Soviet Union Warns Middle East Of U.S. Plans for Nuclear Bases; Hammarskjold Defends Mediation

MOSCOW, Jan. 21--The Soviet Union said today the United States is planning to set up nuclear and missile bases in the Middle East. It warned Middle East countries such bases would be a threat to their existence and their religious shrines.

The warning was sounded at a special news conference called six days before the Baghdad Pact members open a conference at Ankara.

Leonid Ilychev, the Foreign Ministry spokesman, used the news conference as a springboard for a denunciation of the Baghdad Pact and especially of Turkey, the host country for the pact meeting next week. Turkey, he said, had taken an especially aggressive stand against Russia at the NATO meeting. Turkey is a member both of the Baghdad and NATO pacts.

Hammarskjold May Visit Russia

UNITED NATIONS, N.Y., Jan. 21--Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold declared today the U.N. will remain the main arena for breaking the East-West dead-lock on disarmament.

He indicated he is considering a trip to Moscow for talks with the Russians, who have announced they will boycott any negotiations in the newly enlarged U.N. Disarmament Commission. The U.N. remains the main framework for disarmament talks, Hammarskjold stated, and he knows of no government which has taken an opposite view.

The four ways in which U.N. machinery could be used in the disarmament picture, he said were his own office, the Security Council, the General Assembly and the Disarmament Commission.

Defense Dept. Faces Reorganization

WASHINGTON, Jan. 21--Secretary of Defense McElroy said today three retired military leaders and three civilians will join him in a top priority search for ways to reorganize the Defense Department.

McElroy said there is a target date for completing the study which will take several weeks, but he declined to disclose it now.

The three civilians appointed by McElroy include William C. Foster, former deputy secretary of defense; Charles A. Coolidge, former assistant secretary; and Nelson A. Rockefeller, chairman of the President's Advisory Committee on Government Organization.

McElroy last Wednesday also appointed Air Force Gen. Nathan F. Twining, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and the two retired officers who previously held that job--Gen. Omar Bradley and Adm. Arthur F. Radford--to the group.

Committee Approves Missile Fund

WASHINGTON, Jan. 21--The first payment on the new U.S. missile program, a $1,410,000,000 fund for space age weapons and defenses, was approved by the House Appropriations Committee today.

The 50-man appropriations group okayed the full $1,260,000,000,000 in new cash the President asked for. It also approved Eisenhower's request for authority to transfer 110 million in funds now available, and added 40 million to this amount.

The House will consider the committee's action Wednesday. There are indications that even more money may be put into the bill before it is sent to the Senate.

Fighting in Venezuela

CARACAS, Venezuela, Jan. 21--Fighting erupted in Caracas today with the start of a general strike against the regime of President Marcos Perez Jimenez.

Reports reaching Washington said 20 persons were killed and 100 injured in street riots in Caracas, and 1,000 were arrested. They said the fighting occurred in a workers' area in an old section of the capital.

Rigid censorship in Venezuela held up direct word of the extent of the strike and accompanying violence.

The call for a general strike was issued by an underground organization calling itself the Patriotic Junta. Its appeal was aimed at forcing out perez Jimenez or at least gaining a voice in the government for the political opposition.

French Seize Arms

PARIS, Jan. 21--France today announced that it will seize any arms cargoes in Algerian waters that appear headed for rebels fighting the French army.

A Foreign Ministry spokeman made the statement at a news conference in a defense of the seizure Saturday of 150 tons of arms and munitions from the Yugoslav ship Slovenija.

In Belgrade, the semi-official news agency Yugopress declared the French government "permitted itself to make a precedent in international relations which could have far-reaching consequences.