Daily hansan
LAWRENCE, KANSAS
61st Year, No.20
Thursday, Oct. 10, 1963
933
Ailing Macmillan Steps Down As Britain's Political Leader
BLACKPOOL, England—(UPI)—Prime Minister Harold Macmillan today surrendered leadership of the ruling Conservative Party for the coming general elections and said he could not hope to be Prime Minister "for any extended period."
He did not resign as Prime Minister, although that action was indicated for the future.
IN A LETTER issued from his bed in a London hospital where he underwent a successful prostate gland operation this morning. Macmillan urged the Conservative Party to choose a new leader.
Macmillan's decision was contained in a letter to foreign secretary Lord Home.
It was read to the 4,200 delegates to the annual Conservative Party meeting. They were stunned by the announcement.
Mamillan's letter said that even if the operation proved successful, "it is clear that I will need a considerable period of convalescence."
"I WOULD NOT be able to face all that is involved in a long electoral campaign," he said. "Nor could I hope to fulfill the tasks of Prime Minister for any extended period and I have so informed the Queen."
However, a Buckingham Palace spokesman said: "He has not resigned as Premier."
The effect of his action appeared to be that he was turning over the reigns of government to deputy prime minister R. A. (Rab) Butler.
The 69-year-old Prime Minister's letter was sent to Lord Home in the foreign secretary's capacity as president of the National Union of Conservative and Unionist Associations.
claions.
"It is now clear that, whatever might have been my previous feelings, it will not be possible for me
to carry the physical burden of leading the party at the next general election," the letter said.
MACMILLAN said that he now hoped that the regular processes to pick a new leader for the Conservative Party would go into effect.
"In these circumstances, I hope that it will soon be possible for the customary processes of consultation to be carried on within the party about its future leadership," Macmillan added.
Macmillan successfully underwent a prostate gland operation in a London hospital this morning. A medical bulletin issued afterwards said the prostate gland was removed, there were no complications and conditions throughout the operation were "excellent."
Angus Maude, the man who replaced disgraced John Profumo as war minister, told the conference the leadership question must be settled.
"We must have certainty about the leadership—and soon." Maude said during a debate on a resolution calling for the election of a conservative government.
He said the party must put an end to "rumors" in the press concerning successors for the 69-year-old Macmillan.
ANOTHER delegate, John Lochran, sounded a similar warning.
"We can't have our leader out of action in the coming eight months,' he said.
Macmillan's leadership has been under attack by some rank-and-file Conservatives since the Profumo sex-and-security scandal first rocked the government last June.
He has since said repeatedly that he would announce his future plans when he had decided what was best "for the party and the nation." He
Jet-Propelled GEM Winds Its Way Across the South
By Fred Frailey
y Fred and
and Tom Moore
A jet-propelled contraption bearing the unassuming name GEM III is inching its way toward KU, despite the State of Missouri.
THE MACHINE is designed to float above the ground on a cushion of compressed air provided with a powerful blower.
GEM, a "ground effects machine," is to be studied by the Department of Mechanics and Aerospace Engineering under a research grant from the Office of Naval Research.
powerful blows.
The biggest problem encountered in tran-porting the machine has been its width-over ten feet. Most states require a special permit for loads over eight feet wide. Permits had been obtained from the necessary states for transportation of GEM III on a Marine Corps flatbed truck when it was learned that Missouri would not allow it to come across the state.
was to have addressed the conference Saturday.
Missouri's refusal to allow the lieutenant through has forced the Marine Corps to reroute it south through Tennessee, Arkansas and Oklahoma and then north to Lawrence.
GEM III was to leave Langley Field, Va., Oct. 1 for Lawrence and be presented to the University Oct. 15 by Gen. W. K. Jones of the U.S. Marine Corps, a 1939 KU graduate whose career did not leave
The announcement Tuesday that Macmillan was going to have to undergo a prostate operation increased doubts about his political future.
Weather
But the machine did not leave
The weather will remain clear to partly cloudy this afternoon through Friday.
Warm temperatures will continue with the high reaching the upper 80's, and the low tonight in the mid 50's.
REPORTS from the conference said acting Prime Minister Butler had a slight edge among possible successors to Maemillan if he does decide to step down, but a number of other possibilities were being considered.
Langley until yesterday, a week later.
AMMON ANDES, professor of mechanics and aerospace engineering, said yesterday that the department may consider postponing the Oct. 15 presentation because of the delay and because the research workers would like to make adjustments on it prior to the ceremony.
Conservative parliamentary leaders Iain Macleod got a roaring response from the conference today with a "fight" speech predicting a Conservative victory in the next parliamentary election despite the party's poor showing in recent public opinion polls.
The GEM can travel over water, mud and snow, but it has its drawbacks. KU researchers headed by C. J. Choliasmenos, assistant professor of mechanics and aerospace engineering, will try to correct GEM's instability when operated over water and its difficulty in clearing obstacles several feet high.
The next election must be held within a year, and current speculation is that it probably will come in May or June.
Italian Flood Death Toll Over 3,000
LONGARONE, Italy — (UPI) — More than 3,000 persons were feared today to have been swept to their deaths when a massive landslide poured a 300 foot-high wall of water over a dam onto the sleeping villages of an Alpine valley.
Millions of tons of water spilled over the lip of the dam last night, poured into the valley, wiped out villages, and caught thousands in their beds. The effect of the landslide into the reservoir behind the dam was like that of a stone dropped into a teacup.
THE DAM itself was not collapsed by the rushing water, but a part of its crest on the right side crumbled under the shock of the wave. The concrete structure, highest arch dam in the world, held firm except for the minor damage along the top, although officials first had believed that it had collapsed and hurled the water into the valley.
Dam at 10.45 pm.
Rescue officials estimated that more than 3,000 persons died in half a dozen shattered villages.
The disaster was triggered by the landslide that plopped into the reservoir behind the 860-foot Vajont Dam at 10:43 p.m. yesterday.
WITH A tremendous roar, the 300-foot wall of water swept down the ravine in front of the dam and into the Piave Valley.
Movement Started ToInviteMme.Nhu
A movement was launched yesterday to invite Madame Ngo Dinh Nhu, controversial "first lady" of Viet Nam, to visit KU during her tour of the United States.
By Tom Coffman
Klaus Pringsheim, instructor in East Asian area studies, speaking yesterday at the KU-Y current events forum, said he is discontented with American policy in Viet Nam and with what he considers to be the lack of information on the situation there.
tack of information on the situation he FOLLOWING PRINGSHEIM'S speech, Jerry Wald, Topeka senior, moved that Madame Nhu be invited to the campus. A committee was formed, headed by Steve Long, Mission senior, to investigate the possibilities.
Long said 17 people volunteered for the ad hoc committee.
would accept. "I am thinking about calling the South Vietnamese consulate in New York," Long said, "in order to extend the invitation as soon as possible."
Long, in an interview after the meeting, predicted that Madame Nhu would be invited and that she would accept.
MADAME NHU would accept the invitation because she wants the publicity and the opportunity to air her views before the American public. Long said, "She claims she has been misunderstood."
An official campus organization recognized by the administration, has to sponsor a guest speaker. The ad hoc committee formed after yesterday's speech is not an official organization.
beeth misunderstood. Madame Nhu is speaking at the University of Texas Oct. 24, and Long said he hopes she can be persuaded to come to KU sometime around that date.
Long believes that the SUA minority opinion forum or some other campus organization will be willing to sponsor a Madame Nhu visit.
Long spoke with Chancellor Wescoe this morning, and described the chancellor's reaction as "favorable."
John Underwood, Parsons senior and chairman of ASC current events committee, and Breon Mitchell, Salina senior and president of SUA, also met with Chancellor Wescoe to discuss the invitation.
LAIRD WILCOX, Pasegoula,
Miss, freshman and chairman of the
SUA minority opinion formum, said
his group would sponsor such a visit,
if they could meet the expenses
should a need for funds arise.
THEY SAID their groups are willing to sponsor the invitation.
"This is the only way it can be handled if it is to be handled effectively." Mitchell said, "because of the all-inclusive student representation of SUA and ASC."
Mitchell said ASC and SUA have been considering the invitation since Tuesday, but have been waiting to confer with the chancellor, who has been out of town.
Chancellor Wescoe said this morning, "We have no objection to Madame Nhu coming. The possibility that she would accept is probably quite good. I imagine she wants to scatter her speeches over the United States."
THE EAST ASIAN area committee, of which Pringsheim is a member will meet this afternoon and will vote on whether to support sponsor-
(Continued on page 12)
U.S. Policy In Viet Nam Criticized
A KU faculty member accused the Kennedy administration of not developing a consistent policy of communist containment in South Viet Nam.
"Make no mistake about it. We are responsible for the Diem Regime being in power today," Klaus Pringsheim, instructor of political science and east Asian areas, told the KU-Y Current Events Discussion Group at a luncheon yesterday.
Drawing his background from sources available to ordinary Americans—newspaper and magazine reports—Pringsheim outlined the alternate policies open to the United States.
State:
- The Diem regime in South Viet Nam is seriously threatened by guerilla warfare instigated by the Vietnamese in the north. The people of South Viet Nam have little sympathy for the Diem government, and do not willingly defend it.
- THE UNITED STATES alone has stood behind South Viet Nam since 1954 when France dissolved her colonial ties with Viet Nam. At that time Viet Nam was divided into two states—one free and the other communist. Shortly afterwards thousands of north Vietnamese migrated to the south, most of the migrants being Buddists with a sprinkling of Catholics.
■ EIGHT YEARS ago the U.S. was asked to assist South Viet Nam in its struggle with the Viet Com, the communist underground. Today we have 15,000 Americans in South Viet Nam fulfilling various roles. Of the 120 Americans killed there, only 59 were military personnels.
- Arms stored in villages so that
(Continued on page 12)
Inge Verifies Lawrence Visit
In a letter to the University Daily Kansan William Inge, playwright, said he is coming to Lawrence soon.
said. He veriied the purchase of the land and barn on Avalon Road, but said he "has no definite plans" about living in Lawrence right now.
Reports are that he plans to come to Lawrence to live.
Too wide, too heavy and too big, the GEM III was refused passage on Missouri highways. It is being rerouted through the South.