( World Kews
Nixon announces break in SALT talks
in nation-wide radio-TV address
WASHINGTON AP—President Nixon
announced Thursday what he termed a
major step in breaking the stalemate on
nuclear arms talks between the United
States and the Soviet Union.
Nixon went on nationwide radio
television at noon to read a brief statement
about the long-stalled J.S.-Soviet Strategic
Arms Limitation Talks (SALT), timed
with a similar statement issued in
Moscow.
The President said that as a result of
negotiations at the highest level, the
United States and the Soviet Union:
—“Have agreed to concentrate this year
on working out an agreement for the
limitation of the deployment of an
tiballistic missile systems (ABMs).”
—“Have also agreed that, together with
concluding an agreement to limit ABMs,
they will agree on certain measures with
respect to the limitation of offensive
strategic weapons.”
“The two sides are taking this course
in the conviction that it will create more
favorable conditions for further
negotiations to limit all strategic arms,”
the statement added. “These negotiations
will be actively pursued.”
Praise, optimism and some skep
ticism greeted the announcement in
Congress. One of those voicing skepticism
was Sen. J.W. Fulbright, D-Ark., chair
man of the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee, who said he also was puzzled.
“They seem to think it is significant,”
Fulbright said.
“Whether it is or not I don’t know.” He
added that “There must be smomething
more to it than I can grasp.”
Another Democratic leader, Rep. F.
Edward Hebert of Louisiana, chairman of
the House Armed Services Committee,
commented that “it’s all well and good,
but let’s keep our power dry.”
Republicans and some other
democrats rated the development
favorably. *
Whether the two superpowers will
actually reach a disarmament accord in
the talks that began in 1969 remains to be
seen. White House officials acknowledged
that the two sides have not abandoned
basic positions, which so far have defied
lengthy efforts by negotiators for an
agreement.
But the high level announcement did
seem to indicate an interest by the leaders
of both great powers in pushing ahead with
the search for an accord on curbing the
nuclear arms race, rather than letting the
effort die in a diplomatic stalemate.
Ambassador Gerard Smith, head of
the U.S. delegation to the SALT talks,
currently being held in Vienna, is slated to
return there shortly to wind up the current
negotiating session. He expects the next
round will begin in Helsinki early this
summer.
White House officials declined to
predict an arms limiting agreement with
the Soviets will be reached this year. But
they said that with the new high level
political impetus from Washington and
Moscow they expect the pace of
negotiations to quicken.
Whether either the United States or
the Soviet Union made much of a con
cession in issuing Thursday’s statement
was not clear from the public wording.
Varying interpretations were offered here
and in Moscow. The SALT talks which got
under way in Finland in the fall of 1969
have been bogged down since last year
over what strategic weapons should be
included in an arms control deal.
After the United States turned back a
Soviet bid to include short-range tactical
U.S. nuclear weapons based in Europe, the
Russians proposed last fall that as a first
step the two sides agree on a limitation of
defensive missiles—ABMs.
The United States objected to an
ABMs-only deal. Its envoys said that
ABMs were designed to counter in
tercontinental ballistic missiles, and
therefore any meaningful strategic
disarmament pact should include
restrictions on both offensive and defen
sive weapons at the same time.
The U.S. Safeguard antiballistic
missile system has a mission of protecting
U.S. ICBMs from Soviet missiles should
the Soviets launch a first strike. The Nixon
administration is now asking Congress to
expand the Safeguard ABM system.
The basic U.S. negotiating proposal at
SALT has been to offer a curb on ABMs in
return for a limit on offensive missiles,
particularly the giant Soviet SSTs.
White House officials said the work on
the Safeguard ABM will be going ahead
pending what might come out of the salt
talks in the future.
Senate blocks draft extension
due to date dispute
WASHINGTON AP—An at
tempt to fix a date for voting on
an amendment to limit extension
of the draft to one year was
blocked in the Senate late
Thursday.
Democratic and Republican
leaders then announced they
would try to invoke cloture
limiting debate sharply on all
remaining amendments to the
draft extension bill
Sen. John Stennis, D Miss.,
declared it was imperative for
the Senate to pass the measure by
June 15 and send it to conference
with the House, if it is to be signed
into law by June 30 when the
present Selective Service Act
expires
Stennis said he never had voted
for cloture but has always felt he
might have to do so if a
paramount issue of national
defense arose.
The one-year amendment is
sponsored by Sens. Richard Sch
weiker, R-Pa., and Harold
iiugnes. u-iowa.
As the bill came to the floor
from the Armed Services
Committee headed by Stennis, it
provided for a two-year ex
tension
The Schweiker-Hughes
amendment also provides for a
much greater pay increase for
members of the armed forces, an
effort to lay groundwork for an
all-volunteer army.
Sen Robert Byrd, D-W.Va ,
assistant Democratic leader,
proposed an agreement which
would have provided for a vote
next Monday on the pay section of
the amendment
Then there would have been
votes next Wednesday on a
substitute of Sen Mark Hatfield,
R-Ore , to end the draft ami
establish a volunteer army and
chi a proposal of Sen Peter H
Dominick, R-Colo., for an 18
month extension
Finally there would have been
a vote June 2 chi the one-year
extension itself
Several Senators announced
objections to this, which blocked
it. Setting the date requires
unanimous consent.
Objections came from Sch
weiker, Hughes, Sen. Mike
Craval, D-Alaska, which has
announced he will filibuster
against any extension, and Sen.
Alan Cranston, D-Calif. Hughes
said Hatfield also had told him he
would object if he could be
present.
Byrd said Sen Hugh Scott, R
Pa., the G.O.P leader, voiced the
threats to invoke cloture.
“If we re going to spend six,
eight or 10 weeks on every bill,
we’re going to be here until
Christmas,” Scott said.
“We’re going to have the same
shabby mess we had in
December last year.”
Schweiker and Hughes both
said they would agree to what
they considered a reasonable
time limit on their amendment.
They offered to discuss such an
agreement with Stennis and the
leaders Friday.
Schweicker said the one-year
extension is offered as a com
promise in the debate on whether
or when to end the draft and
substitute a volunteer armed
force.
Committee investigates
Mayday protests
WASHINGTON AP—Three
Communists among leaders of
two antiwar groups were em
powered to sign checks covering
$205,000 flowing through a
Washington bank prior to spring
protests here, a House Internal
Security Committee investigator
testified Thursday.
Sydney Stapleton and Patricia
Grogan, who recently ran for
public office as members of the
Socialist Workers Party, exer
cised total control over the check
signing for the National Peace
Action Coalition in $121,000
moved through the Public
National Bank of Washington
from February through April,
investigator John Stratton said.
Stratton also told the com
mittee that Sidney Peck, iden
tified in earlier congressional
records as a former Communist
Party leader in Wisconsin, was
among four representatives of
the People's Coalition for Peace
and Justice with authority to sign
checks involving a flow of $84,000
through that bank over those
three months
Committee Chairman Richard
Ichord, D-Mo., has said the
Socialist Workers Party is
composed of followers of the
Communist doctrines of Leon
Trotsky.
The national coalition backed
the April 24 antiwar demon
stration here. The people’s
coalition and the Mayday
Collective were major sponsors
of the May 3-6 actions marked by
efforts to snarl Washington
traffic.
Spokesmen for NPAC and
PCPJ said they did not know
where Stapleton, Miss Grogan
and Peck could be reached for
comment on the charges.
Jerry Gordon, NPAC coor
dinator. said his group plans to
sue the committee and the bank
in federal court over what he
termed the “illegal seizure of our
bank records." The committee
obtained the bank information
through subpoena.
Asked for his reaction to the
developments. Gordon told a
reporter: “It's simply what we
expected—a kind of three-ring
circus, all the timeworn and
threadbare smears that the
American public had heard for so
many years and which are no
substitute for ending the war.”
News Roundup
from AP reports
PARIS—President Georges Pompidou and Prime
Tinister Edward Heath, after hours of secret talks,
jclaimed Thursday night that France and Britain are in
x broad agreement on the future of Europe. On the central
issue of British entry into the European Common Market,
Heath expressed belief that the way will shortly be cleared
§j “for a momentous step forward.” Through the day they had
conferred on the future organization, aims and role of Europe
in the world. High French sources said France had made a
historic shift and was resolved to let Britain join the Common
Market. They added some tough issues still to be ironed out.
The British were twice barred from membership in the
market by French vetoes in the 1960s.
WASHINGTON—Rejecting efforts to put a Jan. 1, 1972
deadline on the Indochina war and to halt such major
weapons as the Safeguard anti-missile system, the House
Armed Services Committee approved Thursday a $21.88
billion military hardware bill. The effort to cut off all
military hardware for the Indochina war after next Jan. 1
unless President Nixon notified Congress this would
jeopardize release of American prisoners of war and safe
withdrawal of U.S. troops was rejected 33 to 6. Reps. Lucien
Nedzi, D-Mich., and Charles Whalen Jr., R-Ohio, who in
troduced the amendment, said they will now take the effort to
the House floor.
WASHINGTON—The House abandoned its drive to
g resurrect the American supersonic transport Thursday
g night, but also refused to pay the $155.8 million burial money
g approved by the Senate. The possibility of a House-Senate
g wrangle arose when the House approved $97.3 million in
jji stead, but the Senate adjourned putting off final SST action
possibly until next week. The House adjourned until Monday
so final action can come Friday only if the Senate accepts the
House’s $97.3 million termination figure. The House rejected
the Senate’s addition of $58.5 million repayment of SST
money invested by airlines by a vote of 157 to 116. It then
g approved by voice vote only the $97.3 million, covering
•:j repayment to the major contractors, the Boeing Co. and
g General Electric, and federal closing cost.
CARSON CITY, Nev.—A strike by black Nevada State
Si Prison inmates ended Thursday with the warden saying
Si leaders had denied his contention that they struck mainly to
Si segregated facilities. “They now disclaim segregation
Si was the cause,” Warden Carl Hocker said, although he still
believes it "may have been part of the consideration."
S: Hocker said earlier he felt “beyond any reasonable doubt"
Si segregation demands were the root of the trouble, although
they were not on a list of demands presented before the strike
Si began Wednesday. Hocker said all areas of the prison are
Si integrated and he thought it was accepted by a majority of
inmates. He said earlier that many inmates, including
whites, seemed to want to return to segregation.