Hearsts given $lm

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33460, 15 February 1974, Page 9

Hearsts given $lm

(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) BERKLEY (California), February 14.

The mother of the kidnapped Miss Patricia Hearst said last night that more than SUSIm had been received by the Hearst family to help to meet the multi-million-dollar food handout demanded by the Symbionese Liberation Army as a prelude to negotiations for the girl’s release.

Mrs Catherine Hearst told in impromptu news confer-

ence outside her home: “This is actual money, not pledges

. . . It came from all kinds of people — two wonderful people on welfare each sent us SUS7O. It is coming in from real people — just people. “I hope that Patricia can hear this, somewhere, wherever she is. I hope that she can hear what people are doing for her, and that God will bless her.” The members of the Symbionese Liberation Army who abducted Miss Hearst on February 4 have demanded that free groceries be given to the needy over one month before they will even begin to talk about her release. State officials estimate that 4.7 million people would qualify for the foodstuffs, and that the total cost would be SUS4OOm. Miss Hearst’s father, Mr Randolph Hearst, the millionaire son of the founder of the Hearst news empire, appeared twice before television cameras yesterday to reassure both his daughter and the obscure terrorist ring.

He said, however, that the largest ransom demand in history was impossible to meet. He did not want to give the kidnappers the idea that he was taking a hard line and was not willing to negotiate for the life of his daughter, but he did not see how a SUS4OOm programme was possible. “1 want the kidnappers ■to know that I want to set up the type of programme thev are talking about,” he said. “If it doesn’t satisfy ) them, it won’t be because 1 I haven’t done everything I ican. This is a matter of ex'tent, of how much we can ido, of how much money is i available.”