St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 1

On Today's Editorial Page For Safe Drinking Water rditiiriul Allowance Depleted OU FINAL VOL.96 NO. 323 1974, SI. Louis PiMI-Dispalrh SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1974 Suggested Horn? Delivery i 90 Month minimiit Cordial I KJi STAT K'S 1 I control of strategic nuclear weapons and the Middle East crisis to be the main subjects of the meeting. United States officials had said that President Gerald R. Ford certainly would tell Soviet Communist Party leader Leonid I.

Brezhnev that it was very important to exercise restraint in both the Middle East and Southeast Asia. There was no expectation of results for the unexpected mention of Southeast Asia, although tension has been rising there. President Nguyen Van Thieu's regime in South Vietnam is increasing- By RICHARD DUDMAN Chief Washington Correspondent VLADIVOSTOK, USSR, Nov. 23 -The 24-hour American-Soviet summit conference got off to a favorable start Saturday afternoon as a good-natured meeting of two world leaders intent on accomplishing something of substance. Secretary of State Henry A.

Kissinger said he expected the conference to be a success, observing that the Russians "don't come all this way for a confrontation." Both sides said they expected the ly shaky, and open warfare continues in Cambodia. The two leaders began their discussions within a half hour of President Ford's arrival at Vozdvizhenka Airport, 64 miles north of Vladivostok. They started their discussions on a 12-car electric train that carried them for one hour and 40 minutes along the easternmost stretch of the Trans-Siberian Railroad to the conference site, Okeanskiy Sanitorium in the outskirts of Vladivostok. Aboard the train, Valentin Zorin, noted Moscow television and radio commentator whose views are usually accepted as authoritative, said the conference was far more than just a get-acquainted meeting. "I don't agree it is just to shake hands," he said.

"I believe they meet for a discussion of fundamental problems existing between the U.S. and the USSR such as strategic weapons. There will be matters of substance. I believe both leaders have a chance to settle problems all Formal talks began at 6:10 p.m., two hours after the presidential plane, Air Force One, had touched down, and after Mr. Ford had had a 15-minute swim in the heated sea water of a pool at his dacha in the sanitarium compound.

Six aids on each side joined the start of the first formal meeting. But after a TURN TO PAGE 7, COL. 3 Fora Brezhnev VLADIVOSTOK, USSR, Nov. 23 (UPI) Off to a good start in their first meeting, President Gerald R. Ford and Soviet leader Leonid I.

Brezhnev struck a joking "deal" ttfday to solve the snow problems of Washington, D.C. It all started when Mr. Ford, riding in a posh Russian train across the frozen Siberian countryside toward the site of the summit meeting, looked out the window and asked Brezhnev how much snow falls in Moscow. Brezhnev replied: "It changes from year to year. It changes a lot.

Sometimes a half meter (19.5 inches) falls in one night." "We have a snow problem in Washing sable hat given him before his departure on his Far East trip by Soviet Ambassador Anatoly V. Dobrynin. (AP Wirephoto) DRESSED FOR SIBERIA: President Gerald R. Ford being welcomed at a Soviet military air base near Vladivostok Saturday by Soviet Communist party leader Leonid I. Brezhnev.

The President is wearing a Hijackers Kill Hostage On Jet PLO Is Recognized By General Assembly In Snow Deal ton," Mr. Ford said. "We don't get too much, but it is a problem when it comes. It really handicaps the city, but we don't have the equipment to handle it. We don't have enough snow plows.

And we don't have people who know how to drive in the city snow." Brezhnef laughed, waggled a cigarette in his left hand and said: "Ah! That will be our first deal! We send you snowplow." Mr. Ford and other United States and Soviet officials laughed. Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei A. Gromyko raised his head and said: "Yes, yes, and at a good low price." dors of the United States and Western European countries to ask their help in saving the lives of the hostages. He did not indicate what sort of action he wanted them to take.

The Tunisian officials who admitted planting the false story said that in fact an official Palestine Liberation Organization delegation had arrived from Cairo in the early hours of the morning but brought only one of the 13 prisoners. The official said the hijackers became extremely irate when they discovered the deception and told the control tower negotiators that they would carry out their threat to start executing the hostages. The three dissident Palestinian guerillas had repeatedly postponed their deadline for the moment wten they threatened to begin shooting their 41 passengers, one at a time. At 8 a.m. a man emerged from the TURN TO PAGE 7, COL.

3 from a year ago, and the auto companies say they will continue to trim production in proportion to sales declines. United Auto Workers officers say that means more layoffs. Ford said Friday it was cutting production at 1 1 of 20 car and truck plants and most of 45 manufacturing plants for up to five weeks between Thanksgiving and March 1. That will eliminate the production of 94,000 cars and 34,000 trucks at Ford plants and cause the temporary layoff of 32,500 workers. TUNIS, Nov.

23 (AP) Palestinian hijackers Saturday killed one of 41 hostages aboard the captive VC-10 British jetliner and threatened to shoot another if demands for release of imprrisoned Palestinians were not met. The hijackers, angered at a false Tunisian government report that 13 Palestinian prisoners had been flown in from Cairo to meet one of their demands, shot the hostage in the open door of the plane and let the body drop to the ground. Tunisian Foreign Minister Habib Chatti told an airport press conference that the hostage was dead. Reporters had seen the man fall from an open door of the plane after a shot was fired. The official Tunisian news agency TAP identified the dead hostage as Werner Gustav Kehl, 43 years old, a Zurich bank director.

The Foreign Minister said he was calling an urgent meeting of ambassa off the assault of the forces of darkness than today." Diplomatic sources said the practical effect of te Assembly votes was to grant a mantle of legitimacy to the PLO the umbrella organization for Palestinian guerrilla groups. Arab leaders meeting in Rabat, Morocco, several weeks ago declared the group the "sole legitimate representative" of the Palestinians. Israel contended that a new state for 1,500,000 Palestinian refugees would mean the destruction of its own country, It has always denounced the PLO as terrorists and refused to meet them anywhere but "on tahe battlefield." The resolution did not specify where the Palestinian state should be located or what territory it should include. The vote granting observer status to Drop In Home Interest Rates WASHINGTON, Nov. 23 (UPI) -Home buyers will get a break on federally insured mortgage loans starting Monday, when FHA and VA interest ceilings go down to 9 per cent from 9.5 per cent.

The reduction was announced Friday by Development of Housing and Urban Development Secretary James T. Lynn. The interest ceiling applies to all mortgage loans insured by HUD's Federal Housing Administration, about 16 per cent of the towal. However, it is a key indicator of interest rates charged by mortgage bankers and thrift institutions. "Lower interest rates mean lower monthly costs for home buyers and more money flowing into houseing," Lynn said.

"It is a heartening move by HUD. It is amove in the direction we hope will be general," said a spokesman for the National Association of Home Builders. The new government ceilings apply to homes costing or less. The average cost for a new home in October was $35,700. The decrease will mean a monthly saving of $13 on a $36,000 home mortgage, Lynn seid.

Ford will close or curtail operations at nine assembly plants next month. It will idle 22,500 workers temporarily, 3000 indefinitely. Ford said the cutbacks will affect plants at Kansas City; San Jose, Norfolk, Dearborn, Metuch-en, N.J.; St. Thomas, Canada; Wayne, Mahwah, N.J., and Louisville. Earlier Friday, American Motors said it would suspend Gremlin and Hornet as- TURN TO PAGE 7, COL.

5 Compiled From Newt Service! UNITED NATIONS, N.Y., Nov. 23 -The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) began a new phase of its existence Saturday, armed with United Nations recognition of its legitimacy and a pledge to continye its guerrilla struggle. The General Assembly Friday night concluded its 10-day debate on Palestine by overwhelmingly voting 89-to-8 with 37 abstentions to endorse creation of an independentnation in the Middle East for the refugees uprooted by the birth of Israel 26 years ago. The United States and Israel voted against the resolution that supported the right of Palestinian refugees to return to homes "from which they have been displaced and uprooted." The Assembly voted also to give the Yassir Arafat-led PLO guerrillas permanent observer status at the United Nations, a decision many diplomats said opens the way for all freedom movements to gain representation. PLO officials said that although they welcomed the world-wide support in the General Asembly, they would not drop their armed struggle.

"Without the.military struggle, we would not have achieved what we have," said delegation spokesman Nabil Shaath. "If we now stop on the resolutions, the chances are we will be allowed to sit there and be forgotten. So far we have not liberated one inch of our territory." Israels Ambassador Yosef Tkoah told the Assembly after the vote, "The sun appears to have set on the United Nations." He said that despite the votes, "At no time has the people of Israel felt more certain of the justice of its own cause then At no time has it been more steadfast and more united in warding Auto Driven By Fugitive Hits Car, Killing Woman Massive Layoff Of Workers Sweeping Automotive Industry An automobile driven by an escaped convict and being chased by police, struck another car at Holly Hills and Vermont Avenues early Saturday, killing a woman and seriously injuring her husband. The convict escaped serious injury when officers pulled him from his burning car. Pronounced dead at the scene was Mrs.

Janet Prag, 30 years old, of the 500 blocks of Jeffords Street, Lemay. Her husband John, 38, an employe of a fire door company, is in City Hospital with head and multiple internal injuries. The convict, Ray Milentz, 31, is being the PLOwas 95-to-17, with 10 abstentions. Meanwhile, UN Secretary General Kurt Waldheim leaves tonight on a mission aimed at easing tension in the Middle East. UN sources said he would make a quck trip to Syria, Israel and Egypt, probably returning by midweek for Security Council meetings on UN peacekeeping operations on the Israeli-Syrian front.

The six-month mandate of the 1200-man UN Disengagement Observer Force manning the Golan Heights buffer zone runs out at the end of next week. Despite reports that Syria opposes it, some Security Council members predicted that last-minute agreement would be achieved on a six-month extension. treated at City Hospital for a head injury. He and Henry Blake, 27, inmates at the Missouri Penitentiary, escaped from City Hall here Thursday afternoon. As honor farm inmates, they had been brought here to attend a conference on rehabilitation and therapy.

Blake is still at large. Given information by St. Louis police that MilentZ might visit a home in the Lemay area, St. Louis County Detectivs Thomas Gilyon and Arva Lee were in the 3600 block of Risch Avenue. They spotted Milentz about 1 15 a.m.

and followed him northward for a few blocks. Then Milentz attempted to evade the officers, driving into the city at speeds up to 90 miles per hour. The detectives said Milentz failed to observe a stop sign as he sped north on Vermont and struck the Prag car broadside. Mrs Prag was thrown from the vehicle and struck a mail box. Her husband was thrown 53 feet from the car.

Milentz's auto overturned end-over-end three times, struck a building at the northeast corner of Holly Hills and Vermmont, caromed off three parked cars and came to rest on its tip. Its gasoline tank exploded and the car was engulfed in flames as Milentz was pulled free. Milentz was booked as a prison escapee, suspected of manslaughter, felonious wounding, careless and reckless driving, five counts of destruction of private property, and possession of marijuana, which police said was found on his person. Police are continuing their investigation into ownership of the automobile Milentz was diving. He was serving a seven-year sentence for assaulting a police officer, and Blake was under 10-year sentence for armed robbery.

Both originally are from St. Louis. Leeches Are Back CHICAGO, Nov. 23 (UPI) Inflation and shortages have taken their toll, but leeches, that old-time cure for black eyes, are back on the shelves. Sargent's drug store, in the Chicago Loop since 1852, recently posted a large sign: "Leeches now available here again." "I got this shipment of 100 leeches from a London, England, firm which specializes in hard-to-find items, and I expect it to last about six weeks before I have to reorder," said manager Harvey Snitman.

Four years ago leeches cost $1 each, now tVy go for $5 apiece, he said. DETROIT, Nov. 23 (AP)-Massive worker layoffs have swept relentlessly through the automobile industry with all four United States auto makers slashing production in response to declining sales. Cutbacks announced by the Ford Motor Co. and American Moters Corp.

will boost December unemployment rolls to 178,000 auto workers, more than a quarter of the industry's 700,000 blue-collar work force. Nearly half the furloughs are for indefinite periods. December layoffs will affect 61 per cent of the hourly workers at Chrysler 24 per cent at American Motors, 20 per cent at Ford and 19 per cent at General Motors Corp. Observers predict that the layoffs will climb still higher in the coming weeks with an expected further drop in sales. In Pittsburgh, U.S.

Steel Corp. disclosed Friday it was laying off 4300 more employes and banking several additional blast furnaces this weekend because of the coal strike. The latest announcement brought to 18,000 the number of U.S. Steel employes laid off since the start of the strike. Other major steel companies said they would wait until next week to reassess production and employment schedules, apparently holding off to see whether there would be a resumption of coal contract negotiations in Washington this weekend.

New model sales are off 30 per cent Chance Of Rain Official forecast for St. Louis and vicinity: Chance of showers tonight and cooler, with a low temperature of 30 to 35; considerable cloudiness and cooler tomorrow with high around 40. Partly cloudy Monday and Tuesday and a chance for showers Wednesday; highs in the upper 50s or lower 60s Monday and Tuesday and around 50 Wednesday; lows Show Joking At Summit probably In the 30s. Othtr Weather Informptlon on Pug JA 1 Avenues early Saturday. The crash ended a high-speed chase by St.

Louis County Police. (Photo by Bob Woerheide) FATAL CRASH: Fire from an exploding gasoline tank engulfs an automobile driven by a Missouri Penitentiary escapee after it had struck another car, killing one of the occupcnts at Holly Hills and Vermont 1.