BUT THEY DON'T WANT TO BE KICKED AROUND
Iranians have nothing against 'honest Americans'
by DUART FARQUHARSON, Southam News TEHRAN — “We differentiate between the United States’ corrupt government and fair, honest Americans.”
So proclaims the banner in the U.S. embassy compound where occupying Iranians say 50 American hostages are being well treated but refuse to let outsiders inspect them after a month of tied-up captivity.
There is a mystifying doublestandard in this country where the few remaining foreigners, including Americans, encounter little hostility in day-to-day life from usually hospitable and often compassionate hosts.
Yet it is also a country in which an Iranian word is rarely raised in concern for the human plight of the men and women who happened to be working inside the U.S. embassy.
Most Iranians are deaf to the world condemnation of the embassy seizure, even educated Iranians of the middle class who generally oppose the Islamic rule of Imam Khomeini.
They voice concern over retaliatory measures the U.S. might take against Iranian students at American universities or against Iran itself.
But the embassy takeover remains genuinely popular with a strongly nationalistic population that delights in an unmistakable demonstration that Iran for once has “shown the west.”
Single Copy 20* Outside Prince George 25*
Citizen-^L
Tuesday, December 4,1979 Vol. 23; No. 235 • Prince George, British Columbia
Iranians are of the firm conviction that foreign powers have been kicking them around for a very long time. After decades of humiliation the embassy seizure is seen as a victory for Iranian nationalism and pride.
Iran was invaded by the Russians and the British in both world wars. In 1953 the U.S. helped to oust the democratically-elected government of Mohammed Mos-sadeq. The CIA even later boasted about how it brought the Shah back to the Peacock Throne.
For a quarter of a century U.S. governments helped the
shah’s power, killing and torturing many thousands of people in the process.
The years of legitimate concern for the country’s independence have fostered in many Iranians an almost mythic belief in the ever present “American hand.”
Thus while Khomeini supporters blame all the country’s problems on the CIA, moderate and right-wing opponents of the new regime manage to suggest that Khomeini’s advent to power was actually a CIA plot to destroy Iran.
Iranian conspiracy theorists on the extreme left have
blamed the ayatollah’s rise on British agents out to restore their once-dominant place in Iran by destroying the CIA’s influence here.
As ludicrous as most of the theories sound to outsiders, each one has its Iranian proponent among a population that long ago became accusomed to blaming its problems on outsiders rather than itself.
Against that background it is not surprising that most Iranians accept the description of the U.S. embassy, by the socal-led student occupiers, as a “den of espionage.”
Iranian professional diplomats well understand that Iran has broken international law and created a dangerous precedent for the safety of embassies in foreign countries.
But professionals no longer matter here.
“Iranians could not care less about the guidelines of international law,” writes Rokhsan Manuchehri in The Iranian, a magazine whose writers frequently criticize official government positions.
“What are the lives of (the hostages) when thousands died at the hands of the shah when he enjoyed full American support? From its perspective, the relevancy of international law went out with the shah’s violation of human rights, through torture and the taking of political prisoners, despite human rights being a keystone of the U.N. charter.”
UN to call for freedom of hostages
UNITED NATIONS (Reuter) — The United Nations Security Council agreed unanimously Tuesday to call on the Iranian government to release immediately the American diplomatic personnel being held hostage at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Council members reported.
The members said a resolution setting out the Council’s views will be put to an official vote at a meeting later Tuesday.
The resolution agreed to in private consultations will call on the governments of Iran and the United States to exercise the utmost restraint in the prevailing situation, the sources said.
It will call also on these governments “to take steps to resolve peacefully the remaining issues between them to their mutual satisfaction in accordance with the purposes and principlesof the United Nations.”
UN Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim will be asked “to lend his good offices to the immediate implementation of this resolution and to report urgently to the Security Council.”
A UN spokesman said at the daily briefing that the UN no longer has any representation in Iran.
The U.S.-Iran crisis entered
Mortgage tax credit vote set
OTTAWA (CP) - The Progressive Conservatives have summoned all available troops to be on hand for an important vote today, although they do not expect the Liberals to succumb to temptation and try to defeat the minority government.
Even Paul Yewchuk of Athabasca, Alta., who stayed away from the last crucial vote of non-confidence in the government, is expected to be on hand.
The vote is whether to give second reading — approval in principle — to the government’s legislation allowing mortgage interest and property taxes to be deducted from income tax.
Cost soars for federal facilities
OTTAWA (CP) - MPs agreed Monday to set up a special committee to investigate cost overruns in federal projects as Treasury Board President Sinclair Stevens offered a preview of “horror stories” the group will study.
Stevens told the Commons of projects that cost taxpayers additional hundreds of millions of dollars and of what he described as a surprising lack of control over these extra expenses.
Among the largest overruns cited by Stevens were a new grain-drying facility at Prince Rupert, B.C., expected to cost 13.8 million compared with an earlier estimate of $700,000, and a new postal facility in Montreal whose price tag grew to $274 million from $161 millionifivej^arsago._
its 31st day today with 50 U.S. citizens still hostage in the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and the deposed shah recuperating in Texas. Here are the highlights:
Washington
Carter administration officials reported no progress in efforts to find a permanent haven for Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and some were beginning to talk of his U.S. stay as “open-ended.”
But the administration will not grant the former Iranian ruler permanent residence, officials said privately, because they feel the step would inflame the tense situation in Tehran.
Iran
Iranians voted 60 to 1 for Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s Islamic constitution, giving the Shiite Moslem patriarch supreme power for life.
Khomeini’s militiamen increased the guard at the occupied U.S. Embassy, apparently in anticipation of a U.S. attempt to free the hostages.
Foreign Minister Sadegh Ghotbzadeh said all the hostages were still being treated and fed well, and he denied reports that they were kept tied to chairs.
World markets
Silver and gold prices continued to reach record heights on the world’s exchanges amid speculators’ concern over the crisis, fear of Middle East tensions as a result of the stalemate and the prospect of sharp oil price increases.
The U.S. dollar plummeted Monday in its worst slump since October 1978, when the U.S. government was forced to intervene to prop up the currency.
See also page 5
PROVISIONAL BUDGET
No hike needed in city tax rate
by AL IRWIN Citizen Staff Reporter
The first draft of the city’s 1980 provisional budget exceeds by almost $6 million the 1979 budget, but officials are not forecasting any property tax rate increases.
The $46.4 million provisional budget was presented to the new city council after swearing in ceremonies Monday.
The provisional budget is 13.7 per cent higher than the 1979 budget of $40.7 million.
City treasurer Bill Kennedy said about $1 million of the in-
creased budget is attributed to amalgamation costs.
The city in 1980 takes over full costs of road maintenance and policing of the amalgamated areas. About $650,000 more is anticipated for road, ditch and culvert maintenance and expected police costs are $400,000. The provincial government has paid these costs since amalgamation in 1975.
Total property taxes in the provisional budget increased by almost $2 million, to $11.69 million from $9.76 million in 1979.
Gov't increases
/
school tax load
by JOHN POPE
Citizen Staff Reporter
Prince George taxpayers may have to dig 14 per cent deeper this year to make up for their share of school costs.
B.C. education minister Brian Smith announced Monday that all school districts will have to come up with an extra 2.5 mills to cover their basic levy, which has been set at 43.5 mills, a six-per-cent increase over this year’s 41 mills.
And that local property owners will have to pay more taxes in districts where teacher pay raises and budget increases exceed eight per cent.
“It’s getting to the point where it will entirely erode the education system or lead to a taxpayer’s revolt,” said school trustee Charlie Boyd, in react-
ing to the announcement today.
“We already pay more proportionately than any other province in Canada. They continually compound the problem by putting more and more pressure on the local taxpayer.”
The British Columbia School Trustees Association says this year’s 41-mill rate raised $557 million, while the proposed 43.5-mill rate on higher assessments next year, will raise $638 million, an increase of 14 per cent.
It is impossible to estimate what the effect on the Prince George taxpayer will be because the budgets are in a provisional state and the total assessment values are not known.
At last
CHImb Photo ■ by Doof Weller
For the first time this winter students of Ron Brent Elementary School were able to slide down the hill on snow. At recess time the students went outside as fast as they could to make sure they got their turn at least once.
Since snow fell Monday evening all were dressed just right for this morning’s fun.
Salaries already settled
ROCK CONCERT TRAGEDY
Fans trampled to death
CINCINNATI (AP) — “I couldn’t believe it; they could see the people all piled up and they still tried to climb over them just to get in,” said one man who watched in horror as 11 persons died in a crushing human wave surging into Riverfront Coliseum for a rock concert by The Who.
Police Lt.-Col. Joseph Staft said seven young men and four
young women were trampled and killed when the mob pushed into the hall on the Ohio River in a crush of bodies that continued for 30 minutes.
Eight other persons were severely injured, police said. Twenty more were treated at four hospitals and released.
The Monday night concert, which drew an audience of more than 18,000 people, went
on as scheduled and The Who made no mention of the tragedy during their performance.
“We decided to let the concert go on,” said Lieut. Dale Menkause who led 25 policemen in a crowd-control detail.
“If we stopped it, we would have had a worse panic.”
The school district’s 1979 provisional budget, which is a temporary budget to provide money until the actual budget is approved at the end of April, is now set at $61.9 million or about 13 per cent more than last year.
Last year’s final budget was about three per cent less than the provisional budget.
But whatever it is, it almost certainly won’t be less than the eight-per-cent figure mentioned by education minister Smith.
Teachers and the school board have already settled on a 9.4 per cent salary increase, which is just below the average 9.5 per cent average settlement agreed to by 30 of 79 teachers associations in the province.
And school district secretary-treasurer Mac Carpenter questions whether the education minister “can or
should” interfere with the collective bargaining process.
Carpenter said the teacher salary increase of 9.4 per cent represents between $375,000 to $500,000 more than the minister said the government would pay for in districts where the teacher pay raises and budgets exceed eight per cent.
“This will also have an uneven effect because many districts, such as Prince George or Vancouver, have more teachers at the top end of the earning scale,” Carpenter said.
The education ministry says the provisional operating budgets for 1980 have increased $106 million from 1979 although enrolment has declined by one per cent or 5,000 students.
The final basic levy will be announced in April. Deadline for all final school district budgets is Feb. 15.
Kennedy said the $2 million indicates no mill-rate increase. In calculating the property taxes, the 1979 mill rate was used, with 1980 assessments, including new construction.
New taxable construction amounted to about $50 million in 1979, and could account for at least $350,000 of the $2 million increase, Kennedy said.
Other new tax sources include re-subdivided land, and some construction started in 1978, but Kennedy said the city would not have a “firm handle” on assessment values until at least the end of the year, when B.C. Assessment Authority completes its assessment roles.
About $1 million in additional revenue is expected from increases, including grants in lieu of taxes from non-government organizations, garbage collection charges, permits and licences, transit revenues, provincial government grants and other sources.
He said the approximately $3 million gap was not unusual in a provisional budget, and would be the subject of numerous council meetings.
“What you have heard here is a whole bunch of departmental requests,” said Kennedy, who likened the provisional budget to Christmas anticipation — “not everyone always gets what they want.”
In his inaugural address to the new council, Mayor Elmer Mercier said the city now has $2.5 million in its amalgamation fund, some of which would be used this year to “keep tax increases minimal.”
A more detailed analysis of the provisional budget will be presented to council Dec. 10.
Council has until Jan. 21 to adopt a provisional budget, and until May 15 to adopt the final budget.
Trade surplus ure boosted
OTTAWA (CP) - A major revision in trade figures shows the merchandise trade surplus to date this year is sharply higher than originally estimated by Statistics Canada.
The federal agency today revised upward the trade surplus in every month this year and reported the surplus in the first nine months was $2.38 billion, up from $1.55 billion estimated last month.
October’s trade surplus is a seasonally-adjusted $326 million which brings the total trade surplus for the first 10 months to $2.7 billion. *
TODAY
FEATURED INSIDE
THE WEATHER
“Then I’d like an Increase In the old age pensions...”
Mosque invaders captured
The last remnants of the band of Moslem fanatics who invaded the Great Mosque in Mecca have been “killed or captured”, according to Saudi Arabian sources. Page 5.
Too much to take . . .
Grant Evans, a former Mohawk, says he doesn’t need the aggravation and has quit as coach of the Kamloops Cowboys. Page 15.
Got a news tip? Call The Citizen’s 24-hour news line at 562*2441.
Index .................21 ...........27
...........10, 11 .............8
City, B.C............ .........2, 3, 28 ...........29
...........18-25 International......... .............5
.................26 .............9
Crossword........ ......15-17
Editorial............
The forecast for tonight calls for mainly cloudy skies with occasional snow flurries. Wednesday should be mainly cloudy with some sunny periods, and occasional light snow.
The expected high today was 0, the low tonight -5. Wednesday’s forecast high is 0. The high Monday was -4, the low -4, with 3 cm. of snow. On this date last year the high was -2, the low -14.
Sunset tonight is 3:51 p.m. Sunrise Wednesday is 8:11 a.m., and sunset is 3:51 p.m.
Details page 2
NOW HEAR THIS
9 Overheard as one of the last memories of summer disappeared in a fall of snow, and a mother called for her Child: “Mom always yells at me through the scream door.”
• Facts of driving under snow and ice conditions are taking precedence over rights-of-way these days, as drivers drift past stop signs into right-hand lanes. Many drivers with right-of-way are keeping toward road centres and yielding, rather than crashing.
0 Overheard at the inaugural meeting of the new city council: “My, the reverend looks so much more beautiful than the judge.” That’s what a woman whispered to her husband referring to the Rev. Allan Dawe and County Court Judge Steven Hardinge. Both men wore their robes of office and the reverend’s was slightly more embroidered than His Honor’s.
K