Battalion
Cloudy and warm with winds light
and variable. High today of 85 and
a low of 70. Expected rain
throughout the day.
Vol. 72 No. 154
10 Pages
Tuesday, June 5, 1979
College Station, Texas
News Dept. 845-2611
Business Dept. 845-2611
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South African president resigns;
accused of information cover-ups
Battalion photo by Clay Cockrill
Rumors turn into reality
Students found rumors to be true about the long lines for
summer school registration as they waited outside DeWare
Field House to begin registration Monday. When students
were allowed in, the lines moved rapidly, however.
United Press International
CAPE TOWN, South Africa — South
African President John Vorster resigned
Monday after an investigating commission
said he actively conspired with other offi
cials in trying to cover up the the country’s
explosive information scandal.
The resignation was announced as Par
liament received a report by a government
commission of inquiry that accused Vors
ter of covering up serious illegal activities
in the Information Ministry for more than
12 months while he was prime minister.
The Information Ministry scandal re
volved around the unauthorized spending
of millions of tax dollars by senior informa
tion officials to try to bolster South Africa’s
image at home and abroad.
The commission, headed by Judge
Rudolph Erasmus, submitted the 72-page
report to Parliament after several copies
were leaked to local and foreign news
papers and agencies.
Prime Minister P.W. Botha said Senate
President Marais Viljoen would stand in as
temporary federal president until some
one else could be elected to the office.
Viljoen is a former Cabinet minister who
once served as information secretary of the
ruling National Party.
In stepping down, Vorster ended a 26-
year political career — 13 of them as prime
minister — in disgrace.
The investigating commission found
that Vorster, who steadfastly denied know
ing about irregularities in the information
department until September 1978, had
been given the facts the previous year and
concealed his knowledge from his Cabinet
and the public.
By not revealing what he knew, the
commissioners found, “he was not only
doing the members of his Cabinet an in
justice but was in fact participating in ac
tion which in itself was a serious irregular-
.11.7
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Service cutbacks and team fees
to be requested by Intramurals
BY KEITH TAYLOR
Battalion StafF
There will be no more 1 a.m. rac-
I quetball games with your girlfriend
■ at DeWare Field House, and a $5
I fee to enter your basketball team in
I the intramural games if a proposal
I requested by the Intramural De-
| partment is approved by the Board
I of Regents in August.
The Texas A&M University In-
I tramurals Department is facing cut-
I backs in services due to the Student
I Government Finance Committee’s
I denial of a requested 63.4 percent
increase in the intramural budget on
April 4.
The student government allocates
money taken from student service
fees to the department to run the
intramural sports program.
Dennis Corrington, director of in
tramurals, said Monday that the
student government did not have
enough money from student service
fees to grant the increase.
The 1978-79 budget totaled
$285,420. The requested budget for
the 1979-80 year was $466,445, but
the student government allocated
New federal oil, coal
1.2? Programs announced
United Press International
WASHINGTON — Interior Secretary Cecil Andrus Monday announced new pro
grams for developing energy resources on federal on and offshore lands, including an
end to a nine-year freeze on new coal leasing on lands in the West.
t Andrus announced a new coal management program which will allow for the
asing of an estimated 1.5 billion tons of coal on federal lands beginning in 1981.
urrently, more than 60 million tons of federal coal are mined annually as compared
ith total national coal production in 1977 of 691 million tons,
fc I JBf Leasing of most federally-owned coal stopped in 1971 as a result of a suit brought
by the Natural Resources Defense Council against the Interior Department. The new
>rogram received the approval of a federal judge in settling the suit.
“I am taking three important steps as part of President Carter’s energy policy to
reduce the nation’s dependency on foreign oil,’’ said Andrus.
Andrus also said he has changed his mind and has decided to increase the number
of offshore oil and gas lease sales from a schedule announced in March.
He also said he will change the government’s “oil and gas lottery” which applies to
ome on-shore lands. Andrus said the lottery system, with a $10 filing fee and a dollar
per acre per year in rent, “encourages speculation, not development. ”
Andrus also said he will ask Congress to expand competitive oil and gas leasing on
public lands in a manner similar to the way firms bid on offshore leases.
The government owns about 60 percent of the coal in the West, with development
of an additional 20 percent dependent on the availability of federal coal.
The federal coal is concentrated in six western states — Colorado, Montana, New
Mexico, North Dakota, Utah and Wyoming.
Andrus now said he will increase the number of sales, as well as the “quantity and
quality” of the acreage leased to meet over 90 percent of the oil and gas production
goals set by the Energy Department.
able Registration fees payable today;
2|late registration until Thursday
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Battalion StafF Report
Long, but fast-moving, lines
characterized summer school regis
tration Monday which Associate
Registrar Donald Carter said went
“smooth as silk.”
Carter said he had no problems or
complaints concerning registration
which was held from 8 a.m. to 12
p.m.
He estimated that at least 10,000
students had registered in the five
hour period. The official number of
students registered will not be
known until late registration is
finished.
Carter said the schedules of stu
dents who registered Monday will be
available at 8 a.m. Tuesday in G.
Rollie White Coliseum.
Fees must be paid before a stu
dent can receive a schedule. The fees
may be paid from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m.
and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday, Wed
nesday and Thursday.
Late registration begins at 8 a.m.
Tuesday in the coliseum, and will
continue until Thursday. There is a
$10 charge for late registration.
Registration of students who have,
not paid their fees by 5 p.m. Thurs
day will be cancelled.
$309,265 for the 79-80 year, an 8
percent increase over the previous
year.
Corrington said the increase in
the budget was necessary to com
pensate for increases in student
body size and raises in the minimum
wage.
The department also needed to
f increase the number of referees and
clerical workers, and buy new
equipment.
The intramurals department em
ploys about 350 student workers.
The workers include referees for
sports, emergency medical techni
cians, I.D. checkers at DeWare
Field House and office workers.
The minimum wage increased
from $2.50 an hour to $2.90 in
January, and will increase again in
September to $3.10 an hour.
The department does not plan to
cut back on the number of student
employees, he said.
Corrington and four full-time staff
members receive 75 percent of their
pay from the allocation from the
student government. The other 25
percent comes from the Depart
ment of Health and Physical Educa
tion, he said. The full-time staffers
teach 3 hours of physical education
classes during a semester.
Corrington also said he would not
be able to purchase new equipment
he had planned to.
Since the department did not re
ceive the increase in funds, Cor
rington said he will take a proposal
to the Board of Regents to allow an
entry fee for team sports. The fee
will be $5 if the regents approve his
proposal, he said.
Corrington said he expects 550
football teams to sign up in the fall.
The proposal will also shorten the
DeWare Field House operating
hours from 4 p.m. until 2 a.m. to 4
p.m. until midnight, he said.
Referees will not receive pay dur
ing their training period, as they
have in the past, Corrington said.
The department will also charge a
25 cent rental fee on racquetball
racquets and 50 cents to rent a ten
nis racquet if the regents approve
the proposal, he said. The present
policy states that if the racquet is
damaged, the student must pay for a
replacement, but Corrington said
this was too hard to enforce, and the
new system would be more fair.
The original proposal would have
charged a $15 faculty/staff user fee
and a $5 fee for their spouses. Cor
rington said this part of the proposal
was dropped.
The department also has a
$16,000 reserve fund to use if
needed, he said. The reserve fund
comes from the sale of racquetballs
and forfeit fines.
If the proposal is accepted, the
new policies will take effect in the
fall semester.
ity: the covering-up of gross ir
regularities.”
Former Information Minister Connie
Mulder, who engineered the infomration
projects in question, said Vorster was
aware of the operations. Vorster denied it.
The commission reached the conclusion
that Vorster “knew everything about the
basic financial arrangements for the de
partment’s funds. He was consulted about
the secret funds as well as the projects
themselves.”
The Erasmus commission report noted
that Vorster, 63, had reproached ex
information minister Mulder this year for
keeping quiet when the parliamentary op
position and newspapers charged his
Cabinet colleagues with being implicated
in the irregularities.
“In essence, however, a similar re
proach can be addressed to Mr. Vorster,”
the commission found. “For more than a
year Mr. Vorster, together with Dr. Mul
der, kept his knowledge of irregularities in
the administration of the country from his
Cabinet colleagues.”
The commissioners found Vorster’s be
havior “unacceptable” for failing to stop
the wrongdoings or to share his knowledge
with his Cabinet. “Why did he not reveal
the facts?” the report asked.
The commissioners did not directly an
swer its own question, but quoted the evi
dence of a lawyer, Rit van Rooyen, who
said that in a discussion with Vorster he
asked if there was not an element of
blackmail in the prime minister’s failure to
act.
Van Rooyen said he had heard that
former Information Department Secretary
Eschel Rhoodie, now in hiding abroad,
had threatened to bring down the Vorster
government if action was taken against
him.
Van Rooyen told the commissioners:
“Mr. Vorster’s answer to me was: “One
thousand percent. He held the political
lives of my ministers in the hollow of his
hand.’”
The report noted: “Even this piece of
evidence given by Van Rooyen later
proved to be true.”
Prime minister Botha called an urgent
Cabinet meeting to discuss the report and
its implications.
In announcing the resignation, the
prime minister wished Vorster well, not
ing that he had been in poor health and
■
Iran vetoes Cutler;
blasts U.S. meddling
United Press International
WASHINGTON — In a sign of a deeper chill in relations with Iran, the Tehran
government has asked the United States to withdraw the name of ambassador-
designate Walter Cutler, the State Department announced Monday.
Department spokesman Hodding Carter said the United States has no intention of
withdrawing Ambassador Cutler from the assignment.
Cutler, the former U.S. ambassador to Zaire, has already been confirmed by the
Senate as envoy to Tehran. But the Iranian government asked two weeks ago that his
arrival be delayed after the Senate passed a resolution condemning the summary
trials and executions in Iran.
The State Department rejected the Iranian criticism, even when it was echoed by
Foreign Minister Ibrahim Yazdi, who said that Iran would be prepared to break off
relations with Washington if the United States continued to interfere in Iran’s domes
tic relations.
Carter described Cutler “as one of the more able foreign service officers.”
“If the Iranian request is a final decision, we anticipate a substantial delay in
resolving the question of ambassadorial representation,” Carter said.
“The action of the Iranian government is not helpful in helping restore a construc
tive relationship.”
Until the question of the ambassador is resolved, the deputy chief of mission,
Charles Naas, is acting U.S. ambassador.
mi£
79
Slouch gigs ’em!
Quarter century of Aggie gibes
Could someone gig Aggies on a regu
lar basis and make them like it?
A former pugilist has — through
the cartoon character “Slouch.”
The cartoon Aggie was known in
the first 20 years of his quarter cen
tury of existence as “Cadet Slouch.”
The cartoonist is Dr. James H.
Earle, professor and head of Texas
A&M’s Department of Engineering
Design Graphics. Through his pen, a
nondescript youth who formerly ap
peared in military uniform has re
marked for 25 years on a variety of
issues and ideas. Most are Texas
A&M-related.
One recent cartoon reveals a stu
dent with his graduation regalia: “I
keep having the same dream,” he
says to Slouch. “A guy goes across
the stage and gets a diploma and
handshake, and I go across and get a
handshake.”
No Texas Aggie tradition is too
sacrosanct, no cow too holy for
Slouch’s gentle gibes. In one panel
Slouch points to a plan for building
the Aggie bonfire on its side: “I’ll
admit it’s a hard concept to accept
right off, but it will put an end to
bonfires that topple.”
Cadet Slouch first appeared in The
Battalion Nov. 26, 1953, Earle’s
senior year. It shows tipsy students
out cold while guarding the statue of
Lawrence Sullivan Ross from over-
zealous, paint-throwing gridiron op
ponents.
The pedestal contains only “ Sul
ly’s” footprints.
Subjects of early Cadet Slouch ob
servations included campus traffic
violations, country-Western music
dedications, dining hall food, class
assignments, campus construction
and other matters still a subject of
student complaint 25 years later.
Slouch rarely gets heavily idealis
tic, and less frequently demonstrates
or advocates.
“The best Slouch topics are issues
most people deal with,” Earle said.
“Slouch makes the average person
feel he has a spokesman.
“I will tackel a serious situation
occasionally. People may be getting
too serious about something and it
needs lightening up.
“I’ve always tried to be moderate
because it’s more fim to make com
ments than to alienate,” remarked
the Class of 1954 member with de
grees in architecture and industrial
education. He was a pole vaulter on
the Aggie track team and an in
tramural boxing champion.
"It’s been somewhat of a relief that
I could say some things graphically
that said in writing would have got
ten me in trouble. A cartoonist can
do it in a way people will accept good
naturedly,” Earle said.
“I average about four cartoons a
week during the regular school
year,” Earle tabulated. “That comes
to 3,600 to 25 years. That’s a bunch of
cartoons, or ideas.”
under a great deal of strain due to the
scandal.
The scandal stemmed from the secret
use of millions 6f dollars to promote at
home and abroad the government policies
of racial separation by a now defunct In
formation Department while it was com-*
manded by Muldera, the former race rela
tions minister.
Other funds were used to create the
johannesburg English-language Citizen
newspaper and subsidize the news
magazine To The Point.
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