The United States has decided to end its refusal of months to take part in Cabinet-level Soviet-American commissions and has proposed to Moscow that a Joint Commerce Commission convene in Washington in two weeks. But according to high Administration officials today, the Soviet. Union has not yet replied to the proposal, made last month and there is a strong possibility that the Russians may have decided to wait until next month’s elections before responding. The Russians, officials said, have also held up approval of the Ford Administration’s request to send Malcolm Toon, at present Ambassador to Israel, as the next Ambassador to Moscow. Mr. Toon would replace Walter J. Stoessel Jr., who was recently assigned to West Germany. Last winter, because of its anger over the Soviet military involvement in Angola, the Ford Administration decided to put off any participation in any of the various Cabinet‐level commissions that were set up when détente was in vogue. Last March, the United States informed Moscow that commissions on trade, housing, and energy would have to delay their scheduled annual meetings. The press was told the postponement was due to a refusal by Washington to appear cooperative, given the irritation over the Soviet military help given directly or through Cuba to the pro‐Soviet faction in Angola led by Agostinho Neto, which defeated the American‐backed groups.
Britain’s Conservative Party ended its annual conference hoping for an early return to power and buoyed by the closing speech of the party leader, Margaret Thatcher. “The conventional wisdom has been that we felt too insecure about ourselves and our leaders to really want an election,” said David Hunt, one of the younger Tory members of Parliament. “The conventional wisdom is dead.” Not least among the reasons for their enthusiasm was Margaret Thatcher’s summing-up speech this morning, 30 minutes of highly concentrated venom at the programs and philosophy of the Labor Party and “the national failure” these programs had brought about. “Under Labor,” Mrs. Thatcher declared, “the land of hope and glory has become the land of beg and borrow.” Arguing that the successive administrations of Prime Ministers Harold Wilson and James Callaghan had overpromised, overspent and overborrowed, she said: “Between the pair of them, Wilson and Callaghan and their wretched Governments have impoverished and all but bankrupted Britain. Socialism has failed the nation. Away with it, before it does the final damage.” Despite the Conservatives’ new-found enthusiasm, however, party members saw little prospect of an early general election.
Thorbjörn Fälldin replaced Olof Palme as Prime Minister of Sweden. Fälldin’s cabinet had 20 members, five of whom were women including Foreign Minister Karin Söder. He delivered a policy speech that abandoned his election-campaign insistence on halting the spread of nuclear power plants. He withdrew his opposition to allowing the Barseback 2 nuclear reactor in southern Sweden to begin operation next year. He said that the operators would only have to prove by next October that they had made satisfactory arrangements for safe disposal of nuclear wastes. At the same time, his policy declaration included his campaign proposal to appoint a special commission to study the whole question of nuclear power plants. It would also draw up a plan for phasing out Sweden’s five current nuclear stations, if Parliament decides on the phase‐out in a vote scheduled for 1978. Mr. Falldin had vowed during the campaign to kill the Swedish nuclear power program, attacking it no the ground that disposal of atomic waste and other safety problems had not yet been solved.
The Government of Spanish Prime Minister Adolfo Suarez tonight approved a draft bill to legalize independent trade unions but at the same time decreed limitations on wage raises that are expected to provoke working-class opposition.
The Commerce Department, responding to a directive by President Ford, issued rules today that require that all demands for participation in the Arab boycott received by American companies on or after October 7 be made available for public scrutiny. Under the rules, any American business enterprise receiving any request bearing on the Arab boycott of Israel must report the request within 15 days. The report must state the nature of the request and whether or not the company intends to comply with it. The announcement today follows President Ford’s statement in his debate with Jimmy Carter Wednesday night that the Commerce Department would disclose the names of companies “that have participated in the Arab boycott.” In a related development, the Commerce Department, working under rules in effect since 1975, charged seven companies today with failure to report requests to participate in the Arab boycott.
Thanin Kraivichien was appointed as the new Prime Minister of Thailand by King Bhumibol Adulyadej, with the concurrence of the military-controlled government. Kravichien had been serving as a justice on the nation’s Supreme Court. Admiral Sangad Chaloryu, the leader of the military’s Administrative Reform Council, announced the appointment and said that the military junta would step aside within two weeks in favor of a cabinet headed by Kraivichien. The transfer took place on October 22.
Vietnam charged the United States today with responsibility for Wednesday’s military coup in Thailand. A commentary carried by the Vietnam press agency said leaders of the coup all were “pro-U.S. militarists.” “Despite their plea that they are not ‘dictators’ and that they ‘strictly uphold the principles of democracy,’ they are known to be working for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, and they are working under Instructions from the U.S. State Department,” the commentary said. The commentary rejected assertations by the new Thai rulers that they had taken power to prevent a Communist takeover.
China announced tonight that the body of Mao Tse-tung (Mao Zedong) would be placed in a crystal sarcophagus and displayed in a mausoleum to be constructed in Peking. The announcement came at the end of a month of official mourning for the chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, who died on Sept. 9 at the age of 82. The site of the mausoleum was not specified. At the same time, the position of Prime Minister Hua Kuo‐feng in the post‐Mao leadership of China appeared significantly underlined as he was referred to for the first time as the head of the political bureau of the party’s Central Committee, the position that Chairman Mao had held. This came in a separate announcement that the complete works of Chairman Mao would now be prepared for publication “under the direct leadership” of the political bureau, “headed by Comrade Hua Kuofeng.” Mr. Hua is still officially the first deputy chairman of the Central Committee and thus, since the death of Mao, who was chairman, is the highest‐ranking member of the committee’s Political Bureau. Although today’s announcement did not formally give Mr. Hua a new title, beyond his deputy chairmanship, it was considered by some analysts here as embodying a significant nuance.
[Ed: No announcement has been made yet of the arrest of the “Gang of Four.”]
The British Foreign Secretary, Anthony Crosland, announced tonight that he would convene a conference in Geneva in two weeks in an effort to set up an interim government in Rhodesia that would lead to a peaceful transition to black majority rule. Mr. Crosland said that the conference would assemble on Thursday, October 21, with a view to a formal opening on Monday, October 25. The delegates to the conference are expected to include Prime Minister Ian D. Smith of Rhodesia and several black Rhodesian leaders. The Foreign Secretary said he expected to make a further statement in Parliament next week, “when I hope to announce the names of those invited to attend the conference.” As already announced, Ivor Richard, Britain’s chief representative at the United Nations, will serve as chairman of the conference. Britain is deeply involved in a Rhodesian settlement, having served as the colonial power in the nation since the 1890’s. Rhodesia, under Mr. Smith, broke with Britain on November 11, 1965, over the issue of black majority rule in the nation of 270,000 whites and six million blacks.
The first direct negotiations between Prime Minister John Vorster and the black leaders of South Africa since the recent black upheaval began today with Mr. Vorster rejecting a demand for a multiracial convention to discuss the country’s racial problems, saying he saw “no merit in the idea at all.”
President Ford apologized today to the leader of a major Polish‐American organization for having said that Eastern Europe was not dominated by the Soviet Union. Aloysius Mazewski, president of the Polish‐American Congress in Chicago, said that the President had telephoned him from Air Force One and apologized for his statement on Eastern Europe made in the second debate with Jimmy Carter last Wednesday. Ron Nessen, the White House spokesman, said this evening that he “would not quarrel” with Mr. Mazewski’s account of his conversation with the President. Mr. Ford spent much of the day trying to snuff out the political grass fire caused by his debate remarks, but his statements early in the day left persistent confusion rather than clearly putting the controversy to rest. Mr. Mazewski also said that the President said that his political record was evidence “of his concern for the people of Poland” and that Mr. Ford said that he was sorry that his remarks had been “blown all out of proportion.”
Jimmy Carter demanded here today that President Ford “tell the truth” about Administration policies and his own personal finances. In his most forceful criticism of the Republican President to date, the Democratic nominee suggested that Mr. Ford had been “brainwashed” about Soviet dominance of Eastern European matters and that he lacked “common sense and knowledge” about foreign policy. The mounting harshness of Mr. Carter’s rhetoric as he campaigned in New Mexico and Texas was signaled most vividly by his deliberate adoption of the oath administered to criminal court witnesses as he challenged Mr. Ford to clarify Administration policies and account fully for the Ford family’s finances. “I call upon the American people to force Mr. Ford to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth,” Mr. Carter, reading from prepared notes, shouted to a rally audience at Albuquerque International Airport.
One of the nine black “Scottsboro boys,” who spent 15 years in prison — five on death row — on never-proven charges of having raped two white women, applied for a full pardon from a 1946 Alabama parole violation. Clarence (Willie) Norris, a New York City warehouseman, said he was tired of being a fugitive. Although his application has the support of Alabama’s Attorney General, the state Parole Board chairman said the pardon could not be granted as long as Mr. Norris remained a fugitive.
The national unemployment rate eased a trifle in September, but there was no fundamental change in the employment‐unemployment picture, the Labor Department reported today. A dip in the jobless rate, to 7.8 percent from 7.9 percent in August, was of interest chiefly because the report was the last the Bureau of Labor Statistics will issue before the Nov. 2 election and because Jimmy Carter, the Democratic candidate, has made an issue of the economy. The bureau said that total employment, as measured by a monthly survey of 47,000 households, had declined by 162,000 to 87,819,000. However, nonfarm payroll employment as reported by companies increased by 240,000 to 79,561,000. The gain was 140,000 after allowing for the return to work of striking rubber workers and coal miners.
The Federal Reserve is encouraging banks to maintain artificially high interest rates that are seriously damaging the economic recovery, according to Representative Henry Reuss, the chairman of the House Banking Committee. The Wisconsin Democrat cited the spread between the rates at which banks borrow money and then re-lend. The Reserve disputed the charge.
Former Supreme Court Justice Arthur J. Goldberg urged the United States Court of Claims today to order a 34.5 percent retroactive pay increase for Federal judges, saying it is necessary to preserve an independent judiciary. Mr. Goldberg, now in private law prat, tice after serving on the high court and also as Secretary of Labor and United Nations representative, argued on behalf of 140 judges who have filed a lawsuit to get salary increases. The Constitution forbids a reduction in a Federal judge’s salary during his term in order to preserve their independence, Mr. Goldberg said. He argued that Congress had violated that principle by using a “one house” veto to reject raises proposed by the Federal salary commission and President Ford to offset inflation.
Texas Attorney General John Hill has hired a neuropathologist to study the Howard R. Hughes autopsy report and, if necessary,to conduct medical tests to determine the billionaire’s mental condition at the time of his death. Assistant Attorney General Rick Harrison said yesterday that Dr. Richard Lindenberg of Baltimore, Md., would try to determine Mr. Hughes’s mental state when he died April 5 while flying from Acapulco to Houston for treatment of a kidney disorder. Mr. Hughes apparently left no uncontestable will and his $2.5 billion fortune is the subject of court disputes in Texas. Nevada and California. Mr. Hill wants Mr. Hughes declared a Texas resident at the time of his death so the state can collect taxes on the estate. Administrators of Mr. Hughes’s affairs are trying to have him declarers a Nevada resident for tax and business purposes.
The Federal Government joined the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People today in requesting a preliminary injunction to prevent the civil rights organization from having to post a $1.6 million bond ordered by a Mississippi court.
Recent developments surrounding the city of Detroit’s police department have suddenly raised questions about the political future of Coleman A. Young, Detroit’s first black Mayor. With the start of his re-election campaign already in sight, what happens in the next few weeks could have a decisive effect on his chances in the election next year.
In his book, “Blind Ambition: The White House Years,” John W. Dean 3d, President Nixon’s counsel and a key figure in the Watergate affair and trials, continues to implicate Mr. Nixon as the central personality in the break-in and the cover-up.
A Federal District judge asked the Justice Department today to investigate to determine whether Spiro T. Agnew had violated the probation imposed when he was convicted of income tax evasion in 1973. Judge Roszel C. Thomsen made the request after an hour’s hearing on a civil suit filed by Sam Polur, a Miami lawyer, who is seeking $1 million in damages and revocation of the former Vice President’s probation. Mr. Polur contended that as a stockholder of several oil companies he had suffered losses as a result of Mr. Agnew’s dealings with members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. Judge Thomsen, who set no deadline for the investigation, declined to grant Mr. Polar’s request that he sign an order to force Mr. Agnew to show why the probation should not be revoked.
Marine scientists are preparing to fight what they say could be a serious new threat to sea life on the East Coast. Scientists in Williamsburg, Virginia for the annual meeting of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission say they are worried about massive fish kill caused by pollution off New York and New Jersey. Such a kill, they say, could occur elsewhere along the coast, with present and potential pollution sources combining to create large “dead zones” in some coastal areas as far south as Cape Hatteras.
Trenny Lynn Gibson was last seen at approximately 3 pm on October 8, 1976, in Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GSMNP). She was on a school field trip with dozens of classmates. Trenny apparently hiked with several different groups of her classmates throughout the day. Reports indicate Trenny was with a couple friends who stopped to rest along the trail. She went on and then she disappeared without a trace. She was wearing a blue blouse, a pastel blue striped sweater, blue jeans, and blue Adidas shoes. She had on a brown and orange plaid wool jacket, which she had borrowed. Tracking dogs detected Trenny’s scent at the intersection with the Appalachian Trail. They followed it by Clingmans Dome Tower and along the roadside about a mile and a half from Newfound Gap when the scent was lost. Extensive searches of the park continued until the end of October 1976, but she was never located. She was never found. The case remains unsolved.
EMI signs British punk rock band the “Sex Pistols”.
Stock prices resumed a plunge that have carried them to their lowest levels since mid-February. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 12.71 points to close at 952.38. The latest drop in the Dow Jones industrial average, which brought the bluechip indicator to 952.38, was attributed to renewed fears of stepped‐up inflation following Thursday’s report of a rise of nine‐tenths of 1 per cent in the Wholesale Price Index for September. Analysts called the jump a concrete sign that inflation would increase after a recent containment.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 952.38 (-12.71, -1.32%)
Born:
Amos Zereoue, Ivorian-American NFL running back (Pittsburgh Steelers, Oakland Raiders, New England Patriots), in Ouragahio, Ivory Coast.
Galo Blanco, Spanish tennis player, in Oviedo, Spain.
Died:
Eileen Gallagher, 89, Irish businesswoman and founder of Urney Chocolates.
