February 8, 1975

NYC Police rept homicides in ‘74 in NYC declined by 7.5%, but crime in all other categories increased; crimes against persons increased by 7.1%, against property by 9,9%; 10‐mo survey by FBI shows felonies in US in ‘74 running about 16% higher than ‘73; robberies in NYC increased by 7.1%, assaults increased 7.7%, rape 8.5%, burglary 6% and auto theft declined 10.9%; boro breakdown; table compares ‘73 and ‘74 statistics (M)

Arab govts have reptdly drawn up ‘blacklist’ of major European banking houses connected with prominent Jewish families that Arab govts want excluded from financings that have Arab participants; included on list are N M Rothschild & Sons, S G Warburg & Co, Lazard Freres and 12 others; bankers say source of list is Kuwait and Arab banks dominated by Kuwaiti interests; Arabs reptdly applied pressure by refusing to participate in financings if Jewish‐connected banking houses on blacklist were included in syndicates; high‐level source lists 7 financings in which 1 or more major Jewish‐connected banking houses were prevented from participating; notes most of financings in question took place in France, often involving Govt‐controlled banks and nationalized cos; Arabs were reptdly rebuffed in trying to apply pressure for similar discrimination by West Ger Govt; official of Bank of France says Govt is considering directing nationalized French insts not to yield to Arab pressures; list reptdly includes only those Jewish‐connected houses that have been closely identified with Israel (L)

ad hoc energy com of senior Dem Sens weigh staff proposal to raise Fed gasoline tax by 1c a gal once unemployment starts to fall and continue to raise tax in 1c increments as unemployment drops; Sen Lloyd Bentsen, who plans to seek Dem Pres nomination in ‘76, calls for rebatable tax of 30c a gal on gasoline to be levied in 4 or 5 yrs, starting with 5c next yr, speech, Sen; says tax may be inequitable, but holds rationing would be worse; Dem plan calls for placing $1‐billion a yr raised by each 1c of gasoline tax in energy trust fund to finance energy conservation and development measures; some Dems on com noted (S)

NYC Educ Bd says it will apply economies instead of dismissing 700 employes (S)

Fed investigators will urge major changes in safety features of more than 1,050 rr cars that serve LI, Westchester County and Conn commuters, after preliminary conclusions reached during investigation of 2 recent accidents by Natl Transportation Safety Bd indicated validity of criticism of cars by commuter associations; MTA had denied safety hazards existed; Fed specialists are concerned, among other things, about automatic doors of cars, which were blamed in death of LI anesthesiologist Robert S Donnenfeld in Dec ‘74; derailment of Harlem Div Penn Central commuter train in Bronx on Jan 2, ‘75, in which many passengers were injured, revd; final rept by Natl Transportation Safety Bd will cover risk of trains starting while passenger is caught by car's automatic sliding doors, examination of pattern of injuries in Bronx derailment and other factors (M)