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2 GEORGIA BULLETIN, THURSDAY, JANUARY 2, 1969
U.S, To Supply Planes
For Biafra Relief
WASHINGTON -- The Unites States government will supply six
military cargo planes to carry food and medicine to Biafran victims of
the Nigerian civil war.
While no f o r.m a 1
announcement of the U.S. plans
was made, they were confirmed
by spokesmen for the State
Department and for Catholic
Relief Services, one of the
half-dozen religious agencies
which airlift supplies to Biafra
under the name Joint Church
Aid.
The official announcement,
they said, would be made when
all arrangements have been
completed.
The planes will be C-97
Globemasters, built by Boeing for
the Air Force during the
mid-1950s. They are now being
used by the Arizona Air National
Guard, bpt are due to be phased
out of operation within the next
few months.
At one time they were the
workhorses of the Air Force, but
have been relegated to National
Guard use for the past few years.
With a cargo capacity of 18 to
20 tons, they are capable of
carrying about twice the load
now handled by the DC-7 craft
now being used in the airlift. And
since they are built specifically
for cargo use-the DC-7s are
' converted passenger craft-and are
slightly faster, they might be'
capable of flying three flights to
Biafra nightly instead of the two
flights which are now normal.
According to a State
Department spokesman, the
planes would be given outright to
the relief agencies, which would
then be responsible for hiring
crews and maintenance
personnel.
But, he said, all six planes may
not go to the Joint Church Aid
religious relief effort. Some,
perhaps two or three, may be
given to the International
Committee of the Red Cross,
which flies into Biafra from the
island of Fernando Po Joint
Church Aid flies from Sao Tome,
a Portuguese island some 100
miles south of Fernando Po off
the West African coast.
The agreement to furnish the
planes for Biafra relief capped
almost four months of pressure
by CRS, Church World Service,
the National Council of Churches
counterpart to CRS, and several
senators and congressmen, among
them Sens. Edward Kennedy and
Eugene McCarthy and House
Speaker John McCormack.
The government was first
asked to loan C-130 Hercules
transports—the plane which has
taken the Globemaster’s
place-but rejected the offer
outright. Instead, the U.S. later
o^.'ered to donate part of the cost
of leasing a Hercules-price: $1.5
million for three months-if the
Joint Church Aid groups would
accept Red Cross control of their
operation. They turned that
down.
Finally, in early December,
CRS and Church World Service
officials located the C-97s,
learned they were about to be
scrapped, and asked for them.
And at Christmas time they were
told, “yes.”
The only question remaining
was when the plans could be put
into service on Sao Tome. A
State Department spokesman said
they could be in the air within 48
hours-“They are operational,” he
said.
There still remained the hiring
of crews, purchase of spare parts,
and settlement of the legal work
involved in transferring title. One
relief official said he hoped the
craft would be in operation
shortly after New Year’s Day.
While the relief agencies and
the government negotiated for
the planes, the * Red Cross went
NUN GIVES RETREAT In what may be the first such in
stance, Sister Hildegard Wach, a doctor of philosophy, of
the Salesian Convent in Vienna, Austria, gave a retreat
for Salesian priests at the retreat center of Mariahilfberg
in Passau, Bavaria. A record attendance was reported.
Sister Hildegard is editor of Jetzt (Now), a Vienna quar
terly for women Religious. (NC Photos)
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through several days of harrowing
negotiations with the government
of Equatorial Guinea, of which
their Fernando Po base is a part.
That government first halted
all Red Cross flights to Biafra,
then two days later abruptly
reversed itself. As the flights
resumed, August Lindt, ICRC
Commissioner for Africa, flew to
Fernando Po to complete
negotiations for continuation of
the airlift.
In Nigeria and Biafra, the war
continued while leaders of both'
sides traded propaganda salvoes
over the possibility of a
Christmas truce. The federal
government opened first with a
two-day truce—one day on the
Islamic feast of Id-al-Fitr (Dec.
22) and one day on Christmas.
But Biafran leader Col.
Odumego Ojukwu announced an
eight-day cease-fire from
Christmas through New Year’s
Day. Federal leader Gen. Yakubu
Gowan rejected Ojukwu’s offer,
saying in a letter to the
Organization of African Unity
that it would “only create an
illusion to the whole world and
raise false hopes.”
The United Nations estimated
that 20,000 to 25,000
Biafrans-mostly children-starved
on Christmas day, and that by
mid-January the daily mortality
rate “may exceed 100,000.”
Astronaut Anders
Family Attends Mass
In Living Room
SEABROOK, Tex. (NC) -
Mrs. Valerie Anders, wife of
astronaut William Anders,
attended a special 6 a.m. Mass
witH her five children in the
family living room (Dec. 21),
before watching her husband’s
historic takeoff on a space flight
around the moon. The Mass was
said by Father Rene Vermillion,
Catholic chaplain at nearby
Ellington Air Force Base.
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