Oil crisis here . .
MEMPHIS (UPI) — Energy
adviser John Love said
Tuesday a White House an
nouncement was expected
shortly on the possible closing
of gasoline stations around the
country on weekends.
Love, a former GOP
governor of Colorado, was
asked about reports that the
President was considering
closing service stations up to
36 hours from Saturday night
through Sunday to cut back on
gas consumption.
“We may have an an
nouncement on some decision
on that by tomorrow,” Love
said “Of course people can
always gas up for the weekend
on Saturday but it would still
go a step toward curbing
driving on weekends.”
Intenor Secretary7 Rogers
Morton warned the governors
that America could reach the
minimum operable supplies of
fuel oil and gasoline in
December or January.
“If steps are not taken
quickly," Morton said, “at the
present rate we’re drawing
down draining fuel, we will
reach minimum operating
inventories of residual oil,
distillates, and gasoline
during the month of January,
perhaps even during the
month of December.”
Morton said the ad
ministration is looking into
plans for fuel cuts of 30 per
cent in passenger cars, 15 per
cent in home heating, 25 per
cent in commercial heating, 20
per cent by utilities and 20 per
cent by airlines.
“If we can save two or three
gallons per week per car.”
said Morton, “we can put a
million barrels of oil a day into
other needed areas.”
At a panel on energy, nine
governors indicated they
preferred a nationwide speed
limit of 55 miles per hour,
while eight favored 50 m.p.h.
Gov. William Milliken, of
Michigan, suggested that a
meeting be called of the
nation's 50 governors to
discuss the crisis.
‘Republicans and
Democrats need to get
together and work this thing
out,” said Milliken. adding he
was against both a gasoline
tax and possible gas rationing
Love and Morton told the
governors that no definite
decisions had been made yet
on fuel rationing.
. . .and overseas
By United Press International
Western European nations
took a new, still secret stand
on the Middle East crisis
Tuesday in an attempt to
soften Arab oil restrictions
and gingerly sought to help the
Dutch without endangering
their own supplies To con
serve energy, Japan banned
the “late late show’’ on
television and instituted other
major measures.
Meeting for two hours
behind closed doors in
Copenhagen, the foreign
ministers of the nine
European Common Market
countries, decided on a
statement to be relayed soon
to the Arab oil producing
nations. It was believed to be
similar to an earlier
statement calling for Israeli
withdrawal from occupied
Arab lands
An hour after the meeting,
Saudi Arabian Oil Minister
Sheikh Ahmed Zeky Yamani
arrived in Copenhagen by an
on what he said was a visit to
see his doctor but his arrival
generated speculation that
new oil talks would take place
there.
In a spearate meeting in
Paris, the Western European
Union fWEU) called for a
joint embargo, with Soviet and
U.S. participation, on weapons
to both Israel and the Arab
states It also urged im
mediate development of a
European nuclear energy
plant in a 43-page report on
energy problems adopted by a
13-1 vote of the WEU
Assembly General Affairs
Committee.
Diplomats in Copenhagen
said the other eight nations
,might respond to Holland’s
distress by agreeing quietly to
share some oil or to approach
the Arab oil-producing nations
discreetly on behalf of their
ally.
Yamani said Holland, like
the United States, “took a
hostile attitude toward the
Arabs and Holland must act
before they get more oil.
“...We want results, not
assurances Europe should
put pressure on the United
States and Israel to make
Israel withdraw from the
occupied territories.”
The Arab states have em
bargoed oil shipments to
Holland, along with the United
States, because of its allegedly
pro-Israeli stance during the
October war. Oil has con
tinued to flow in restricted
quantities to the other eight
and the Arabs rubbed in the
difference Sunday by an
nouncing that the eight were
exempt from the next round of
production cuts next month.
This exemption rewarded a
pro-Arab statement passed by
all nine nations Nov. 6.
Diplomats outside the locked
chamber of Christiansborg
palace where the ministers
met said the eight were
“grateful” for the reprieve
but embarrassed by the Arab
attempt—successful so far—to
split the nine in the first ex
ternal challenge to their unity.
Dutch Foreign Minister
Max van der Stoel presented
the case for the Netherlands
and Dutch sources said he
stressed the growing
seriousness of the situation.
Dutch officials dropped hints
outside the conference room of
retaliation for lack of
solidarity, including a cutoff
in Dutch natural gas exports.
The ministers also agreed
on a “fireside summit” of
European presidents and
prime ministers to be held
here Dec. 14-15. Officials said
oil and the Middle East will be
at the top of the agenda.
On credibility campaign trail
Nixon apologises to GOP
governors for ‘Watergate’
MEMPHIS (UPI) — President Nixon told the
nation’s Republican governors Tuesday he was
sorry if he had “added to their burden,” but assured
them he knew of no further scandals in his ad
ministration.
Continuing his campaign to regain the public’s
confidence, the President flew in from Key
Biscayne, Fla., to confer in private with members
of the Republican Governors Association for an
hour and 40 minutes.
Gov. Meldrim Thomson of New Hampshire said
Nixon “laid it on the line” about the Watergate
affair and other issues ranging from the economy to
the energy crisis.
“We raised some terrible questions,” reported
Gov. Tom McCall of Oregon. “I was amazed I’ve
known him for 20 years and I’ve never seen him
more calm and relaxed.”
The President stopped over at the GOP
governors’ conference en route back to Washington
and a Thanksgiving stay with his family at the
Camp David, Md., presidential retreat. Crowds
turning out for his arrival and departure were
mainly friendly, but small groups demonstrated
against him in the background.
The President’s plane arrived at Andrews Air
Force Base outside Washington at 6:07 p.m. EST
After the session with the state chief executives.
Gov. Winfield Dunn of Tennessee quoted Nixon as
telling his guests regarding the outlook for the
remainder of his term. “If there are any more
bombs I don’t know about them.”
Thompson said. “He told us, ‘You can take it
from me that I would not pull the rug out from under
you, there is nothing in Watergate that would em
barrass you.’ ”
Dunn, Govs. Christopher Bond of Missouri,
James Holshouser, Jr. of North Carolina and Robert
Ray of Iowa also said Nixon promised to disclose
specific information to refute various allegations
against him in the weeks and months ahead.
“The President looked around the room and
said, ‘I’m sorry if I have added to your burden,’ ”
Dunn reported.
Gov. Daniel Evans of Washington said no
“overwhelming amount of time” was spent on
Watergate during the meeting, but that “the
President gave a very complete response to the
questions put to him. Everyone there was very
encouraged and very pleased,” Evans said.
Several of the governors quoted the President
as saying he would not appear before the Senate
Watergate Committee, although Sen. Barry
Goldwater, (R-Ariz.), told UPI in Washington that
the President had not ruled this out.
Dunn said Nixon told the governors he did not
think it was “incumbent on him to go before the
Senate Watergate Committee under the kleig
lights” but indicated a willingness to meet privately
with members of the panel.
Dunn also reported that “in the very near future
there will be a number of papers issued which will
clarify the specific issues” regarding charges
against the President.
Ray, summing up the session, said: “He left us
with the feeling he definitely will be going to the
press and public and that’s a very healthy sign.”
“...1 think there was general satisfaction on the
part of the governors,” commented McCall.
Thompson said Gov. Ronald Reagan of
California “asked him for instance about that
$67,000 spent for heating the Western White House
at San Clemente. He told us that the Secret Service
insisted on that for fire prevention purposes.”
Holshouser said the President “went into very
much detail on his personal finances.”
Thompson said Nixon stressed again “there
would be no resignation” — a statement he has
made repeatedly since undertaking the effort to
restore public confidence in his administration.
Before going into session with the governors,
the President made a five-minute, campaign-style
speech to perhaps 4,000 persons gathered outside
the Riverfront Hotel, saying “as a result of our
policies, America is at peace throughout the world
for the first time in 12 years.”
During the speech, one group chanted, "Nixon
must go, Nixon must go.” Supporters carried signs
saying “Thank you for getting us out of Vietnam”
and “We’re behind you 100 percent.”
After the meeting with 18 of the 19 GOP
governors, Dunn said, “the President left no doubt
he was absolutely in control of himself physically
and mentally.”
“I don’t think there is any question he is
governing and governing effectively,” Dunn said.
The governors said the President replied to
questions on a full range of subjects aside from the
Watergate and his personal finances, including
international affairs and the nation’s domestic
needs.
After the meeting, the smiling President shook
hands briefly with some of the wellwishers crowded
into the hotel lobby to greet him.
Egypt, Israel focus on pullback
By United Press International
Egypt has asked the United
Nations for more details on
Israeli construction of a
causeway across the Suez Canal
which Cairo considers is a serious
breach of the 1973 Middle East
cease-fire stabilization
agreement, diplomatic sources
said Tuesday.
In Jerusalem, Prime Minister
Golda Meir’s cabinet met in
emergency session to discuss
what a government source
described as “delicate
negotiations” on the most im
portant of the six-point
agreement—the disengagement
of Egyptian and Israeli troops
along the Suez Canal.
Maj. Gen. Aharon Yariv,
Meir’s special adviser and chief
negotiator for Israel, walked into
the meeting with Lt. Gen. David
Elazar, armed forces chief of
staff. Both carried rolls of big
maps.
Yariv said after his latest
round of talks Monday with
Egyptian Maj. Gen. Mohammed
Gamassy at Kilometer 101 on the
Cairo-Suez road—their fifth—
that “a disengagement of forces
will be very, very difficult.”
Another meeting between the two
generals has been set for
Thursday.
The Israeli source said the
negotiations centering on Meir’s
proposal for a mutual withdrawl
by both armies to the pre-October
war lines with a U.N. wedge
in-between was more important
than any of the other points in the
agreement.
“These are delicate
negotiations,’’ the source said in
Jerusalem. “This is far more
important because it en
compasses a movement of
troops, which would be a noted
change in the situation. The other
things thus far have only been
technical.”
An official communique issued
after a five-hour meeting gave no
details of the proposals
discussed. It said only that Yariv
“reported on his conversations
with Egyptian representatives.”
“Following the reports, a
discussion was held on the sub
jects discussed in the con
versations” held Monday in a
tent on the cease-fire line in the
desert inside of Egypt.
Cabinet ministers refused to
comment except for Immigration
Minister Nathan Peled who said,
“it was a very important and
very interesting meeting.” He
refused to elaborate.
The two sides, meanwhile,
continued to implement other
aspects of the cease-fire
agreement signed last Sunday.
Egypt and Israel sent out three
joint teams of soldiers to search
for missing troops in the Sinai
Desert.
Twenty Israeli POWs arrived
at Lod Airport from Cairo 12
hours late because of what Cairo
said was “technical problems.”
The Red Cross said Israel is
expected to return at least 1,500
Egyptian POWs during the diay.
Lazy mailman
sent to jail
LLANDOUGH, Wales (UPI) —
Postman Andrew Chapman got
tired delivering the mail, Cardiff
Crown Court was told Monday.
So, instead of delivering letters
and parcels he took them home
and put them in a shed.
Police said they found more
than 100 undelivered items in the
23-year-old postman’s home.
“On some days,” Chapman
told police, “I didn’t feel like
working.”
Judge John Rutter jailed
Chapman for a year.