Red Navy officers held in purge

MINERS DELEGATES of London's 4,800 firemen vote tomorrow whether or not to begin ar out strike over pay and conditions.

to begin 'normal working London Workers' Pross reporter IS FORM SOLID PICKET

Y. DOES

8SR. DCNY . US THAT RICHT? *TRIKE ANS BLACKLES ALS will firemen finaman consider all-out action the GLC on accommodation allowances.

The men jeered when they were told that the GLC had offered to assist with house purchases by lending a deposit at current interest rates.

The GLC had also offered a 7s. Ofd. a week travel allowance and • £50-a-year allowance to help subsidize rents, although they could give no guarantee on this at present.

Firemen must now finish the fight that was begun last ACCORDING groups in Mosc oW, have been arre: sted to the Stalinist reg AGAINST SCABS 11: 1 Saigon leader resigns from puppet party NGUYEN VAN THIEU, 'president' of the Saigon puppet regime, has been hit by the defection of one of the main supporters of his six-party National Social Democratic Front'.

First pulled together two nonths ago, this hotch-potcl of various political cliques wa: intended to provide the mass basis for Thieu's regime after the bulk of the US forces now stationed in Vietnam departed.

One of the Front's more 'liberal' members, Trinh Quoc Khanh, wrote to Thieu on Thursday stating that he thought the Front served no useful purpose in national 'We no longer want to attend the Front's meetings because we think they do not lead anywhere. All we do is meet, discuss the nationa ituation and then leave!

This detection, and the reasons given for it, reflect the Robert Black reports from oppositionist three Soviet naval officers after organizing resistance ime.

The sources, who are associated with the 'Initiative Group for the Defence of Civil Rights in the Soviet Union' said the three officers were part of & much larger civilian They were arrested in Tallinn, capital of the Estonian Soviet Republic while preparing an 'appeal to the people', a programme calling for the restoration of democratic rights in the Search The same sources informed western correspondents in Moscow that hundreds of others have been questioned and had their houses searched. Investigations are also under way among naval officers, cadets and students in the ports of Khabarovsk, Baku, Leningrad, Riga and Perm. If this latest information is correct, then it is yet more proof that the bureaucracy is tightening the screws on the various oppositionist movements in the Soviet Union. pessimism of ruling circles in Saigon, which now has to face the prospect of fighting on alone against the National Liberation Front.

Khanh and many others like him are now hedging their bets, preparing themselves for a situation in which they hope to form the right wing of a coalition with the NLF.