September 15, 1975

Contagion of pol and communal violence has spread mood of almost helpless foreboding in Lebanon; scattered incidents of shootings and kidnappings break out in Beirut neighborhoods and 4 persons are reptd dead; exchs of machine-gun fire are heard in Christian neighborhood of Ain-al-Rumrnaneh and largely Moslem qr of Chiyah; Premier Rashid Karami announces that leaders of leftist coalition, led by Socialist leader Kamal Jumblat, have agreed to withdraw call for general strike on Sept 15; strike was called after Karami ordered army troops to move to buffer zone between feuding towns of Tripoli and Zgharta; strike did not appear to arouse much support; Farouk al-Mukadam, leading Tripoli leftist, says visits by Sec Kissinger to Middle East were followed by violence in Lebanon and charges that US is furnishing arms to Lebanese right; for right-of-center Lebanese, presence of 400,000 Palestinians in nation of 3.5-million is heart of problem; Lebanon's open society and weak central govt have made it haven for revolutionaries; traditional pol order, fixed by unwritten agreement in '4.3, allocates leading pol role to Christian Maronites, who were then country's most numerous community; in numbers, Maronites have fallen behind 2 main Moslem sects, Sunnis, or Orthodox, and Shiites, who differ on line of succession to Prophet Mohammed; Shiite Moslems are now demanding their share of affluence and power in country; Lebanese officials estimate that since Apr 2,500 people have died in urban clashes; map (L)

Pope Paul on Sept 14 declares Mother Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton 1st US-born saint before crowd of 100,000 in St Peter's Square; canonization mass represents culmination of nearly 100 yrs of effort by many Amer Caths who had urged sainthood for her; Vatican for 1st time allows women to participate in canonization ceremony; participants in ceremony include Cardinal Terence Cooke, Cardinal Lawrence Shehan, Most Rev William D Borders, Most Rev Joseph L Bernardin, Most Rev James M Hayes, Most Rev Peter L Gerety and Most Rev William G Connare, all of US, and Bishop Alberto Ablondi of Livorno, Italy; illus of Pope and St Peter's Square (M)

Defense Dept discloses price of controversial F-14 Tomcat fighter, to be purchased by USN and Iran, has increased by $2-million per plane to $20-million; disclosure comes amid rising Cong resistance to plane and after GAO found $28-million discrepancy in books of Grumman Corp, craft's mfr; Defense Dept attributes increase to decline in Grumman's commercial business and to reassessment of cost estimates as result of inflation; Sen William Proxmire charges latest disclosure is example of Grumman's 'helping itself to another Govt bailout by hiking the F-14 costs'; says Navy should be forced to cut costs or eliminate program (M)

Gen Assembly's special session moves toward possible closing on Sept 15; delegates seek formula for narrowing gap between rich and poor countries; chief US delegate Daniel P Moynihan sees progress; says special session had been marked by constructive dialogue between indus and developing countries but says in last few days third-world attitudes suddenly hardened; criticizes Algeria and few other countries for what he calls insistence on dogmatic language in proposed final resolution that session is supposed to adopt; says doctrinaire third-world delegations are in effect demanding that US and other Western countries plead guilty to being cause of injustice in world; says rest would be plea-bargaining; makes it clear that US will not formally admit responsibility for gap between rich and poor nations; possible compromises discussed; chmn Jan Plonk is optimistic; Sec Gen Waldheim reptdly was contacted by US Sec Kissinger, Foreign Min Abdelaziz Bouteflika and various delegates (M)

Agr Dept's proposed plan that would enable thousands of state-inspected slaughtering plants to begin shipping meat in interstate commerce has been attacked by combination of Cong, consumer and packing indus forces; plan is effort to stop trend toward Fed takeovers of state meat inspection systems; US Repr Neal Smith (Iowa) says principal concern is possible effect on meat-inspection standards; similar concerns have been expressed by US Sens Dick Clark (Iowa) and Philip A Hart (Mich), as well as by Amer Meat Institute and by consumer groups such as Consumer Fed of Amer; Agr Sec Earl L Butz, Sen Agr Com chmn Herman E Talmadge (Ga) and House Agr Com chmn Thomas S Foley (Washington) comment (L)