Angkor Wat Reported Damaged by Cambodian Shells

Associated Press

Angkor Wat, part of the ruins of the city of Angkor, was said to have been heavily damaged by Cambodian shelling

By The Associated Press

PNOMPENH, Cambodia, May 11—Authoritative sources said today that Angkor Wat, Cambodia's national treasure and the most famous temple of the ruins of Angkor in northwestern Cambodia, had been severely damaged by a Cambodian Army artillery barrage.

Reports of the shelling came from travelers returning from

Siemreap, the town nearest Angkor, which is controlled by anti-Government forces. The reports were later confirmed by a Government expert who saw photographs of the damage.

The shelling was said to have killed or wounded about 10 peasant refugees in a nearby pagoda and to have heavily damaged the south side of the 12th-century temple. The shell-ing occurred three months ago but has been kept secret by

the Government, the informants said.

The temple, Cambodia's national symbol, was occupied by Vietcong and North Vietnamese troops last June, after the war spread across Cambodia. Government forces were ordered not to attack for fear that fighting would destroy the temple.

The barrage, fired by a 105-mm. howitzer battery, hit the south side of Angkor Wat, de-

stroying the third floor of the southern gate, the sources re-ported.

One shell smashed into the second-floor gallery, the sources continued, and three more exploded in the gallery of history on the first floor, dramaging a fresco depicting the story of the Khmer, or Cambodian, Empire.

Seven rounds also hit the

Continued on Page 12, Column 1

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MAY 16 1971

N.Y.T.

# Wide Allied Air Attacks
## Mark Indochina Fighting

By CRAIG R. WHITNEY
Special to The New York Times

SAIGON, South Vietnam, May 15—American and South Vietnamese helicopters and fighter-bombers continued their support of ground operations in the northern mountains of South Vietnam and against enemy-held areas in Cambodia yesterday, but there was little sign of heavy action on the battlefields.

Near the Ashau Valley in the Annamite Mountains, where South Vietnamese troops reported killing more than 250 North Vietnamese soldiers Wednesday, there was no report of further heavy contact with the enemy.

No significant clashes involving United States troops supporting the operation, now a month old, have been reported since a week ago, when one American was reported killed and four were reported wounded.

### New Operation Denied

News agency reports of a new drive in eastern Cambodia were denied today by a Saigon spokesman. "There is no new operation in Cambodia now," he said.

This is the area in Cambodia where more than 20,000 South Vietnamese troops have been operating since February, and yesterday the United States flew 320 helicopter gunship missions and 20 fighter-bomber strikes while the South Vietnamese flew 124 helicopter sorties and 32 bombing missions in support of that and another, previously announced, operation in Cambodia. This was slightly more than were being flown earlier in the week.

In one of the strikes, 46 enemy soldiers were reportedly found dead in an area eight miles northwest of Kompong Trach, due east of Pnompenh near the South Vietnamese border. Small-unit clashes with enemy troops were reported there and near the Mekong River crossing point of Neak Luong earlier in the week.

### Most of Action in Air

The air campaigns were the most conspicuous evidence of the continuing hostilities during the last week, during which American Air Force fighter-bombers on missions in Laos attacked antiaircraft gun and missile sites in North Vietnam for the 36th and 37th times this year.

The military command calls these attacks "protective reaction" and says they take place only if tracking radar locks on to the aircraft or if a pilot is under fire. Only seven were announced in all of 1970, and the total between the time the strategic bombing of North Vietnam was halted in November, 1968, and May of last year was about 60.

Since January, there have

Continued on Page 21, Column 1

MAY 21 1971

W.P.

Laotian Forces
Abandon Final
Post on Plateau

SAIGON, May 20 (AP)—
North Vietnam gained a new
supply route through southern
Laos today when Royal Lao-
tian forces abandoned Hovei
Kong, their last remaining
outpost on the Bolovens Pla-
teau.

Control of the plateau gives Hanoi drier access to South Vietnam's Central Highlands and to northeastern Cambodia, just as monsoons have begun to flood older supply routes farther to the north. Allied commands had been counting on the weather to hold off any Communist command offensives over the next few months.

The eastern edge of the plar-
teau overlooks the Ho Chi
Minh supply trail, and now
Hanoi is expected to be able
to expand the trail's network
westward.

Truck traffic on the trail it-
self was reported sharply re-
duced.

B-52 Strikes Continue

The monsoon storms now beginning to sweep the trail also cut into some U.S. bombing and gunship attacks, but did not affect the P-52 heavy bombers which fly at 30,000 feet, above the bad weather. The Strategic Air Command sent most of its Pacific fleets of B-52s against the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

U.S. headquarters reported
that a few B-52s struck in
Cambodia in support of South
Vietnamese ground forces, but
no missions were flown in
South Vietnam and all the
rest of the eight-engine bomb-
ers were concentrated inon
Laos.

In the northern end of
South Vietnam, two American
positions just below the De-
militarized Zone came under
North Vietnamese rocket at-
tack for the second straight
day today.

One barrage of about 10 rockets hit a forward U.S. base known as Alpha 4, a mile south of the zone, which divides the two Vietnams. At about the same time, a four-round rocket attack struck a U.S. base known as Charlie 2, two miles south of the zone. The two attacks caused no U.S. deaths and a very small number of wounded.

Cambodian Drive

In Cambodia, Marshal Lon
Nol's young brother led a gov-
ernment force down Highway
3 today as part of an effort to
open another route from
Phnom Penh to the sea to re-
place Highway 4, which is
blocked by enemy forces.

Lt. Col. Lon Non, a figure of
controversy during Cambo-
dia's government crisis last
month after his brother re-
signed as premier, said that
his force was trying not only
to secure the highway to Kom-
pong Som (formerly Sihanowk-
ville), but also to rally Cambo-
dian villagers who have been
living for nearly a year under
the rule of the North Vietnam-
ese and Vietcong.

Lon Non, 40, commands the
elite 15th Brigade and heads
Cambodia's intelligence
agency. He is said to have
brought his influence to bear
on some candidates who even-
tually declined the post of pre-
mier after Lon Doy's resigna-
tion.

MAY 19 1971

W.P!

Reds Hit Hard in Southern Laos
U.S. Dependents Sent From Pakse

SAIGON, May 18 (AP)—The
North Vietnamese have
renewed their offensive in
southern Laos, almost wiping
ambushing troops fleeing the
town and sending rockets into
a city on the Mekong River.

American dependents were
evacuate today from Pakse,
a regional administrative cen-
ter on the Mekong River near
Bolovens Plateau, which was
overrun Sunday. Pakse is
about 25 miles east of the
Thai border.

North Vietnamese troops ap-
peared on the move in much
of Laos, possibly in a drive to
expand the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
to the west.

The North Vietnamese also

could be trying to pressure
the Laotian government in Vi-
entiane into accepting the lat-
est demand of the pro-Commu-
nist Pathet Lao. The Pathet
Lao last week called for a halt
of all U.S. bombing in Laos as
a precondition for a cease-fire.

Whatever the objective,
North Vietnamese forces fol-
lowed up their capture of two
government towns in the Bo-
lovens Plateau Sunday with
attacks at several points in
other parts of Laos.

A heavy North Vietnamese
rocket, attack yesterday near-
ly wiped out the town of Dong
Hene on Highway 9, about 200
miles southeast of Vientiane,
the capital and 100 miles
north of Bolovens Plateau.

Reports reaching Vientiane.
said the North Vietnamese
then ambushed a Laotian mili-
tary convoy as it was retreat-
ing from Dong Hene and head-
ing westward to Seno, 20 miles
away.

All six trucks in the convoy
and two 105-mm. howitzer ar-
tillery pieces were lost to the
North Vietnamese, reliable Vi-
entiane sources said.

Well to the north, an enemy
rocket attack blew up an am-
munition dump and damaged
an airstrip at Paksane, on the
Mekong River 75 miles north-
east of Vientiane. Three civil-
ians and three government
troops were wounded.

See INDOCHINA, A10, Col. 5

INDOCHINA, From A1

In a delayed report, officials
in Vientiane disclosed that the
village of Ban Muong, 210
miles northwest of Vientiane
on the Thai border, was cap-
tured last Friday by North Vi-
etnamese.

One official in close touch
with the Laos situation com-
mented: "The Communists are
hitting more places at the
same time in Laos than I can
remember ever before."

About 50 Americans and 50
other foreign dependents
were flown out of Pakse with
North Vietnamese troops re-
ported only 25 miles away on
the neighboring Bolovens pla-
teau.

[Official sources in Washing-
ton said AID has a 20-member
mission in Pakse. In addition,
they said, there are Americans
there working for Interna-
tional Volunteer Services and
American firms doing contract
work in the area]

The North Vietnamese all
but completed full control of
the Bolovens Plateau Sunday
by capturing the towns of Pak
Song and Ban Houei Sai, in
the plateau's center, leaving
only one town still in govern-
ment hands.

A U.S. reconnaissance plane
flew over the plateau yester-
day and the observer reported
numerous tank tracks in the
area of Ban Houei Sai. The ob-
server saw no tanks, but said
the tracks indicated an ar-
mored force of battalion
strength, perhaps 16 tanks.

Cambodia Denies

Angkor Shelled

PHNOM PENH, May 18
(AP) — The head of a national

committee charged with pro-
tection of the ancient Khmer
ruins at Angkor has deni-
that Angkor Wat was damaged
by a government artillery bar-
rage, the official Cambodian
news agency said today.

Agence Khmer de Presse
published a telegram from
Tan Kim Huon, president of
the National Committee for
the Protection of Cultural
Treasures in Case of Armed
Conflict, to Cambodia's perma-
nent representative to
UNESCO.

The cable said: "Cambodian
troops have duty to defend
human life. About shelling of
Angkor monuments them-
selves, this is purely press im-
agination."

Authoritative sources told
the Associated Press on May
11 that a Cambodian army
captain, acting on his own ini-
tiative, had shelled Angkor
Wat, the most famous of the
ruined temples in northwest
Cambodia, and the barrage
had done severe damage.

The sources said the shell-
ing occurred in February but
the government kept it secret.

The Vietcong and North Vi-
etnamese occupied the ruins at
Angkor last summer. The
government ordered that no
attack be made on them, to
save the ruins from damage.

[A State Department source
said there was no clear infor-
mation about the reports of
damage to the temple. How-
ever, he said, what evidence
there was indicated that if it
had been shelled the damage
was "minor."]

May 19, 1971

The Washington Post

## Cambodian Aide Denies Damage to Angkor Wat

PNOMPENH, Cambodia, May 18 (AP)—The head of a national committee charged with protection of the ancient Khmer ruins at Angkor has denied that Angkor Wat was damaged by a Government artillery barrage, the official Cambodian news agency said today.

Agence Khmer de Presse published a cablegram from Tan Kim Huon, president of the National Committee for the Protection of Cultural Treasures in Case of Armed Conflict, to Sisowath Essaro, Cambodia's representative at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

The cablegram said: "Sporadic fighting in Siem Reap Angkor. Cambodian troops have duty to defend human life. About shelling of Angkor monuments themselves, this is purely press imagination. Wish to get action from UNESCO Executive Council to make Angkor park neutral zone."

Authoritative sources told The Associated Press on May 11 that a Cambodian Army captain, acting on his own initiative, had shelled Angkor Wat, the most famous of the ruined temples in northwest Cambodia, and that the barrage had caused severe damage.

S. Viets
Kil 42
Vietcong

SAIGON, May 16—The South Vietnamese command today reported that government troops killed at least 42 Vietcong yesterday in three operations, including a new thrust into southeastern Cambodia.

A South Vietnamese armed task force moved into the Parrot's Beak area of Cambodia at dawn yesterday and within hours ran into a band of Vietcong guerrillas, killing 14.

A government spokesman said three South Vietnamese rangers were injured in the battle.

The border area south of Highway 1 linking Saigon and Phnom Penh is a maze of rice paddies, bamboo thickets and sugar palms. It has been repeatedly patrolled by South Vietnamese troops and scanned by U.S. spotter planes since a joint force smashed its way through guerrilla sanctuaries there a year ago.

The South Vietnamese army has more than 20,000 troops in Cambodia guarding roads and attacking Vietcong infiltration routes into the Mekong Delta, but the military spokesman said the troops in the new operation were all newly arrived from South Vietnam.

Uminh Forest

In a brief skirmish in the Uminh forest of the Mekong Delta yesterday, government forces reported killing another 14 guerrillas with no casualties of their own.

In the northwest corner of South Vietnam, government troops searching for important North Vietnamese supply dumps in and around the Ashau Valley killed 14 North Vietnamese with artillery fire yesterday.

After the artillery barrage six miles northwest of a Luoi town at the northern mouth of the valley, ground troops moved in to flatten 48 houses which covered guerrilla bunkers, a spokesman said.

South Vietnamese troops destroyed another 100 houses with bunkers two miles from this spot three days before.

The U.S. Command reported two American Division soldiers killed and five wounded in a clash in northern Quangnam province yesterday. Four guerrillas were killed in the action, a spokesman said.

U.S. helicopter gunships killed five guerrillas after coming under ground fire east of the Mekong River town of Caolanh some 50 miles southwest of Saigon last night, he added.

## Ky Speech

Meanwhile, Vice President Nguyen Cao Ky said today there was no social justice in South Vietnam and he added that he intended to continue in politics to carry through a social reform program.

After addressing 200 private school teachers in suburban Cholon, Ky told newsmen the best way to end the war and at the same time keep South Vietnam free from Communist or foreign domination was "to establish a strong South Vietnamese society through a social reform program.

"Once we get this strength we can, on one side, deal equally with our friends and, on the other side, deal effectively—discourage the enemy from continuing the war of aggression," he said.

"There is no social justice right now," he added in answer to a question.

Asked whether he would run in the presidential elections in October in order to try to do something about this situation, he replied: "Yes, yes, yes." But he would not say whether he would run alongside President Thieu.

MAY 22 1971

N.Y.T.

30 U.S. SOLDIERS
KILLED IN ATTACKS
ON VIETNAM BASES

War Deaths in Day Exceed
Total for Last Week —
50 More Wounded

ROCKET HITS A BUNKER

Strike Near DMZ Catches
Men in the Mess Hall—
3 Positions Shelled

By The Associated Press

SAIGON, South Vietnam, Saturday, May 22—Thirty American soldiers were killed and 50 wounded in three devastating rocket and mortar attacks in the northern war zone of South Vietnam, the United States command announced today.

The deaths exceeded all the United States battlefield fatalities reported last week, when the command said that 24 Americans had been killed and 240 had been wounded.

A command spokesman, Maj. Charles Johnson, said that the "major share" of casualties had been suffered at a base called Charlie 2 that guards the demilitarized zone. He said 15 100-pound rockets crashed into the compound at dusk yesterday, just as the troops were preparing to eat.

Third Night of Shelling

The base, held by soldiers of the First Brigade, Fifth Mechanized Infantry Division, had been shelled for three consecutive nights, Major Johnson said.

A 60-round mortar barrage also blasted paratroopers of the 101st Airborne Division in bivouac 17 miles southeast of Hue, the command said. The third enemy target was a field position of the 196th Infantry Brigade, about 30 miles south of Danang.

The command did not give a breakdown of casualties for the different bases but only the total for all three attacks.

However, virtually all of the dead and more than half of the wounded were reported to have been victims of a single 100-pound rocket that struck a bunker at Charlie 2.

Some Were Eating

One United States field officer said that the bunker "took a direct hit with a time-delayed-fuse rocket that went through six feet of cover and then exploded."

"Just about everyone in the bunker was killed or wounded," he said. "Only four or five escaped. The bunker was near the mess hall and some men were eating."

After the first two or three rockets hit the base, some men in the mess hall ran into the bunker, which was about 16 by 32 feet, "because it was the nearest one," he added. "That's

Continued on Page 12, Column 2

# Saigon Task Force
Flown to Cambodia

Reuter

SAIGON, May 21—American helicopters yesterday flew 160 sorties to land a 2,000-man South Vietnamese task force in eastern Cambodia at the start of a new offensive against two North Vietnamese divisions, military sources said today.

There were no reports of any helicopter losses as the government troops landed about 20 miles inside Cambodia about half way between the provincial capital of Prey Veng and the South Vietnamese border. There were indications, however, that fierce fighting was encountered.

Lt. Gen. Nguyen Van Minh, commander of South Vietnamese forces in Cambodia, told a government armed forces daily newspaper today that some tanks were involved in the operation.

He said the government forces were trying to surround sections of the Seventh and Ninth North Vietnamese divisions.

[Saigon has about 18,000 troops in Cambodia, according to the South Vietnam command.]

Cambodian government troops crossed the Mekong River and advanced east into North Vietnamese and Vietcong-controlled areas of Prey Veng province early this year.

But they made little progress beyond the Tonle Toch tributary of the Mekong where the South Vietnamese troops are now and where the Vietnamese Communists have aggressively defended their in-

filtration routes into the Mekong Delta.

Father east in Cambodia near the border town of Kompong Trach, South Vietnamese troops uncovered a sizable arms cache today after a brief clash in which seven guerrillas were killed, the South Vietnamese military spokesman said.

South Vietnamese troops patrolling yesterday along the border reported killing 59 guerrillas with aerial support. Six government troops were killed and 25 were wounded.

2,000 Saigon troops in
new Cambodia offensive

Saigon, May 21.—United States helicopters have moved nearly 2,000 South Vietnamese troops into eastern Cambodia in a new offensive against two North Vietnamese divisions, military sources said today.

Lieutenant-General Nguyen Van Minh, commander of South Vietnamese forces in Cambodia, told reporters that first field reports indicated fierce fighting.

The troops were landed yesterday about halfway between the province capital of Prey Veng and the South Vietnamese border—about 20 miles inside Cambodia. Some were moved in with tanks.

The forces were attempting to surround sections of the 7th and 9th North Vietnamese divisions, General Van Minh told reporters at a ceremony commemorating the formation of South Vietnam's Third Corps, which he commands.

Two Americans were killed yesterday in the central highlands of South Vietnam when their helicopter was shot down and destroyed during a reconnaissance mission over Pleiku.

Meanwhile military spokesmen claim that communist attacks and terrorist acts have risen to their highest level for nearly a month in South Vietnam. They reported a total of 48 communist-initiated attacks and "incidents", including 24 shellings of government and American military installations during the past 24 hours.

In the third phase of their "total victory" offensive in eastern Cambodia the South Vietnamese claim to have killed 896 communists for the loss of 83 killed and 425 wounded on the Government side.—Reuter and Agence France Presse.

secretary of the Association of Education Committees, said yesterday in *Education*, the association's magazine.

Sir William said it appeared certain that if a Bill now before the Commons became law, local authorities would be required to charge pupils or their parents for milk. Those authorities supplying milk on the rates could be held to be acting illegally and could be surcharged in respect of such expenditure.

"The fact that the Government has decided that it is not prepared to finance the provision of milk for children over the age of seven surely does not mean that it must forbid a local education authority to do so at its own expense", he said.

Sir William, one of the most influential figures in local educa-

peatedly stressed its desire to increase the freedom of action of local authorities", he said.

The whole idea of the rate support grant, he writes, was that the Government would provide a set amount of money to a local authority, but the authority was free to add to that from the rates.

In areas of fairly high unemployment children might go to school without an adequate breakfast.

"There are many, therefore who feel that the provision of milk for these children is a major factor in maintaining their health, and indeed in enabling them to carry the load of school work successfully", Sir William said.

If the Government was not prepared to pay, it should at least leave a local education authority free to make such a decision as its own expense.

## President replies to critics of the GMC

By John Roner

## Pharmacists not to alter prescriptions

A report in a Birmingham hospital

CAMBODIAN FORAYS
BY SPIES REPORTED

PNOMPENH, Cambodia, May 26 (AP)—Twelve-man teams of Cambodian troops, trained by Central Intelligence Agency personnel at a base in Laos, successfully infiltrated deep into Communist-held territory in Cambodia two months ago, according to Western sources here.

The sources said about 20 such intelligence teams were flown last March from a base near Pakse in southern Laos to

secret landing zones in Rattanakiri, Stung Trong and Preah Vihear provinces in northern Cambodia. The entire region has been controlled by North Vietnamese and Vietcong forces since early last month. The teams were said to have returned after a month.

The sources said the Cambodians were flown aboard helicopters from the United States air base at Udorn, Thailand. American pilots and crewmen in uniform were aboard some of the aircraft, the sources stated.

Other helicopters were manned by Thai crews, according to the sources.

Security, but Terrorism Is Up

It does mean that the Vietcong's organized units and to a certain extent its guerrillas have been contained. They have been unable to launch any major offensives nor to regain undisputed control over populated areas.

On the other hand, terrorism in the Delta is showing a notable increase, according to a recent intelligence analysis prepared at the request of Maj. Gen. John H. Cushman, the U.S. commander for the region.

### Outposts Overrun

The same report shows that more militia outposts have been overrun so far this year than all of last year. The enemy is still capable also of mounting small-scale offensives.

In Kienhoa province, still one of the country's least secure, on the night of May 29, the Vietcong launched a co-ordinated series of 14 attacks starting at about 1:30 a.m.

"It used to be," said an American adviser there, "that each one of those attacks would mean 30 to 40 mortar rounds, now its two or three."

To the north, in Longkhanh province, the enemy has shown the capacity to cause enough trouble to jeopardize the pacification program in Xuanloc district and in recent weeks has cut critical Highway 1 several times.

The Boiloihobo woods of Haunghia Province is another acknowledged trouble spot where the enemy has been able to infiltrate because of the absence of South Vietnamese regulars now committed to the Cambodian fighting.

But in the view of senior commanders these examples of enemy activity are often traceable to local factors: poor leadership in the militia, a corrupt district chief, or, as in Kienhoa, a long and

especially close association with the National Liberation Front.

### In Cambodia

As long as the military situation on the home front remains as it seemingly is now, the prospects are that the South Vietnamese will remain in Cambodia in force. (No American or South Vietnamese even mentions the possibility that the Cambodians might assume the burden in the Eastern provinces of their country.)

Just in the past two weeks, across the border, from here in the swamp and ricelands to the south of Highway 7, a new phase of the Cambodian operation got under way involving some 12,000 troops of the 25th Division.

Unlike earlier actions directed at base areas to the north of Highway 7, this one is directed to the south, towards Highway 1.

The four task forces in-

volved have employed a technique of maximum mobility, spending no more than three or four days in one place.

South Vietnamese officers are specially proud of the fact that most of the resupply missions of the operation are being flown by South Vietnamese helicopters. The United States is providing helicopter gunships.

So far, no sustained heavy contacts have been reported. Some caches of new weapons were discovered, according to U.S. advisers, which indicates that some equipment has been getting through the forces arrayed on Highway 7.

Commanders anticipate the operation will go at full steam until the rainy weather makes the terrain impassable. Then some of the units will be withdrawn and others will return to their positions along the roads.

# U.S. Jets Hit VC in Cambodia

From News Dispatches

U.S. air strikes were called in near Phnom Penh yesterday as Cambodian troops fought Vietcong for control of positions considered ideal for guerrilla rocket attacks on the capital.

Heavy fighting raged around an ancient Buddhist pagoda at An Cheng, 10 miles east of Phnom Penh, and a government spokesman said 40 Cambodian soldiers were wounded before their forces drove the Vietcong out of the pagoda, where they had been holed up for weeks.

Vietcong casualties were not known. Military sources said the Vietcong apparently were determined to establish bases in the area before the start of the wet season so they would be ready for early attacks on Phnom Penh as soon as the monsoon rains end in November.

The U.S. air strike was part of an air offensive against

three enemy divisions in eastern Cambodia, including a division headquarters on the Chup rubber plantation 30 miles inside the country, informed sources reported.

The aim of the air campaign, spearheaded by B-52 bombers, was to smash concentrations and to prevent the movement of North Vietnamese and Vietcong troops south.

It was from the Chup plantation, 55 miles northeast of Phnom Penh, that element of the Vietcong's 9th Division moved south and attacked Cambodian troops only 18 miles east of Cambodia's capital Tuesday.

In Saigon, the South Vietnamese high command issued an official report on the withdrawal from the Cambodian border town of Snuol, saying 37 South Vietnamese were killed, 167 wounded and 74 left behind and listed as missing in action when a 2,000-man South Vietnamese armored task force pulled out Monday.

Military sources said a

whole company appeared to have been overrun and cut off from the main South Vietnamese column as a full North Vietnamese division of about 10,000 men massed around Snuol and even occupied the central marketplace for 24 hours last week.

As South Vietnamese tanks, armored cars and infantry pulled six miles south of Snuol Monday, U.S. and South Vietnamese warplanes laid a massive bombardment of the North Vietnamese and reported sighting 700 dead from the air.

Phnom Penh military sources said North Vietnamese troop strength in the area just northeast and east of the Cambodian capital could be as high as 3,000 and that the government has committed 4,000 soldiers to the fight.

Lt. Col. Am Rong, the Cambodian command spokesman, said the Communist units probably were trying to set up bases in the swampy area before the coming rainy season

when roads will not be useable by government vehicles. He said some supplies already were being airlifted because of bad roads.

## Cigaret Linked To Ship Blaze

VANCOUVER, June 2 (AP) —A smoldering cigaret may have been responsible for starting a fire that killed 32 crew members aboard the Norwegian cruise ship Meteor May 22, the ship's second engineer says.

John Clark told a coroner's jury Tuesday he thought somebody had "probably left a cigarette on a side table in a cabin or on a bunk."

Evidence was also heard on Tuesday criticizing the size of the ship's portholes and the design of her safety features —a door that swung the wrong way and contributed to the death of five crewmen, and a fire alarm system that failed once the fire started.

By Peter A. Jay

Washington Post Foreign Service

SAIGON, June 2—Brandishing a hand grenade in South Vietnam's National Assembly, a supporter of Nguyen Cao Ky forestalled a vote tonight on a proposed law that would almost certainly prevent the Vice President from challenging President Thieu in the October elections.

But the delay appeared only temporary. Pro-government assemblymen, with the strong backing of President Thieu, had the votes in hand to pass the controversial election law and effectively limit the President's political opponents to one. The house will reconvene on Thursday.

The bill would require each presidential candidate to obtain the endorsement of 40 assemblymen as a prerequisite to running. Ky's backers say that in the strongly pro-Thieu house, they will be unable to muster the 40 signatures.

The passage of the election law is not expected to pose any obstacles to the candidacy of the third likely contender, Gen. Duong Van (Big) Minh. But in a two-way race with

Bloc, a small opposition group, said on the Assembly floor tonight that the government had passed them the word that if they supported the election law their leader, Assemblyman Ngo Cong Due, would be released from prison.

Duc, one of the government's most outspoken critics, was jailed in Vinhbinh Province yesterday for assault. He allegedly struck a local official who spat beer in his face during a political argument.

During tonight's debate in the National Assembly, in French colonial days the Saigon Opera House, plainclothes policemen lined the balconies while scores of their uni-

formed counterparts patrolled downtown streets.

In the chokingly hot Assembly chamber, birds flew in and out of the windows and darted around the slowly turning ceiling fans. There was no panic at the sight of Assemblyman Dan's grenade, perhaps because weapons are brandished here for one reason or another on the order of once a fortnight.

It was unclear late tonight whether the vote on the election law would be by a simple raising of hands or—as the opposition wanted and the government bloc did not—by formal recording of names.

But whatever the method, it

appeared clear that Thieu is moving determinedly to clear political opposition from his path well before the elections.

There have been no signs of moves by Thieu against Minh, the "peace candidate" in the race and a man whose support had appeared to be flagging. There is reason to believe that if Thieu sought to foreclose the elections to Minh the American mission here would exert ample pressure to see that he didn't do so.

"We want this to be a fair election," an American official told a reporter some weeks ago. "That's important. But it's critical that it look fair."

In some provinces where

The San Joint
1981

# Saigon Denies Rout by Enemy at Snoul

By IVER PETERSON
Special to The New York Times

SAIGON, South Vietnam, Wednesday, June 2—The South Vietnamese task force that withdrew from the eastern Cambodian town of Snoul on Monday is still inside Cambodia, a Saigon spokesman said yesterday.

The spokesman, Lieut. Col. Le Trung Hien, denied reports that the Government troops had been driven under heavy attack from the rubber-plantation town, which is 10 miles from the South Vietnamese border and 90 miles north of Saigon.

He described the pullout as a "realignment" caused by the coming rainy season and not enemy pressure.

He estimated that during the withdrawal more than 700 North Vietnamese troops had been killed by American and South Vietnamese planes and helicopter gunships and by South Vietnamese tanks. The enemy, he said, was attacked along Routes 7 and 13, which were also the lines of the South Vietnamese withdrawal.

## Losses Put at 6

Colonel Hien put the South Vietnamese losses during the pullback at six men wounded. [Reports from the field, The Associated Press said, quoted South Vietnamese troops as saying that about 200 of their men had been killed or wounded Monday as they fought the North Vietnamese Fifth Division while retreating from Snoul.]

"The withdrawal was part of the whole plan of operation in Cambodia during the rainy season," Colonel Hien said through an interpreter. He later said that the withdrawal had been "(preplanned," adding that Government troops had similarly been pulled back from Snoul at this time last year as the summer monsoon season got under way.

The South Vietnamese Army's principal interest in the area surrounding Snoul lies in preventing the enemy from infiltrating into old base areas just across the border in South Vietnam.

Colonel Hien said that there would be further realignments of the South Vietnamese Army positions in Cambodia in preparation for the rainy season. [While he stressed that the Government troops who had left Snoul were still in Cambodia, The Associated Press said that, according to reports from the field, they had pulled back across the border to Loc-ninh.]

Colonel Hien said it was possible that some battle-damaged South Vietnamese armored personnel carriers, tanks and trucks had been destroyed by Government troops in Snoul as the pullout began rather than let them fall into enemy hands. [Reports from the field, quoted by The Associated Press, said 80 tanks, armored personnel carriers, jeeps and trucks had been left behind by the South Vietnamese, who also reportedly destroyed 12 artillery pieces.]

## Copter Crash Kills 7

SAIGON, Wednesday, June 2 (AP) — The United States com-

mand reported today the loss of two more Army helicopters and said one had crashed 24 miles northwest of Saigon, killing seven Americans aboard. It was one of the largest losses of life in a helicopter crash in recent months.

## Cambodians Report Battles

PNOMPENH, Cambodia, June 1 (AP) — Cambodian troops guarding the eastern approaches to Pnompenh reported today they had killed about 200 North Vietnamese or Vietcong attackers in all-day battles in the marshes on the eastern bank of the Mekong River about 5 miles from the capital. The current fighting is for tiny patches of high ground that are above areas that are expected to be flooded soon by monsoon rains.

## U. S. Comments on Pullout

WASHINGTON, June 1 (AP) — Jerry W. Freidham, the Pentagon spokesman, said today that the South Vietnamese had intended to withdraw some main combat units from Cambodia with the onset of the rainy season. The withdrawal, he said, "appears from here to be orderly and according to their plan."

Philippine Leaders, Wary of Peking,

By HENRY KAMM

Special to The New York Times

MANILA, June 1—Leaders of the Philippines regard Communist China's apparent new openness toward the non-Communist world with suspicion and are determined to make no hasty approaches toward Peking.

"We're worried that the steps taken to welcome Filipinos and Americans to Red China may merely be a tentative policy for purposes of the entry of Red China into the United Nations," President Ferdinand E. Marcos said in an interview today.

Foreign Secretary Carlos E. Romulo stressed the closeness of the ties that have bound the Philippines to Nationalist China since World War II as a major factor in discouraging hasty action.

"We can't just drop the Republic of China as Canada, Belgium and Italy did," Mr. Romulo said.

Both men, the principal architects of Philippine foreign policy, are strongly anti-Communist,

and qualified diplomats consider the President even more so than his Foreign Secretary.

Mr. Marcos indicated the hardness of his attitude by continually referring to the Government in Peking as "Red China," a term that has almost disappeared among Asian leaders in recent months. Mr. Romulo showed an awareness of the new trend by correcting himself the only time he began to refer to "Red China" and said, "the People's Republic."

Even those political figures who take a more flexible approach to international affairs and are generally favorable to relations with Communist countries share the older leaders' caution on China and concern over the attitude to be taken toward the Taiwan regime.

"Has China relented on the

exportation of 'national liberation' asked Senator Benigno S. Aquino Jr., who is preparing to visit Communist China as a journalist in a few days.

President Marcos, who said he considered that question of crucial importance, proceeded to answer in the negative. He said investigations had disclosed evidence of connections between radical groups here and Communist China.

The President said that "Red Chinese provocateurs" had come to the Philippines and a number of Filipino radical leaders had received training in China. Moreover, he said, members of the Chinese minority in the Philippines have made financial contributions to local Maoists, in addition to funds these elements receive from China through Hong Kong and Macao.

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S Vietnamese withdrawal
in Cambodia

From Derek Wilson

Saigon, June 1

South Vietnamese forces have evacuated the Cambodian border town of Snoul during their first big withdrawal after a communist attack in Cambodia since the allied incursion into the country 13 months ago.

Outnumbered infantry and armoured units abandoned the rurned town and travelled seven miles towards the South Viet-namese frontier under an umbrella of heavy bombing that killed 700 Hanoi troops, according to a mili-tary spokesman in Saigon.

As they left, the South Viet-
namese blew up some of their
vehicles, including tanks and
armoured troop carriers. They
were unable to salvage them, which
suggested that the withdrawal was
not leisurely.

A South Vietnamese military spokesman, however, announced that it was part of a preconceived overall scheme for operations during the rainy season, which has just begun. He confirmed that the mission of the South Vietnamese in Cambodia was to keep the North Vietnamese away from the border and prevent them from again setting up supply bases in the vicinity.

The troops in the withdrawal are now close to the border and have left the North Vietnamese with the opportunity of using the two roads that join at Snoul and are now unobstructed by ground forces.

The withdrawal was effected after heavy fighting which began last Wednesday, when the North Vietnamese, now estimated to have been at division strength, broke into Snoul and attacked the four or five South Vietnamese battalions camped round the town.

Phnom Penh, June 1.—Two plastic bomb explosions today shook buildings occupied by members of the American military mission in Phnom Penh. One explosion was set off by a booby-trapped bicycle left in a garage. The house to which it was attached was badly damaged, and three people were injured.—Agence France Presse

Moscow, June 1.—Pravda asserted today that chemical de-foliants used by the American forces in Vietnam were harmful to humans and cited two case his-tories of deformed babies. In a report from Hanoi, it said that 179 South Vietnamese victims of the chemicals had reached hospi-tals in the north. 70 of them children.—Reuter.

preceded by a most ingratiating one of the Symphony No. 2. Nothing is more subtly Viennese than the early Schubert Symphonies, with their artifice that never becomes artificiality, their sense of music that is sung rather than played (especially in this performance), their faint taste of sweetness, and this was an appropriate start to the Festival's very crowded four weeks.

the style comes from O'Horgan's staging of Tom Paine and, to a lesser extent, Hair, but it is more innovative than either in its use of parody and blockbusting theatrical trickery. Here he is most imaginatively helped by the giant scenery of Robin Wagner, who provides the play with a truly Wagnerian sense of gods and twilight.

There are some neatly turned performances here, Joe Silver turning up everywhere in a number of roles, and each one a joy, and Jane House as Rusty, Lenny's stripper wife, is both convincingly attractive and cool. But of course Lenny is Lenny and Lenny is Cliff Gorman.

Gorman doesn't look much like Bruce, and he doesn't even sound much like Bruce. But he does have a fantastic gift for mimicry, an absolutely driven style that hammers and hammers home to the audience, relentless, mocking and acerbic. Gorman is on that stage for hours and hours and hours, facing the audience, belting the material and also revealing the

objective and clear as HN's. Even in the field of humanity, Mr. Amoore says stoutly, the BBC is up there with the front runners. "The News at Ten chaps are lovely," he admits, "but our chaps are lovely, too. Robert Dougall can't go down the street without being mobbed, and Richard Baker has the highest personal rating of any news reader in the country."

Mr. Amoore, who has been editor since March 1, has made no great changes and claims to have none planned for the future. "New brooms are very boring and very inefficient. If I was the

## Our Sunday Times for London

The Traverse Theatre Workshop Company of Edinburgh will present their production of Stanley Easting's *Our Sunday Times* in the Theatre Upstairs this evening for a three-week run. *Our Sunday Times* opened first at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, earlies this year and has been shown, with great success, in Holland and Spain.

The play is described as a Sunday morning meditation on the death of a contemporary hero. It involves a company of 10 combining song, dance and incidental

FIGHT ERUPTS AGAIN
IN CAMBODIAN MARSH

PNOMPENH, Cambodia, June 4 (AP) — Fighting waned then flared again today in the week-long battle for control of the Vihear Sour Marshes, 15 miles east of Pnompenh. The marshes control the eastern approaches to the capital.

Allied planes were called in after several 122-mm. rockets hit the village of Vihear Sour, killing four Cambodian soldiers and wounding 33, the Cambodian command reported. It said 15 enemy dead were found after the air strike.

Three reinforced North Vietnamese and Vietcong regiments and a heavy-weapons battalion are facing Cambodian forces there, said Maj. Ang Son Kang, who commands an outpost on the eastern edge of the marshes.

He said that Cambodian positions dotted over the marshes are now isolated by the enemy offensive and are receiving supplies by air.

"We need sewers, we need roads, we need to fight pollution.

## Aid Is 'Responsibility'

"But we must continue our foreign aid. This is the responsibility of an advanced industrial state, and for this need the warm support of you the people, in whom sovereignty resides."

Today marked the official start of a campaign for the upper house of Japan's Diet (parliament). Half of the upper house's 252 seats are at stake. Of those at stake, 64 are held by the governing Liberal Democratic party, 35 by the Socialists, 11 by the Buddhist Komei-

## House Panel Told
About New Drugs
To Combat Heroin

WASHINGTON, June 4 (AP) — Scientists told Congressional investigators today of a new group of drugs that they said might mark "an important