The Mercury from Pottstown, Pennsylvania • Page 1

Mercury Pottttown, Pa. (19464) Monday Morning, December 21, 1970 Vol. 40 No 79 Atl 323 3000 Classified 323-7000 Egypt Seeking More Red Aid 52 Page. A COPY A WEEK Saigon Refuses to Allow U.S. Christmas Transport to Land MOSCOW (AP) Vice President Ali Sabry of Egypt led a high-level delegation to Moscow Sunday to request increased military and economic aid from the Soviet Union.

The announcement of his arrival by Tass coincided with a fresh Soviet pledge give round support to the U.A.R. in its struggle against Israeli imperialist Almost simultaneously with the news of arrival at Vnukovo Airport, Tass said a senior Communist party emissary in Cairo had the Soviet steady to back the Egyptians. This seemed to confirm what diplomatic sources have been forecasting in recent that Sabry and his delegation will get pretty much what they want during their eight-day visit. Accompanying the vice presi- Businessman, Woman Die In Area Crash A Spring City businessman and a Phoenixville woman were killed early Saturday morning following a headon collision on Route 724 at Hill Road. Joseph M.

McConnell, 42, 16 Carringan Lane, Spring City and Mrs. Patricia (Villano) Kinzinger, 21, 10 South Spring Lane, Phoenixville were dead on arrival at Phoenixville Hospital. Chester County Coroner Dr. Donald D. Harrop said McConnell died of a crushed chest and Mrs.

death was the result of a fractured skull and crushed chest. Also injured in the accident was Gerald J. Shear, 22, 303 Union Royersford, a passenger in Kinzinger vehicle. He was treated at Phoenixville Hospital for lacerations of the left upper lip and chin and and released in the care of his personal physician. CROSSED LANE Reports indicate McConnell, traveling alone, was heading north on Route 724 when the Kinzinger auto crossed the center line of the highway, hitting McConnell head-on.

Richard Gates, East Pikeland police chief is in charge of the investigation. Troopers Brennen and James Boyd from the Exton Barracks assisted. McConnel was born in Coatesville, the son of Joseph M. and Elizabeth (Lemke) McConnell, 547 Nutt Road. He attended Mont Clare Elementary School and graduated from Phoenixville High School in 1946.

Upon graduation he entered furniture and office equipment business before becoming president of Alert Systems 1326 Charlestown Road. He was a past president of the Phoenixville Jaycees and was the first member of the Phoenixville association to be selected for a state post. A member of First United Methodist Church, he also was a member of Warren Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, Collegeviile, and the Liberty Fire Spring City. Surviving with his widow and parents are four children, Desiree, 16; Scott, 14; Douglas, 11 and Cheri Lynn, 10, all at home. Funeral services will be 11 a.m.

Wednesday from the (Continued on Three) SAIGON (AP) South Vietnamese forces and U.S. combat planes killed nearly 100 North Vietnamese and Viet Cong in a series of weekend actions in South Vietnam, allied commands reported Sunday. Hut Communist command troops, observing the 10th anniversary of the National Liberation Front, bombarded four allied positions with 170 rounds of rockets and mortars, shot down dent were Foreign Minister Mahmoud Riad, Minister of War Muhammed Fawzi and Aziz Sid- ki, minister of Egyptian oil and mineral resources. SPECIAL IMPORTANCE The Egyptian visit took on special importance in view of two approaching deadlines. First, U.N.

mediator Dr. Gunnar V. Jarring is due to report to the Security Council Jan. 5 on his mission to negotiate a Middle East settlement. Exactly one month later the current cease fire expires.

Arab diplomats in Moscow say they expect Israel to rejoin the Jarring talks in New York before the end of the month to avoid being condemned in the report for breaking off the negotiations. The Israelis began boycotting the talks last September, charging that Egypt, with Soviet aid had violated the standstill agreement by installing new anti-aircraft missile sites along the Suez Canal. Sources here said Sabry, Riad and the other delegation members would decide with the Russians on a diplomatic course of action to counteract-the effect of resuming its seat at the U.N. negotiations. But more important for the Egyptians, the informants said, was the impending end of the cease-fire, which Cairo says it will not extend unless Israel consents to a timetable for evacuating occupied Arab territories.

Failing this, the Egyptians feel they need still more armament to prepare for a possible resumption of hostilities, the informants added. Sabry is expected to be received by Communist party chief Leonid I. Brezhnev and Premier Alexei N. Kosygin, men he knows well from his frequent trips to Moscow during the rule of the late Egyptian president, Gamal Abdel Nasser. Sabry is considered to be in Cairo.

Island Girls Warned of Slavery Traps BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) More than 400 girls from the British Seychelles Islands, recruited by the Roman Catholic Church to work here as domestic servants, have been warned against attempts to lure them into the Middle East white slave racket. The warning was given by Father Michel Gillet, 66, a French Jesuit priest who supervises the welfare and obtains employment for them in Lebanon, mainly with Arab families. Father Gillet said his warning follows the disappearance 18 months ago of a young Seychelles girl, Claire Anderson, and failure of all to trace her. lie reported a well-known Beirut underworld character, probably with the connivance of an airport security officer, enticed the girl off her plane as she was about to return home at the end of her contract. SLAVE TRAFFIC believe she has been spirited into the Middle white slave said the priest.

Four other girls from the Seychelles were deported for work permit violations when they got jobs dancing in a Beirut cabaret, he reported. The Seychelles are in the Indian Ocean and have been a British colony since they were seized from the French in 1810. Most of the largely negro population of 49,000 is Roman Catholic. four American aircraft and ambushed a U.S. convoy.

The National Liberation Front is the political arm of the Viet Cong. Allied communiques said 99 North Vietnamese and Viet Cong were killed in eight clashes ranging from the Minh Forest in the Mekong Delta to the far northwestern quarter near the Laotian border. In all, enemy forces launched Okinawan Rioters Burn Cars, School NAHA, Okinawa (AP) nawan rioters burned 82 cars and a guard post and damaged a newly built American school in a four-hour, fire bombing rampage inside the U.S. Kadena air base Sunday after a car driven by an American serviceman hit an Okinawan pedestrian. U.S.

officials said 35 persons were treated for burns and bruises at the U.S. Army hospi- (Continued on Page Three) WARSAW (AP) Communist party boss Wladyslaw Gomulka, President Marian Spychalski and three top government officials resigned Sunday following bloody riots against government-imposed price increases. Gomulka was described as Radio Warsaw said Edward Gierek, considered to be the top economist, was named to replace Gomulka. The broadcast said Gomulka, Index Editorial 4 Focus 6 Spring-Ford 10 Church 12 Feature 27 Social 30 36 TV Schedule 20 Sports 41-44 Boyertown 45 Comics 48 Deaths Charles Zerr, Northumberland; John Link, Birdsboro Rl) Mary McCarraher, Phoenixville; Mrs. Dorothy Gaus, Upper Pottsgrove; Ella Weltmann, Passaic, N.

Anna towicz, 4541 i South James Howard, Norristown; Mary Kerper, Leesport; Ang I Fiorlni, Birdsboro; Mrs. Ella Herbst, New Berlinville; Sheldon Endy, Allentown; Thomas Armstrong, West Chester. Obituaries Page 2 and 3 a total of 18 rocket and mortar attacks overnight Saturday-Sunday but only four of them were regarded as significant because casualties and damage resulted. 5 AMERICANS The weekend actions took the lives of five Americans while 25 others were wounded-including 19 in the crash of a CH46 troop- carrying helicopter. The cause of the helicopter crash was not known.

SAIGON, (AP) The U.S. Air Force sent four military transports to Vietnam on Monday to take 350 American GIs home for Christmas after the South Vietnamese government refused landing clearance for a commercial Boeing 747 jumbo jetliner. An Army spokesman said one of four Air Force Cl41 Starlif- who will be 66 on Feb. 6, quit because of illness. A nique issued later said he was Prof.

Jan Kostrzewski, Polish health minister, said Gomulka had been ill few weeks. Circulatory troubles also have caused temporary sight He said the struck Saturday and panel ordered the Kostrzewski said Gomulka Family of 5, 2 State Wards Die in Blaze GRAFTON, N.H. (AP) All five members of the Maynard Pickard family and two young state wards perished early Sunday when fire destroyed their one-story home off Route 4. Besides Pickard, in his late 30s, and his wife, Bernice, about 30, the victims were their two sons, William, 14, and Raymond. 15, their daughter, Janet, 13, and two small girls named Tibbets.

Firemen said all the victims were found in their beds in the two-room dwelling which was completely gutted when members of the volunteer fire department arrived. Pickard was member of the volunteer department. The fire was discovered at about the same time by a neighbor, Ralph Gove, son of Fire Chief Lawrence Gove, and the crew of a southbound Boston Maine freight train who notified the Danbury Fire Department. Members of both departments arrived at the scene to find the house completely enveloped in flames. In addition to tank trucks, firemen pumped water from the nearby Smith River to extin guish the fire.

Cause of the fire was under investigation by members of the state fire office in Concord. Grafton is about 40 miles northwest of Concord. ters landed Monday morning at Bien Hoa air base 15 miles northeast of Saigon and three more would arrive throughout the day. He said the C141 would fly the soldiers to Travis Air Force Base in California. The 350 GIs were delayed 12 to 24 hours after the chartered Pan American 747 flight was was expected to be hospitalized a lengthy period of Gierek told the nation in a television broadcast that Poland would maintain its close alliance with Moscow.

are going together with the whole great Socialist community and chiefly with our tested friend and ally, the Soviet he said. He added that the party always keep a close link with the working class and with TUSCON, Ari. (AP) Fire swept through the upper eight floors of a hotel crowded with hundreds holiday celebrants early Sunday, killing 28 persons who a fire official said might have been saved by adequate sprinkler and alarm systems. Asst. Fire Chief R.

R. Slagel led newsmen on a tour of the 12-storv hotel, then said: "The Pioneer International Hotel met the minimum fire safety requirements. In my opinion, no one would have died had the building had an adequate sprinkler and alarm detection Flames raced through hallways and stairways so quickly, Slagel said, that many hotel occupants became virtual prisoners in their rooms with no means to escape. Richard Darling, president of the Pioneer Hotel declined to comment on remarks. The Weather Increasing cloudiness today with high in low to mid 40s and low in mid 30s tonight.

Chance of rain 20 per cent today and 60 per cent 'tonight. Winds east erly 10 to 20 miles per hour. Tuesday cloudy with rain likely at night, high in low 40s. FIVE DAY FORECAST Variable cloudiness and seasonably cold Wednesday through Friday, with highs in 30s to near 40, and lows in upper 20s. scrubbed.

The 747 the first jumbo jet ever scheduled to land in Vietnam had been expected to fly the men out of Tan Son Nhut air base on Sunday night. A Pan Am spokesman in New York said his company decided to cancel the 747 flight when the South Vietnamese government up such a roadblock the whole Gierek said the new five-year economic plan to have started in January- wili to be He added: will consult the working The radio illso announced the resignations of: Jaszcuk, the economic czar. Kliszko, considered the Communist ideologist. Firemen- said the cause of which was not immediately part of the fourth through 12th floors, catching many of the 112 asleep. Rescue efforts were hampered by the fact that fire truck ladders reached no further than the eighth floor and.

firemen said, safety nets are useless for heights over three stories. Firemen said two persons leaped from upper floors of the hotel in attempts to escape the flames. One, a middle-aged woman, was killed when she leaped from the seventh floor shortly after screaming to firemen below, still here. still here The other person, a small child, jumped from a fifth story window and was injured critically. Most of the victims were found in their rooms or in hallways of the 41-year-old hotel.

Firemen said death was caused primarily by smoke inhalation and burns. Among the dead were Mr. and Mrs. Harold Steinfeld, who lived in a 12th floor penthouse. Steinfeld, 73, owned the hotel for 30 years before selling it in 1963.

He also owned one of largest department store. More than 30 persons, including 12 firemen, were injured, officials said. About 750 persons, including 650 attending banquets at the hotel, were evacuated after the blaze broke out. there was no way out of Pan Am said it offered to land the plane at either Tan Son Nhut air base in Saigon or Bien Hoa. Both are under the South Vietnamese jurisdiction.

American officials in Saigon quoted South Vietnamese authorities as saying they could not authorize the 747 to land at Tan Son Nhut because of including erosion along the runway. is no question the plane could have landed at either the Pan Am spokesman in New York said. South Vietnamese spokesmen had no immediate comment. The 350 departing men have completed their Vietnam combat tours. The jumbo jet was chartered by the U.S.

Command to clear up a backlog of American GIs waiting to return home for the Christmas Holidays. The Army spokesman said the men had been given early releases of up to 45 days to allow them to be home in time for the holidays. He said some of the men not scheduled for the jumbo also were leaving 18 to 24 hours later than their scheduled times of departure. planes are late because of the Christmas he said. An officer of the 90th Replacement Battalion at Long Binh 12 miles northeast of Saigon said the battalion was running from half a day to a day behind schedule in shipping men home, and some men were being held up two days.

Reports said this had caused tension in the battalion, resulting in some minor scuffles. The 747 had been scheduled to leave San Francisco with tons of Christmas mail and packages for Vietnam and bring the GIs home on the return trip. The Christmas cargo left stranded in San Francisco was expected to be diverted to Vietnam-bound 707 jetliners, possibly delaying delivery up to two days. Strzelecki, regarded as a close associate of Gomulka. Around the time of the announcements of the resignations, a broadcast from Szczecin said workers in the shipyards of that riot-torn city agreed to end their occupation of two main shipyards.

Earlier broadcasts reported a return to normal tn the Baltic tri-city area where the riots started almost a week ago. Report Tells Of Disastrous Railroad Loss WASHINGTON (AP) The Penn Central Railroad, now in reorganization under the Bankruptcy Act, lost nearly all of a $21-million investment in a disastrous project to establish a worldwide air carrier service, according to a Staff Report of the House Banking Committee. Chairman Wright Patman, D- making public Sunday the report to the committee, said it presents of the and at times one of the most of the American business community that has ever been revealed in an official The report contends that Penn Central money continued to be poured into Executive Jet Aviation, (EJA) for about five years beginning in 1961. despite continued EJA losses, doubts as to whether plans for it could be made to conform with Civil Aviation Board requirements and in the face of repeated recommendations that its management be shaken up. Woven into the report Is an account of a suit against EJA by J.

W. Ricciardi of Miami for pay and expenses. Portions of depositions taken in connection with the suit are quoted in the report. Ricciardi stated in his deposition that the president of EJA, retired Air Force Brig. Gen.

Olbert F. Lasssiter, offered him employment and asked him, among otlier things, to arrange female companionship for Revan and an investment adviser to the railroad, Charles J. Hodge, another retired general. Enemy Celebrates Anniversary By Bombing 4 Allied Positions SANTA HITS THE ROAD Santa Claus made a special appearance Sunday in the boroughs of Palm, East Greenville, Pennsburg and Red Hill. Driving along Route 29 in a sleigh drawn by 10 ponies, he distributed 28 crates of oranges to bystanders along the way.

The tour was sponsored by Red Hill Savings and Loan Association and Kurney Spaar, Palm, who began the annual ride 18 years ago and who plays Santa Claus. There was no snow on the road as the procession passed through Pennsburg borough limit Sunday, but Santa brought a 14-wheeled sleigh to get around that problem. (Mercury Staff Photo) Party Boss, 4 Polish Officials Resign Crowded Hotel Burns Killing 28 Persons.