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.75 No. 91 USPS 045360 16 Pages
photo by Karen Kaley
Afy beautiful balloon
deterology students Deanna Ramirez, a senior, and Mark
Rowlett, a graduate student, send up a weather balloon to
est atmospheric conditions. The balloon was launched
Saturday from the Research Annex on Highway 21.
College Station, Texas
Monday, February 8, 1982
Tokyo hotel blaze kills 32,
number injured unknown
United Press International
TOKYO — At least 32 people died
today in Tokyo’s worst hotel fire since
World War II, with flames raging for
more than six hours while trapped
guests cried for help, plunged to their
deaths or tried in vain to get fire hoses
to work.
Fire officials said 32 people died
and at least 20 others were injured in
the fire that started on the ninth floor
of the Hotel New Japan in a fashion
able Tokyo area of nightclubs, offices
and hotels at 3:39 a.m. (1:39 p.m.
Sunday EST).
Officials revised the death toll sev
eral times as some bodies apparently
were counted twice and at least six of
the injured died in hospitals.
There were more than 300 guests
Poland
at the time of the fire, which was not
brought under control until after 10
a.m. The 500-room hotel, opened in
1960, was popular among South Ko
rean and Taiwanese tourists.
Survivors said they heard no fire
alarms — firemen said they did not
work. Officials said the upper floors
of the hotel had no sprinklers.
Some guests jumped to their
deaths. Some screamed for help from
upper stories. Some crawled to safety
down fireman ladders or emergency
staircases.
The South Korean Embassy said
Kim Tai Dong, a former communica
tions minister and later health and
social affairs minister under the late
President Park Chung-hee, was
among the dead.
Two survivors were American.
Hospital officials identified one as
Sharon Paff, 33, wife of a U.S. Air
Force officer stationed in Okinawa,
Japan. She was treated for burns on
the arm and back.
The other was identified as Mal
colm Kravit, also 33, of San Francisco.
A hospital official said he had burns
but was being treated for smoke in
halation.
Paff reportedly jumped from a
ninth floor window and landed on a
roof at the fourth or fifth floor level,
breaking her pelvis and both arms.
She was listed in serious condition
and Kravit’s condition was not im
mediately known.
Fire officials said hotel employee
Susumu Fukunaga told them he
finished work at the front desk and
went to the ninth floor to rest when he
heard a cry of “Help me, help me,”
from a nearby room.
The officials said Fukunaga
opened the door with a pass key. The
room was filled with smoke and
flames but was chained from the in
side.
Fukunaga said he got a fire hose
and pushed the start button but no
water came out.
The blaze quickly spread through
the ninth and tenth floors, which had
no fire doors to'contain the blaze, tire
officials said.
Most of those who perished appa
rently suffocated, a spokesman said.
At least two peoplejumped to their
deaths, witnesses said. Others died in
their rooms, at hospitals or first aid
stations.
Haig speech to denounce Moscow
United Press International
MADRID, Spain — Secretary of
State Alexander Haig, ignoring Mos
cow’s objections, polished a speech to
day attacking the military govern
ment of Poland and accusing Moscow
of a major role in the crackdown.
Haig warned on arriving Sunday
from Washington for this week’s con
ference on Security and Cooperation
in Europe that martial law in Poland
could kill the 1975 Helsinki accords
on human rights and secure borders.
“This visit occurs against the back
drop of repression in Afghanistan
and Poland,” Haig said. “It is abso-
itely essential that the signatories to
the Helsinki Pact view the situation in
Poland as a fundamental and perhaps
fatal threat to the entire Helsinki pro
cess.
Haig prepared a major address
today for the resumption of the con
ference Tuesday and planned to meet
this evening with West German Fore
ign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher,
who does not want an attack on War
saw and Moscow to rupture the con
ference.
Moscow said it will “resolutely
oppose” any attempt by Haig to use
the conference to attack the Polish
government or the Kremlin for the
crackdown in the Warsaw Pact nation.
The conference — a product of the
Helsinki Final Act signed by the
Soviet Union, Poland and 31 other
European nations — must assess the
implications of the repression in Po
land for future East-West relations,
Haig said.
The secretary of state said it was
important “all the signatory states
reaffirm their adherence to the spirit
and letter of the Final Act of Hel
sinki.”
A senior official on Haig’s plane
told reporters on the flight to Madrid
that the West cannot permit Warsaw
and Moscow to escape censure for the
military crackdown in Poland on Dec.
13.
“It is the underpinning of detente,
it is the fruit of detente, and it is the
framework under which East-West
relations must recede or progress,”
the official said. “This conference
cannot be conducted as ‘business as
usual’ when the bedrock of the whole
process has been challenged.”
The official said Western hopes
that the Helsinki process would
strengthen human and political rights
in Europe were undermined by
events in Afghanistan and Poland.
Haig planned to visit Portugal,
Morocco and the Communist state of
Romania before returning to
Washington Saturday.
Names, ages received in letter
helps needy children
Corps
by Charlotte Boyd
Battalion Reporter
The Texas A&M Corps of Cadets is
supporting five needy children this
semester through the Christian Chil
dren’s Fund, an international organi
zation that works to improve the lives
of children.
Each child will receive $216 a year
to be spent on clothing, day care, food
and basic necessities.
Corps Chaplain Ken Hahn said,
“We collected money last semester
during dead week and when I came
back from the Christmas holidays, the
children’s names were here.
“We didn’t ask people outside the
Corps to donate and (all donations
were) strictly voluntary.”
The children are:
— Anthony Akins, 4, from Missis
sippi. Akin’s father is employed as a
laborer and his income is not suffi
cient to provide basic necessities.
— Kanyiva Makala, 13, from
Kenya. Makala, also fatherless, is one
of six children living in a small hut
built of sticks and grass.
— Herlinda Monterroso, 7, from
Guatemala. Her father died and her
mother supports the five children by
raising a small corn crop.
— Kalabhai Raval, 14, from India.
Classified by the government as a
backward family, the Raval’s have no
electricity or water in their house
made of mud.
— Tseng Wen-Shuei, 14, from
Taiwan. His father was killed in a traf
fic accident and Wen-Shuei’s mother
cannot support the family alone.
Each sponsor receives the child’s
photograph, a letter from the child
and the English translation of the let
ter, if necessary.
“We are in the process now of writ
ing them letters, but it will probably
be a month before we receive word
from them,” Hahn said. “Some write
their own letters and those who aren’t
old enough, of course, have the letters
written for them.”
The goal of the Fund, one of the
world’s largest and oldest internation
al child care agencies, is to make each
child a contributing member of his
own society. Children participating in
the program are selected on the basis
of need only.
A field office staff supervises the
children and program. They help
plan and direct services offered to the
children, and work with the govern
ment officials for better child welfare
standards and services in the country.
The Fund supports programs in
Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Ethiopia,
Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Kenya,
Korea and Niger. Programs also are
sponsored in the Phillipines, Taiwan,
Thailand, Uganda and the United
States.
Cancelled
Cotton production
Area code change
inside
Entire
Stock
Gen. Vernon A. Walters, ambas
sador-at-large, who was scheduled
to speak tonight on silent diploma
cy, has been called to Europe on a
Include! diplomatic mission.
The MSC Great Issues Commit
tee will try to reschedule the gener
al’s speech for April, said Linda
Chiou, committee vice president.
, Walters, a former deputy dire-
k ctor of the CIA, served as an army
intelligence officer under five presi-
dents. He is considered the foie-
most army intelligence expert in the
IfgspSi United States, Chiou said.
The committee has three events
[)Per scheduled in March,
t* On March 8, a debate on abortion
between Joseph Witherspoon and
Janice Friese will be held. On March
24, Dr. Eizabeth Lostus will speak
about memory training, and Jeremy
Rilkin will give a speech entitled
“Entropy - A new world view,”
March 29.
:a
rs. 10-8
10-6
United Press International
DALLAS — World cotton pro
duction is expected to soar to /0.8
million bales this year and finding a
market for the booming supply will
be a major topic of discussion at the
44th annual National Cotton Coun
cil meeting this week.
American housewives aren’t
buying as many dresses, towels and
bedlinens lately, so cotton mills are
not processing all the cotton avail
able. That fact frustrates American
cotton growers, whose years of
fighting plant disease and infesta
tion paid off with the largest crop in
28 years (15.7 million bales) last
year.
The three-day convention, which
began Sunday, is scheduled to draw
Vice President George Bush, along
with Congressional leaders, indus
try representatives and researchers
as well as some 1,500 cotton farmers
and processors.
Producing cotton itself is not a
major problem, according to council
economist Dean Etheridge.
Weak domestic consumption
against a booming crop in 1981 have
worked to create a cotton textile
trade deficit that plunged to 1.3 mil
lion bale equivalents, according to
the council.
And the resulting world market
oversupply has growers reporting
their intentions to reduce the
amount of cotton they plant this
year by more than 2.5 million acres,
or 18 percent less than last year.
The council said world cotton
production is expected to soar 5.2
million bales to 70.8 million bales
this year.
And although international de
mand for cotton next year is ex
pected to increase, the growth in
production will far outstrip in
creased needs, said Ethridge.
by Denise S. Sechelski
Battalion Staff
The Bryan-College Station area
code will change from 713 to 409 in
March 1983 because Houston is
running out of telephone numbers,
a spokesman from General Tele
phone of the Southwest says.
Janet Perkins, a consumer affairs
representative for GTE, said South
western Bell requested the area
code change because a city is only
allowed a certain amount of num
bers and Houston is quickly running
out of 713 exchanges.
Bryan, College Station, Snook-
Tunis, Caldwell and Somerville will
change to the 409 area code in 1983.
“GTE is trying to make the transi
tion as easy as possible,” Perkins
said.
For three months after the
change occurs, calls made with the
713 area code that should have been
with with the 409 area code will be
completed. After this time of adjust
ment, however, a recording will in
form the caller of the new area code.
The number will then have to be
redialed.
Long distance calls will not be
delayed because of the new area
code, Perkins said.
Some of the company's equip
ment will have to be changed to
accommodate the new area code,
Perkins said. But, since the change
was initiated by Southwestern Bell,
there is no cost to GTE, she said.
Likewise, residents of the cities
using the area code will not see a
change in the rates they pay for tele
phone service, Perkins said.
“Any cost involved will not show
up in the bills,” she said.
GTE does not expect any prob
lems in getting the bills to the cus
tomers on time, Perkins said.
“The transition should be a
smooth one,” she said.
Classified 8
Local 3
National 7
Opinions 2
Sports 13
National 7
State 4
What’s Up 8
forecast
Today’s forecast: Cloudly with
occasional drizzle and a 30 percent
chance of rain today and tonight:
high in the mid-50s, low in the low
40s. Tuesday’s forecast calls for
cooler temperatures and a 20 per
cent chance of rain.