November 11, 1973

Fed investigation has begun into charges that high officials of HUD Dept violated law by apptg pol favorites to career civil service jobs; 2 teams of investigators, 1 from Civil Service Comm and other from within HUD Dept, have been interrogating employes across US and scouring files for incriminating memos and lrs for last 5 wks; dept employes have charged that dept officials, including W S Armstrong, special asst to Sec, secured high-salaried and influential jobs in local housing agency offices for pol favorites of Nixon Adm; J A Wilderotter, exec asst to HUD Dept Sec Lynn, says dept has undergone 4 reorgns in last 4 yrs and that many vacancies were therefore created in field offices; says Lynn has not yet dismissed anyone; D Fielding, former dir of dept's Tampa office, comments

The 48 metropolitan‐area hospitals and nursing homes struck since Monday functioned at reduced occupancy and were continuing to turn away all but urgent cases. The over‐all situation was quiet, city officials said, as pickets allowed most deliveries of essential material.

revd by W Kerr

US Sec of State Kissinger arrives in Peking on Nov 10 after Middle East tour in which he succeeded in getting Egyptian-Israeli agreement on new measures to strengthen Middle East cease-fire; was also able to get Egyptian Pres A Sadat to restore diplomatic relations between Egypt and US; at guest house where he is staying, Kissinger jokes with Chinese Foreign Min Chi Peng-fei, when he says, 'It's a pleasure to be in a country for an hour without anyone mentioning Resolution 242,' referring to UN Security Council resolution approved in Nov '67, that outlines Middle East settlement; Kissinger asks State Dept Middle East expert Deputy Asst Sec A L Atherton to continue to Peking with him to keep abreast of Middle East developments; earlier in day in Pakistan, US Asst Sec Sisco and team of Middle East experts broke off from Kissinger party to swing back through Middle East and Eur to discuss diplomatic prospects; Chinese Premier Chou En-lai tells Kissinger that Japanese are now calling him The Mideast Cyclone'; illus of Kissinger with Chou

NYC Environmental Protection Adm says Nov 11 that despite natl oil crisis in US, refineries are working at only 91% of capacity as against 95% last summer and still emphasizing gasoline too much; Deputy Admr J Simpson says currently number 2 oil constitutes only 23% of output of domestic refineries from crude oil, contending Fed Govt should order this share increased to at least 26% or as close to 28% as possible; repts some refineries reptdly operated at abnormally high rates last summer and had to shut down for maintenance during winter season; estimates that city's oil requirements might rise as much as 5% because of curtailments in natural gas and as much as 5% more if winter is colder than last 2 mild winters, noting fuel oil provided 65% of energy needs in '72 for heating and elec generation; agency energy analyst C Komanoff analysis of NYC annual energy requirements in terms of last yr's use and figures detailed; '72 graph of sources of energy in NYC and total energy use; analysis is based on calculations from indus and private orgn sources; Simpson says 70% of fuel oil and natural gas is burned from Oct 1 to March 31 and 70% of transportation energy requirements occur from Apr through Sept; reveals that about 25% of city's heating oil (number 2) is imported from refineries mainly in Bahamas and Curacao; says in '72 imported number 2 oil cost 9-10c a gal wholesale against 11c for domestic oil but this yr, Fed controls have held domestic prices earlier to 15c while imports have soared to 40c, causing desperate problem; cites other figures for number 6 oil; lists cos that supply number 2 and number 6 oil