seized by Lieut. Gen. Lon Noi, the Premier and Defense Min- SIHANOUK REPORTED OUT ister, and the First Deputy Pre- mier, Prince , a cousin of Priace Sihanouk. IN A COUP BY HIS PREMIER; Cheng Heng, President of the National Assembly, has been designated as interim Chief of State, pending elections, the AIRPORTS SHUT radio announced. Informed Poinpenh sources consider him

,,Z60111611 a figure of negligible political stature. Sihanouk Sought Balance When the announcement of his overthrow was made Prince Sihanouk, who is 47, was in Moscow where he had arrived from Paris five days ago, and was preparing to depart for Peking. - [Prince Sihanouk left Mos- cow for Peking Wednesday several hours after he had been toppled as Cambodia's_ leader. The Prince acted as if he were still Chief of State but spoke of the possibility of forming a government in exile.] The announcement came after a week of anti-Communist' rioting, reportedly officially in spired, in which the embassies! of North Vietnam and the Viet- cong were sacked. These events moved Cambodia close to open

United Press International Continued Soviet Premier Aleksei N. Kosygin bidding good-by to Prince , Cam- From Page 1, Col. 1 bodian Chief of State, who ended a four-day visit to Moscow and was on way to Peking. hostility with the Vietnamese Communists, who are operating in large number on the Cam- bodian side of the long frontier PRINCE IS ABROAD with South Vietnam. ■ /9 Al ei 14. 7 e.; Last Friday, the Cambodian government asked North Viet- namese and Vietcong troops to Leaving Moscow For leave the country by dawn Sunday. Meetings on the de- Peking, He Hints at mand have been held subse- quently in Pnompenh, but no progress has been reported. an Exile Regime Prince Sihanouk, a neutralist, Nvhose policies swerved often between right and left in an By HENRY KAMM effort to strike a balance, is Special to The New Yoek Times known to have struggled for a BANGKOK, Thailand, March year against the hard anti- 18—Prince Norodom Sihanouk, Communist position of General Chief of State of Cambodia. and Prince Sirik Matak. According to informed was overthrown today in his I' sources, that struggle precipi- alasence, the Pnompenh radio tated Prince Sihanouk's down- announced. fall, but was not its principal Power has apparently been . cause. What brought him down, the Sources said, was his cult of personality, his expensive striv- ing for grandeur, the stagna- , tion of Cambodia's economy, the corruption of leading per- sonalities and the bureaucracy and widespread smuggling and trading in contraband goods. traffic for the Cambodian cap- Sihanouk Shifted to Right No reports of violence at- ciptal. On board, the stewardess In the view of the sources tendant on today's events have could be heard to announce that the landing was imminent. recently in Prompenh Prince reached the outside world. But then the pilot's voice came Sihanouk in his last year as Cambodia is cut off except for Chief of State had shown a over the public-address system pronounced shift to the right the broadcasts, which are being to announce that Pnompenh toward the position of his pro- received here imperfectly, on Airport was closed and he was nouncements against the Com- powerful monitoring equipment. turning the jet back toward munists and had noticeably di- Cable and telephone, connec- Bangkok. minished his tendency to bal- tions are not functioning. No reason was given, the ance anti-Communist state- pilot said. The mystery persisted Airports Closed ments with strident attacks on until shortly before 3 P.M. The "American imperialism." Cambodia's two commercial Pnompenh station then came on Nevertheless, the increasing airports, Pnompenh and Siem- the air to announce that a Cam- pressure of the North Vietna- reap, were closed to all traffic bodian Government communi- mese and Vietcong largely be- shortly after noon today with- que was being read to a spe- ause of their increasing need out prior warning. The war in cial session of the National As- South Vietnam and Laos, an I sembly. political strains with Cam- In the statement, the Govern- to find sanctuary in territory bodia's other neighbor, Thai- ment accused the Vietnamese safer from American firepoweri land, have effectively cut off Communists of spreading false than South Vietnam, heightened access to Cambodia by. road. rumors, bribing Cambodian of- the political struggle in Cam- Neighboring countries learned ficials and distributing anti- bodia by causing discontent of the events in Pnompenh from Government leaflets, all in an with Prince Sihanouk's policies a French-language broadcast effort to set Cambodians against within the military, the sources that said: Cambodians. said. "Following the political crisis In view of this, and for rea- The soldiers were described provoked by Prince Norodom sons that were not stated, the as exasperated by apparent Sihanouk in the past days, the Government announced that it differences in the Chief of National Assembly and the was relieving the Pnompenh State's words and his actions. Royal Council in joint session, police chief of his functions They charged that though the in accordance with the con- and would take "extreme meas- Prince condemned the Vietna- stitution of the Kingdom, unan- ures" to restore calm. mese Communists as the enemy imously withdrew their con- Although the Pnompenh radio in speeches, he forced the fidence from Prince Norodom usually goes off the air at 3 Cambodian military to release o'clock, it stayed on after the all Vietcong they captured. Sihanouk. From this day, 18 announcement, broadcasting They saw a contradiction be- light music. March 1970 at 1300, hours [1 tween his complaints that the A. M. Wednesday, New York The announcement, although Vietcong were deriving much time], Prince Norodom'Sihanouk indiCating that serious events of their food through illegal ceases to be the Chief of State were in progress, did not cause purchases from Cambodian of Cambodia and will be re- analysts here to suspect , that farmers and his recognition last placed by Cheng Heng, the a move against Prince Sihanouk year of the Vietcong's so-called was in preparation. No accusa- President of the National As- provisional revolutionary gov- sembly, who will assume the tion, not even implicitly, was ernment and his subsequent function of the Chief of State addressed to him. signing of a trade agreement until the election of a new Music Interrupted with it. Chief of State in accordance At 5:07 P.M., the music was The military were said to re- with the text of the nation's interrupted for the communique sent what they considered Constitution " containing the decisive an- Prince Sihanouk's afribiguous Prince Sihanouk had left nouncement of Prince Siha- policy of ordering the armed Pnompenh on Jan. 6 for the nouk's overthrow. forces to intervene against announced purpose of taking a Prince Sihanouk abdicated American attacks on Vietnamese cure in Grasse, France, for the throne of Cambodia in communist military targets on obesity and a blood disorder. 1955, because, he said, the Cambodian soil. Cambodian He set out on the return jour- monarch was the prisoner of gunfire was reported to have ney, with scheduled stops in a rigid system and could not brought down an American Moscow and Peking, after the serve his people as effectively fighter - bomber attacking a rioting broke out. as he wished. He became Chiei Vietnamese anti-aircraft posi- The first indication of events of State. tion in Cambodia last Novem- more serious than the rioting His father, King Norodom ber. The result was a heavy and the challenge last Friday Suramarit, succeeded him. American attack on the Cam- by Cambodia to the Vietnamese Since his death in 1960, hi: bodian installation that killed Communists to withdraw their wife, Queen Kossamak Neari- 27 Cambodians. troops came today with the reath, - has represented the These sentiments were said sudden closing of Pnompenh monarchy while the throne re- to have contributed to turning Airport. mains vacant. General Lon Nol from a loyal A Union of Burma Airways Mr. Cheng Heng went on the follower of the Prince into a' commercial flight left here for air after Prince Sihanouk's determined opponent. The gen- Pnompenh at 11:30 A.M. after ouster was announced to de- eral's control of the small mili- receiving clearance for the 50- clare his acceptance of the title tary forces—about 35,000 in a minute flight from the Saigon of Acting Chief of State. nation of 7 million—is said to Control Tower, which directs He was elected President of be complete. the National Assembly in 1968 Opposition of Cousin and re-elected last year. He is a wealthy lawyer and former Prince Sirik Matak's opposi- Agriculture Minister. No date tion was said to have been has been announced for the rooted more in his dis- election of a new Chief of State. approval of what he considered his cousin's flamboyant megalo-I leral Lon Nol were reported to mania, Prince Sihanouk's in- have agreed by last summer sistence on nationalization of that the only way to return Cambodia's few industries, Cambodia to order was to limit wastefullness in the use 4341 the Chief of State's exercise of limited investment capital and power. The issue was at the tolerance of widespread corrup- center of the 27th Congress last tion. June of the Sanglturn, the polit- Prince Sirik Matak, according ical movement founded by to the sources, was leader of a Prince Sihanouk to group all body of opinion that believed political factions under,one or- that Prince Sihanouk was con- ganization, with himself on top. demning Cambodia to economic When subsequently farmer disaster by ill-planned invest- Premier Pen Nouth stepped ments. Among these were his down because of long illness plan to build a port.city named and General Lon Nol was asked after himself —Sihano;ukville - by the Chief of State 'to form a in which less than one ship a cabinet,' the general replied day docked in 1969, as well as that he would form a govern- plants for the manufacture of ment only as Premier and not tires, jute sacks, textiles and as merely a secretary to Prince distilleries that produced no Sihanouk. revenues for the state but were A special congress was named said to enrich those whom by Prince Sihanotik and in- Prince Sihanouk named as di- structed to form a government. rectors. General Lon Nol, the over- Other investments cited were whelming choice, rejected the large hotels in places that do office at first and 'accepted only not need them;. state-run night- after the Chief of State met clubs with taxi-dancers, and his conditions. , two movie houses, one for the They were, principally, that international film festivals in he would have the right to which the Prince's own produc- choose his ministers and that tions have on both occasions they would report to him, not won the first prize, and one for to Prince Sihanouk. the showing of the Prince's The Chief of State accepted films to the public. and the Cabinet took office last Prince Sirik Matak and Gen- Aug. 12. This acceptance by Prince Sihanouk of .a govern- ment with powers not depend- ent on his whims was consid- ered by some observers a bloodless coup:. The Premier and Prince Sirik Matak issued decrees in the early days of their government to solidify this "coup." Prince Sirik Matak, in all but in followed, and, in the view of Tax Payments Rerotited name, in charge of Cambodia. the sources, Prince Sihanouk's The Premier ordered all Gov- Last month, General Lon Nol, ouster was the goal that the ernment communications and Prince's opponents had pursued letters to be addressed to the who had been in France, re- since last summer. Premier's office rather than to turned, and open measures In Paris the next day, Prince the Chief of State. The deputy against the Vietnamese Com- Sihanouk said that he believed Premier, who made the coun- munists in Cambodia followed. a coup against him was a pos- try's economy his special field, The sources said that one of sibility, and he suggested that ended the practice of :having the most significant anti-Com- General Lon Nol might lead it. certain taxes, such as those munist moves was cooperation on the motorcycles and scoot between the South Vietnamese Firemen Cite Times Story ers, paid into the Chief of and Cambodian armed forces State's treasury rather than,the in fighting the Vietcong in the The top honor in the feature Government's. border areas. This is effected, class of the 1969 annual news During the 28th Congress of according -to • the sources, by media contest of the Uniformed the , in the last days Cambodian officers' intention- Firefighters Association has of last year,. Prince Sirik Matak ally discussing on "insecure" been won by Leland SchWartz weakened the Chief of State's telephone lines known to be of The New York Times. The position by forcing the closing overheard by the South Viet award was for an article with of the Pnompenh Casino over namese the disposition of ene- photographs dealing with the Prince Sihanouk's opposition. my troops. dangerous rise in false alarms. IA few days later, Prince Si- The sacking of the North Viet- Published last May 27, the pho-, hanouk, reportedly under heavy namese and Vietcong embassies tographs showed boys pulling pressure, left for France, with in Pnompenh last Wednesday the alarms and running away„