May 28, 1974

There are strong indications that personal and pol friendship between Pres Nixon and Vice Pres Ford has begun to unravel although neither man will say publicly that relations are strained; Ford has made clear that they disagree over White House's refusal to turn over additional tapes and other material to HR Judiciary Com; Ford discusses his meetings with Nixon; Ford's defense of Pres Nixon and his views on Watergate discussed (M)

is succeeded as Premier by J Chirac as new Govt is formed following Pres election

Soviet Foreign Min Gromyko on May 27 arrives in Damascus and says that USSR is standing firmly beside Syria in demand for complete Israeli withdrawal from occupied Arab territory; says any steps toward mil desengagement agreement must be part of ‘complete settlement’ on basis of full Israeli withdrawal and recognition of Palestinian ‘natl rights'; Syrian press agency says Gromyko came at invitation of Syrian Govt; Gromyko is expected to remain for 2 days and will confer with Syrian Pres Assad and other officials; Syrian sources says that major differences preventing Sec Kissinger from obtaining agreement at this time are over thinning out of mil forces on Syrian side of cease‐fire line and over Israeli insistence that Syria restrict action of Palestinian guerrillas; Gromyko is also expected to meet with Palestine Liberation Orgn head Yasir Arafat (M)

Brit soldiers, armed with carbines and machine guns and acting on orders from Sec of State for Ulster Merlyn Rees, occupy gasoline stations and oil depots at strategic points in Northern Ireland as 13‐day‐old gen strike threatens to bring complete stoppage of food supplies, med services and electric supplies; set up barbed‐wire barricades at 21 filling stations to assure gasoline supplies for essential services; mil convoys patrol Belfast sts throughout day as soldiers repeatedly halt private cars to search for bombs and weapons; intensive pol maneuver takes place at Stormont Castle, prov govt's seat, despite unwavering assertions by Prot extremists that Exec Council will be forced into dissolution; speculation that Exec body cannot survive under pol strain caused by strike noted; council members Patrick Devlin and Ivan Cooper are stopped by mob of about 100 Prots at barricade south of Belfast and are forced to flee to Irish Repub; extremists have won wide support for strike, partly because of gen fear that prov is moving toward union with repub, which is 95% Cath; natural gas supplies are cut off, forcing hotels and restaurants to stop serving hot food; garbage is not being collected and can be seen burning in many vacant lots leveled by bombs; Ulster Workers Council, which organized strike, says it can no longer accept responsibility for providing any essential services because of use of Brit troops; scene in Belfast described; illus (L)

Article on modernization of US mil forces notes plans to modify AH‐1G helicopter to carry additional TOW missiles (S)