October 30, 1973

High winds and record 3.22-inch rainfall batter NYC Met Area on Oct 29, ending 26-day dry spell; rains flood sts and low-lying sections, snarling traffic and drenching pedestrians; seawalls are damaged by waves; flood bulletins are issued for parts of NJ; list of NYC sts and arteries made impassable by rains; LIRR, Penn Central and rapid transit subway delays noted; illus

Oct 30: Israeli officials rept on Oct 29 that continuation of cease-fire is contingent on early identification and release of more than 400 Israeli soldiers believed captured by Israel and Syria; say Israel has been in contact with 'the highest levels' of US Govt to obtain Amer help in securing release of prisoners; Israeli mil spokesman repts that Israel holds approximately 7,000 Arab prisoners, all of whom it is prepared to return in exchange for captured Israelis; right-wing Opposition party demands special session of Israeli Parliament to discuss Govt's efforts to free captured soldiers; officials maintain Govt is willing to do whatever is necessary to avoid repetition of US experience in Vietnam, where Amer prisoners held by N Vietnam became pol pawns; say US is being pressed to use any influence it might have with Egypt and Syria to obtain release of Israelis; Israeli Gen S Eyal, special assistant to C/S for prisoner-of-war affairs, says 450 Israelis are listed as missing in action, and that all but 100 are believed to be held in Egypt; asserts that Egypt and Syria have 'failed completely' to fulfill Geneva conv requirements governing POWs, adding that Egypt has provided names of only 47 Israeli prisoners; says Israel is informing IRC of identity of Arab prisoners it has captured, 6,800 of whom are Egyptians and the rest Syrians, Iraqis and Moroccans; Egyptian newspaper Al Ahram repts Egypt is prepared to give IRC names of captured Israeli prisoners; fighting breaks out briefly on Suez front as elements of Egyptian 3d Corps attempt to lay infantry bridge across canal 7 mi north of Egyptian city of Suez; Premier Meir spends much of day on western bank of Suez Canal, meeting with divison comdrs and Israeli soldiers; is warmly applauded, but is also queried repeatedly as to why Israel agreed to UN cease-fire and to allow resupply of trapped corps; reptdly explained that Israel acted at request of US; illus of Meir and Israeli C/S Lt Gen D Elazar on west bank of Suez Canal

Former special Watergate prosecutor A Cox says on Oct 29 that case is 'nowhere near done' and describes long pattern of frustration in attempts to get documents from White House, testimony before Sen Judiciary Com on controversy surrounding his dismissal ordered Oct 20 by Pres Nixon; says 'total independence' for new special prosecutor is 'crucial'; Cox says tapes case, which he won in both US Dist Ct and US Appeals Ct, were intended to set precedent and that with it settled, he would now expect large number of requests for documents and large number of subpoenas by his successor; lists many documents that are presently unavailable, including logs of meetings and telephone calls, diaries and memos dealing with communications with Pres by C W Colson, L P Gray 3d, R G Kleindienst, E Krogh Jr, F La Rue and D R Young Jr; list of all records, logs and notes of telephone calls among Young, Krogh, Colson, J D Ehrlichman, E H Hunt Jr and G G Liddy between June 19 and Dec 13 '71; all information on 3 projects that were removed from Krogh's files at Transportation Dept between Dec 31 '72 and May 31 '73 and sent to White House to be included as 'Pres papers'; Ehrlichman memos dealing with same topic, from Mar 23 to Mar 27 '73 and Apr 30 '73; Cox says Pres's order for him to stop going into ct seeking further documents would have been impossible to obey; says Pres's staff was troubled by breadth of special prosecutor's investigation; says former Atty Gen Richardson was caught in middle of White House and special prosecutor several times; says White House would come to believe he was pursuing line of investigation and would contact Atty Gen, then Richardson would call him and they would discuss it but do nothing about it; insists these communications from Richardson never amounted to pressure on him; says that when he left as special prosecutor there had been considerable breakthrough with dismissed Pres counsel J W Dean 3d having pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice after long negotiation; says staff recently came across memo 'by important witness' that seems to be totally at odds with everything he said to staff and that everyone else had said; says he thought Pres Nixon's order to him breached his independence and authority as special prosecutor; Sen Thurmond defends dismissal of Cox and asks series of questions apparently designed to show Cox's ties to Kennedy and Johnson Adms and his disagreements with ex-Atty Gen Mitchell; illus of Cox and part of crowd waiting to attend hearing

Egyptian Pres Sadat's special repr Min I Fahmy arrives in US on Oct 29; State Dept says Fahmy's visit represents opportunity to begin discussing Middle East peace settlement; Fahmy is reptdly carrying message from Sadat to Pres Nixon; meets with Kissinger; rept from Egypt says Fahmy is understood to have instructions to stress that there can be no peace negotiations until Israel withdraws to positions it held at 1st cease-fire on Oct 22; Egyptians say Israeli forces held little territory on west bank of Suez Canal at that time; Nixon Adm officials say that US has proposed to USSR that peace negotiations take place in Geneva and Kissinger is reptdly taking this up with Fahmy and Israeli Govt; State Dept spokesman R J McCloskey says Fahmy's visit was initiated by Egypt; says Adm believes that UN peace-keeping force comdr Gen E Siilasvuo of Finland 'deserves considerable credit for his achievement' and UN Sec Gen Waldheim 'worked hard and well' to set up force; says initial UN emergency force of 900 was taken from Cyprus, leaving about 2,100 men behind; says no decision has been reached by Waldheim whether US and USSR mil observers would join UN truce supervision teams in Middle East; says US 'raised the issue' with Israel to open corridor for relief supplies to trapped Egyptian 3d Corps on east bank of Suez Canal; US officials reject repts that USSR threatened destruction of Israel in note to US last wk or issued other threats to Israel through Nixon Adm; Kissinger, in meeting with group of members of Eur parliaments, criticizes NATO for making no significant decisions during last 2 wks; says US is upset that Europeans denied US free disposition over its mil stocks and facilities in Eur in its effort to resupply Israel with weapons, even though USSR used its mil stocks and facilities in E Eur for resupplying Egypt and Syria

The Middle East crisis and rising oil prices will drive up electric bills by 5.4 per cent in the city and by more than 26 per cent in Orange and Rockland Counties, according to estimates released by Governor Rockefeller's office yesterday. Details, Page 13.