Poge Six

THE MICHIGAN DAILY

Saturday May 17 1975 1

Poge Six THE MiCHIGAN DAILY Saturday, May 17, 1975

United Brands sued.
for banana bride

Thais blast U.S. action

T E G U C I G A L P A,
Honduras (A) - H o n d u r a s
threatened legal action yester-
day against United Brands Co.
for allegedly paying $1.2 million
in bribes to have a banana ex-
port tax reduced.
In neighboring Costa Rica,
however, where the company
also allegedly made payoffs, the
government said it was satis-
fied with a denial by United
Brands and that the company
had committeed no wrongdo-
ing there.
IN ANOTHER CASE of Amer-
ican company payoffs in Latin
America, the Bolivian cabinet
met in 'emergency session after
Gulf Oil Co. reported paying
$460,000 in "political contribu-
tions" to a former administra-
tion. The Cabinet later demand-
ed more information from
Gulf and ordered the federal
attorney general to establish
a special tribunal to try any
government officials accused of
accepting bribes.
Costa Rican President Daniel
Oduber said in a statement he
was s a t i s f i e d with
United Brand's statement that
no official in Costa Rica had
been bribed by the company.
Oduber had threatened to can-
cel the company's operating li-
cense in Costa Rica if it failed
to comeup with a satisfactory
explanation.
THE COSTA RICAN president
made the demand after an ar-
ticle in the Wall Street Jour-
nal and a grand jury investiga-
tion in Washington, D. C.,
claimed , United Brands had
spent $2 million in payoffs in
Honduras, Costa Rica, Pana-
ma, Italy and West Germany
to influence the banana trade.
A company statement said
it had made no payoffs in Cos-

t Rica or Panama.
The attorney general's office
in Honduras, meanwhile, said it
planned to prosecute United
Brands on charges of bribery
on evidence turned up by a
special Honduran investigating
c o m m i t t e e. The com-
mittee claimed United Brands
executive John Taylor passed
money to former Economy Min-
ister Abraham Bennaton Ra-
mos at a meeting Sept. 3-4 in
Zurich, Switzerland.
UNITED BRANDS allegedly
made the payoffs to get Costa
Rica, Panama and Honduras
to back down from a decision
to raise the banana export tax
in line with policy set by the
Union of Banana Exporting
Countries late last year.
Guatemala, El Salvador and
Colombia, the three other mem-
bers of the union, ignored its
proposal to raise the tax to $1
per 40-pound case.
The Honduran investigating
committee said that prior to the
alleged payoff, Eli Black,
chairman of United Brands, un-
til his suicide this year, went to
Tegucigalpa to offer "several
thousands" to "fix the banana
problem."
BLACK'S OFFER was alleg-
edly made to Gen. Oswaldo Lo-
pez Arellano, then president of
Honduras. Lopez Arellano, 53,
was overthrown last month by
a bloodless military coup be-
cause of the bribery scandal
and was replaced by Juan Al-
berto Melgar Castro, 45, an
army colonel.
The company has admitted
paying a high Honduras official
$1.2 million and promising an-
other $1.2million to have the
banana tax in Honduras lower-
ed, but it did not name Lopez.

(Continued from Page 1)
UNDER QUESTIONING, how-
ever, Kissinger said the Maya-
guez raid did carry a lesson for
other nations.
"The impact ought to be that
there are limits beyond which
the United States cannot be
pushed," he said.
"We are not looking for op-
portunities to prove our man-
hood," he added, but the action
shows the United States will
protect its interests.
KUKRIT SAID Ambassador
Anand Panyarachun would de-
liver a protest note and seek an
exolanation from Secretary of
State Kissinger and then would
return to Bangkok for a review
of all economic and military
agreements with the country
that has been the sole focus of
its foreign policy since World
War II.
Having sent 12,000 troops and
lent airbases to support the
U.S. war effort in Vietnam,
Thailand for the last two years
has been trying to move out of
the U.S. orbit. The last of
America's 25,000 troops in Thai-
land are scheduled to be out
by next March.
But for Thailand's powerful
student activists and some key
political leaders the target of
next March makes too slow a
pace for the U.S. withdrawal.
WHETHER Thailand will find
a safe place in the new Asian
power structure will be better
known after a meeting today
with three newly arrived repre-
sentatives of the Saigon Revo-
lutionary Government and with
a North Vietnamese delegation
due in Monday.
"We bring greetings from the
victorious Vietnamese people,"
said Ambassador Nguyen Minh
Phuong. He and his delegation
were greeted with flowers,
cheers and pretty Vietnamese
girls in slit skirts at the airport


and then driven in a U.S.-made
limousine to a dinner featuring
lobster thermidor at a luxury
hotel.
Phuong, in his arrival state-
ment, wasted no time in getting
down to the main point of his
visit. Before any mention of
peaceful coexistence and
economic cooperation, he an-
nounced he had come:
"TO RECEIVE all the prop-
erty including airplanes, ves-
sels . . . brought to Thailand
by members of the former Sai-
gon administrationand army in
their flight from South Vietnam
and to take over the former
Saigon administration's embas-
sy and information bureaus in
Thailand."
In other Indochina develop-
ments:
-The U.S. Senate passed a
bill that would authorize $405
million for resettlement of an
estimated 130,000 Vietnamese

and Cambodian war refugees in
the United States.
-THREE Americans held by
leftists in Laos appealed for
senior Laotian government of-
ficials to help negotiate their
release.
-Saigon imposed its first cur-
few since the Communist-led
takeover.
-South Korea's National As-
sembly prepared to endorse
President Chung Hee Park's se-
curity policies in the face of in-
surgent victories in Indochina.
. -INFORMED sources in Ran-
goon said Burma's 29 million
population is becoming increas-
ingly apprehensive about the
western spread of Communist
influence in Indochina.
-There were also signs that
Malaysia's Communist-led in-
surgency, officially declared
ended 15 years ago, is showing
new vigor.

Gregory attacks


new world productions presents . . .
DAMON in:

Aerican.
(Continued from Page 3)
country."
Gre gory finished off his
speech in doomsayer style:
"There's a tremendous manipu-
CHANGE TO NIGHT
ALBUQUERQUE (A) -
Expansion of the University of
New Mexico footballstadium
will be completed in time to
permit some 1975 season games
to be played at night. Univer-
sity officials had announced
earlier that all six home games
would be played in the after-
noon.
Contractors have assured ath-
letic department officials that
the Fresno State, Colorado
State and Arizona State games
in September and October can
be played at night.
The first day game' will be
Oct. 18 against Utah. Other
home afternoon contests will be
against Texas-El Paso and
Wyoming.
STEREO-TV
FAST SERVICE
HiFi Studio
215 S. ASHLEY
668-7942
Theirwith
their
parents
were thei
we
d W
executed o
bytheU.S.
Government S

values
lation of food going on sn this
country. Do you all know what
they're doin' to you?
"The number one problem in
this country is the food short-
age. The number two crisis in
this country is water.
"AS WE SIT here right now,
there's 7.5 million acres of
farmland under water.
"If food prices continue to
rise, this country will be leveled
in six days' to six weeks' time."
LIST SIX HOME GAMES
MORGANTOWN, W. Va. (P)
-West Virginia's football team
will play 11 games next fall, six
of them at home. The Moun-
taineers open the season Sept.
13 with a home game against
Temple. The season will end
against another Eastern oppo-
nent, Syracuse on the road on
Nov. 22.
West Virginia's other trips in-
cludes games in Calofirnia,
against Southern Methodist in
Texas, at Penn State and Rich-
mond.
DR. PAUL USLAN
Optometrist
Full Contact Lens Service
Visual Examinations
548 Church 663-2476
this book, Robert and Michael
ne forward at last to tell of rebuilding
r lives and how the fate of their par
motivated their own radical polt
activ'ties inthtu1rbent -1960's
,y reveal significant new facts about
r parents' case which again raise
question: Was justice done?
Are Your Sons moves inexorably
the past into the present, crying
for justice for today's political vic
."-Helen and Morton Sobel
e AreYour
NS THE LEGACY OF
ons ETHEL AND JULIUS
ROSENBERG. WRITTEN BY
THEIR CHILDREN, ROBERT
AND MICHAEL MEEROPOL
Illustratedt. $l0. Contains
*mattyunpublised
etterswritten by
Ethel and Julius
Rosenberg I
Nowaa
yotrIbookstare.
HOUGHTON
COMPANY
d f.-

h f Horror
LIVE MIDNIGHT HORROR
ON STAGE see a woman's head chopped off in the guillotine someone ripped
in half by a GIANT saw-watch a girl being burned alive-a body shred-
ded to pieces by a rack of spikes.
ALL THIS AND MORE ON STAGE AT MIDNIGHT
stage followed by classic horror film "SCREAM and SCREAM AGAIN!"
FOX VILLAGE THEATRE
FRIDAY & SATURDAY, MAY 16 & 17
ALL SEATS $2.00 MIDNIGHT SHOWS ONLY