May 12, 1979

Pres Carter scores House for rejecting gasoline rationing plan; will not submit another plan, challenging House to come up with its own within 90 days; many in Congress voice same sentiment, but there is also wide bipartisan criticism of White House lobbying effort on behalf of measure, especially concessions made in order to win Senate approval; comments by Sen Alan Cranston and Reprs John B Anderson, Bob Eckhardt, Richard Boiling, John Brademas and Leon E Panetta noted; Carter illus (M)

Soviet news agency Tass reports Pres Carter and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev will meet tentatively in Vienna in June to initial SALT agreement; Brezhnev's poor health noted (S)

NYS and Westchester County police continue probe into murder-robberies; police link slayings to same burglars and say that property taken from both homes was recovered in sports car stolen from Sperry home and found abandoned in Park Slope section of Bklyn; illus; map (M)

Oil-drilling rig in Gulf of Mexico with 34 workmen aboard collapses on May 10; 26 men are rescued, and divers are looking for 8 men believed to be trapped in submerged galley and living quarters of rig; 1 of 3 legs of platform is believed to have given way; platform was built by Bethlehem Steel and owned by Atlantic Pacific Marine Corp, which was working under contract to Mitchell Energy & Development; map; illus (M)

discriminatory measures against Chinese minority in Northern Vietnam reptdly have dramatically increased flow of refugees to Hong Kong, making it principal port of asylum for those fleeing Indochina; current total of 'boat people' in Hong Kong is 25,000, compared to 241 yr ago, with 10,000 more expected to reach country monthly until Sept; Philip Haddon-Cave, during annual Asian Development Bank Govs Bd meeting in Apr, stressed that Hong Kong's development programs are endangered by population growth rate in which refugees much more than offset family-planning successes in reducing birth rate; safety and human dignity afforded refugees who reach Hong Kong cited as reasons for its popularity (M)