The News Journal from Wilmington, Delaware • Page 6

6 Evening Journal, Wilmington, Thundoy, April 26, 1979 Showdown on Independence for Quebec May Come Soon By CHARLES HANLEY MONTREAL (AP) Final hands are being dealt in an unpredictable and perhaps dangerous poker game over the future of Quebec Province. Premier Rene Levesque's se paratist Parti Quebecois, which has governed the largely French-speaking province for the last 2l2 years, is increasingly confident it can win a referendum expected next fall on "sovereignty-association." That is the PQ's idea for making Quebec an independent nation while retaining free trade and other economic ties with the English-speaking provinces of Canada. If the Liberal Party government of Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau is re-elected in the national election May 22, the showdown hand may come sooner. For Trudeau, although himself a French Canadian and a native of Montreal, is staunchly anti-separatist. This bustling, cosmopolitan city on the St.

Lawrence is the focus of the French-English confrontation in Quebec. Although 80 percent of the province's 6 million people are French-speaking, well over a third of the 2.2 million Montrealers are English-speaking. Much of the heat generated by their historic debate centers on the commonplace Steinberg's supermarkets, for example. If you're looking for dog food in a Steinberg's in Westmount, a mostly English-speaking Montreal district, you must look for the sign "Nourriture pour Animaux." The language law the PQ put on the books, Bill 101, specifies that display signs must be in the French language only. "It's not fair," complained one English-speaking woman shopper.

"I just had to help a poor man who couldn't find the coffee," "They should learn French," said a French Canadian in the next aisle. "Quebec is French." "After independence," says one PQ leader, Paul Unterberg, "we won't need a Bill 101, any more than New York needs a law saying signs must be in English." The PQ plans to ask in the referendum for a mandate to negotiate sovereignty-association with the rest of Canada. A poll published last month indicated 50 percent of Qucbecers would vote "yes," though only 19 percent favored secession at any cost. Trudeau flatly rules out negotiation. And after some initial waffling, his opponent in the current national election campaign, Progressive Conservative leader Joe Clark, also declared he would not negotiate the breakup of Canada.

Unterberg, one of 15 members of the PQ's executive council, says if the rest of Canada rejects sovereignty-association, "we would say, 'OK, we'll go it We would go back to the people and say, 'We are going to become independent on our But Unterberg insists Canada will realize it must agree to an economic union with a sovereign Quebec. Industry-heavy Ontario, whose factories sell much of their goods in Quebec, "has far more to lose than we do," he claimed. Economists dispute this. "Quebec is the Canadian province that most needs the Canadian market," said Caroline Pcstieau of the non-partisan CD. Howe Re- search Institute in Montreal.

"It's politically unthinkable" for Quebec to go it alone, she said. All agree, however, that a complete break would cost both Quebec and Canada dearly. The reasons many of the 6 milllion Qucbecers want to get out of the 112-year-old Canadian confederation are deeply rooted and diverse. But they stem from the linguistic and cultural differences between the English and French Canadians and the longtime contention of French Canadians that the English-speakers who dominate business, industry and government discriminate against them. Hunt Is On For Volatile Picric Acid Idaho's Primary Race Is Already Cranking Up Plan for Study Of Substitutes Is Criticized Knievel as running mates and would ban liquor, tobacco farming, Sunday sports and almost all Sunday television, save for several hours of By STEPHEN C.

SMITH BOISE, Idaho (AP) Idaho's presidential primary is heating up early with people like General Magnifico of California, the Prophet Elijah of New York and Americus Liberatos of Valentine, Neb. They're flocking into the race to oppose Jimmy Carter. The secretary of state's office has a file an inch thick with names and addresses of people wanting a shot at the White House by way of the primary, still more than a year away. "I kind of started this file as a joke," said Elections Administrative Secretary Penny Ysursa, paging through letters and photographs from potential candidates. "Since 1976, I would say we get at least 30 of these a year." She said many of those entering the primary, set for the third Tuesday of May 1980, also are listed in other primary states.

General Magnifico mailed a picture showing herself decked out in a black uniform with medals. She claims to be commanding general of the Marine Corps and deputy president of the United States, among other things. Some list their campaign platforms. The National Statesman Party, for example, is promoted by John Sprague of Boise. He wants to put the country on the gold standard and mint $20 coins emblazoned with likenesses of Gens.

Douglas Mac Arthur and George Patton. He's promoting Anita Bryant and Evel unnsuan programming. Sprague also wants to clean up the state of Nevada, which has been "aiding and abetting our Communist enemy by contributing to the delinquency of our nation." The party's motto: "Return mom to the kitchen and the fireside, burn those credit cards now!" Then there's the platform proposed by Ira R. Waggoner, an independent from Champaign, 111. He would ban all university sports, lower gasoline prices to 25 cents per gallon, graze cattle on icebergs and occupy Mexico with an army.

Despite their efforts, there are only two ways candidates can get on the ballot. Secretary of State Pete Cenarrusa may list them after consulting election officers of other states. Or a candidate may acquire signatures equaling 3 percent of the number of votes Idahoans cast in the last presidential election. That means candidates would need 10,322 signatures. "We just send them the information about getting on the ballot and never hear from most of them again," Mrs.

Ysursa said. That didn't work with Tom Alioto of San Francisco. He claimed Idaho's election laws unconstitutionally deny him his right to candidacy. But he's invited the state to settle out of court. NAMES IN THE NEWS Mrs.

Shaw Says Hubby's Not That Kind of Guy investigation of New Castle County school transportation problems earlier this year produced little of substance, Bennett pointed out. "Somebody stands up and says we have a problem and the answer is let's appoint a committee and study it," Bennett said. Members of the new committee indicated their inquiry would focus on New Castle County but would also deal with other school districts. McBride said he had personal knowledge of teacher absenteeism and accompanying problems with substitute teachers. He says his son's teacher is absent "20 percent of the time." Maxwell, a teacher, fares better.

He has a long-term substitute who replaces him for one afternoon class when he is in Dover. "She does a damn good job," Maxwell said. The county school board recent-' ly added a local supplement to the pay rate for long-term substitutes, raising the salary from $27 to $10 per day. But most experienced substitutes still earn $27; less qualified replacements earn even less. In most instances, substitutes are paid from state money.

For next year, $750,000 is budgeted but Connor has introduced a bill to raise the pay statewide for substitute teachers. In part, the House probe was prompted by Rep. Richard Sin-cock, R-Fairfax, who was outraged over a New Castle County school principal's letter to the community saying the school is "desperately in need of citizens who are interested in substituting." Sincock was named to the committee as was Rep. Al O. Plant, D-Wilmington.

One legislator suggested substitute teachers are waging an unofficial strike, refusing to work because of the low pay. McBride added another reason for teacher absenteeism: "I really believe some teachers have a real fear of going to school. Some of the teachers are being intimidated." McBride said the committee needs subpoena power in case school officials refuse to provide data, and to assure witnesses won't face retaliation. Dennis Carey, administrative assistant to the superintendent of New Castle County schools, said he is attempting to accommodate the committee. Carey couldn't say whether teacher absenteeism has significantly increased.

He said, however, that finding qualified substitute teachers "has always been a problem," adding that the district "readily endorses" any pay increase for By BILL BOYLE Dover Bureau DOVER A chairman of the House Education Committee and the speaker of the state House of Representatives are at odds over the need for a special committee to investigate substitute teachers. Speaker John P. Ferguson, D-Churchmans Road, has named five New Castle County legislators, three of whom are or have been associated with the school system, to look into problems reported with substitute teachers. These problems include absenteeism, a difficulty in finding substitutes, low pay and substitutes unprepared with lesson plans. The chairman of the House Education Committee, Rep Edward J.

Bennett, D-Dover, said creation of the new group is unnecessary, "completely rejects the lower two counties" which have the same problems and "went beyond established policy and circumvented my expertise." It's "another New Castle County witch hurt," Bennett said. The new committee met for the first time yesterday, decided to hold two public hearings, and back up its investigation with subpoena power. The committee's chairman, Rep. David B. McBride, D-Middle-boro Manor, is a former Conrad School Board member.

Two other members, Rep. Robert L. Maxwell, D-Lancaster Village, and Rep. Robert T. Connor, R-Penn Acres, are employed by the county school district.

McBride said he couldn't speculate on what legislation the committee might produce until after the hearings, scheduled for May 7 in Wilmington and May 10 in Dover. "We might find educational quality suffers with substitutes," he said. A House Overview Committee $6.7 Million I'ackage Settles Fire Suits NEWl'ORT, Ky. (AP) About 250 survivors and relatives of victims from the Beverly Hills Supper Club fire will be dividing a $6.7 million settlement approved by two courts. Campbell County Circuit Judge John Diskin and U.S.

District Judge approved the settlement, agreed to by the defendants, Union Light, Heat Power and Market Insurance Co. The owners of the club, which burned in May 1977 and killed 165 people, had settled previously for $3 million. However, several more claims remain unsettled, including those against 900 insurance companies and 60 wire and aluminum firms. mw's A By ANDREW ROSENTHAL Associated Press Bomb experts in at least 16 states, including Delaware, have been quietly hunting down and destroying supplies of picric acid, a potentially explosive substance being found on dusty shelves in schools, chemistry labs and doc. tors' offices.

Federal officials in Washington said yesterday they are preparing a nationwide warning that the sub stance can be hazardous when it crystallizes. School have been temporarily evacuated in some states and searches have been ordered for the chemical in some areas. Developed in the late 18th cen. tury as a yellow dye, picric acid was used by the military until World War II as its primary explq sive, according to Robert Dexter, chief of the explosives branch of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol.

Tobac co and Firearms. After a series of explosives later blamed on the chemical, the acid was replaced bv TNT, he said. In liquid form, picric acid is used in laboratories for a variety of experimental purposes, includ. ing separation and identification of elements contained in other substances and as a dye to pre pare slides of animal and plant Us: sues. But a pint container of crystallized picric acid can explode with more power than a pound of TNT, said Dexter.

The official said his agency is preparing a bulletin for law en. forccment agencies on the dan. gers of aging picric acid. Dexter and other experts say picric acid is most dangerous when allowed to decay and come into contact with metal. In such cases, an explosion can be touched off simply by unscrewing the lid of its container, Dexter said.

Wilmington police Capt. Lawrence Curtis, whose men have found two pounds of picric acid, first heard about the chemical from the Philadelphia police bomb squad. Last month, his men found a quarter pound of the acid at Wilmington Medical Center and one and a half pounds in high schools The alert began in January, when a high school science teacher in Brooklyn, N.Y., found that a large quantity had crystallized But the alert has spread only by word of mouth among law enforcement agencies. Local members of the U.S. Treasury's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms said they hadn't even heard of the chemical.

Curtis took the bottles he found, some of them a decade old, to the police pistol range on Cherry Island, and detonated them with blasting caps. He said the bottles blew up like "a high-order explosive." Although the chemical has been removed from schools, Curtis said hospitals still have some for laboratory use. But technicians are now aware that if picric acid usually in liquid form ervapo-rates and crystallizes, it forms a potential bomb. "If you knock it over, or drop it off a shelf, it can blow up," Curtis said. He said the chemical detonates at 300 degrees centigrade, and is 95-per-cent impact sensitive hit with a bullet.

Outside the city, Curtis recently alerted the State Police bomb squad, headed by Lt. Wayne D. Broadwater. The lieutenant has initiated a statewide search, aided by the Department of Public Instruction, but results of their search were not immediately available. Hospitals have also been alerted.

Curtis and Broadwater say if crystallized picric acid is discovered it is best to make sure no one touches it, and call the nearest police agency. Officials warn against persons trying to move or dispose of the acid themselves. "If people will leave it on the shelves until our personnel can come and dispose of it, the chemical is safe," said Jean Phillips of the state police in Louisiana, where picric acid has been found at 56 high schools. In Pennsylvania, picric acid has been removed from more than 350 schools in a statewide disposal project. Margaret Trudeau accusing reporters of trying to bribe hospital workers to talk about the 71-year-old actor's condition.

"I haven't lied to the press about anything, but they will not take our reports as truthful," Wayne's statement said. "They (reporters) sneak around trying to bribe people to say something that won't coincide with the official report. I don't know why it is necessary, but I guess that is modern-day 'news "It used to be considered yellow journalism. Anyway, nave a happy day," the statement said. Wayne could not be reached to elaborate on the bribery claim.

Argentine newspaper serialization of Margaret Tru-deau's memoirs has been halted while a federal judge decides whether their publication violates an Argentine law prohibiting public advocacy of drug abuse. The newspaper La Razon started publishing excerpts of Mrs. Trudcau's life story, "Beyond Reason," Monday. The paper complied with the order of Judge Jorge A Valer-ga Araoz yesterday, but the paper called it "an affront to the right of citizens to be fully and truthfully informed." The first excerpt told about Mrs. Trudeau's experimentation with a variety of drugs in Morocco during her "flower child" period before meeting and marrying Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst Shaw denies that her police officer husband attended a bachelor party that ended in a raucous brawl at a lesbian bar the night before their wedding.

"It's really upsetting," said Mrs. Shaw. "We don't have friends whose idea of having a good time is going out beating up women." On the night before their wedding, her husband Bernard was not living it up with his pals but sitting with members of the wedding party at a local restaurant, she said. The couple was married April 1. A number of police officers were reported to have been members of a bachelor party that barged into Peg's Place about midnight and harassed customers.

Shaw's name had been linked to the party in stories published in the San Francisco Chronicle and the San Francisco Examiner. The district attorney's office and the police department are investigating the incident and two persons, policeman Daniel Marr, 25, and a civilian, Kevin Guerin, 24, have been charged with disturbing the peace and battery. Actor John Wayne has lashed out at unnamed members of the media after being sent home from a hospital where he was treated for bronchitis. Wayne, treated for one week at Hoag Memorial Hospital, left unnoticed yes- 7 17-Year-Old Held In Rape, Beating Of Elderly Woman John Wayne terday and later issued a statement through a spokeswoman, Marcy Mobley, Squeezing Out Lemon-Aid By JANE BROOKS Dover Bureau DOVER A 17-year-old on leave from the Ferris School for Boys has been accused of raping, beating and robbing an elderly and disabled Camden woman the day after Easter. Daniel Lee Robinson, of Star Hill, near Camden, was arraigned here yesterday in Magistrate's Court 7 on charges of first-degree rape, burglary and robbery.

Robinson was arrested by state police yesterday at Ferris, where he had returned voluntarily April 22 after a 10-day furlough. After arraignment, he was sent to Bridge House in Wilmington to await trial in Superior Court, where he will be tried as an adult on the rape charge. According to police, the youth forced his way into the trailer home of the 73-year-old, partially blind and crippled woman, where he beat her, raped her and fled with about $30. The victim, using her walker, managed to reach the front door and began screaming for help. Police said the youth returned, kicked the woman to the floor and ran.

The victim was taken to Kent General Hospital where she was treated for cuts and bruises. Robinson was serving time at Ferris on Family Court sentences for several burglary counts, according to a state police spokesman. He was released for Easter on April 12, and according to police faces several additional charges concerning burglaries in the Camden-Wyoming and Dover areas committed during his vacation. 4 Police traced the suspect by clothing left at the scene of the rape. Yesterday, general manager Alan Corry offered her a new car.

"I've asked her to give us the car again," Corry said. "I'll give her substitute transportation and we'll take it to Orangeburg where they have equipment we don't have here. "If they don't fix it this time, I'll give her a new car for the difference in price. Volkswagen won't do it, but we have to deal with the public. I'll give her the money back.

I'll even pay the sales tax." Corry said he feels certain Volkswagen's area research and development center will prevail and fix the leaks. Miss Padilla, a health educator, remained unconvinced, but said she'd think over getting a brand new, $8,400 top-of-the-line Volkswagen for the $1,400 difference. What did Corry think of her protest" on busy Bloomfield Avenue? "It was one of our busiest nights. They slowed down when they saw her." NEWARK, N.J. (AP) Danya Padilla's fight over her "Leaky Lemon" auto bore fruit yesterday with the offer of a new automobile from the people who failed to fix her car eight times.

The car she bought for $7,000 last October had everything: air conditioning, AM-FM stereo, front wheel drive and running water. "When it rains outside, it pours inside. Through the doors, the windows, the sunroof, under the dashboard," she said. Miss Padilla got her Champagne Edition Dasher from Globe Volkswagen of Fairfield last Oct. 14.

"I've given them the car eight times to repair it a total of 51 days and each time, they've given it back saying the water leaks are fixed," said the 28-year-old Montclair woman. She tried writing, calling and appearing in person at the dealer's and importer's offices. Tuesday, she decided to park the car, draped with vinyl lemon cutouts, in front of the dealer's office..