January 10, 1973

White House reaffirms opposition to such controls; Repr Patman says he will study possibility of requiring controls on prices of unprocessed food

Pres Pompidou, in Jan 9 news conf, denounces scheduled Paris visit of 5 Socialist heads of govt as an 'intrusion into French internal pol' and therefore 'perfectly inopportune'; says remarks are not merely directed at Israeli Premier Meir but at others as well; others planning to attend Socialist Internatl conf are Swedish Premier Palme, Danish Premier Jorgensen, Finnish Premier Sorsa and Austrian Chancellor Kreisky; Pompidou calls them 'party militants' and says they will have no official contacts with French authorities; his apparently calculated expression of inhospitality seen as evidence of deepening concern in French Govt circles over parliamentary elections on Mar 4 and 11; electoral alliance of Communists, Socialists and left-wing liberals is holding narrow lead over Pompidou's Gaullist and other supporters in public-opinion polls; Pompidou says it is conceivable that visiting heads of govt were not aware of time of elections but says that F Mitterrand, French Socialist chief and deputy chmn of Socialist Internatl, was certainly aware of coincidence; rejects notion that his forthcoming visit to USSR for talks with Brezhnev has any electoral significance; says it is not like recent visit of French Communist leader G Marchais to USSR, which has been widely interpreted as pre-emptive campaign to counter Pompidou trip; Pompidou por

Gov Rockefeller on Jan 9 says he expects that local govts in NYS will receive $93-million more in state revenue-sharing funds in fiscal '73-74 than in fiscal '72-73, with state revenue sharing with localities rising from present level of $451-million to total of $544-million

NYC Mayor Lindsay, assailing Gov Rockefeller's proposal that people convicted of drug-related activities receive life prison sentences, on Jan 9 counters proposal with indications that NYC's programs to fight crime and drug abuse are beginning to show promising results; says that percentage of inmates in city prisons who request heroin detoxification is declining, going from 50% last spring to 30% in Nov; charges that implementation of Gov's proposal would increase state inmate population by 50% in 1st yr; in 10 yrs, population would rise from present level of 13,000 to 95,000; cost of maintaining prisoners would exceed $1-billion by '91

US Defense Dept officials privately say, Jan 9, US pilots are permitted to cross the 20th Parallel in pursuit of N Vietnamese jets that try to attack US B-52s and other planes operating S of 20th Parallel; reveal that in one instance on Jan 6, a US F-4, in chasing and shooting down a N Vietnamese MIG, crossed the parallel; say continuing US reconnaissance flights N of the parallel were limited to unmanned photo drones and SR-71 spy planes, which fly at about 80,000 feet, to minimize chances of incidents during current round of peace talks; Repr M J Harrington says Adm T H Moorer, Chmn of Joint Cs/S, told him at closed-door briefing that he had not been consulted by the White House either on Oct 23, when bombing N of 20th Parallel was halted, or on Dec 18, when it was temporarily resumed; says Moorer told him contingency plans were in existence and were ordered into effect by Nixon without prior consultation of the mil; publicly, White House and Defense Dept try to de-emphasize repts in Saigon that Nixon authorized air pursuit N of 20th Parallel; comment on reasons why Nixon Adm considers continued reconnaissance flights essential and on best means of obtaining tactical intelligence, as viewed by analysts; Repr F E Hebert, chmn of HR Armed Services Com, says, following Moorer's testimony, that US 'brought them (Hanoi) to the conf table in the beginning by bombing and we brought them back by bombing'; Moorer says bombing will effectively hamper Hanoi's ability to conduct sustained operations in S Vietnam; denies Hanoi's assertion that POW camps had been hit by US bombs; Moorer por