JUN 1 8 1973 Sfehronicle ■■ ••• tOK 711•1•••• Col lson Confesion On Chappaquiddick Jack Andersen HE WHITE HOUSE financed a trip ous, ill-fitting red wig on this secret mis- T to New England by waterbugger E. sion. Howard Hunt to investigate Senator Ed- Colson conceded that he had worked, ward Kennedy's role in the Chappaquid- too, on an advertisement supporting Pres- dick tragedy, 4ccording to Charles Colson, ident Nixon's decision to bomb and mine who ordered thp mission. Haiphong harbor. The ad was signed by The former White House aide con- private citizens but paid out of campaign . fessed h's pail in the snooping operation funds. during a secret deposition taken May 28 In his deposition, • Colson also spoke by lawyers for the Democratic National fully for the first time of his mysterious Committee. "attack group," which worked out of the Colson told I under oath how Hunt came White House in 1972. Its job, he said, was to him in Ju1y1, 1971, with a tip that a po- to coordinate policy for surrogate candi- liceman, identilfied only as "Demott," had dates who were carrying the political at- confidential information on the case. tack to the Democrats. Because Kennedy was a potential pres- * * * idential contender, the White House was OLSON vigorously denied he had ad- . eager to learn! more about the 1969 drown- C vance knowledge of the Watergate ing of Mary Jo Kopechne during a drive break-in. The most he did, he said, was with Kennedy. phone campaign deputy Jeb Magruder to * 1 * * arrange for the Wate'rgate ringleaders, Howard Hunt and Gordon Liddy, to ex- OLSON insltructed Hunt to interview plain their intelligence plans. But . Colson Cthe policeman whose information, said insisted he did this at Hunt's request and Colson, proved to be a rehash of published never learned the actual plans. material. The White House paid Hunt's On balance, Colson denied more than air fare either to Massachusetts or Rhode he admitted. He flatly contradicted press Island for the interview, Colson recalled. reports that he had recruited men to pose The tough, glib Colson also admitted he as homosexuals in the McGovern cam- had dispatched Hunt to Denver to question paign. He also denied knowing Hunt had Dita Beard about her famous memo link- once forged documents to show the late ing an ITT financial commitment to the President John Kennedy had conspired to Republicans with an advantageous anti- assassinate the late South Vietnamese trust settlement. Hunt wore a preposter- President Ngo Dinh Diem. .