April 7, 1993

Despite the recession that has gripped Germany and most of Europe, the German central bank will continue a policy of lowering key interest rates only when it is convinced that such action will not set off inflation or jeopardize the strong position of the mark, the bank's president said today. In an interview in his 12th-floor office at the Bundesbank's headquarters here, the official, Helmut Schlesinger, made clear that the bank would move cautiously in its policy of reducing short-term interest rates gradually. A Matter of Credibility "We have to be careful that we do not endanger the credibility of the Bundesbank's anti-inflationary policy," he said.

SPRING doesn't really burst on the scene in a blaze of daffodils and the sudden rise of wild asparagus so thin as to be taken for blades of grass. The traditional feast of the season, Easter, doesn't signal a sudden quickening as much as it acknowledges the resurgence that begins cautiously when the groundhog ambles out of hibernation looking for its shadow. The groundhog motivates people who, after months of battened hatches and the selfish appetite that looms in closed places, take a long, bored look at their own darker sides. Change becomes a pleasant concept. Change of setting. Change of clothes. Change of menu.

Trying to outmaneuver conservative groups seeking to win dozens of seats on New York City's school boards in elections next month, Mayor David N. Dinkins mounted a huge city-financed campaign yesterday to encourage voters to turn out in large numbers. Mr. Dinkins said his administration would mail cards on Monday to all of the city's 3.4 million registered voters urging them to take part in the elections on May 4. It will also place advertisements in newspapers, on radio and on television, city officials said, and provide information about candidates over a special telephone line. The campaign, unprecedented in city politics, will cost about $635,000.

Early on a Monday morning in the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center emergency room, nine psychiatric patients with recent histories of violent behavior lounged on stretchers and armchairs, awaiting a doctor's decision about who would be committed and who discharged. One man had threatened to murder his girlfriend and another, hearing voices urging him to kill a prostitute, had grazed a woman's neck with a knife. A 51-year-old woman, while high on crack, had tried to place her young niece in the oven for being disobedient. "The normal complement after a weekend," said Dr. Ellen M. Stevenson, who is in charge of the hospital's psychiatric emergency services. "The knife and gun club. The crack. The threats. The temper tantrums gone bad."

International The Japanese yen has been edging up to its highest level of the postwar era, sending waves of anxiety through the Government and the business world. Some see a threat to Japan's fragile economic recovery, but others see benefits in cheaper imports. [ Page D1. ] Germany will lower interest rates only when it is convinced that such action will not set off inflation or jeopardize the mark's strength, the central bank president said in an interview. [ D1. ]