Page 6
THE BATTALION
TUESDAY, JUNE 27, 1978
Explosion devastates
famed Gallery of Battles
United Press International
VERSAILLES, France — A
powerful terrorist bomb explosion
ravaged three floors of the historic
Versailles palace early Monday, de
stroying priceless works of art and
injuring a custodian.
Police said several radical organi
zations claimed responsibility for
the pre-dawn blast that devastated
the famed Gallery of Battles and 10
rooms of the 17th century palace,
one of France’s most famous land
marks.
Experts making preliminary es
timates said the blast caused over
$1.2 million in damages.
Police said the bomb consisted of
several pounds of dynamite or plas
tic explosives and was planted on
the ground floor Gallery of Stones
during a public fireworks display
Sunday evening.
Worst hit was the Gallery of Bat
tles — a monumental colonnaded
hall with dozens of oversize murals
depicting famous battles in French
history from the days of the Roman
conquest to Napoleonic times.
A number of radical groups
claimed responsibility for the explo
sion but investigators said it ap
peared to have been the work of the
outlawed Breton Liberation Front.
The group has been charged with
numerous bombings in recent years
to back its campaign for the au
tonomy of Brittany, once a free Cel
tic duchy.
A Breton Liberation Front com
munique released by the secret or
ganization in Rennes, capital of Brit
tany, said the Versailles attack was
carried out by “soldiers of the
Front’s militant branch, the Breton
Revolutionary Army.
The statement said, “The Breton
people are oppressed, the Breton
soil is occupied by French military
camps, the Breton tongue and cul
ture are rejected and destroyed by
the French imperialist regime.”
The explosion ripped a 30-foot
wide hole in the gallery’s ceiling,
wrecked all its crystal chandeliers,
shredded seven large murals, and
made splinters of priceless antique
furniture. One night watchman was
slightly injured.
The concussion also ravaged
seven Empire rooms reopened re
cently by President Valery Giscard
d’Estaing in the left wing, and
cracked walls and ceilings on the
second and third floors of the white
stone 17th century palace built by
France’s Sun King, Louis XIV, and
greatly enriched by Napolean.
“This is a crime ... a frightful
thing. It is a great loss,” said Gerald
Van Der Kemp, chief curator of the
palace.
“Damages are very, very heavy
— perhaps going into the millions of
francs,” one police official lamented.
One guard told police the gate
bell rang about an hour before the
2:05 a. m. blast. He said no one was
at the gate, but saw the dark figure
of a man in the distance standing
motionless, gazing at the palace be
fore disappearing into the darkness.
The chief custodian of the palace
— France’s No. 1 tourist attraction
— said at first police officers on duty
at first didn’t believe him because
there had been so many crank calls
in the past.
Two clandestine leftist groups —
the “International of Unemployed”
and the “Revolutionary Workers
Group” — claimed in telephone
calls they had planted the bomb.
An anonymous telephone threat
to police at 9 a.m. (3 a.m. EDT)
Monday warned a time bomb would
destroy the Grand Trianon palace —
a red marble palace built by Louis
XIV in the park of the Versailles cas
tle.
Police searched the palace, used
as the luxury residence for visiting
chiefs of state, but found no ex-
plbsives.
Wellborn Road widened
Battalion photo by Fal WJ
Sun Theatres
333 University 846-9808
The only movie in town
Double-Feature Every Week
Open 10 a.m.-2 a.m. Mon.-Sat.
12 Noon - 12 Midnight Sun
No one under 18
Escorted Ladies Free
BOOK STORE & 25c PEEP SHOWS
If you have
money to invest..
Optional Retirement Plan
Tax Sheltered Annuity
Deferred Compensation
Financial Planning
Call Hays Glover
GUGGENHEIM GLOVER,
ASSOCIATES
The section of Wellborn Road between FM 60 and F & B
Road is being widened to four lanes to better accomodate
Bryan traffic to the University. Here a pneumatic roller is
rolling the top lift of a six-inch sulphur-asphalt stabilized base
mix on a 2,700 test strip. The sulphur smell evident i
area will linger until a few rains wash it away, a high
department official said. The construction is scheduledto!|
completed by the end of July.
Yemen troops rebel against Mam
government, bomb presidential paid
*
WHY SEARCH??
It’s A Free Service
A&M Apt.
'discount trophy^
AND ENGRAVING
PLACEMENT SERVICE
APTS • HOUSES • DUPLEXES
693-3777
2339 S. Texas, C.S.
Next to the Dairy Queen
|1L~
United Press International
BEIRUT — Army and air force
215 S. MAIN
822-5923
units and armed militia Monday re
belled against the Marxist govern
ment of South Yemen and bombed
and shelled the presidential palace,
the Iraqi News Agency said.
Ambulances sped through the
capital of Aden carrying wounded to
hospitals while billows of smoke
rose from the palace. Militia in gov-
J
UNIVERSITY SQUARE SHOPPING CENTER*.
Welcome Back AGGIES!
COME FILL ’EM UP DURING
OUR NOON BUFFET!
(11:00 am - 2:00 pm)
ALL THE PIZZA & SALAD
YOU CAN EAT
807 TEXAS AVE.
*2"
846-3380
#CMFN
1 CINEMA
ADULT,
WOO I
CHILDl
*1.30 I
0 PASSE
MATINEES
CTERY DAY
IVfet FA
Lflcvn Brvfwvm'
SidCfc-MT
S'.ni.jnJCKtfwwnf!
June* Gun
Hum rVLmnf
John Hottortiun
MaWtJIn
Krnjode l.am*
rSI NRrr* |
AK\i|pvL
ISoIXWkam*
W&unx >0
Neil Simon’s
The Cheap
Detective
XXX
ernment vehicles patrolled the city
and a curfew was in effect, the
agency reported from Aden.
Rebel warjets bombed the palace
of President Salem Robaya Ali in the
Al Tawahi neighborhood, which is
also the site of the defense ministry
and other key buildings, and rebel
gunners were shelling the building,
the report said.
There was no word on the fate of
Robaya Ali or whether the uprising
was linked to the assassination
Saturday of the president of rival
North Yemen, Lt. Col. Ahmed Al
Ghashmi, who was killed by a bomb
delivered by a South Yemeni dip
lomat.
“The situation is by no means
clear,” the Iraqi agency reported.
It quoted sources as saying the
uprising involved army units on the
Bab al Mandeb straits — near the
border between North and South
Yemen and astride the the entrance
to the Red Sea — as well as units in
the Salaheddine barracks in Aden
and in the 2nd and 3rd military dis
tricts.
In Paris, French radio reports
quoted Iraq’s Baghdad Radio as say
ing that fighting was raging near the
Aden airport, which was shut down.
Radio Aden halted its transmis
sions, and communications with the
outside world were cut off, but the
Iraqi agency apparently managed to
get the story out through its em
bassy facilities.
North Yemen also cut off its
communications to the outside
Saturday after Ghashmi was killed
in the capital of Sanaa by a bomb in
a briefcase carried by an uniden
tified Aden diplomat.
North Yemen, a consei
state with close ties to Saudi
immediately blamed the as:
tion on “the criminal hi
Aden,” a radical Marxiststaj
maintains friendly relations
Soviet Union.
North Yemen alsocuto:|
lomatic relations withAdeni
leftist Beirut newspaper Al
Monday reported heavy:
trations of troops on boths
the border.
Ghashmi was buried Im
Sanaa’s Martyr’s CemeterJ
country was being ruledi
interim by a four-man pres]
council headed by a jud
Karim Al Arshi.
Brezhnev attacks Westemj
powers" disarmament polit
United Press International
MOSCOW — Soviet President
Leonid Brezhnev says the United
States is trying “to play the Chinese
card against” Moscow, warning that
THERE IS SOMETHING
MORE
To many of my friends I was sort
of a mystery, a person of extremes.
A number of times people told me
I needed to learn the word
‘moderation.” Moderation never
made much sense to me — if I was
going to do something, I wanted to
give it as much as I could. And in a
few things, I did, which made it
either very pleasant or unpleasant
to my friends and relatives depend
ing upon their acceptance.
As for my youth, it could be
summed up in one word — tennis.
I started playing tournament tennis
when I was nine years old, and my
entire life centered around it for
ten years. I lived, walked and
breathed tennis. In high school few
people really knew me because all
my time was consumed with ten
nis. It enabled me to travel all over
the U.S., Canada, and Europe.
When I was 18 years old, I won the
Los Angeles City championship for
high schools, was ranked in the top
20 in the United States in the 18
and under division, and had
numerous scholarship offers from
universities all over the country. I
accepted an offer from the Univer
sity of Houston where I played var
sity tennis for four years.
College challenged many of the
values and goals I had for myself.
With tennis, I had given myself to
it, but now it wanted more of me. I
had yet to see the benefits and re
wards from it. Sure I had the schol
arship and stuff, but those weren’t
the kind of rewards I was seeking
for. One time, having won a tour
nament by beating a couple of close
rivals, I sat in the clubhouse and
wondered if that was all there was
to it. I even tried re-living the
points in my mind, but that
seemed too vain. I realized that
there must be something more;
tennis had deceived me. But not
knowing how or where to find what
I was looking for, I let myself drift
with the flow that was on campus
and with my friends, and learned
to block out the questions and
seekings in my mind.
While in college, I got into a
number of things but they seemed
to dry up faster and faster. For a
year or so, when I lived on the 17th
floor of the dorm I got into running
down the stairs — running five
miles — and running back up to
my room; I had a touch with drugs;
and I enjoyed diving, so I dove off
the highest cliffs I could find in !
Austin. Before long all that got old,
and then I found something won
derful — something that seemed to
be what I was looking for all along.
She was just like me. It sounded so
good — Tom and Janet! — and it
all made sense to me; that was what
life is all about anyhow, right? So .1
gave myself to her and to our rela
tionship. I was sure that I loved her
and everything seemed so right.
One year later our relationship
was shattered. I was beginning to
wonder — maybe this is what life is
all about. The things that I gave
myself to either got old or disap
pointed me. I spent a semester just
plugging it out in school, spending
a lot of time trying to figure out
which way to go while also trying to
forget about it all. It seemed to me
I had done everything that would
be a neat way to live and all of it
flopped. From jock, to student, to
hippie, to girlfriend — I poured
myself out for naught.
The end of that fall semester had
come around, and I had deter
mined I was going to go back home
to California for the semester break
and get back fully into tennis again.
That seemed to be the best choice I
had. While at home, an old friend
told me about the Lord Jesus and
what He was doing in his life. Bob
had told me about Him before. He
and I had discussed it one summer,
but something was different this
time. His words pierced me — and
all he was doing was relating his
experiences, nothing in relation to
me at all! I went home that night
and prayed by my bed. It was the
first time I had ever prayed. No
thing extraordinary happened, but
it was odd for I knew something
had happened. Bob hadn’t said
anything on how to get the experi
ence he had and I had never gone
to church, so I didn’t know what
happened or what was suppose to
happen, but I felt like God was
now with me. He was so close I
could touch Him.
When I went back to school for
the spring semester many of my
friends were shocked to find out I
had become a Christian. They blew
it off as another one of my es
capades which I would get con
sumed with for a while and then go
on to something else. But that was
almost 5 years ago. Has He grown
old or disappointed me? No!, for
I’ve found with Him I can’t give
myself enough. I’m captured by
Him. His life is so sufficient and
His presence so real. Each day He
is dearer and more to me than the
day before. It is not that everyday I
have some superficial joy, and ev
erything goes my way. It is much
deeper than that. I met the Lord
Jesus a few years ago, but now I’m
getting to know Him more and
more. I’m learning to live by His
life. I’ve found the one to whom I
can truly give myself.
Tom McArdle
Graduate - Statistics
846-6036
Paid for by Christian students on
campus.
Bible study Weds, noon
All Faiths Chapel Reading Room
MANOR EAST 3 THEATRES
MANOR EAST MALL
SYLVESTER
STALLONE
FIST
2:50
5:15
7:35
9:45
United Artists I
MARK ANNIE
HAMILL POTTS
IPGl mgm O TSte*
IT* Memo OOLOWYN MAYS
THE
BUDDY
HOLLY
STORY
2:40
5:00
7:30
9:50
PG
WEST
Skyway Twin
822-3300
THE GOODBYE GIRL
PLUS
PETE ’N’ TILLIE
EAST
MALIBU BEACH
PLUS
BEST FRIENDS
Campus 846-6512
COLLEGE STATION
the policy is shortsighted and could
have dangerous consequences.
Brezhnev, speaking in Minsk
Sunday, also accused the Western
powers of having no real interest in
disarmament.
Brezhnev attacked Western lead
ers for adopting a new long-term
arms program at a NATO meeting in
Washington that coincided with the
U.N. General Assembly’s special
session on disarmament.
His speech broke no new ground
and was apparently aimed at but
tressing Moscow’s established
foreign policy.
Brezhnev said that “the leaders of
a number of big NATO countries,
especially of the U.S.A., evidently
do not wish to take a constructive
approach to the solution of disar
mament problems.”
He said the Chinese representa
tive at the United Nations made
such a sharp anti-Soviet speech at
the disarmament conference that it
would have been more appropriate
at the NATO meeting.
Peking’s line, he said, was “duly
appreciated in Washington,
attempts were being
higher level and in a ratherl
form to play the Cliinesf|
against the U.S.S.R.
“This is a shortsightel
dangerous policy,” he said i P a re
chitects may bitterly regreti
ty,” h
Brezhnev also pressed tk Jposii
Soviet proposal on force red
iversi
in central Europe, sayingiP i an n
reasonable, realistic corapn
that went more than halfway:® 1 ot i
NATO. I
The Russians said they« # ®* lc " e
pared to withdraw three dy e U P c
together with military eq#8 uries *
including about 1,000 tank* IP ye;
a year. They called for the® | rea sei
nance of parity between the! png. A
and Warsaw pact countries® 11 T ause
tions and an identical ceil* I Now
each side. f ln j l
“We say to the NATOcofT
let us get down to business«|
No doubt, we already haveil
for agreement. Now everyth!
pends on the West’s political]
Brezhnev said.
AIR
FORCE
ROTC -
HERE ARE THE FACTS
When you’re discussing something as important as
your future, it’s urgent that you get the straight facts
. . . and that you understand them. Air Force ROTC
can be an important part of your future. We would like
to outline some of the facts and invite you to look into
gathering more.
It’s a fact: the Air Force needs highly-qualified, dedi
cated officers. . . men and women. It’s a fact: we need
people in all kinds of educational disciplines. It’s a fact:
we’re prepared to offer financial help to those who can
qualify for an Air Force ROTC scholarship.
Get together with an AFROTC representative and
discuss the program. We’ll give you all the facts. It
could be one of the most important talks you’ve ever
had with anyone about your educational plans.
AFROTC Det 805
Military Science Bldg, TAMU
845-7611