October 10, 1975

Christian and Moslem gunmen battle in Beirut on Oct 9 as Lebanese Premier Rashid Karami seeks help in Syria to end 6-mo Lebanese crisis; Karami reptdly asked Syrian leaders to prevail on Palestinian guerrillas and their leftist supporters in Beirut to exercise restraint; says on his return from talks with Syrian Pres Assad and PLO chmn Yasir Arafat in Damascus that he reached identity of views; says Arafat will come to Beirut 'to do his best' to restore peace; meets with Pres Suleiman Franjich amid speculation that Lebanese Cabinet will be expanded to include reprs of warring Christian rightists and Moslem leftists; Phalangist party warns in statement that it can no longer exercise restraint; says 500 rockets were fired into predominantly Christian dist of Asharafiyah on Aug 8 and 9; leftists issue statement saying they fired rockets to punish Phalangists for similar attacks on Moslem neighborhoods; Damascus radio quotes Syrian Premier Mahmoud al-Ayubi saying that all efforts must be exerted to help Lebanon; Karami welcomes decision by Kuwaiti Govt to call urgent meeting of Arab foreign mins to discuss Lebanese crisis; Lebanese daily As Safir repts that Arafat will fly to Saudi Arabia and other Arab capitals to discuss position of Palestinian guerrilla movement in Lebanon; Franjich discusses situation by phone with Assad; both Karami and Interior Min Camille Chamoun reptdly threatened to resign, but decided to wait pending proposed Arab contacts; illus of gunmen in Beirut; map (M)

NYS Housing Finance Agency is temporarily saved from default by complex 8-way shuffle of funds; private credit markets were not willing to refinance debt and state could not appropriate money for HFA without special session of Legis; officials began checking various state funds, which have large amounts of ready cash, thinking that somewhere $90-million could be found to keep HFA solvent until Nov; most of money was found within 3 funds of Dept of Taxation and Finance, which are legally entitled to lend to HFA; final $20-million was problem because only other funds with excess cash could not buy notes of moral-obligation agency; solution was that reserve fund of Facilities Development Corp will buy $20-million of full faith and credit state bond anticipation notes; with $20-million, NYS Controller Arthur Levitt will advance to NYC some of state's pure waters funds that are not actually due city until next yr; NYC Bd of Estimate will be asked to take this $20-million and give it to Riverbay Corp, parent co of Co-op City; Riverbay built 5 public schools and was to be paid $20-million by city next yr; HFA had advanced Riverbay the school construction money in form of special mortgage, so Riverbay will turn $20-million from city over to HFA; officials concede that complex plan is only stopgap measure; chart shows how final $20-million is being moved from state to HFA (L)

State County and Munic Employes Dist Council 37 exec dir Victor H Gotbaum sees no gen strike by NYC employes over 3-yr wage freeze and potential layoffs under Mayor Beame's financial plan; says that employes and union leaders are frustrated and demoralized by plan; Teamsters Local 237 pres Barry Feinstein says that he will make recommendation for strike at next meeting of Munic Labor Com; UFT pres Albert Shanker, spokesman for Uniformed Sanitationmen's Assn pres John J DeLury and sources within PBA and UFA indicate that gen strike is unlikely (S)

Pres Ford says he 'would not hesitate' to veto a permanent tax reduction measure, even in face of clear pol risk, if Cong does not couple it with cut in Fed spending, news conf; says his request for $28-billion reduction in anticipated fiscal '77 budget is to stop 'tremendous growth in Fed spending'; refuses to accept contention of sr Cong members that it is impossible for them to make firm commitment now on scope of '77 budget (L)

Natl Acad of Design grants Betty Ford lifetime fellowship, citing her enthusiastic support of arts