June 12, 1973

Former FBI acting dir L P Gray agrees to testify without immunity in any Watergate criminal trials about his dealings with Pres Nixon and other top Adm officials after Watergate break-in; Gray reptdly decided to testify without immunity in hope he would not be indicted as result of any high-level attempts to cover up Watergate affair; Govt source confirms Gray has been cooperating for last mo, but refuses to say whether criminal charges will be filed against him; Gray is considered key witness for Fed prosecutors, as is H W Kalmbach, formerly Pres Nixon's personal atty, and J S Magruder, former Repub re-elect campaign official; both Fed prosecutors and officials close to special Watergate prosecutor A Cox are known to believe that naivete and eagerness to please led Gray to become 'a victim' of sr White House aides, and as such, less culpable than those aides who actually directed cover-up

high-ranking US official says on June 11 that US plans to resume negotiations with N Vietnam on extending econ aid to Hanoi once agreement is reached in Paris on ways to strengthen Vietnam cease-fire accord; repts that in conversations with N Vietnamese, Amers have pledged to resume activities called for by Jan cease-fire agreement but suspended when US charged Hanoi with violating cease-fire; asserts these included sweeping of mines from N Vietnamese waters and talks on possible Amer econ aid to Hanoi; says that before talks were suspended late in April, both sides had agreed on principles and procedures to govern funneling of econ aid to Hanoi; this preliminary agreement was achieved but not announced on Mar 25 by AID Deputy Dir M J Williams and Finance Min Dang Viet Chau, who headed delegations to joint econ comm which began meeting in Paris on Mar 15; first indication that preliminary agreement had been reached was provided by censored Sen staff study issued by Foreign Relations subcom on June 11; because of widespread Cong opposition to any econ aid to N Vietnam, Adm has been reluctant to rept in much detail on discussions already held with N Vietnamese officials; R Ziegler, White House pres sec, expresses optimism that cease-fire accord talks will be concluded successfully; another White House official says he expects that S Vietnam's reservations, mainly relating to interpretations of wording, will be resolved

article finds that despite nearly 5 yrs of challenges, Amer schools are still moving too slowly to eliminate sex stereotypes in classrooms; prevailing attitude among school admrs, both male and female, reptdly is that sexism in schools is not a problem; some school bds, despite increased sensibility to issue, admit that action on sex sterotyping is still being pre-empted by racial issues; admrs rept that emphasis in last few yrs has been on increasing 'ethnic portion' of books and school programs; greatest progress is seen in area of textbooks, where many publishers are reptdly taking positive steps to balance output; teachers and admrs comment; illus

British-owned Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp on June 11 announces offer to pay $23 per share for all of common stock of Gimbel Brothers Inc; announcement came 1 wk after Loew's Corp had made tender offer of $16 per share to increase its Gimbel holdings to 51%; Loew's says June 11 that it will accept Brown & Williamson offer; Brown & Williamson, unit of British American Tobacco Co Ltd, is 3d largest tobacco processor in US, with estimated sales last yr of about $1-billion; B A Gimbel, chmn and chief exec of Gimbel Brothers, says he welcomes opportunity for shareholders to sell their shares at higher price and that Gimbel bd will recommend acceptance of tender offer to shareholders; Brown & Williamson's offer will expire July 23 but it will begin accepting and paying for shares as soon as 51% of outstanding stock has been tendered; pors of J E Edens, head of Brown & Williamson, and B A Gimbel

Finance Com to Re-elect the Pres received $30,000 from unnamed 'Philippine natl,' used it in 'urgent White House project' then, believing money was donated illegally, returned it, according to rept made public by Gen Accounting Office; urgent White House project mentioned in GAO rept was payment for Watergate burglars and their lawyers, according to statements made earlier to GAO by Pres Nixon's former personal lawyer, H W Kalmbach; Washington Star-News repts that Philippine contribution came from R Nolan, prominent sugar planter and former sugar quota admr for Philippines; Philippine contribution represents 3d foreign money operation involved in Watergate investigation; 1st involves $89,000 in cash that went through Mex banks to conceal its source and was later traced to Watergate burglars; Houston, Tex, grand jury is investigating this aspect; Kalmbach told GAO he raised total of $210,000 for Watergate defendants and their lawyers; he has agreed to testify for prosecution against Pres Nixon's 2 former top assts, H R Haldeman and J D Ehrlichman