President Ford and Secretary of State Kissinger issued separate warnings today that a failure by Congress to adopt the Administration’s trade bill could have disastrous consequences for the world economy. Speaking to a dinner meeting of the American Conference for Trade tonight at the Sheraton Park Hotel here, Mr. Ford said: “We must pass the Trade Reform Act now. It is essential to the future of the United States’ trade policy and that of the world as well. “The health of our domestic economy and the strength — the very structure of our international economic relations—are involved,” the President asserted to several thousand supporters of the trade bill, who had come to Washington to lobby for it. Earlier, Mr. Kissinger told the Senate Finance Committee that failure to approve the bill could produce “a blow to international stability of potentially historic proportions.”
Britain’s Defense Secretary announced plans in Parliament to cut defense spending by reducing manpower, ending new programs, closing bases and bringing troops home from Southeast Asia. Forces on Cyprus would be reduced as well as most of those in Singapore and some in Hong Kong. The agreement with South Africa on using the Simonstown naval base would be ended. The proposals would leave intact the 55,000-man force assigned to West Germany under the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The Secretary, Roy Mason, estimated that the cuts would save about $700 million next year. Britain’s present defense spending is about $8.6 billion a year.
Prime Minister Wilson of Britain flew to Paris tonight to confer with President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing in an attempt to smooth prospects for the meeting next week of leaders of European Common Market countries. A French official said that the initiative for the Wilson visit, which was arranged yesterday, came essentially from Chancellor Helmut Schmidt of West Germany. According to the official, Chancellor Schmidt suggested during a visit to Britain over the weekend that Mr. Wilson and Mr. Giscard d’Estaing have a chat before the formal meeting next week. The reason, the West German leader is said to have explained, was that he discerned a possible compromise on Britain’s demands for renegotiation of her Common Market membership.
Greek Cypriot papers attacked the United States for stepping up military supplies to Turkey. The rightwing Agon, official newspaper of President Glafkos Clerides’ ruling Unified Party, said, “While Turkey is threatening fresh military action against Cyprus, America increases its military aid to it. Our conclusion can only be one: that if Turkey implements its threat, the real culprits will not be in Ankara but in Washington.”
Despina Papadopoulos, wife of ousted Greek President George Papadopoulos, was released from prison where she was interned Sunday pending trial for fraud against the state. She was charged with receiving $26,450 in unearned salaries from the Central Intelligence Service where she had at one time been a typist. A prosecution spokesman said she was released pending trial because she gave proof of repentance by returning the money fraudulently received during her husband’s rule.
Twelve high civil servants in Hungary face trial on charges of corruption and fraud, including embezzlement, bribery, forgery and violation of foreign currency laws, the Budapest chief prosecutor’s office announced. Among those indicted at the end of a seven month investigation were Istvan Toth, a former head of the information center in Budapest, and Mihaly Viszkei, a onetime head of the city council’s planning and economic department.
West Berlin’s city government took steps to reduce the influx of Jewish immigrants from the Soviet Union and Israel by demanding that newcomers provide a valid entry visa or face expulsion after six months. However, 530 Soviet Jews who arrived as tourists during the past 18 months will be allowed to stay, some as German citizens and others in a status that allows them to remain but denies them the possibility of gaining citizenship.
Prime Minister Poul Hartling asked the Danish parliament to approve an economic crisis plan which would freeze all prices and profits in 1975 to combat rising inflation and unemployment. In the most comprehensive austerity plan since World War II, Hartling’s minority Liberals also proposed postponing labor contracts until January, 1976, and canceling automatic cost-of-living clauses.
Israel’s Foreign Minister said today that Egypt had given a secret commitment to let cargo bound for Israel pass through the Suez Canal once the waterway is reopened. The official, Yigal Allon, said in response to questions in Parliament that the commitment on cargo was an unpublished part of the separation‐of‐forces agreement signed in January. He said Egypt had agreed that ships not flying the Israeli flag would be permitted through the canal as soon as it was reopened. Israeli‐flag vessels, he went on, would be allowed passage after a further peace step had been reached. He did not say what the step was. The waterway was rendered impassable by debris from the 1967 war between Israel and neighboring Arab nations. Egypt has said the waterway will be reopened early in 1975.
The United States today announced an increase in its contribution to the United Nations agency that takes care of Palestinian refugees. In making the announcement, the American delegate, William E. Schaufele, said, “It is imperative that other governments make new, increased or additional contributions.” He did not name any country, but behind the scenes here there is considerable pressure on Arab Governments that have lately piled up enormous cash reserves from oil royalties to come to the aid of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees. Some Arab countries have so far been making what are regarded as token payments, and other Arab governments have not contributed at all. Arab countries have long contended that the Palestinian refugee problem is an Israeli and Western responsibility.
Four Arab countries have received assurances from the Soviet Union that it will provide them with nuclear devices if it is proved that Israel possesses atomic weapons, according to Arab diplomatic sources in Beirut. The countries were specified by the sources as Syria, Egypt, Iraq and Algeria. Each of these countries has a Soviet‐trained nuclear‐warfare section in its armed forces, they reported. The Arabs were commenting in reaction to a remark on Sunday by the Israeli President, Ephraim Katzir, that Israel “possessed the potential to produce atomic weapons” and would do it “If we need it.”
Addis Ababa went into a virtual state of siege today as the military Government arrested eight more persons in the continuing hunt for terrorists setting off bombs in public buildings. Heavily armed troops patrolled the Ethiopian capital, some with orders to shoot violators of the 9 PM curfew. Government buildings were under heavy guard and some were cloied to the public. Employes were searched as they reported for work. The governing Military Council blamed supporters of the deposed Emperor, Haile Selassie, for explosions yesterday in the City Hall and a downtown hotel. The official casualty count was 13 injured, but witnesses said at least 6 were killed and dozens injured.
Documents that have come into the hands of South Vietnamese military intelligence indicate that the North Vietnamese and their Việt Cộng allies are planning to step up their attacks significantly in the imminent dry season. American intelligence analysts are known to believe that the various documents obtained by the South Vietnamese are genuine and that this dry season will be considerably more violent than the last one. One of the documents speaks of attacks on “strong points,” and some analysts believe there will be heavy fighting not far from Saigon, in the northern Mekong Delta and possibly in the Central Highlands and Bình Định province. “In my opinion, it may be something bigger than a minioffensive,” said one well-placed South Vietnamese staff officer. “And it could develop into something much bigger.”
Foreign diplomats and journalists in Saigon have become somewhat jaded with what seem to be perpetual predictions of offensives, or major attacks, that never materialize. South Vietnamese propagandists often seem intent on generating sympathy, and money, with apocalyptic forecasts. “I believe we went through something like this last year,” commented one European diplomat who is aware of the new information. But last year’s unfulfilled predictions were based almost exclusively on the Communists’ strong military capacities — which have not changed — whereas this year’s are founded more on captured documents, radio intercepts, and reports of penetration agents, prisoners, and defectors.
[Ed: And of course, this will be the bitter, heartbreaking end of the Republic of Vietnam.]
The restless young lions of Japan’s governing Liberal‐Democratic party have mounted their first open challenge to the party elders and have emerged with enhanced influence. During the week of intensive Maneuvering that led to the designation of Takeo Miki as Japan’s new Premier yesterday, about 30 young members of the party insisted that their views be considered in the nominating process, contrary to all past practice. To back up their demands, they threatened to run one of their leaders, Yohei Kono, for the Premiere’s office if the party held a vote. This was startling in that Mr. Kono is 37 years old, in a party dominated by men in their sixties and seventies. Mr. Kono, the son of the late Ichiro Kono, a founder of the party, said in an interview that he had never thought he could win. But he estimated that he would have received 50 or 60 votes out of the 452 from Liberal‐Democratic members eligible to vote. That would have given the young members the swing vote in a close two‐way or three‐way race.
Lucio Cabañas, Mexico’s slain guerrilla leader, was buried without ceremony in the Atoyac municipal cemetery, Governor Israel Nogueda Otera of Guerrero state said today. Mr. Cabañas, a folk hero to some poor peasants and a criminal to the authorities, was killed in a shooting battle with soldiers yesterday, the army said. Nearly half the Mexican Army had been assigned for almost five months to track down the elusive terrorist, a onetime teacher who became a rebel in 1967 and successfully hid out between robberies and kidnappings for seven years in the remote mountains of Guerrero state.
Shirley Temple Black, U.S. ambassador to Ghana, has arrived in Accra to assume her appointment. She was accompanied by her husband, Charles, and daughter, Doris.
The white minority government of Rhodesia confirmed that it had temporarily released two top African nationalist leaders last month to allow them to attend constitutional talks with other African leaders in Lusaka, Zambia. The action, along with reports of meetings between Zambian, South African and Rhodesian government officials, was being taken as an indication that there may be a break soon in the long deadlock between the white majority governing Rhodesia and the country’s black majority.
Both the House and Senate voted overwhelmingly to override President Ford’s veto of a measure to increase by 22.7 percent the educational benefits for veterans since the end of the Korean war. On a bill for special tax benefits to victims of Hurricane Agnes and other disasters in 1972, Mr. Ford’s veto was sustained in the House.
Representative Wilbur Mills entered the Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, soon after his House Democratic colleagues had voted a further reduction in his vast power. They also began steps to remove him as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. He appeared briefly on the floor of the House, said to a colleague he was ill and exhausted and might have to “resign the whole thing.” Al Ullman of Oregon, the ranking Democrat on the committee, will be nominated to replace him as chairman. The House Democrats agreed without dissent to increase the committee membership from the present 25 to 37.
Representative Mills, who became chairman of the Ways and Means Committee in 1958, was an enigmatic backstage manager who knew when to switch positions to be in the vanguard with a compromise ready. Starting in 1972, when he ran for the presidency with little chance for success, his life seemed to come apart. “We can’t deal with the man anymore,” one member of the House said.
A Senate-House conference committee approved a strong bill to curb environmental abuses in strip or surface coal mining. Passage next week is probable. The surprise action may have had an element of backlash against industry lobbying.
The Senate opened debate on a $2.67 billion foreign aid authorization bill, with sponsors urging restraint on amendments that might upset a compromise with the Ford Administration. The bill replaces one calling for expenditure of $2.52 billion. President Ford had objected to it as being too meager and restrictive. The new bill was termed a good “compromise” by leaders on both sides of the Senate.
Senators James Buckley and Claiborne Pell announced that they would jointly move to amend controversial sections of a new law that allows parents and students to examine school records. The changes would guarantee confidentiality of existing letters of recommendation, let students waive the right to see selected documents and restrict the right to see the financial statements of their parents.
An investigation into the potential costs to consumers if Congress deregulates the price of natural gas was called for by Senator Henry M. Jackson (D-Washington) and Rep. John Moss (D-California) in Washington, D.C. All interstate natural gas contracts should be examined, they said in a letter to the General Accounting Office, to “make sure Congress does not give a blank check to the oil and gas industry.” President Ford has proposed deregulation of natural gas prices as an incentive to increase production.
Thrift became more than a virtue for Representative-elect Andrew Jacobs Jr. (D-Indiana). He had planned to fly from Indianapolis to Washington on Sunday, but the only seat he could get was in first class. Jacobs refused to spend the extra $20 in government money and got a tourist-class seat in a Saturday flight instead. The flight Jacobs passed up was Trans World Airlines 514, which crashed, killing all 92 persons aboard.
The 84 members of the Rockefeller family are worth more than $1 billion in securities held outright or in trusts from which they benefit, their senior financial adviser, J. Richardson Dilworth, told the House Judiciary Committee. He said that they are “simply investors” not interested in controlling anything. He modified this under questioning to say that his statement referred to “large public companies” but not to Rockefeller Center, Inc., or the International Basic Economy Corporation.
The Treasury will sell at auction 2 million ounces of its gold — worth $360 million at current world prices — a few days after Americans are legally permitted to own gold bullion beginning December 31. Secretary William Simon told a congressional committee he stood by the schedule, enacted by Congress this year, for ending the ban on ownership of bullion. The disclosure of the auction plan touched off a sharp drop in European bullion markets.
An Army inquiry has found no evidence of impropriety by former high-ranking Army and Defense Department officials in the award of a $40 million advertising contract, a summary of the investigation by the Army inspector general said. “There is no evidence of any personal gain derived by anyone from the award of this contract” to the N. W. Ayer & Son, Inc., the summary said. It said the 1972 award to handle Army recruiting advertising “was based strictly on merit.” The Army acknowledged, however, that it was sending the report to the Justice Department for review. Named among others in the inquiry were former Army Secretary Robert Froehlke, former Asst. Defense Secretary Roger T. Kelley and William H. Kraus, a member of the advertising evaluation board.
American business houses are under tight security following 10 bomb explosions directed at U.S. interests on the commonwealth island of Puerto Rico. Targets Sunday and Monday included two Burger King restaurants, an International Telephone & Telegraph office, a Union Carbide plant, a Grand Union supermarket and a U.S. Army Reserve center. Five persons were injured and damage was estimated at more than $150,000. No arrests were made. While no official blame has been laid, Governor Rafael Hernandez Colon implied in a statement that the bombings were the work of leftist advocates of independence of the island. Police have refused to link the blasts to a 35-day strike of water and sewage workers.
Aerosol antiperspirant sprays containing zirconium may cause lung disease and are probably not much better at fighting odor than other sprays, according to a government report. The Food and Drug Administration study does not recommend that such sprays should be banned, but it says as many as 100 million persons may be exposed to the possible hazard and there is an “extremely serious” potential for health problems. The report said the problem was that zirconium enters the air in minute particles which remain suspended for hours. Procter & Gamble Co. officials said, however, that they had “extensive evidence to prove” that zirconium does not cause lung disease.
U.S. District Judge William R. Collinson issued a temporary injunction barring the U.S. Jaycees from moving a coming convention out of Kansas City. He held that an attempt by the organization to move the Ten Outstanding Young Men Awards Congress was designed to penalize the Kansas City chapter for admitting women as members. Collinson said in the ruling that the national organization had entered into a conspiracy with its chapter in Palm Springs to move the gathering to the California city. The convention is scheduled for January 16-18. The national organization has lifted the charter of several chapters in disputes over allowing women to join.
A Kentucky salesman has been convicted of placing dynamite sticks with a matchbook and cigarette fuse in the United Nations building last August 7. The explosives were removed from the Meditation Room without incident. A five-day federal court trial in New York City ended with the conviction of Michael H. Brown, 32, of Berea. Sentencing was set for January 15. He faces a maximum of 10 years in prison on each of three counts.
Vermont wants more environmental studies conducted before a decision is made on whether to build a flood control dam on the Richelieu River near St. Jean, Quebec, Canada. Officials told a public hearing of the International Joint Commission in Burlington that they fear the proposed dam might destroy Lake Champlain wetlands in Vermont. The wetlands provide nesting areas for waterfowl and habitat for beaver and otters.
The Pioneer 11 interplanetary probe flew past the planet Jupiter, coming within 42,828 kilometres (26,612 mi) of the planet’s atmosphere, and took the closest photographs up to that time of the Great Red Spot.
The New York Mets trade ace reliever and Shea Stadium favorite Tug McGraw to the Philadelphia Phillies in a 6-player swap. Don Hahn and Dave Schneck go to the Phils while New York receives outfielder Del Unser, catcher John Stearns, and pitcher Mac Scarce.
The Houston Astros trade first baseman Lee May and Jay Schlueter to the Baltimore Orioles for Enos Cabell and Rob Andrews.
The frustrated Chicago White Sox unload controversial Dick Allen to the Atlanta Braves for a reported $5,000. Allen never reports and again retires instead. The Braves will trade the slugger to the Phillies for two warm bodies. Richie Ashburn will help coax Allen out of retirement and he’ll play 2 disappointing seasons back in Philadelphia before going to Oakland as a free agent.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 596.61 (-6.41, -1.06%).
Born:
Ralph Staten, NFL defensive back (Baltimore Ravens), in Mobile, Alabama.
Shalonda Enis, WNBA forward and center (Washingotn Mystics, Charlotte Sting), in Celeste, Texas.
Mónika Sánchez, Mexican soap opera actress (“Laberintos de pasión”), in Mexico City.
Natalie J. Robb, Scottish soap opera actress (“Emmerdale”), in Bellshill, North Lanarkshire.
Died:
Władysław Bukowiński, 69, Polish Roman Catholic priest and blessed.
Fernando Gerassi, 75, Turkish-born American artist.
Helen Appleton Read, 87, American critic and art historian.
Cy Twombly, 77, American Major League Baseball pitcher and athletic director of Washington and Lee University, father of American artist Cy Twombly.
Vincent Stanislaus Waters, 70, American Roman Catholic prelate, bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Raleigh, died of a heart attack.
History Diaries 