UDK World News
By United Press International
U.N. observers flee
TEL AVIV — U.N. truce observers moved their headquarters deep into Israeli-held territory from the Suez Canal yesterday to escape Egyptian shellfire. Artillery flashed along the Canal as they retreated and Israeli shells hit Port Said for the first time in two years.
A U.N. spokesman in Tel Aviv said the east Canal bank headquarters had been moved from Qantara to Rabah, 30 miles inside Israeli-occupied Sinai and well out of the range of Egyptian guns. The nine
observer posts that report to the headquarters remain at the canal bank, however, they said.
Israeli sources in Tel Aviv said the Egyptians had opened fire on U.N. headquarters personnel even as they loaded trucks for the move. This was not confirmed by the U.N. Command, but Secretary General Thant has complained bitterly in reports to the world body that both sides had been firing at U.N. posts on the opposite canal banks.
Egyptian officials in Cairo reported that Israeli shells had crashed into Port Said, the
Mediterranean terminus of the canal where the Soviet fleet often anchors. They said one civilian was killed and nine wounded in the barrage.
Artillery duel
The firing at Port Said was apparently part of an eight-hour artillery duel along the Canal that was also reported by officials in Tel Aviv. The Israeli report of new Suez Canal fighting, however, did not mention any activity in the Port Said region.
The Egyptian report indicated that some of the casualties
occurred in a house that was demolished by shells. The Israelis reportedly fired at Port Said twice last week, but their shells fell short of town on those occasions.
It was not known whether any ships of the Soviet Mediterranean Fleet were anchored or tied up at Port Said when the attack occurred. Israeli spokesmen have said in the past they,have avoided being drawn into artillery duels in the Port Said region precisely because of the Soviet presence.
The Egyptian communique said its Suez sector artillery traded shots with Israeli batteries for six hours yesterday from Qantara to Port Said. This fighting followed a ten-hour battle along the Canal Saturday.
period. It said no Israeli casualties were taken.
In Tel Aviv, UPI correspondent Eliav Simon reported that military sources there had predicted Israel would intensify its commando raids into Arab territory. The stepped-up raids could include strikes against Egyptian army bases across the Suez, the sources told Simon.
Chinese battle casualties greatly outnumber Soviets
The purpose of such forays would be to convince the Egyptian government and high command that Egyptian attacks on Israeli forces lining the east bank of the canal can be costly. Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser has ordered his troops to destroy Israel's Suez army.
MOSCOW — Communist Chinese losses are believed to have outnumbered Soviet casualties by more than 12 to one in the March 15 battle of Damansky Island, Eastern sources said yesterday.
The Israeli version of yesterday's fighting said Egyptian troops fired mortars and small arms at Israelis sporadically for an eight-hour
In the battle on the frozen Ussuri River, fought by both sides in regimental strength, the Chinese lost 800 men while Soviet casualties totaled only about 60, according to accounts now reaching Moscow from the Far Eastern Soviet maritime province.
Soviet authorities yesterday confirmed neither the Damansky figures nor other unofficial reports of "serious border incidents" at the western end of
In Beirut, political sources reported no progress yesterday in attempts to solve the crisis stemming from demands by Arab guerrillas for the right to use Lebanese soil as the staging ground for raids into Israel.
the 5,000-mile Sino-Soviet border during the past week.
Travelers from the Far Eastern cities of Vladivostok, Iman and Khabarovsk, close to the Ussuri River, said reports circulating there credited Soviet troops with a major victory in the second battle of Damansky Island.
Soviet victory
According to these reports, when the Chinese attacked Damansky, the small body of Soviet troops on the island fell back across the ice to the mainland. The Chinese then launched a "human wave" attack which piled up on the scrubby, half-mile by mile and one-half islet.
Soviet artillery and armor on a five mile front then opened up from their bank of the river, "all but wiping the island off the map," one source said.
The ice in the Ussuri has since melted. Soviet vessels have started spring navigation on the river, the Soviet Press has reported. No troops of either side are believed to be on the battered island, which all but disappears annually in spring floodwaters.
The Soviets followed up the barrage with a two-pronged armored attack across the ice, while the Chinese retreated, taking most of their dead and wounded with them. However, some prisoners were taken, according to these word-of-mouth reports.
Father Robert Flavin, Roman Catholic priest at St. Michael's Church in Sneem, set up a makeshift altar with a cross to celebrate Mass in the small lounge at the hotel where visitors normally gather in the evening to drink.
"The general said that this was just what he had wished for," Flavin said after the Mass."He
De Gaulle, who resigned as president of France less than two weeks ago, arrived unexpectedly at this picturesque village Saturday for several weeks of fishing and shooting while his countrymen elect his successor.
May 12
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Other police, special branch agents and plainclothesmen, prowled the woods on Gorse Hill, kept cars on the roadway moving, or bobbed in a police launch in front of the Heron Cove Hotel.
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De Gaulle seeks quiet in southwest Ireland
PARKNASILLA, Ireland Gen. Charles de Gaulle and his wife observed Mass yesterday in the lounge of a $4.80-a-night honeymoon hotel in southwest Ireland, their privacy ensured by the largest Irish security net since the 1963 visit of President John F. Kennedy.
After Mass, the visiting de Gaulles strolled among the tropical plants in the garden of their quaint hotel while more than 100 Irish policemen stood at 40-yard intervals around the estate.
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thanked me profusely for coming and giving him Mass without having to go through the bustle of the crowd."
DIAMONDRINGS
The priest said the 78-year-old former president looked well.
"He was in very good spirits and was very relaxed as well," Flavin said.
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