March 8, 1977

Sens seeking to block Warnke's nomination as disarmament negotiator believe they can win moral victory by casting 40 votes or more against him; Sen Henry M Jackson tells colleagues that he can weaken Warnke's position to point of uselessness by holding vote in favor to 60 or less; Sen Robert P Griffin contends that Warnke rewrote and repunctuated '72 statement to make it appear that he is concerned about Soviet numerical superiority; Warnke, in lr to Armed Services Com chmn John C Stennis, says memo submitted to com contained 25 typographical errors; denies he altered statement; Sen James McClure and Emergency Coalition Against Unilateral Disarmament, group headed by Lt Gen Daniel Graham, urge Pres Carter to withdraw Warnke nomination (M)

Tenneco admits selling gas contracted to interstate customers to its Channel Industries Gas subsidiary, which could sell it at much higher Tex prices, SEC filing; seeks FPC approval of diversions, which go back to '65; FPC, Comr Don S Smith dissenting, allows several cos operating off Louisiana to set aside up to half of expected production of roughly 500-million cu ft a day so long as gas goes to fertilizer, chem and propane plants; rejects staff advice that all gas be sold to interstate pipelines, out will require sales to pipelines if pipelines need it to maintain deliveries to highest priority users (M)

analysis of Pres Carter Adm's posture vis-a-vis NYC fiscal crisis; Carter seen sympathetic to city's predicament but his Adm has taken almost as tough a line as Ford Adm; problem faced by Carter and Treas Sec Blumenthal is that they would like politically to help Mayor Beame but are determined not to be drawn prematurely into keeping city financially afloat; their idea is seen to keep pressure on Beame, unions and banks to reach local compromise (M)

Mar 8: Pres Carter, welcoming Israeli Prime Min Rabin to White House, says any settlement must give Israel 'defensible borders'; is 1st US Pres since '73 to endorse Israel's insistence that its ultimate frontiers be 'defensible' and not merely 'secure and recognized,' as stated in UN Security Resolution 242 and by past Adm; White House and State Dept officials try to head off Arab concern by asserting that Carter had not meant to alter US policy; White House spokesman Jody Powell says Carter and Rabin discussed ways of accelerating start of new Geneva conf, leaving Israel-US issues to Vance's session with Rabin; says they agreed that conditions are favorable for major effort to begin new negotiations in '77 and that they should work toward Geneva conf; illus (M)

NYC moves step toward possible patchwork solution to moratorium debt crisis when munic employee unions agree to participate in revived $1-billion financing pkg aimed at meeting city's borrowing needs without reliance on leading commercial banks; city's proposal to enlist cooperation of savings banks revd; illus of Victor Gotbaum and Sgts Benevolent Assn pres Harold H Melnick (L)