Defense Secretary James R. Schlesinger has warned Congress that the United States will reach a “peril point” in the relatively near future if Congress continues to cut the defense budget while Soviet military spending increases. Mr. Schlesinger spelled out his warning in a six‐page letter to Senator John L. McClellan, Democrat of Arkansas, who is chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, which will take up the defense budget next week. In effect, the Schlesinger letter, made public today by the Defense Department, is designed to provide Senator McClellan with arguments for reversing House cuts in the defense budget. The House cut $7.6‐billion from the $97.8‐billion in defense appropriations requested by the Administration, and Mr. Schlesinger is urging that the Senate committee restore at least $2.6‐billion of the House reductions. The basic thesis of the Schlesinger letter was that “by most of the available measures, American power is declining and Soviet power is rising.“
Generalissimo Francisco Franco’s doctors reported that his heart condition had further deteriorated. They said he had suffered another setback, the second in two days, after having shown some signs of improvement. Spain’s leaders were said to have decided that he would soon have to give up power to Prince Juan Carlos de Borbon, his designated successor. The country appeared outwardly calm and no signs of security precautions were evident. Military and police commanders, however, were reported to have been alerted to the possibility that a security plan prepared for the death of the Chief of State would have to be put into effect quickly
New fears of an impending coup, heightened by six minor bomb blasts, caused Portugal’s leaders to order a national alert for the armed forces. The official explanation for the alert, which started at 7 AM, was fear of sabotage and “armed actions by extreme right-wing groups.” Lisbon’s military commanders were summoned to an urgent strategy meeting, but the capital remained calm, with no overt evidence of any unusual military measures. General Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho, who heads the Internal Security Command, announced the alert and called the strategy meeting. He said the actions stemmed from the explosions in the capital and various unconfirmed reports. His spokesmen said the “extreme right wing” was to blame for the explosions, which caused no casualties. There have been rumors for days of a coup to depose the coalition government installed five weeks ago. The pro‐Western Government, whose Cabinet includes one Communist, has been under increasing attack from the Communist party and other forces on the left. Mario Soares the leader of the Socialist party, which has four Cabinet posts, once again defended the make‐up of the Government and called upon the Communists to calm down and support it.
Ismail Erez, Turkey’s Ambassador to France, was fatally shot in Paris by assassins who also killed his chauffeur. Two days earlier, Danis Tunaligil, the Turkish Ambassador to Austria, was slain in Vienna. The authorities had no official explanation for the slayings, but a Turkish Embassy source in Paris said that the Ankara Government suspected an Armenian or Greek Cypriote group. Ambassador Erez, who was 53 years old, was returning from luncheon at the Austrian Embassy, which is on the Left Bank. As his automobile neared the end of Bir Hakeim Bridge, the driver, Talip Yener, 23, slowed down. At that moment a gunman on the right side of the street approched the car, aimed a submachine gun at the Ambassador and opened fire. The Ambassador was struck and died instantly. Another gunman posted on the left shot and killed the driver. Then the two fled, possibly with a third gunman, according to the police.
The Soviet Union, according to leading American grain exporters, has bought 1.2 million tons of American corn since signing a five-year grain accord with the United States early this week. The accord resulted in the lifting of a two-month-long American embargo on grain sales to the Russians. Their harvest has been hard hit by bad weather.
Ninety percent of the women in Iceland took part in the first “women’s strike”, organized by the Red Stockings, a feminist group.
Israel’s representative at the United Nations, Chaim Herzog, publicly complained yesterday that the Jewish community in New York and Jews elsewhere had let his delegation down during a bitter committee debate on Zionism earlier this month.
Small numbers of Lebanese Army units were positioned in several quarters of Beirut today, but the Government did not apply a threatened 24-hour curfew in troubled neighborhoods where shooting persisted throughout the day and into the night. Fifteen people were reported killed during the day. As night fell, there were violent exchanges of rocket and machine‐gun fire in the Christan quarter of Nasra and the Muslim section of Ras el-Nabeh. The right‐wing Phalangist party reported one man killed and three wounded in an attack on its Nasra headquarters. The total of soldiers and armored vehicles stationed in the city today was small — fewer than 100 men according to one account — and the positions they occupied were far from Palestian neighborhoods. Today, Beirut’s streets were again largely deserted, echoing occasionally to the clank armored personnel carriers or the rattle of automatic‐weapon fire.
Foreign Minister Ahmed Laraki of Morocco left here today for Madrid, saying he was going on behalf of King Hassan II “in a spirit of dialogue” to discuss the Spanish Sahara conflict. Mr. Laraki’s visit to Spain follows talks here earlier this week between King Hassan and Jose Solis Ruez, a Spanish Cabinet minister, concerning Moroccan claims to Spanish Sahara occupied by Spain. Officials showed some optimism over the possibility of a diplomatic settlement of the dispute over the North African desert territory — into which King Hassan plans to send 350.000 unarmed marchers next week.
Secretary General Waldheim will leave New York tomorrow morning to visit Morocco, Mauritania, Algeria and Spain in an effort to mediate the dispute over the future status of Spanish Sahara. A United Nations spokesman said Mr. Waldheim would meet with leaders of the four countries and return to New York Tuesday evening. The Secretary General is scheduled to meet with King Hassan in Marrakesh Sunday morning.
The Indian Government today renewed an order to abolish bonded labor, a form of slavery that has been in existence for centuries in this country. “The bonded labor system stands abolished with immediate effect,” a presidential ordinance said. Bonded labor, a form of forced labor, was declared illegal by the Indian Constitution 25 years ago. It continued, however, because state governments made few efforts to enforce the law. Officials estimate that there are several million bonded workers in India today.
Secretary of State Kissinger returned today from a weeklong visit to China and Japan, saying that he had held “very useful talks” and found Chairman Mao Tse-tung “in full control.” Mr. Kissinger planned to report to President Ford tomorrow morning. One purpose of his eighth trip to Peking was to make arrangement for Mr. Ford’s visit after Thanksgiving. Mr. Kissinger said he had “very full and warm exchanges” with Japanese leaders in Tokyo. They made preparations for the six‐nation economic summit meeting in Paris next month, in which Japan will participate.
The Chilean Minister of Justice said today that he would welcome investigations by journalists of alleged human-rights violations in his country. But at a news conference in Washington, the minister, Miguel Schweitzer, declared he was “not going to make a categorical answer” to the question whether Chile would allow the Inter‐American Human Rights Commission to conduct an investigation now.
The Government of President Isabel Martinez de Perón called today on organized labor and business organizations to join in a “social pact” to halt runaway inflation and labor anarchy. The proposed pact was seen by observers here as an attempt by the Government to achieve, some economic stability before deepening pessimism about the country’s future produces a military takeover. Such military intervention is now discussed as a strong probability by many Argentines. Since Mrs. Perón succeeded her late husband, Juan Domingo Perón, on July 1, 1974, the Peronist Government has been seriously weakened by internal divisions, soaring inflation, corruption, and terrorism by both left‐wing guerrillas and right‐wing death squads.
The Angolan Interior Ministry ordered all foreign residents today to report to the police within three days as the liberation organization in control here began a recruiting drive to repel what it has reported as an invasion from South Africa and Zaire. The military wing of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola said last night that the territory was in an emergency. After a day of artillery duels north of Luanda, the movement also announced a military call‐up of men between the ages of 18 and 35. The movement said South African troops were advancing on the Angolan province capital of Sá da Bandeira, about 155 miles from South‐West Africa, the vast trust territory controlled by South Africa. The organization said that forces from Zaire were operating with foreign mercenaries northeast of Luanda.
A grand jury has indicted Sara Jane Moore for allegedly seeking to kill President Ford in San Francisco on September 22. Two days ago a federal grand jury secretly indicted Sara Jane Moore on a charge of attempting to assassinate President Ford by the use of a pistol, it was disclosed today. Miss Moore, 45 years old, who is also known as Sara Jane Aalberg, will be brought to San Francisco for arraignment next Tuesday from San Diego, under a ruling by Federal District Judge Samuel Conti. The indictment was sealed Wednesday night by Judge William Orrick Jr. at the reqnest of F. Steele Langford, chief of the Criminal Division in the United States Attorney’s office here. Mr. Langford said today that he “didn’t see the need for more publicity since she is still undergoing psychiatric examination.”
Saying that “the President is convinced” that Americans want a bigger tax cut, the White House assailed as “too small” the tax reduction bill approved Thursday by the House Ways and Means Committee. The panel’s bill would add $2.6 billion next year to the reductions in 1975 taxes that took effect last spring. Reading from notesRon Nessen, the White House press secretary, said that President Ford was confident that “the American people will let the full Congress know that they do want a bigger tax cut.” Mr. Nessen also said that the Democratic members of the committee “who share the view that the American people only deserve a smaller tax cut” were bound to “get the word from their constituents and will end up voting for the bigger tax cut that the President proposed.”
Former Attorney General John Mitchell told a Senate committee that officials of the F.B.I. and the C.I.A. had never told him that the agencies were secretly opening mail. On Wednesday, Richard Helms, former director of the C.I.A., testified that he had informed Mr. Mitchell of the mail project in June, 1970, but added that “in those times I’m not sure the Attorney General knew the difference” between a “mail cover,” or surveillance, and the actual opening of letters.
The F.B.I. has kept in its files most of the 15,000 names of individuals who, from 1939 to 1971, were targeted for detention in the event of a national emergency, according to sources familiar with the internal operations of the bureau. The disclosure was made two days after Clarence Kelley, the F.B.I. director, assured Congress that the defunct “security index” could not be “reconstructed.”
Senator William Proxmire, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, was said to probably have the minimum votes needed to approve a bill to save New York City from default. But, several members of the panel said, the Wisconsin Democrat is unable to prevent a delay in committee action until next week.
Roman Catholic theologians in Rome have begun to debate publicly the moral issues in the case of Karen Anne Quinlan, the 21-year-old coma victim whose parents have asked legal permission to turn off the mechanical devices keeping her alive. Articles this week by two church scholars on moral theology indicate that the main issue in the debate is the question: How far is one obliged to go to keep a person technically alive? Miss Quinlan has been in a coma for six months.
A Newark judge yesterday ordered the Jersey City Medical Center to feed a 39‐year‐old woman patient, despite her expressed wish that she be allowed to starve to death. The case was seen as having certain similarities to that of another New Jersey woman, 21‐year‐old Karen Anne Quinlan, who has been hospitalized in a coma for six months and whose parents want her respirator removed so that she may be allowed to die “with grace and dignity.” In yesterday’s court action in Newark, Superior Court Judge William J. Camarata ordered the feeding of Donna Powell of Plainfield, a patient in the Jersey City Medical Center’s drug addiction treatment ward.
The Department of Health, Education and Welfare will publish next week the final rules that will make employers with more than 25 workers offer them prepaid health maintenance plans as an alternative to standard health insurance. The regulation, which would take years to implement fully, would require some 400,000 employers to allow workers to buy insurance coverage in which they pay a set fee for all health care. The prepaid plans are called health maintenance organizations. In 1971, President Nixon said he favored the development of such plans to reach about one‐fifth of the United States population.
A motion has been filed to prevent Micki Scott, the wife of Jack Scott, the radical sports figure, from testifying before a federal grand jury in Harrisburg that is investigating reports that Patricia Hearst hid in Northeastern Pennsylvania last year. The motion to stay was filed on behalf of Mr. Scott in the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit by Holly Maguigan, a lawyer who said that Mr. Scott had been advised by Federal authorities he was the target of their investigation. The appeal was filed after District Judge rejected Mr. Scott’s petition to block any testimony by his wife on grounds of marital privilege.
Several members of the Senate Banking Committee said today that William Proxmire, the panel’s chairman, probably had the bare minimum of votes to bring to the Senate floor a bill that would save New York City from default.
Senator Hubert H. Humphrey, who heads a key foreign-aid committee, exploded in anger today at a Ford Administration plan to save the central African country of Zaire from financial ruin, asserting that the country should not get “one damn dime” until New York City was helped.
Troubled South Boston High School closed early today as fighting broke out between black and white students despite a heavy police presence. It was the end of a week of gathering tension in South Boston and Charlestown, the two largely Irish‐American enclaves that have been the center of resistance to this city’s courtordered busing for school desegregation. In Charlestown, black students staged their second walkout of the week, protesting what they said were unfair conditions in the school. Today’s fighting brought 15 arrests, eight blacks and seven whites, at South Boston High School and its nearby L Street Annex, which houses freshmen.
A Congressional report criticized the Food and Drug Administration yesterday for keeping Red No. 2, the controversial food dye contained in almost every processed food, on the market while the question of its safety remained unresolved. The report, issued by the General Accounting Office, said that repeated delays over the last 15 years in determining whether the food color — suspected of causing cancer, fetal death, and birth damage — is really safe has resulted in an “unnecessary risk to the public health” It recommended that the Department of Health, Education and Welfare direct the E.D.A to “act promptly” to either permanently approve or ban the dye.
Chris Evert trounced Evonne Goolagong, 6-1, 6-1, today in the singles final of the World Invitation tennis tournament. It was Miss Evert’s 19th straight tournament victory on a clay court.
Major League Baseball:
Club owners, through the Player Relations Committee, respond to the October 7th Andy Messersmith suit, contending that “claims made by the [Players’] Association are not within the scope of the arbitration panel.”
On Wall Street, stock prices fell sharply amid mounting concern that the federal government would not save New York City from default. The Dow-Jones industrial average dropped 14.64 to 840.52, giving up more than half the gains it had made in a previous four-day advance.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 840.52 (-14.64, -1.71%)
Born:
Wendell Davis, NFL tight end (San Diego Chargers), in Escatawapa, Mississippi.
History Diaries 