Low-Down on Br itain's Higher-Ups

KING, From B1 As for the 71-year-old it. . . . I recalled that I had Cromer, then governor of King, he is obviously enjoy- been offered the job of tin- the Bank of England and ; that he was the nephew of derstrapper to Douglas Jay now ambassador to Wash- Lord Northcliffe." ing the fuss, particularly, he says, since it "ensures that (board of trade president) ington, but King fails to • Crossinan ticks off King the book becomes a best- which I should have re- grasp how devaluation was "a disloyal insider" on at seller." garded as a bitter insult if I would right it. The point he ;least two counts disclosed had been of a vindictive na- King did come into the finds most bizarre in Enoch by the diary. Wilson con- ture. Powell's philosophy is Pow- fided the secret date of his Mirror through family ties —his uncles were Lord King's most vocal de- ell's advocacy of a floating planned 1966 election to a fender is Bernard Levin, a pound, the very prescription King subordinate and King Northcliffe and Lord Roth- ermere, the powerful press Times columnist. Levin that has freed the Heath re- promptly gave it away to hailed the diary as "The gime to expand the economy . Edward Heath, leader of the barons who owned The Times, Daily Mail, Daily most revealing and valuable here. •Conservative opposition. As political record yet pub- :a director of the Bank of Mirror and more in 'their Finally, his judgments on day—but he is generally ac- lished in postwar Britain the American scene, where England, King was privvy to . monstrous, overwhelm- that institution's very pri- knowledged to have been a King also enjoyed an ex- First rate publisher. ing and unmitigated can- traordinary entree, are re- vate estimates of the plight dour . . . merciless depic- King's troubles began markable. On Nixon, "It Is •of the pound, and King also tion of chicanery . . . incom- appalling that this third-rate passed on these tidbits to when he used the Mirror's petence and sheer political lush profits for reckless ex- man should be disinterred." the Tories. squalor . . ." Again, an unnamed Dutch Crossroan concludes that periments and dubious ex- pansion. A King editorial in Levin's thesis is that keep- editor is cited as the source :King was finally ousted ing Harold Wilson from re- for retailing a story that has from the Mirror empire be- 1968 aimed at bringing Wil- son down tipped the bal- turning to office is "a wor- Henry Kissinger saying in cause "their chairman was thy cause, a necessary an indirect quote that "It "suffering from hereditary ance. King was ousted in- stead, and by officers of cause" and if "King's book would be such a disaster if ? megalomania." what had been a subsidiary helps . . . to avert that cata- Nixon became president." Richard March, still an- of the newspaper. strophe, he will have de- Anthony Solomon, the for- ( other ex-minister and now served the thanks of us all." mer Assistant Secretary of head of the nationalized rail In defense of his diary, State for economic affairs, King insists that public fig- For an American by- industry, got his back in a stander, the diary is striking is twice cited as "Nathan traditional fashion, a letter ures are fair game and have Solomons." The Washington no right to complain if their for other reasons. For one, •to The Times. It says: it shows how King and other Star-News columnist is "Sir: I am reported as say- words come back to haunt them, especially several big businessmen flirted with "Mary McRory." ing according to Cecil King the idea of replacing the Perhaps the last word was that top politicians were a _years after the event. He vigorously denies the charge Labor government with a had by the anonymous re- 'grubby lot.' Whether I ever bi-party coalition including viewer in The Economist made this rather sweeping of some of his Labor critics that he was disappointed be- themselves and even toyed who wrote: statement and, if so, in what with the notion of removing context is impossible to say cause Wilson would neither "Mr. King has well and give him an earldom nor put elected leaders through truly carted practically ev- three years later If the de- some sort of coup. scription applies to anyone, him in the cabinet. eryone of any note who was, it must surely apply to that He somehow forgot his For another, it displays in retrpspect, so ill-advised small group who secretly diary entry for Sept. 18, the remarkable economic as to give him, or accept record the private conversa- 1967, a conversation with naivete of even a sometime from him, hospitality over tion of their guests and then Callaghan in which King successful publisher. King those years. His book is a sell the transcripts for publi- records: "I said if they of- frets continually over the nauseating end to many a cation. One can only say - fered me a place in the gov- payments imbalance, en- meal . . for what is clear UGH!" ernment, I would consider couraged by his cousin Lord from his diary is that Mr. King was not only a vain and arrogant man but he was also a rather silly one."