April 16, 1975

Palestinian guerrillas battle for 3d day in Beirut on Apr 15 with right-wing Phalangist party's armed militia; Palestinian sources say 11 persons were killed in sectors under their control; this raises unofficial count of dead to close to 100, many of them bystanders; survival of Lebanon's coalition Govt, headed by Premier Rashid al-Solh, is uncertain; Phalangist leader Pierre Gemayel meets with Pres Suleiman Franjieh and Arab League sec gen Mahmoud Riad, who was sent by Egyptian Pres Sadat to mediate crisis; Solh announces that Gemayel has agreed to turn over 2 militia members who were involved in Apr 13 bus shooting incident; Syrian mil delegation arrives with instructions from Pres Assad to consult with Lebanese mil on solution of crisis; Gemayel's opposition to Palestinian presence in Lebanon and history of Phalangist party noted (M)

Former Treas Sec John B Connally Jr admits memory is flawed but denies taking bribes from dairy farmers to secure milk price support increases in '71, trial, Washington, DC (M)

former Bklyn ins broker Herman Goldfarb, who tried to expiate his criminal record by working as undercover agent for FBI, will tell Manhattan grand jury story of Project Cleveland, cooperative effort of FBI, Fed Joint Strike Force Against Organized Crime and NYC Police Dept, which were investigating criminal activities in NYC garment center; secret project continued for 17 mos and then was discontinued; reasons are in dispute; jury, under direction of William I Aronwald, chief of Joint Strike Force Against Organized Crime in NYC, is studying evidence amassed by undercover unit (L)

Mayor Beame and Budget Dir Lechner have sheared more than $100-million from what they had projected as $883.9-million deficit for fiscal '76 budget; have also made tentative plans for more layoffs of city workers; layoffs have been charted as part of contingency plan devised by Beame and Deputy Mayor Cavanagh to be used by city as negotiating wedge; purpose is to force munic unions to agree either to wage freezes or to reopening of contracts as econ measures to forestall layoffs; City Council votes to permit Beame to delay submittal of expense budget for 1 mo; Beame goes to Washington to seek Fed aid and meet with city's Cong delegation; Citizens Budget Comm warns city faces 'gravest crisis' in history (M)

Sec Kissinger orders US Embassy in Saigon to reduce number of Amers in country to 'minimum level'; Adm and Cong sources say objective is to bring total of 6,000 Amers in S Vietnam down to 1,000 or less within 2 wks; Sen Foreign Relations Com tentatively endorses proposal for $200-million 'contingency fund' that Pres Ford can use to evacuate Amers from Saigon and provide humanitarian aid to S Vietnam; Kissinger says Adm is prepared to accept concept of 'contingency fund,' Sen Appropriations Com testimony; repeatedly attempts to link $722-million request for mil aid and safe withdrawal of all Amers; implies that Cong refusal of aid will provoke collapse of S Vietnamese Govt and wave of anti-Americanism that could jeopardize safe removal of Amers; Sec Schlesinger estimates number of Amers in S Vietnam has been reduced by 1/3, to 3,850, HR Armed Services Com hearing; urges approval of Ford's mil aid request, suggesting that 200,000 to 1-million S Vietnamese could be killed in Communist takeover; move reptdly is developing in Cong to extend contingency concept to limited amount of arms aid; leaders of Sen Foreign Relations, Appropriations and Armed Services Coms are scheduled to meet on Apr 16 to develop common approach to aid requests; fundamental difference remains between Cong and exec branch over use of aid funds; Cong members advancing contingency concept apparently believe additional aid should be used to assure safe withdrawal of Amer citizens and as last installment of Amer aid to S Vietnam while Adm officials are unwilling to concede termination of aid or make it contingent on withdrawal of Amers; Kissinger and Schlesinger say Adm wants $1.3-billion in mil aid for fiscal '76 regardless of whether current requests are approved; Kissinger and Sens McClellan, Mathias, Schweiker, Hatfield and Brooke illus (L)