Following a hung parliament in the United Kingdom general election, and his inability to form a coalition with the Liberal Party, Conservative Prime Minister Edward Heath resigned. Labour’s Harold Wilson, who had previously led the country from 1964 to 1970, was asked by the Queen to form a new government. Heath, his Conservative party defeated last week by Britain’s voters, gave up his effort to hold power, and Harold Wilson, the Labor party leader, took over as Prime Minister. Mr. Wilson, who led the nation for six years until 1970, returned in triumph to 10 Downing Street. He had been asked by Queen Elizabeth to form a new government, but his cabinet will be the first in 45 years to lack a majority in the Commons.
The nine European Common Market countries — with a tentative agreement by the British because of the government’s election difficulties in London — made a joint offer of long-term economic, technical and cultural cooperation with the entire Arab world. Secretary of State Kissinger, who was reported to be unenthusiastic about the separate European initiative, was informed during his visit to Brussels today, but did not give an opinion publicly before leaving for Washington.
The third land-mine blast in 24 hours injured a British soldier near Ulster’s border with the Irish Republic in County Tyrone, the army said. In Belfast, 10 of 11 militant Protestant members of the new British Parliament met and said they would back whichever British party met their demands.
The Spanish government and the Roman Catholic Church edged toward their most serious confrontation in three decades after the bishop in the capital of the Basque country dared the government to expel him and the Franco regime denounced him on television. Bishop Antonio Anoveros of Bilbao twice refused a government offer of a plane flight to Rome and declared he would leave Spain only by force or if called by the Vatican.
The post of U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union was filled for the first time in more than a year as career diplomat Walter J. Stoessel presented his credentials to Soviet head of state Nikolai V. Podgorny in Moscow.
Roy A. Medvedev, the dissident Marxist historian, declared today that the forced exile of Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn represented “a moral defeat for those in power who were neither willing nor able to answer his accusation” about Soviet repressions and who did not dare to put him on trial, even in secret. A 1,300‐word statement by Mr. Medvedev, circulating today, also said that the author’s banishment would not result in his spiritual death though it might mute his voice somewhat, but it proved the truth of the Biblical saying that a “prophet is without honor in his own country.”
Mr. Medvedev, who himself risked severe sanctions several years ago in publishing abroad his study of Stalinist terror, alleged that Mr. Solzhenitsyn’s deportation after publication of his nonfiction account of the Soviet prison system, had caused ordinary people to say: “If they scold him so, if they chase him out of the country, it more than likely means that the writer spoke the truth.” This was the most forceful challenge to date to the contention in the Soviet press that Mr. Solzhenitsyn’s banishment had been unanimously approved by the Soviet people.
President Giovanni Leone began formal consultations with political leaders today before designating a Premier for Italy’s next Cabinet. The President is to make his choice known tomorrow night or Wednesday. He is generally expected to name Mariano Rumor, the head of the Cabinet that resigned Saturday. Mr. Rumor, a 58‐year‐old Christian Democrat, will have to try to patch up the coalition of center and leftist parties that fell apart last week.
The attempt may take time and is by no means certain to succeed. If Mr. Rumor fails, President Leone will, according to the unwritten rules of the Italian system, turn to some other Christian Democrat. A Cabinet made up only of members of the Christian Democratic party, and lacking firm majorities in both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, might be the result. The dismissal of the legislature three years ahead of its constitutional five‐year term would become almost inevitable in such a case. Such a solution would be “absurd,” said Giuseppe Saragat, a former President and one of several elder statesmen who saw President Leone today to offer advice.
The Pentagon evaluated data from a weekend search for missing balloonist Thomas L. Gatch, 48, but associates said responsibility for his survival was up to Gatch himself. “It sounds cruel, but it’s right,” said a Federal Energy Office worker who helped Gatch prepare his craft. He is believed down in the Atlantic off the northwest coast of Africa after last being seen 12 days ago at an altitude of 1,000 feet.
North Vietnam walked out of talks in Geneva on updating the Geneva warfare conventions as a protest against alleged maneuvers by the United States to prevent the Việt Cộng from taking part. The walkout came at the first full working session of the conference.
A Cambodian insurgent said 3,600 rebels, disenchanted with the Communists, halted offensive operations against government forces and are prepared to defect. He said negotiations were under way with the Phnom Penh government. If the claim is true, it would be the largest known mass defection of the Cambodian war.
North Korean soldiers assaulted U.N. command personnel, mainly Americans, and damaged four U.S. military vehicles in a 30-minute melee Sunday in the border village of Panmunjom, the command said. It said a U.S. officer was kicked by a North Korean and a free-for-all between 30 U.S. and 120 North Korean soldiers followed. Three Americans and a South Korean suffered minor bruises.
Japanese rail, postal and telephone workers, in the first major action of the annual spring labor offensive, launched a 24-hour walkout for higher pay and the right to strike. More than 8 million workers are involved, according to the country’s four major labor organizations.
Israel completed the first phase of its withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula, pulling back eight miles to the Great Bitter Lake and giving Egypt control of both sides of the Suez Canal for the first time since the Six-Day War in June 1967. After Israel turned the territory over to the United Nations Emergency Force 24 hours ahead of schedule, Egyptian troops moved in at 6:00 in the morning local time.
Premier Golda Meir of Israel reversed herself and agreed — under pressure from her Labor party colleagues — to try to form a new coalition Labor cabinet by tomorrow. As a result, she is expected to continue as Premier and to proceed with her plans to organize a coalition with other parties nine weeks after the voters deprived her Labor grouping of a parliamentary majority.
Leaflets dropped over Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital, said that some military units would “take action” unless Emperor Haile Selassie made sweeping political, economic and social changes, but it was not immediately clear how large the forces involved were. Meanwhile, the Ethiopian labor unions discussed plans to call a general strike Thursday.
Brazil opened what was, at almost six miles in length — 13.29 kilometers (8.26 mi) — and wide enough at 27 meters (89 ft) for six lanes of traffic, the “biggest bridge in the world.” The new Rio–Niterói Bridge (officially, the President Costa e Silva Bridge) after more than five years of construction at the loss of 33 lives.
With returns in Guatemala’s presidential election less than 30% complete, the opposition candidate, Efraim Rios Montt, declared himself the next president. He said he had 49% of the vote but the claim was based on a count by his own Christian Democratic Party. The government said its candidate, Kjell Laugerud, was in the lead with 43% of the vote to Rios Montt’s 37%. But then the government suddenly stopped giving out election totals.
Cordoba, Argentina, was gripped by strikes and a lockout after three nights of street fighting which left seven dead and 20 wounded and opened the way for a parliamentary crisis. Sporadic shots and bombs rocked the city and leftist union leaders went into hiding after police arrested more than 100 unionists.
Judge John Sirica ordered an open courtroom hearing for the grand jury’s special report which allegedly deals with President Nixon’s involvement with the Watergate cover-up. Sirica’s decision was made after conferring with White House lawyers and the staff of the special prosecutor’s office.
Before meeting with attorney James St. Clair, Sirica intended to turn the report over to the House Judiciary Committee to be used in its impeachment probe. Vice President Gerald Ford stated that he now believes the report should be reviewed by the judge or the grand jury; earlier Ford approved turning the report over to the House Judiciary Committee.
The House Judiciary Committee is anxious to get White House documents and tapes to be used in its impeachment inquiry. Committee chairman Peter Rodino said that the committee has waited a reasonable amount of time for the White House to turn over evidence. White House attorney James St. Clair insisted that a reply will be made soon.
The White House press room was filled with Watergate questions. Press secretary Gerald Warren reported that President Nixon has no intentions of blocking the grand jury’s report from the House Judiciary Committee. Warren stated that the President stands by his statement of last August concerning the payment of hush money to the Watergate defendants. H.R. Haldeman was indicted on that specific point among other charges.
Former White House aide H.R. Haldeman held a news conference in Los Angeles. Haldeman refused to comment on the March conversation between President Nixon and himself regarding the Watergate defendants. Questioned about his role in the Watergate scandal, Haldeman admitted some wrongdoing but declared that his innocence will be proven.
The trial of Maurice Stans and John Mitchell got underway in New York City after Judge Lee Gagliardi denied a defense motion for a mistrial. Peter Fleming, defense lawyer for John Mitchell, attacked the character of the prosecution’s witnesses. Maurice Stans’ lawyer, Walter Bonner, revealed that Stans will take the witness stand in his own defense.
President Nixon said he would ask Congress to increase compensation for veterans disabled by military service by 12% and for their survivors by 14%, retroactive to last Friday. Declaring in a letter to key congressmen that “many disabled veterans are undercompensated today,” Mr. Nixon said the one-year cost of the proposed increases would be $432 million. Benefits were last increased in August, 1972, and for survivors in January, 1972. Benefits currently range from $28 per month for a veteran with 10% disability to $495 for total disability. Additional benefits for other specific severe disabilities can bring the amount to $1,232 a month.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announced it planned to develop mandatory safety standards for television sets, which are suspected of causing hundreds of fires, injuries and deaths each year. The commission said at least 28 major manufacturers were being invited to a public hearing in Washington April 23-24 to explain what they are doing to reduce the hazards. Since last June 18, eight companies have notified the agency of potential shock and fire in more than 140,000 color TV sets, most of them portables.
Senator George S. McGovern (D-South Dakota) said food prices might rise as much as 30% this year. McGovern, chairman of the Senate subcommittee on nutrition and human needs, said his staff had told him “that instead of 14 to 15%, this year’s increase will be at least as large as last year’s — another 22%. And that’s if we’re lucky.” The senator, in a Washington speech to the American School Food Service Association, said the fuel shortage was driving up farmers’ costs for transportation and fertilizer so that farm prices were bound to rise.
There was no response today to a plea by Patricia Hearst’s parents that the kidnapped girl be permitted to write to her family, a Federal Bureau of Investigation agent said. “We’ve got nothing as a result of the Hearst plea,” Charles W. Bates, special agent in charge of the FBI office in San Francisco, said, adding, that he had “no reason to think she is not alive” or that she had been taken away from this area. Mr. and Mrs. Randolph A. Hearst are the girl’s parents. Mr. Hearst is president and editor of The San Francisco Examiner. In a joint appearance before television cameras on their front steps in Hillsborough yesterday they pleaded that the kidnappers let their daughter write so she could tell them she was alive and well.
Mr. Bates said that the FBI would proceed “the same way we have been.” This was taken to mean that the agents would not make any effort to locate the girl and rescue her for fear the action might bring about her death. Miss Hearst was kidnapped on February 4 from her Berkeley, California, apartment. She is a sophomore at the University of California and has turned 20 years of age while a captive. Mr. Bates said he had concluded that the self‐styled Symbionese Liberation Army, Miss Hearst’s captors, intended to break off communications. A third distribution of food to the needy will be made tomorrow at six places in San Francisco, Oakland, Richmond and East Palo Alto. Mr. Hearst and the William Randolph Hearst Foundation, which was named for his father, have provided $2‐million to try to meet demands for food distribution as a prelude to negotiations for the girl’s release.
A month-old strike by Baltimore teachers was ordered halted by their union after the teachers had narrowly defeated a new contract offer. The union leadership said it accepted, through its power as bargaining agent for the teachers, the contract that had been defeated 1,799 to 1,725 at an often-emotional rally earlier in the day. Union spokesman Nathanial H. Hoff said the teachers were ordered to be back in their classrooms this morning. The $9 million package provides a 3% lump sum pay raise for the current school year and a 6% boost next year.
Senate investigators summoned White House counsel J. Fred Buzhardt for questioning on whether the Nixon Administration tried to cover up a so-called military spy ring in the White House during super-secret Vietnam peace negotiations in 1970 and 1971. The Senate Armed Services Committee announced that Buzhardt would testify at a closed-door hearing Thursday. Chairman John C. Stennis (Mississippi) said the transcript would be made public after deletion of classified material. Buzhardt was Defense Department general counsel at the time of the Administration’s investigation of leaks of top-secret documents.
Minority employment in the federal government rose about 10,000 while total full-time employment fell by 50,176 jobs from May 31, 1972, to May 31, 1973, the Civil Service Commission said. It attributed this to vigorous implementation by agencies of their equal employment opportunity programs and increased enforcement activity by the commission.
David Hares’ “Knuckle” premieres in London.
Educational series “The Letter People” debuts on KETC-TV (PBS) in St. Louis, Missouri.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 853.18 (+1.26, +0.15%).
Born:
Karol Kučera, Slovak tennis player (Hopman Cup 1998; World #6 ranked, 1998), in Bratislava, Slovakia.
O.J. Santiago, Canadian NFL tight end (Atlanta Falcons, Dallas Cowboys, Cleveland Browns, Oakland Raiders), in Whitby, Ontario, Canada.
Robert Farmer, NFL running back (New York Jets), in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Tommy Phelps, MLB pitcher (Florida Marlins, Milwaukee Brewers), in Seoul, South Korea.
Jarrett Deuling, Canadian NHL left wing (New York Islanders), in Vernon, British Columbia, Canada.
Spencer Larsen, NFL fullback and linebacker (Denver Broncos, Tampa Bay Buccaneers), in Mesa, Arizona.
Kim Jung-eun, South Korean actress and producer, in Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Priya Kumar, Indian novelist known also for her self-help books; in Chandigarh, India.
Died:
Adolph Gottlieb, 70, American abstract expressionist painter.
Wongsonegoro (Raden Mas Soenardi), 78, Indonesian politician who served as Deputy Prime Minister of Indonesia 1953-1954, and previously as Minister of Justice and Governor of Central Java.
History Diaries 