July 17, 1971

diplomats in Washington and at UN, predicting Communist China will replace Nationalists in UN this fall, say Nixon's freedom of maneuver on issue has been sharply reduced by announcement he will visit China; various comments suggest announcement enhances chances of Peking's admission

Commerce Dept repts personal income, June, up by $20.2-billion annual rate, with huge increase almost entirely caused by '1-shot' payment of retroactive Soc Security increase; without this factor, rise would have been about $3.5-billion, little less than normal; graph

incoming winds and tides dump new oil on beach after city workers clear Coney Island of spilled oil; beach closed to swimmers; periodic inspections of waters off beach from USCG helicopters indicate that substantial amts of oil may drift toward South Beach and that heavy oil slick is apparently moving toward Gravesend Bay; Lindsay describes situation as appalling; is upset that although spillage occurred July 14, city was not notified until late the next day; he and other officials agree that spillage was caused by human failure aboard Navy ship; illus; map; Navy agrees to pay cleanup costs; Lindsay asks for better notification procedure

conv, London; Atty Gen Mitchell, Chief Justice Burger and Lord Widgery, Brit Lord Chief Justice, s; illus

UTU strikes Union Pacific and Southern Ry over work rules, effectively bringing traffic to halt on 2 lines by day's end; union spokesman repts strike is 'going extremely smoothly'; notes union intends to strike C&NW, Southern Pacific and N&W next wk; rrs unilaterally impose new work rules; Penn Central reptdly lays off over 6,000 workers; illus; map

Repr McKay hon, dinner, Ogden; Repr Mills s

Nixon seems to have significantly defused criticism of Vietnam war with announcement of plan to visit Communist China; Mansfield says that Nixon's statement 'could very substantially help to end the war'; says China would very well be 3d party behind Vietcong peace proposals; Sen Scott says Hanoi will now be concerned over how long China will support her; Sen Javits says announcement makes troop withdrawal before May '72 likely

FPC approves ceiling of 26c for each thousand cu ft of gas produced in southern La under contracts dated after Oct 1, 68 and 22.375c for earlier contracts; offers gas producers incentive plan that would allow them even higher prices after special goal of new gas discoveries has been achieved and after certain amts has been placed in interstate commerce; decision is expected to result in substantially higher prices to gas consumers, including NY consumers; Amer Pub Gas Assn gen mgr C S Wheatley is skeptical about shortage; says rise will mean additional revenues of at least $4-billion to producing cos and consumers can expect to pay 5c to 6c more for each thousand cu ft of gas, telephone int; contends comm has based its recommendations on data submitted by Amer Gas Assn without verifying statistics; notes there was 33% discrepancy between assn figures and those compiled by pipeline cos; comm acknowledges discrepancy, noting that its own staff experts testified as to reliability of assn data

J Reston, in dispatch from Peking, repts Chinese officials express pleasure over Nixon planned visit but offer no information about talks between Kissinger and Chou; repts Peking radio broadcast text of joint announcement without comment; discusses Chinese hard line on issues of UN seat, Taiwan and Japan; sees Nixon move to normalize ties encouraging other nations to support Peking's entrance into UN, repts Peking diplomats see Nixon move to normalize ties encouraging other nations to support Peking's entrance into UN

11 riders are slightly injured as smoky fire forces 900 morning rush riders to flee subways in Lexington Av IRT tunnel S of 14th St; fire started near 3d rail in area of 10th St, short-circuiting power; track power is shut off completely for over 3 hrs between Grand Central and Bklyn Bridge stations; Lindsay visits scene, questions competence of MTA and 'state adm' to manage city's subways; notes Chief O'Hagan rept that NYCTA delayed cutting power in tunnel for 15 mins; NYCTA officials rept they kept power on as safety measure to permit backed-up trains to move to station exits and avoid danger of riders climbing down to tracks; Ronan to probe charges; illus

Western White House officials say that China developments have no direct relation with Vietnam war

govts of most of China's neighbors appear to welcome news of Nixon visit; Taiwan dismayed; statements by Nationalist Chinese Premier Yen, Japanese Premier Sato, S Vietnamese Pres Nguyen Van Thieu, Vice Pres Nguyen Cao Ky and Gen Duong Van Minh cited; visit is concern of domestic pol in various nations, including Australia; Australian opposition leader G Whitlam, in Tokyo from Peking, says Prime Min McMahon has been 'bypassed and outpaced' in statesmanship, McMahon says Whitlam had been unaware while in Peking that Kissinger was also there; suggests US follows trail blazed by Australia in trying to normalize relations with China; S Korean Min Yong Shik Kim says his Govt will watch situation closely