August 25, 1975

Ford Adm is ready to recommend to Cong $2.1- to $2.4-billion in mil and econ aid to Israel for current fiscal yr (S)

Mobil Oil chmn Rawleigh Warner Jr, in Aug 22 lr to members of Cong, opposes Pres Ford's plan to decontrol all domestic oil prices on Aug 31 and urges enactment of phased decontrol of oil prices over extended period of time; says sudden end of controls could cost Amer oil consumers about $8-billion, even with elimination of oil import fees; holds decontrol would unleash inflation and other problems and pose shock to econ recovery; says shock would not be softened by 'windfall profits' tax or tax rebates to consumers; says windfall profits tax would threaten vital earnings of oil indus; some smaller nonintegrated oil cos are concerned about decontrol; Petroleum Indus Research Foundation pres John Lichtblau, however, predicts decontrol wil mean only 3.5c-a-gal increase in gasoline prices; oil cos are concerned about public reaction to price increases (M)

SHELTER ISLAND, L.I., Aug. 24—In one of his most pessimistic assessments of the city's fiscal crisis, Governor Carey said this weekend that unless the Federal Government intervened, the city had only a 50–50 chance of avoiding default on its obligations.

Ralph Nader, Ralph Green and 4 members of Cong, in lr to Atty Gen Edward H Levi urging establishment of div on corporate crime in Justice Dept, cite 'numerous and confirmed' repts of payoffs to foreign pol parties by major Amer cos and to fact that IRS is investigating 111 cos for possible tax violations in connection with pol payments; urge Govt support new legis to bar collection of funds for making illegal payments for commercial purposes; urge FTC probe of situations in which corps try to get foreign contracts by bribery rather than by merit; Congressmen are Sen Lee Metcalf and Reprs Benjamin S Rosenthal, Anthony J Moffett and Thomas J Downey (M)

In Havana on Thursday, Premier Fidel Castro expressed his desire to negotiate with Washington; now that hemisphere nations have ended their trade embargo with Cuba. “We do want to discuss with the United States,” he said, “but We require equal conditions and dignity to make discussion possible.” The quotations here are excerpted from an interview published Friday in The New York Times. Photographs are by Sally Reston. A related article appears on Page 3.