Desert may become an ocean resort
By Dick West
UPI Columnist
WASHINGTON — Ever since billionaire Howard Hughes started buying up property in Las Vegas, people have been wondering what caused his sudden interest in Nevada real estate.
It was commonly assumed that he had wind of some impending development that would cause property values to rise sharply, thus enhancing his holdings.
No one could believe that a billionaire as astute as Hughes would be making these investments unless he had good reason to believe they would pay off better than the Las Vegas slot machines.
But since Hughes is almost as secretive he is astute, outsiders could only guess at the possible source of the expected windfall.
Well, recently I have been putting two and two together, which is about the limit of my mathematical ability, and I think I may have hit upon the explanation.
My theory is that Hughes envisions Las Vegas one day becoming a great sea port.
Before you start pointing out the obvious, let me say that I am fully aware that at the present time Las Vegas is a goodly distance from the ocean.
But suppose California were to fall into the sea, as numerous soothsayers have been predicting.
In that event, the western border of Nevada would become part of the Pacific shoreline. And property values would skyrocket overnight.
I can't say for certain, of course, that Hughes is guided by soothsayers in his financial transactions. But my experience has been that they are at least as reliable as stock brokers.
April 4 was the date my soothsayers had fixed for California's plunge into the Pacific. Through benefit of hindsight, we can now recognize that they were false prophets.
Several other California doomsday dates are still outstanding, however. So there is still a chance that Nevada will become a maritime state before the year is over.
If I had the money, I would buy new ocean front lots on the outskirts of Reno.
No slight to California is intended, but in some respects Nevada would be a more convenient location for America's West Coast.
Shifting the shoreline near Reno and Las Vegas would provide gamblers who have a bad night in the casinos with a place to drown their sorrows.
New offensive cuts infiltration routes
SAIGON U.S. Marines carrying out an offensive sweep on the plains southwest of Da Nang killed 35 Communist soldiers yesterday in an assault on a bunker complex, U.S. military spokesmen reported. They said the Marines suffered no casualties.
It was the only ground action reported in South Vietnam today, reflecting a lull in the Communists' six-week-old offensive.
In a series of eight skirmishes Monday ranging from the Demilitarized Zone to the
Apr. 9 1969 KANSAN 11
Mekong Delta U.S. and South Vietnamese troops killed 159 Red soldiers.
North Vietnamese and Viet Cong gunners carried out 15 shelling attacks during the night on Allied military installations, but towns and cities were spared. However, terrorists threw a grenade into a wedding party Monday at Giao Duc, 60 miles southwest of Saigon, killing three members of the wedding party and wounding 20.
U. S. B52s matched the lull in the ground war. A spokesman said the B52s flew five missions Monday night and early yesterday against areas near the borders of Cambodia and Laos.
U.S. proposes plan to halt making fissionable material
GENEVA (UPI) - The United States yesterday proposed that nuclear powers stop production of fissionable material for use in nuclear weapons as part of a three-point plan to place a final limit on atomic arsenals.
Under the plan, the nuclear powers would stop production of this material at an agreed date, supervised by an inspection system to assure that production facilities remained inactive when shut down.
The American plan would:
The Soviet Union has rejected similar proposals in the past because of the strict inspection demanded by the United States.
As of an agreed date, halt all production of fissionable material (uranium enriched in U-235 and plutonium) for use in nuclear weapons.
Permit production of fissionable materials for purposes other than in nuclear weapons, such as power and propulsion reactors and nuclear explosives for peaceful use.
Call on the International Atomic Energy Agency to safeguard the nuclear material in each state's peaceful nuclear activities and to verify the continued shutdown of any
facilities for production of fissionable material that are closed.
U. S. disarmament negotiator Adrien S. Fisher, told the 17-nation disarmament conference that such an agreement "would be thoroughly effective in preventing the growth of the stockpiles of nuclear weapons."
He reiterated America's offer to reduce stockpiles of fissionable material by transferring 132,000 pounds of U-235 to peaceful purposes provided the Russians transfer 88,000 pounds of the same material out of their stockpiles.