March 22, 1973

Gordon W. Rule, the Navy procurement expert who was shifted to a minor post after assailing the appointment of Roy L. Ash to head the Office of Management and Budget, was returned to his old job yesterday. Details, Page 24.

Pres Nixon announces on Mar 21 that he will make $424-million available to provide 776,000 summer jobs for youths, about $3-million more than Fed Govt spent for program in 72; asserts $300-million would come from Emergency Employment Assistance Act, which provides for yr-round public service employment, mostly for adults, rather than from funds specifically appropriated for summer youth jobs, which Nixon requested in '72; Nixon leaves choice of whether money will be spent for youth or adult programs to local officials; US Sen Javits (NY), a long-time advocate of more jobs for youths in central cities, reacts angrily; asserts 'this is more than impoundment, it is impoundment and breach of promise; cities are left with Hobson's choice of firing the father in order to hire the son'; similar reaction comes from Natl League of Cities--US Conf of Mayors, which issues statement expressing 'extreme dismay' that Nixon Adm would offer public service employment funds as substitute for summer youth employment; Mayors Conf asserts 'public employment program was never intended to be replacement for Neighborhood Youth Corps'; Javits says he will attempt to override Nixon's actions by inserting youth employment funds in a forthcoming supplemental appropriations bill; Nixon has promised to veto bills that exceed his Fed spending ceiling; normal vehicle for funding major portion of summer youth program is Neighborhood Youth Corps; Javits holds Adm proposal falls short by 242,000 jobs of 1,018,891 needed, according to Natl League of Cities--US Conf of Mayors survey

Dr M H Halperin, who had gen supervision of Defense Dept group that put together Pentagon papers, testifies on March 21 at Pentagon papers trial that 1 copy of papers had been sent to Rand Corp for storage and that it did not belong to US Govt; says he classified papers 'top secret-sensitive' in routine manner because everything relating to war in Vietnam had been classified 'top secret' in dept; says he considered materials including 1 set of papers, as being private papers of himself, L Gelb, who headed Pentagon papers study, and P C Warnke, then Asst Sec of Defense for Internal Security; says that 1 reason 3 men wanted information stored in special way at Rand was so that other officials in Govt would not learn of existence of papers when Govt inventories of 'top secret' documents at Rand were made; says that he and Gelb gave D Ellsberg right to have special access to papers for study he was doing on Vietnam; says word 'sensitive' was added to 'top secret' because then Sec of Defense, R S McNamara, considered documents 'bureaucratically and politically sensitive' and did not want their existence to be known 'within the executive branch as well as outside, except to those who were working on papers'; says he had made no attempt to determine whether source docuemnts on which papers were based had been properly classified, nor did he other to read various classification regulations

Saigon mil command says, Mar 22, it has lifted siege of Rach Bap outpost, surrounded by Communist troops for more than a wk; says attack met no resistance; relief operation dramatizes nearly total impotence of the cease-fire peace-keeping machinery to prevent continued fighting in S Vietnam; both comms were asked by Saigon to intervene to end the Communist siege; Saigon had warned that unless the control comm acted to end the sieges of Rach Bap and Tong Le Chan, Saigon forces would act on its own; Canadian delegate on control comm says comm, after 3-hr meeting, failed to act on the sieges despite Canada's demand for immediate action; expresses pessimism about inability of comm to act; Saigon Govt spokesman renews charges of continued infiltration by N Vietnamese into S Vietnam

BLS announces on Mar 21 that Consumer Price Index rose 0.3% in NYC met area in Feb chiefly as result of 4.5% rise in poultry, fish and meat prices; regional dir Bienstock notes that statistics are even more dramatic for last 2 mos than Feb alone; says prices rose 4.6% for home-consumed foods in Jan and Feb combined, constituting sharpest 60-day rise on record; meat, poultry and fish prices rose 10.5%, fruit and vegetable prices 8.2% and dairy products prices 3.1% during '72; natl increase for meat, poultry and fish was even higher than NYC met area increase, with prices soaring 13.1% nationally; Grand Union meat merchandising vp E H Berthold suggests that price difference between met area and rest of nation is due to more intense competition in NYC met area; chart comparing consumer prices in NYC-northeastern NJ area and US