IS NEX AS POULSON STORM GROWS TORIES MARKTIME OVER MAUDLING

Scottish establist more fr terday o mons to AFTER a three-hour crisis session yesterday, the Tory Cabinet prepared a 47-word statement to shelve the Poulson case which has involved the reputation of the deputy prime minister and Home Secretary Reginald Maudling.

Edward Heath delivered the cryptic statement to a hushed House of Commons:

"The Attorney-General and Lord Advocate, in consultation with the Director of Public Prosecutions, are considering the evidence given at the public examination and are awaiting the preliminary report of the Official Receiver which is expected earlier next week. I will make a further statement next week' The delaying tactics of the Tories are ominous. They have tested the mood in Fleet Street and found that no one there is anxious for a major public scandal involving the business activities of the law-and-order Home Secretary.

Confident of Fleet Street's backing, Tories appear to have decided to ride 1no the storm.

They are also certain of the unstinting co-operation of the Labour Party leaders. After Heath's statement to the House, Harold Wilson was immediately on his feet to say that parliament was not in We are whipping boys on wages -govt see p.12 workers in gover ments joined hun dreds m all over Britair yesItside the House of Comdemand more pay.

ETU WAS SLAVE LABOUR BOLİSHED IN a cool "(right) with Jaroma D. Holman possession of sufficient firm evidence to form a judgement in the case.

'We must await - perhaps with some impatience—-what the Prime Minister has to say next week,' he added.

But what is the delay all about? The Tories' top legal brains have been pouring over the transcript all week.

The facts are public knowledge. It all came out at the Wakefield bankruptcy court when Yorkshire architect John Poulson revealed the background of his business ventures.

Maudling was chairman of International Technical and Construction Services and on the board of directors of two other Poulson companies. For a number of years one of the Poulson subsidiaries was almost entirely in the hands of the Maudling family; apart from Maudling, the board also included , his wife, Beryl, his son Martin, and his daughter Caroline.

In evidence Poulson admitted that than £330,000 had been made in fees to various MPs and civil servants for their T. Dan Smith, head of the Northern Economic Planning Council, received £155,000 in fees. Mr Smith, former public relations consultant to the Labour Party, was acquitted in the Old Bailey last year on corruption charges.

In this week's 'New Statesman', an editorial demands that 'Maudling Must Go'. Apart from his association with Paulson, his connections with another failed business venture are attacked in the front-page editorial.

Maudling was also chairman of the Real Estate Fund of America, an offshore property fund registered in Liberia and headquartered in the Bahamas.

The founder of this outfit was Jerome D. Hoffman who had previously been prosecuted in New York for an alleged mortgage fraud. Following the collapse of PORTS!IOUTthe fund late in 1970 Hoffman was arrested in New York and subsequently jailed for two years.

The Attorney-General, Sir Peter Rawlinson, admitted in the Commons in February that the British end of Hoffman's company was being investigated by and Police and the Department of Trade report would be sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions to decide if any action was necessary, he said.

It now means. that the Director of Public Prosecutions Sir Norman Skelhorn has TWO former Maudling companies under investigation.

Maudling is the Tories' leading crusader on law and order and the Cabinet to which he belongs has been engaged in supporting the most harsh attacks on workers and their trade unions through the courts.

National Industrial Relations raurt threatened to jail three London dockers who were engaged in picketing.

Yet whereas the Tory courts are only too willing to attack basic rights of workers and their families, they show no such zeal when the men under scrutiny have connections with the top of the Tory Party.

Instead of Victor Feather and the trade union leaders hanging around No. 10 Downing Street talking with these people, they should be preparing for the mobilization of the trade union movement to get this shabby crowd out of office.

Only a General Election can cleanse the air.

WALES

OUTH AVERNER DA PLACE OF SPPLEMENT Go cores

Press, Friday July 14,