roy
accepted an invitation to Saudi Arabia last spring.

   Other  legislators  have accepted trips to countries including
Germany, Japan, Israel and Norway.  None of the legislators  paid
their own expenses.

   Even  though  no  state  funds  are involved, the trips hold a
built-in paradox: Should legislators who accept  expensive  trips
be  held  accountable  for  them  if they were invited because of
their government positions?

   Rep.  Donna Sytek, R-Salem, acknowledges  the  dilemma.    She
returned in January from two weeks in South Africa.  The trip was
paid for by the South African Forum, which calls the trips purely
educational.

   "I  don't  know  why  anybody cares if there is no state money
involved," Sytek says.  But at  the  same  time,  she  adds,  "It
certainly  is  their  (voters')  business  if  we're  going in an
official capacity."

   The new version of the financial disclosure  law  for  elected
officials, enacted last Wednesday, has minimal provisions holding
legislators accountable  for  such  trips.    The form requires a
legislator to state the source of the gift, the  address  of  the
donor, its estimated value, and the date it was received.

   Critics,  however,  contend  the  law leaves the door open for
abuse  by  groups  using  the  trips  as  high-financed  lobbying
efforts.

   Sytek's trip, for example, could be construed as an attempt to
influence her opinion on state divestment from South Africa.  The
issue was before legislators in 1986.

   As the law stands, Secretary of State William Gardner says the
free  trips  should  be  listed  by legislators as "gifts" if the
invitation was prompted by the official's position.

   "It will at least provide information to the  electorate  that
they can judge from when they make their decisions on who to vote
for in  the  future,"  he says.  Claire Ebel, director of the New
Hampshire Civil Liberties Union, says that information may not be
enough for voters to understand the purpose of  the  trip.    She
says the law should be extended to include more information about
the  organizations  giving the gifts to dissuade gift givers from
using front groups to influence legislators.

   "For example, most people in New Hampshire would not think  of
Causa   as   being   anything  alarming,"  says  Ebel.  "But  the
Unification Church is known ... by a great many people and  would
illicit just that response.

   "It's  important that the information on the forms inform, not
cloud.  The idea of financial disclosure is to open  the  process
to the average citizen," says Ebel.

   Steve  Hassen,  a former assistant director of the Unification
Church headquarters in Washington,  says  the  Causa  conferences
indeed have  a  hidden  agenda.  He calls them veiled attempts by
the Rev.  Sun Myung Moon to gain legitimacy  for  his  church  by
promoting   one   popular   belief  _  anti-communism  _  without
mentioning his more controversial stances.

   Since the late 1970s the U.S. government has  closely  watched
Moon,   a   self-proclaimed  prophet  who  has  been  accused  of
brainwashing followers.  Moon  spent  part  of  1985  in  federal
prison for tax evasion.

   Hassen says he was "deprogrammed" from the church 10 years ago
and  is  now  a Boston psychoanalyst and a consultant to the Cult
Awareness Network.  After hearing  of  a  similar  conference  in
Washington  attended  by at least seven New Hampshire legislators
last December, Hassen warned of unwitting duplicity on  the  part
of the legisaltors.

   "The  legislators should know better than anyone that there is
no free lunch," says Hassen. "When people do  these  things  they
want something  in  return.    Moon's plans now are to try to get
access to leaders, get their pictures shaking hands with leaders,
and getting roads into any type of institution they can."

   Guay, a Gorham Democrat, disputes Hassen's allegations.   Guay
was  on  the invitational committee of the Miami Causa conference
and attended a similar conference in Washington last year. qxD

   The conferences are nothing more than  a  means  of  educating
leaders  about the strategic tactics of communist countries, says
Guay.

   "If you understand how the communists take  control  of  other
countries  you  can spot the infiltration," says Guay. "If we (as
representatives) see anything wrong, we can bring it out  in  the
public so they can see it."

   Whether  or not such trips benefit a legislator's constituents
or have the intentions Hassen alleges for Causa is up for debate.
Regardless, says Ebel, legislators need to be careful.

   "Public officials as a group need to  be  concerned  not  only
about   the  propriety  of  an  action,  but  the  appearance  of
propriety.  The appearance is as important as the reality of  any
situation for a public official," says Ebel.

   Meantime,  Ebel  says it is in a legislator's best interest to
detail such trips in an open  letter  to  constituents  to  avoid
allegations of misconduct.

   "It's very important that they make public what they learned,"
says  Ebel.  "After  all, they conduct the people's business, not
their own."