Four former U.S. officials in the United Nations agreed that the organization should be improved but not abandoned. One important improvement they recommended to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was a move toward universal membership. Testifying at the start of a series of committee hearings on the U.S. role in the U.N. were Charles S. Yost, ambassador in 1969-71; Henry Cabot Lodge, another ambassador: Harold Stassen, a member of the U.S. delegation in drafting the U.N. charter in 1945, and Arthur S. Goldberg, ambassador in 1965-68.
Britain’s Labor government headed off attacks on its defense policy from two sides and won a vote of confidence for major cuts in arms spending. An attempt by leftist Laborites to secure further cuts was defeated 489 to 57. Then the government fought off by a 291-251 vote an opposition Conservative Party effort to bar any cuts.
A Greek brigadier general was ordered held for trial in connection with the massacre at Athens Polytechnic Institute in 1973 when at least 34 people were killed and more than 1,000 injured. The officer, Thrassivoulos Yovannis, was accused of being the moral instigator of attempted homicide. The charge alleges he ordered troops into the building. About 30 other army and police officers are expected to stand trial later this year in connection with the clashes that erupted when troops stormed the college building to evict about 5,000 students demanding the resignation of the now-defunct military regime.
A House trade subcommittee opened hearings on President Ford’s request to give Romania nondiscriminatory tariff treatment. Its chairman, Rep. William Green (D-Pennsylvania) said he wanted evidence that Romania is allowing free emigration of Jews and others. U.S.-Romanian trade last year totaled $407.6 million, with U.S. exports worth twice as much as imports from Romania.
Officials of the Palestine Liberation Organization said in Damascus that planned resumption of the Geneva Mideast peace conference depended on Israeli acceptance of a broad agenda. The officials said that the Israelis must not only accept some form of Palestinian representation in Geneva but also must agree to widen the subjects for discussion to cover the whole Palestinian question.
Israeli Defense Minister Shimon Peres said that Libya had amassed a large stockpile of Soviet weapons which, combined with her “reactionary and murderous spirit,” threatens the stability of the Mideast. He said the Libyans were “using Soviet weapons and the ideology of Mohammed in order to confuse and endanger all that is stable in the Middle East and all that is not Arab, Muslim or fanatic.”
A comprehensive new trade agreement that will gradually eliminate all protective tariffs between Israel and the European Common Market will go into effect July 1, Israeli officials said today.
The Ford Administration has chosen Malcolm Toon, a veteran Foreign Service officer, as the new United States Ambassador to Israel. He replaces Kenneth B. Keating, who died on Monday.
Two West German freighters trapped in the Suez Canal for eight years sailed for the Mediterranean at dawn today. They were the first vessels of this size to sail the canal since it was closed by the Arab-Israeli war of 1967.
The Libyan army has quietly taken possession of about 6,000 square miles of mineral-rich desert in northern Chad, a reporter for the Paris paper Le Figaro said. The apparent pretext for the annexation was a World War II agreement between the Vichy regime in France and Benito Mussolini of Italy, according to which the northern part of then-French-ruled Chad was to be exchanged for a part of then-Italian-ruled Libya. The pact was never put into effect and was repudiated by Paris after the end of the war.
A rally in Hồ Chí Minh City (Saigon) attended by 30,000 celebrates the capture of the city, and also commemorates the 21st anniversary of Vietnamese victory over the French at Điện Biên Phủ. Standing on a balcony of the presidential palace under a huge portrait of Hồ Chí Minh, General Trần Văn Trà [born Nguyễn Chấn], the head of the 11‐member committee, said the rally marked the emergence into the open of the new authorities who have been returning life in Saigon to peacetime routine in the last week.
The Defense Department announced that the bodies of two of the last Marines killed in the Vietnam war were left behind in the confusion of the final evacuation from the Saigon area. Earlier it was reported they had been flown to a carrier, but it is now believed they were probably in a hospital near Tan Son Nhut airport.
The military committee ruling Saigon made its first public appearance. General Tran Van Tra, its head, standing on the balcony of the presidential palace, addressed a rally of 30,000 persons and said it marked the emergence of the new authorities who have been returning the city’s life to peacetime routine. The reopening of communications with the outside world coincided with the end of the first week since the city’s surrender and the 21st anniversary of the Communist victory over the French at Dien Bien Phu.
The second convoy of foreigners who had been stranded in the French Embassy in Phnom Penh since the Communist takeover last month started crossing the Thai border. Officials estimated that there were some 550 people in the convoy, which had been joined by many during the four-day truck trip.
The two opposing groups in the coalition Laotian Government signed an agreement today to stop the clashes that have disrupted the Laotian cease‐fire since mid‐April, government sources said. The agreement was reached after a Cabinet meeting called to discuss a fresh outbreak of fighting on Route 13, the road to the royal capital, Luang Prabang, north of Vientiane, which is the administrative capital. Military sources reported that pro‐Communist Pathet Lao troops backed by four tanks pushed rightist forces southward 17 miles from the key road junction at Sala Phou Khoun on Monday night. Reports today told of further fighting around the town of Ban Pha Tang, 80 miles north of Vientiane, the site of a cease‐fire line in 1961. Deputy Premier Phoumi Vongvichit for the Pathet Lao. and Leuam Insisiengmay, for the Vientiane side, agreed to order their troops to stop fighting, the sources said.
Queen Elizabeth II arrived in Tokyo for the first visit to Japan by a British monarch and was welcomed by Emperor Hirohito amid nationally televised pageantry. The emperor, 74, in formal Western dress, and Empress Nagako greeted the queen and Prince Philip in the entrance hall of the luxurious guest house where they will stay during their six-day state visit. Their motorcade from the airport passed school fife and drum bands and thousands of Japanese waving British and Japanese flags. The queen, returning Hirohito’s state visit to London in 1971, later spoke at a banquet in her honor in the moat-encircled Imperial Palace and stressed the bonds of friendship between the two nations. The queen, wearing a white silk evening dress and a diamond and ruby tiara, and the emperor, in white tie and tails, then toasted their friendship.
The leading rival and most important political prisoner of President Ferdinand E. Marcos went through the 34th day of his hunger strike today without any sign that the President was prepared to make a gesture that would enable him to call it off. The agonizing test of wills between Benigno S. Aquino Jr. and Mr. Marcos presents the President with what is probably the riskiest political choice he has had to make since he proclaimed martial law. The closely supervised press here has not printed declarations by the 42‐year‐old former senator that explained his reasons for resorting to the hunger strike, so most Filipinos still seem to regard it as a dangerous and puzzling maneuver by a politician. But if he died he would become a martyr for democracy, and public opinion could then swing violently against the President.
President Ford told the Prime Ministers of New Zealand and Australia in separate interviews that the defeats in Cambodia and Vietnam had not weakened United States resolve to stand by allies and friends in Asia and elsewhere. Later he discussed ways of strengthening the Atlantic alliance with Prime Minister Harold Wilson of Britain. Similar meetings with other allied leaders will follow.
Premier Fidel Castro strongly arged the United States tonight to begin a partial lifting of its trade embargo against Cuba by resuming shipments of food and medicine. Premier Castro, in a wideranging news conference held between his private conferences with Senator George McGovern, also categorically denied any Cuban role in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy by Lee Harvey Oswald. Be asserted that any such association by Cuba in the slaying of a United States President would be “absurd, irresponsible crazy and a very dangerous measure.”
President Ford issues a proclamation designating this as the last day of the “Vietnam era’ for military personnel to qualify for wartime benefits during the period which began 5 August 1964. U.S. President Ford proclaimed the end of the Vietnam Era for purposes of certain veterans’ benefits. Under Title 38 of the United States Code, §101 (29)(A), the era is now defined as “The period beginning on February 28, 1961, and ending on May 7, 1975, in the case of a veteran who served in the Republic of Vietnam during that period.”
Officials of public and private agencies assisting in the resettlement of Vietnamese refugees expressed confidence that despite obstacles, including a shortage of sponsors and a hostile public attitude, the 150,000 newcomers would be absorbed into American society. Several took encouragement from President Ford’s strong appeal to the nation to welcome them.
The House Judiciary subcommittee unanimously approved a bill authorizing “such sums as may be necessary” to pay for the transport and resettlement of 130,000 Indochina refugees in this country. The action came amid signs of a rapid shift from antagonism or indifference to a positive response to President Ford’s appeal to welcome Vietnamese and Cambodian refugees. It paves the way for swift action by the full committee and Congress on Mr. Ford’s $507 million request for aid.
Senator Frank Church said today that he had information in his possession indicating that the published denials of any complicity of the Central Intelligence Agency in assassination plots were “incomplete.” Mr. Church, Idaho Democrat who is chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, cited statements in the press by a former Director of Central Intelligence, Richard Helms, and the current director, William E. Colby, and others. He pledged that his committee would look into the matters “very thoroughly” and would later decide whether to make its findings public. Under questioning by reporters, after meeting with Vice President Rockefeller, Mr. Church also said that the evidence his committee was seeking from such diverse agencies as the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the C.I.A., was being “funneled” through the White House and that this was delaying the Senate committee inquiry.
“National family secrets” need to be maintained, said Central Intelligence Agency Director William E. Colby in a speech in San Francisco. He added that the CIA’s mission should be clarified by clear laws and guidelines. Colby said this nation needs “to arrive at a consensus that we Americans do have some national family secrets which must be kept.” And he asked that “… laws and guidelines be clarified so that we in the intelligence profession are given a clear expression of the mission the American people and government want us to undertake.”
Governor Jerry Brown of California announced that Cesar Chavez, the farm workers’ leader, and most farm business executives had agreed to support a compromise farm relations bill that is expected to pass the state legislature. Key provisions include an agriculture labor relations board to supervise elections by secret ballot during the harvest peak, and a restriction of secondary boycotting.
Treasury Secretary William Simon has begun an urgent federal review of options for emergency financial aid to New York City following his meeting with Mayor Beame, Governor Carey and leading bankers. He said that he was concerned because of the “ripple effects” of the New York problem in financial markets, but that no decisions had been reached. The Treasury has no emergency aid funds available without special legislation, a request for which would pose major problems.
Federal Energy Administrator Frank Zarb announced that nine utilities in the Middle West had been notified that the government intended to order them to substitute coal for oil or natural gas as boiler fuel. It was the delayed start of a program to conserve oil. Similar notices to several East Coast utilities, none of them in New York City, were expected soon.
The Department of Health, Education and Welfare announced that rising unemployment pushed the welfare rolls up 1.3% in January, the largest monthly increase in more than three years. It said the 11,147,071 persons receiving Aid to Families with Dependent Children during the first month of the year was just 8,888 short of the all-time high in March, 1973. Rolls had been dropping steadily from that date until August, 1974, when they began going up again. The nation’s unemployment rate was 8.5% in January. In April, it was 8.9%. April welfare figures will not be available for months.
A restraining order preventing a strike that would have grounded Western Airlines flights in 11 western states, Hawaii, Alaska, Canada and Mexico was issued in Los Angeles by Federal Dist. Judge A. Andrew Hauk, airline officials said. Western’s 1,450 stewardesses and stewards had threatened to walk off their jobs today in a wage dispute. Hauk’s order restrained the flight attendants from striking before May 16, and set a hearing before another federal judge for next Monday, a Western Airlines spokesman said.
Dozier T. Allen Jr. bitterly acknowledged his defeat by another black man, Mayor Richard G. Hatcher, in the Democratic primary election in Gary, Indiana. He called it victory “tinged with dishonesty.” Primary victory is tantamount to reelection in November 4. Hatcher, 41, a national black political leader, overcame an early Allen lead in predominantly white suburban precincts with an overwhelming margin in inner-city black districts, winning nomination for a third term with 56.4% of the vote.
Two men killed a priest, nun and housekeeper in the rectory of St. John the Baptist, a Catholic church in Edgard, Louisiana, during a robbery, police said. Sheriff Lester Millet Jr. said the Rev. J. Alcide Clement, 47, was shot in the head while apparently taking a nap. Sister Mary Patrick Harrington was stabbed with a Bowie knife and the housekeeper, Leah Lejeune, had her throat cut. Church sexton Leopold St. Pierre was pistol whipped and tied up behind the altar. He was the only known witness. Millett said the men rifled the rectory’s money box but did not attempt to open the church safe. It was not known how much money they found.
A special panel of Cleveland’s American Ship Building Co. recommended that chief executive George M. Steinbrenner repay the company for $42,325 in illegal political expenditures. But it said another $55,000 appeared to be proper corporate outlays and need not be repaid. Watergate prosecutors had charged that the $55,000 also was illegal. Steinbrenner pleaded guilty last year to conspiring to make an illegal $25,000 donation to former President Richard M. Nixon’s 1972 campaign and was fined $15,000. Steinbrenner, president of the New York Yankees, also is still suspended from participation in professional baseball.
“They’re like vultures,” the San Francisco Airports Commission was told by Airports Director William J. Dwyer at the passage of a resolution to halt members of the Hare Krishna religious sect from soliciting passengers to buy candy, flowers or religious books. The regulation affects all solicitors at San Francisco International Airport, but was prompted by complaints that the robed Hare Krishna followers have been annoying plane-bound citizens. Dwyer said the sect is “moving into airports around the country.”
Small Astronomy Satellite Explorer 53 is launched to study X-rays.
The Washington Bullets completely disorganized the Boston Celtics for more than two quarters tonight and routed the defending National Basketball Association champions, 119-108, in the fourth game of the Eastern Conference championship. They now lead the series, 3–1.
Major League Baseball:
The Oakland A’s tally 9 runs in the 7th against the visiting Angels and win, 9–1. Vida Blue (6–1) allows an unearned run. Sal Bando has a sacrifice bunt and a grand slam in the big frame for the A’s. Not till 2009 will another batter collect a sacrifice bunt and grand slam in the same frame.
The Red Sox downed the Indians, 4–2, in Cleveland. Jim Rice’s homer set off a threerun Red Sox burst in the sixth, then Diego Segui halted a Cleveland rally in the eighth to preserve Boston’s fifth straight victory. It was Rice’s fourth homer and it broke a 1–1 tie. Then consecutive singles by Rico Petrocelli, Dwight Evans and Tony Conigliaro produced a run and chased Fritz Peterson. Evans came across on a fielder’s choice. Reggie Cleveland won his second game, though takked for seven hits in seven innings. Segui got George Hendrick to fly out and Rico Carty to hit into a double play after Reggie had yielded a lead‐off triple to Oscar Gamble and a single to Boog Powell.
The Baltimore Orioles beat the New York Yankees, 4–3, in the bottom of the ninth inning when Sparky Lyle walked one batter to load the bases and then gave up a single to Al Bumbry, the designated hitter, that scored the winning run.
George Scott’s three-run double with two out in the seventh carried the Brewers to a 7–5 victory over previously unbeaten Mickey Lolich and the Tigers. The score was 4–4 when Darrell Porter tripled to open the inning. Lolich, 3–1, retired Gorman Thomas on a foul pop but walked Don Money, who stole second. An intentional walk to Robin Yount loaded the bases. Lolich struck out Bobby Mitchell, but Scott settled matters with his drive down the third‐base line.
The White Sox edged the Twins, 3–2. Deron Johnson pinch hit a two‐run single with the bases loaded in the ninth that lifted the White Sox to victory and snapped Minnesota’s fourgame winning streak. Tom Burgmeier, the third pitcher of the inning, gave up the game‐winning hit.
Willie Montanez helped his new team, the Giants, to a 6–2 triumph over the Braves last night. He had two hits, including his first home run of the season, to back Jim Barr’s six‐hit pitching. Carl Morton lost his second straight game for Atlanta after having won his first five.
Behind Johnny Bench’s grand slam and a 2–run homer by Tony Perez the Reds beat the Padres, 10–2. Bench’s homer, his fifth of the season, increased his runs‐batted‐in total to 24. The big inning helped Fred Norman to gain his second triumph in three decisions, although he needed relief from Clay Carroll. Joe Morgan, who hit .405 in 23 games during April, was named National League player of the week.
The Mets suffered their fifth loss in the last six games, a 6–1 decision to the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Mets’ infield fielded for the cycle — error for the first baseman, error for the second baseman, error for the shortstop, error for the third baseman. The Pirates banged out 16 hits. Rennie Stennett and Bill Robinson set the tone for the night, lashing first‐inning doubles for Pittsburgh’s first run. The Mets tied the game in the third on Jesus Alou’s run‐scoring single, but Richie Zisk smashed another double in the fourth that put the Pirates ahead to stay.
The Cubs’ Bill Bonham held the Expos to three hits in shutting out the Expos, 7–0, and winning his third game. Chicago’s Rob Sperring and Jose Cardenal hit home runs. Bill Madlock drove in two runs and collected four hits to help snap Montreal’s four-game winning streak. Sperring’s two‐on homer in the fourth was his first hit of the season. Cardenal’s clout, his second of the year, came in the fifth. Bonham struck out eight men and walked three.
The Dodgers thumped the Astros, 5–1. Andy Messersmith won his ninth straight game (four last season and five this year) with the help of Jimmy Wynn, who drove in four runs, three on his eighth‐inning homer. It was Wynn’s fifth home run of the campaign. Messersmith held the Astros to six hits and struck out five as the Dodgers won their 11th in the last 13 games. Tom Griffin, who has yet to win in five decisions, was the loser.
The Braves trade catcher Johnny Oates, along with the contract of Dick Allen, to the Phillies for 2 players and cash. Allen had refused to report to Atlanta following his trade from the White Sox on December 3, 1974, and announced his retirement.
Mike Schmidt, who termed the Phillies a contender even without the addition of Allen, smacked a two‐run homer in the third inning to carry his teammates to victory, 4–1, over the Cardinals. Schmidt’s fifth homer of the season followed a walk to Tommy Hutton and sent Bob Forsch to his third defeat in five decisions.
Horace C. Stoneham, who moved west in 1958 because of low attendance at New York’s Polo Grounds and was faced with the same problem here, said today he was ready to sell the San Francisco Giants. “I have made up my mind to sell, and my one hope is that whoever buys the club will keep it in San Francisco,” Stoneham, whose family has owned the Giants since the early 1900’s, told the directors of the National Exhibition Company, which owns the franchise. “We have several people interested in buying the club.”
San Francisco Giants 6, Atlanta Braves 2
New York Yankees 3, Baltimore Orioles 4
Minnesota Twins 2, Chicago White Sox 3
San Diego Padres 2, Cincinnati Reds 10
Boston Red Sox 4, Cleveland Indians 2
Milwaukee Brewers 7, Detroit Tigers 5
Texas Rangers 5, Kansas City Royals 6
Houston Astros 1, Los Angeles Dodgers 5
Chicago Cubs 7, Montreal Expos 0
Pittsburgh Pirates 6, New York Mets 1
California Angels 1, Oakland Athletics 9
Philadelphia Phillies 4, St. Louis Cardinals 1
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 836.44 (+1.72, +0.21%)
Born:
Gunhild Carling, Swedish jazz trombonist, trumpeter, and multi-instrumentalist (Carling Family; Carling Big Band), and singer (Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox), in Gothenburg, Sweden.
Died:
George Baker, 59, American U.S. Army sergeant and cartoonist who created the World War II comic strip character “Sad Sack” (later adapted as a comic book series for Harvey Comics.
History Diaries 