Perk Blames Subordinates

Nixon Defended on Watergate

By Thomas J. Brazaitis

Stoff Writer

SAN FRANCISCO Mayor Ralph J. Perk said yesterday President Nixon was betrayed by a few subordinates who carried out and covered up the bugging of Democratic headquarters.

In an interview at the Hotel St. Francis, where he is attending the 41st annual meeting of the U. S. Conference of Mayors, Perk said Nixon would have had no way of knowing about the bugging if those involved wanted to conceal it from him.

Perk repeatedly has said he believes Nixon is innocent, but this was the first time he has elaborated on that position.

Perk said when he visited Nixon at the White House last month, the President said nothing about Watergate, but "you could sense that he felt he had been betrayed and that he felt the system would take care of the betrayal."

Perk likened Nixon's position to that of former President Johnson when it was disclosed that Walter Jenkins was a homosexual. Jenkins then became a security risk to the administration because of the possibility of blackmail.

"How would Johnson know that one of his closest advisers was a homosexual?" Perk asked. "The President had no way of knowing. If he had, he would not have placed him

in a position where he would be advising him.'

"

Perk did not name those he believed betrayed Nixon.

"The President was betrayed by a few people around him." Perk said. "He, himself, I am sure, had nothing to do with it and the Republican party had nothing to do with it. This was a group of people within the Committee to Reelect the President.'

""

Perk said those guilty of the bugging would be punished.

"You can't condemn Nixon," Perk said. "He was in the middle of negotiations with foreign powers, one of the most important negotiations in history when somebody planned a break-in."