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Alex Price

From the South China Morning Post this week in: 1974

The pneumatic dart saga isn't the first time Happy Valley has witnessed sinister goings-on.

In 1974 police offered a HK$10,000 reward for information about a bomb at the Happy Valley racetrack and announced they were looking for a young couple in connection with another bomb threat at the Daimaru  department store.

The bomb was found at 2.45pm on April 9 buried in the grass at the 800-metre mark.

On Easter Monday Daimaru received a letter threatening to bomb the store unless HK$20,000 was paid.

Copies of an identikit picture of the wanted couple were sent to all newspapers and television stations.

In the US, president Richard Nixon was subpoenaed for a second time over the Watergate tapes, with indications that non-compliance with the orders would land him in even more trouble with the courts and Congress.

The tapes of 64 conversations between Nixon and his former senior aides were necessary for the autumn conspiracy trial of seven former aides charged with trying to cover up the break-in at the Democratic offices in the Watergate building in June 1972.

The chairman of the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee,  Peter Rodino,  warned that partial compliance as well as non-compliance with its subpoena could be viewed as grounds for impeachment.

A round-the-clock watch was mounted in Repulse Bay after a tanker, the Korean Hope, ran aground off Round Island, sparking fears of oil pollution.

The accident occurred when the 10,260-tonne vessel,  laden with oil, was entering port via the East Lamma Channel.

The ship was heading for the Caltex oil deport in Tsuen Wan when it ran aground about 400 metres from the lighthouse on Round Island.

Government craft equipped with floating booms and emulsifiers were sent as a precautionary measure.

The ship's master told Marine Department investigators that the vessel had run aground in thick fog. However, an observatory spokesman said only light rain was reported in Cape Collinson  and Cheung Chau at 7am, and visibility was 6km,  with similar conditions in Repulse Bay.

A small story on the Post's front page ran thus: 'Red-faced women and young girls ran for hiding when they saw a 'casual' streaker at the Star Ferry concourse near the entrance of Ocean Terminal. The streaker - a 23-year-old Chinese believed to be a student - was found loitering around the area and drew a large crowd of smiling men at about 9pm. He was arrested by two patrolling policemen who took him to Tsim Sha Tsui police station.'

In Washington, hopes were fading of achieving the first giant panda birth outside China.

Hsing-Hsing and Ling-Ling still had not mated after three days of each other's company.

'They are chasing each other round, rolling and tumbling, but Hsing-Hsing just hasn't zeroed in,' said National Zoological Park  worker Billie Hamlet.

The two pandas were gifts to the United States from Beijing commemorating president Richard Nixon's visit.

Mrs Hamlet said: 'Our problem is a lack of information about their breeding habits. We don't know if all the violence is a preliminary to sexual activity or if someone's going to get hurt.'

She said Chinese officials had been 'somewhat vague' when asked by the US how they had successfully bred pandas. The pandas became one of the biggest attraction in the zoo's history, drawing 6 million visitors in a year.

Branding her father and fiance as pigs and clowns, Patricia Hearst  swore her allegiance to the Symbionese Liberation Army  in an 18-minute audio tape given to police via intermediaries.

In the recording, Hearst, daughter of newspaper executive William Randolph Hearst,  said it was 'ridiculous to the point of being beyond belief' for her family to think she had been brainwashed by the SLA into taking part in a US$100,000 bank robbery.



Slice of Life