New U.S. President Ford has sent a personal message to Leonid I. Brezhnev, the Soviet Communist party leader, signaling that he intends to maintain the top-level dialogue begun by Richand M Nixon in 1971, Administration officials said today. Mr. Brezhnev, because he does not hold a top government post, would not routinely receive the kind of messages sent out in the last day to heads of state, reaffirming Mr. Ford’s determination to continue the main lines of American foreign policy. Such a message was sent to the Soviet President, Nikolai V. Podgorny. But because of the special relationship built up between Mr. Nixon and Mr. Brezhnev in the last three years, Secretary, of State Kissinger advised that a note be sent to Mr. Brezhnev as well. It was delivered by Ambassador Walter J. Stcessel Jr. in Moscow.
Mr. Ford, in a letter to Secretary General Waldheim of the United Nations, said that he was impressed by the United Nations role in helping put into effect the cease‐fire and disengagement of forces in the Middle East and by its “important contribution” to stability in Cyprus. “The United States supports the United Nations efforts in these and other fields,” he said. “I look forward to seeing you and having a chance to discuss these matters personally.” To the Israelis, Mr. Ford promised to meet all United States commitments toward Israel, especially for long‐range economic and military support. In a letter to Premier Yitzhak Rabin, the President also said that the United States would persevere in its mediation efforts in the Middle East.
The guns of Cyprus fell silent for the first time in three weeks today.
The Turkish Foreign Minister, Turan Güneş, took issue in an interview today with a message from Secretary of State Kissin ger urging restraint in the Greek‐Turkish dispute over the future of Cyprus. “If we simply let the crisis drag on, it will get lost in fruitless negotiations and it will blow up again,” Mr. Güneş said. “So we think everyone should try to find a final solution to it in, as short a time as possible, and not just try to buy time.” Mr. Kissinger’s message contained requests for restraint and moderation, Mr. Güneş said, and urged the Turkish Foreign Minister to do all he could to achieve a settlement of the Cyprus conflict. Mr. Güneş apparently interpreted Mr. Kissinger’s request for “moderation” to mean that the Turks should not press their proposal to turn the republic of Cyprus into a federation.
President Phaidon Gizikis of Greece summoned political and military leaders to a meeting tomorrow to examine the Greek military situation regarding Cyprus.
While Generalissimo Francisco Franco was still recovering from an illness, Prince Juan Carlos de Borbon, Spain’s acting chief of state and future king, presided over his first cabinet meeting on Friday. The meeting was overshadowed by the change of administrations in Washington, which captured the big headlines in Spanish newspapers, but Spanish political observers believed it foreshadowed momentous change in Spain, too.
More than 12,000 Protestants marched through the bomb-shattered Ulster city of Londonderry today in an annual parade that five years ago erupted into the first bloody clash in Northern Ireland’s sectarian war. However, army headquarters reported no trouble in this year’s march by the Apprentice Boys, an influential Protestant organization that despite its name is not restricted by age. Policemen and British troops threw a tight security cordon around the city at dawn as thousands of Protestants poured into the city, which has a large Roman Catholic population. Security authorities refused to allow the Apprentice Boys, parading behind pipe, flute and drum bands, to take the traditional route around the old walled city to celebrate the victory of their ancestors against Catholic forces during a 105‐day siege in 1689. Instead, the marchers were kept inside the Protestant sector of the city, across the Foyle River from the Roman Catholic strongholds of the Bogside and Creggan, scene of the 1969 violence.
The shift in West Germany’s leadership less than three months ago has produced a notable change in the country’s mood. “The German public loves strong authority figure,” a high Foreign Ministry official said the other day in reference to Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, leader with a reputation for pragmatism who took over last May from Willy Brandt. Last spring, public opinion polls were giving the BrandtSchmidt party, the Social Democrats, the support of only 34 percent of the voters. Now, the Allensbach Institute polled 2,000 voters and found 41 percent who would vote for the Social Democrats if there were an election. The trend seems to be back toward the 45.9 percent victory that put the party in a position to form a strong coalition with the Free Democrats in November, 1972.
Portugal published a two-year blueprint for the granting of independence to her African territory of Angola. However, portions of the plan were rejected by the leading liberation movement in Angola, Portugal’s largest African territory. On Friday, a member of the Armed Forces Movement, Colonel Carlos Galvao de Melo, said that a statement on independence for Portuguese Guinea might be made on Monday or Tuesday. But today official sources said negotiations had stalled over the future of the Cape Verde Islands and independence was not imminent.
Two persons were killed and five injured in the upper Egypt village of Rozeik during a rush to buy a piece of soap, a rare commodity in Egypt these days, the Cairo newspaper Al-Ahram reported. The paper said the incident occurred when villagers heard that the grocer had just received his soap allocation. Lines formed, but a fight began over the last piece of soap and the grocer and his son were killed, Al-Ahram said.
The Ethiopian armed forces, in an outspoken attack on the imperial household, said Haile Selassie’s palace must not be used as a refuge for rogues. An armed forces commentator said in a radio broadcast that the palace was not a religious sanctuary for declared enemies of the state. He did not mention Haile Selassie by name. At least 140 former officials, including a number of the emperor’s friends and advisers, are being held by the military pending an inquiry into charges of maladministration and corruption.
India is negotiating to buy an additional 2 million tons of wheat from the Soviet Union to help meet an expected 6 million-ton grain shortage this year, a Food Ministry source reported in New Delhi. Last October, the Soviet Union agreed to loan India 2 million tons of wheat on which 1.8 million tons have been delivered. Since April, India has purchased 1.8 million tons of wheat from other nations, mostly the United States.
Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s Government is considering laws to raise the legal age for marriage in India. The objective is to reduce the number of child mothers, whose babies are helping to increase the population by an estimated 13 million a year. The Minister of State for Law, Nitiraj Singh Choudhury, said in Parliament that the Government wanted to raise the minimum marriage age for men to 22 years and for women to 18 years. Present laws prohibit marriage before 16, but, they are widely violated and there is little effort to enforce them.
Early marriage is an old custom in India. Children used to be married before they were old enough to understand the meaning of a wedding, often because parents wanted to join two farms. The average age at marriage has risen steadily in recent years, however. Indian census data shows that the average age of marriage for girls in the first decade of this century was just under 13. It had moved up to 15 by 1940, and now is estimated at around 16 years of age.
Eenadu, the highest-circulation Telugu-language newspaper in the world, was launched in India by publisher Ramoji Rao.
Communist gunners fired 33 Soviet-built 122-mm. rockets into the area of the large American-built Biên Hòa airfield 14 miles north of Saigon, the South Vietnamese command reported. The rockets were said to have killed three civilians and wounded 11 persons. Four F-5A jet fighters were damaged, the command said. The shelling was in apparent retaliation for the alleged government aerial bombing last week of Lộc Ninh, the de facto Việt Cộng capital 75 miles north of Saigon.
Heavy fighting continued today along South Vietnam’s northern and central coasts and in the Central Highlands. The Saigon command reported that 104 North Vietnamese troops had been killed in four major battles, while South Vietnamese Government casualties were put at 7 dead and 58 wounded. In Bình Định Province, on the central coast, the command said that North Vietnamese and Việt Cộng forces shelled and attacked Saigon Government militiamen northeast of Phù Cát, a district town about 275 miles northeast of Saigon.
The Saigon Government said it poured reinforcements into the battle and that the attacking force was driven back with 40 men killed. One government militiaman was reported killed and 31 wounded. The command said that in the Central Highlands, 75 miles west of Phù Cát, North Vietnamese artillery fired 2,000 shells into the Plei Me ranger camp and that infantrymen assaulted it twice during a four‐and‐a‐half‐hour period. The communiqué said there were no government casualties and that 17 North Vietnamese were killed. In the northern highlands, 27 North Vietnamese troops were killed in a battle five miles northeast of Kon Tum city, and 5 government soldiers were killed and 17 wounded, the command said. Twenty North Vietnamese and Việt Cộng were reported killed in a fight along the northern coast 75 miles below Đà Nẵng. One government soldier was killed and 10 wounded, the command said.
Communist Khmer Rouge gunners shelled a 14‐vessel convoy steaming up the Mekong River 43 miles south of Phnom Penh today and sank the Danish freighter Hayan. The port police here said that two crewmen of the Hayan and a Cambodian rescue worker were injured when the vessel went down. Two seamen aboard another cargo ship, Felicity, were also reported wounded. The convoy consisted of three petroleum tankers, seven cargo ships and four barges loaded with ammunition. In the ground war, government troops pressed their drive to recapture the provincial capital of Sala Lekpram, 25 miles north of Phnom Penh on Route 5, reports from the field said. The town was lost in March, soon after the fall of Phsar Oudong, the old royal capital 18 miles north of Phnom Penh. Phsar Oudong was recaptured a month ago.
Twelve people died and 14 were injured in a collision between a bus and a train in Calumpit, Bulacan, Philippines.
Cuban Defense Minister Raul Castro said his country was ready to negotiate with the United States-but. only after the economic blockade of the island was lifted. Cuba has had no official trade or diplomatic contacts with the United States since relations were broken off by Washington in January, 1961. Castro made the statement in Lima, Peru, where he is on an official visit.
The anti-Communist government of Brazil has decided to establish diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China, the Jornal do Brasil news agency reported. The Foreign Ministry in Brasilia would neither confirm nor deny the report. China’s vice minister of foreign trade, Chen Chien, is in Brazil heading a trade mission and the news agency said he would take a proposal for diplomatic ties back to Peking.
U.S. negotiators announced a draft compact with Micronesia giving it free association, or quasi-sovereign status. The compact, which would give the Pacific Trust Territory full responsibility over its internal affairs with the United States responsible for international and defense matters, was submitted last week to the Micronesian Congress, officials said in Washington. The compact could be terminated. unilaterally by either party at the end of 15 years and would continue indefinitely in the absence of such action.
U.S. President Gerald Ford requested that all members of President Nixon’s Cabinet and all heads of U.S. Government agencies remain in office for “continuity and stability.”
“I believe that is what the country wants,” President Ford said when he asked the members of Mr. Nixon’s cabinet to stay on in his administration in the name of “continuity and stability.” He told the cabinet members that he did not want any pro forma resignations, but would meet with each cabinet officer individually, He also asked the members to be “affirmative” in their relations with the press.
The House and Senate, which had been preparing for impeachment, will now prepare to confirm a nomination for a new Vice President that is expected to be submitted by President Ford in the next 10 days. The leadership of both houses conferred with the President Friday in the general mood of accommodation that prevails in the White House and Congress. The President plans to address a joint session of Congress at 9 P.M. Monday to outline his legislative priorities. With impeachment considered moot, the House is planning to recess from Aug. 22 to Sept. 11, and the Senate from Aug. 23 to Sept. 14.
President Ford asked for vice-presidential suggestions from among Republicans in Congress, the nation’s governors and his party’s national committee. He has asked that preferences be listed in one-two-three order, sealed in envelopes for his eyes only, and presented to the White House by Wednesday. His press secretary, Jerry terHorst, said that Mr. Ford would also consult Democratic leaders in Congress and his personal staff and advisers.
Administration officials said that President Ford had sent a personal message to Leonid Brezhnev, the Soviet Communist party leader, indicating that he intends to maintain the top-level dialogue begun by Mr. Nixon in 1971. Meanwhile, in addition to the messages sent to all heads of state or government and foreign ministers, the administration held meetings with envoys in Washington to stress the “continuity” of American foreign policy.
President Ford has told top assistants that he wants to try a new approach to an old problem that both he and former President Nixon believe is of the most urgent facing the nation — the reduction of government expenditures as a means of fighting inflation. What would be new would not be the amount to be cut from the budget but instead the method of deciding where the reductions will be made, Mr. Ford would seek the cooperation of Congress in making the cuts. At his meeting with government economic advisers, it was decided that the Ford .administration would ask Congress to sustain Mr. Nixon’s last veto, which was on a budget matter.
When Mr. Nixon returned to San Clemente and the immaculately restored old villa that once was called the Western White House, it was as if he had pulled the ladder up behind him after a few greetings and handshakes. The gates were closed and guarded and no calls were taken. Now that Mr. Nixon is private citizen, San Clemente, a city of 20,000, faces a loss of prestige as well as a cutback in federal funds that had been provided to protect Mr. Nixon when he was President.
Voters prefer Democrats to Republicans for the House of Representatives this November by almost 2 to 1, pollster Louis Harris said. He said the 55%-29% margin was the widest lead ever recorded in his poll for an off-year election. Republicans could face the heaviest losses in Congress since the 1930s, Harris said, but he added that if the Watergate issue died out, public attitudes could change considerably by November. Harris surveyed 1,214 voters between July 16 and 22.
Four prisoners, including a convicted hijacker who once bailed out of a jetliner with $500,000, escaped from a maximum-security prison at Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, by crashing a garbage truck through a gate. The convicted hijacker is Richard F. McCoy Jr, a former Mormon Sunday school teacher who commandeered a United Air Lines jet in April, 1972, after the plane had stopped in Denver on a Newark-to-Los Angeles flight. He was sentenced to 45 years for air piracy. The other three men are convicted bank robbers. Police said the four, still at large, were armed with an automatic pistol and possibly knives.
The rain that broke the drought in many parts of the corn belt may cause more problems than it solves, weather officials warned. Heavy rains falling on parched land could bring flooding, as was the case in Oklahoma Friday, officials said. “If it’s one thing this area doesn’t need it’s another batch of gully washers,” said Allen Pearson, director of the National Severe Storms Forecast Center in Kansas City, Mo. Heavy crop losses were expected in spite of the rainfall.
Four members of the rock group Chase and two pilots were killed in the crash of a chartered twin-engine plane near Jackson, Minn. The musicians were the leader, Bill Chase, a jazz trumpeter who had played with Woody Herman; drummer Walt Clark, guitarist John Emma and organist Wallace Wouhn. The group was to have performed at a county fair. Chase became widely known after recording “Get It On.”
Several thousand gate-crashers charged through security policemen and snarling patrol dogs to join 150,000 other fans at a rock concert in Charlotte, North Carolina Only minor injuries were reported. The concert, called the August Jam, featured the Allman Brothers band. Drug use was reported heavy, with about 50 persons arrested for drug violations and several persons hospitalized for apparent drug overdoses.
A $150,000 Renoir painting, “Woman in Flowered Hat,” disappeared on its way from London to Minneapolis. The painting was crated and left London Thursday morning, arrived in Detroit and was put on a flight to Minneapolis that arrived Thursday evening. When the crate was opened before customs officials at the home of owner Samuel Maslon, the painting was gone. Officials did not know whether the disappearance was a theft or a mistake. Maslon had sent the art work to London in an attempt to sell it.
The third of four men charged with murder in connection with the Huntsville, Texas, prison shootings has been arrested. Jimmy Dan Brown was found at his home, authorities said. Two brothers, Don Michael and William Henry Kolsten, had been arrested earlier. George N. Cisneros is still at large. All four are alleged to have supplied weapons to Fred Gomez Carrasco, who held hostages in the state prison for 11 days before being killed, along with an accomplice and two hostages, in an escape attempt.
Over 300,000 people attended the August Jam outdoor rock concert at Charlotte Motor Speedway in North Carolina. The Allman Brothers Band and Emerson, Lake & Palmer were among the performers at the event.
In West Branch, Iowa, the hometown of former U.S. President Herbert Hoover, nearly 7,000 people gathered to celebrate the 100th anniversary of his birth. President Nixon had been scheduled to attend prior to the events of the week leading to his resignation.
Physician L. Michael Kuhn, a hemophilia specialist from Plainfield, New Jersey, his wife and their six children were killed in the crash of their Piper Aztec airplane 1,000 feet (300 m) short of the runway at the Fergus Falls Municipal Airport in Minnesota.
Phillies minor leaguer Jorge Lebron, 14, makes his professional debut, playing shortstop for three innings for Auburn, New York. Lebron is flawless in the field and goes 0–for–1 at bat. The game is moved up 90 minutes to comply with a state law about employing children to work at night. He will play three games in ’74, going hitless, before returning to Puerto Rico to finish junior high school. In three years Lebron will hit .244 in 78 games, playing mostly in Auburn. He never makes it above A level ball.
Gene Tenace drove in his second run of the game with a seventh‐inning double today, breaking a tie and leading the Oakland A’s to 5–3 victory over the Boston Red Sox. With the score tied 2–2 and two out in the seventh, Dal Maxvill and Bill North singled and Tenate followed with a double down the leftfield line, scoring Maxvill from second. North also scored on the play after Tommy Harper the left fielder, mishandled the ball for an error.
Dick Allen drove in four runs with a single and his 31st homer today and Wilbur Wood scattered seven hits for his 18th victory in leading the Chicago White Sox to a 5–1 victory over the Cleveland Indians. Allen homered over the right‐field fence following singles by Pat Kelly and Jorge Orta in the first inning and chased Dick Bosman, the Cleveland starter and loser, with a run‐scoring single in the fourth. Allen’s blast gave the White Sox 111 homers for the season, equaling their total production for last season and left Chicago sluggers needing only 28 more homers to set a club season record. Wood, making his 32nd start of the season, walked one and struck out three, but lost a shutout in the first inning when Tom McCraw hit his fourth home run of the season into the right‐field stands.
Mike Hargrove’s bases-loaded triple capped five‐run third that carried the Texas Rangers to a 5–4 victory over the Detroit Tigert tonight before a sellout crowd of 37,737. Detroit grabbed a 2–0 lead in the top of the third on two‐run homer by Gene Lamont and, scored twice in the seventh on two Texas errors and a double by Aurelio Rodriguez.
Jim Wynn, Steve Garvey and Ron Cey drove in two runs apiece to help the Los Angeles Dodgers to a 6–2 triumph over the St. Louis Cardinals tonight. The Dodgers, maintaining their 5½‐game lead over Cincinnati in the National League West, routed Bob Gibson (6–10) in a four‐hit, three‐run fifth to back Doug Rau (12–7) who posted his fifth straight victory. The Dodgers got to Gibson for two runs in the first when Bill Buckner singled and Wynn homered over the leftfield wall, his 27th homer of the season.
Ralph Garr raised his league‐leading average to 370 with four hits, including a home run and a double, tonight to lead the Atlanta Braves to an 11–4 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies. Phil Niekro picked up his 13th victory, although he needed relief help from Max Leon after being hit by a pitch in the seventh. Niekro, who was hit on the left forearm, was taken to a hospital for precautionary X‐rays.
Dave Winfield’s two‐out triple in the seventh scored Gene Locklear and Willie McCovey tonight during a three‐run burst that led the San Diego Padres to an 8–4 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates. The rally came against John Morlan, who had retired 11 straight Padre hitters before a walk to Enzo Hernandez started things. Locklear followed with a double, scoring Hernandez; McCovey was intentionally walked and Winfield tripled. Each team scored three runs in the first, the Padres on McCovey’s 450‐foot home run to right‐center with two aboard. It was his 16th of the season.
Born:
Walt Harris, NFL cornerback (Pro Bowl, 2006; Chicago Bears, Indianapolis Colts, Washington Redskins, San Francisco 49ers), in La Grange, California.
Dave Fiore, NFL tackle (San Francisco 49ers, Washington Redskins), in Hackensack, New Jersey.
Died:
José Miró Cardona, 71, who served briefly as Prime Minister of Cuba in 1959 after the victory of Fidel Castro in the Cuban Revolution, then stepped aside for Castro.
Theodore McKeldin, 73, U.S. politician, Governor of Maryland 1951 to 1959, Mayor of Baltimore 1943–1947 and 1963-1967.
Chuck Hall, 56, the first Mayor of Miami-Dade County, Florida, metropolitan area (1964 to 1970), and Mayor of Miami Beach since 1971, died of a heart attack.
Albert Parker, 87, American actor and film director (“Sherlock Holmes”, “The Black Pirate”, “The Love of Sunya”), later a talent agent in the UK.
Ivor Dean, 56, British stage, film and television actor (“The Saint”).
[Ed: It’s not bad enough Fukushima had the tidal wave and the reactor — they had to endure Yoko, too? Damn.]
History Diaries 