A "Silly Little Diversion"

During the 1964 parliamentary campaign, Harold Wilson grandly observed that "the Labor Party is a moral crusade or it is nothing." Those noble words came back to haunt Britain's Prime Minister last week as a public furor continued over newspaper reports that two close associates--his longtime secretary, Marcia Williams, and her brother Anthony Field, Wilson's frequent golfing partner and onetime office manager--had profited in a land speculation deal (TIME, April 15). There was nothing illegal about it, and Wilson himself was not involved. But many Britons found it unseemly TOPIX that the charge of land speculation should be raised against intimate colleagues of a man who a few weeks ago was denouncing it as "the biggest single scandal, the ugliest of the faces of present-day capitalism."

Having served libel writs on the two Tory papers, the Daily Mail and Daily Express, that first printed the charges, Wilson last week took his cause to Commons. He startled some listeners by admitting that he had discussed the land deal, which involved a property near Wigan in northern England, with Field as far back as 1967. "It is difficult for anyone to play golf with someone," he cheerfully explained, "and not know what business he is in." Wilson argued that Field had worked hard to improve the property. He had cleared it of slag heaps (which Britons have dubbed "the Wigan Alps") and had therefore more than earned what Field says was an estimated $240,000 profit on the sale of the parcel. The Daily Mail had claimed that he made $1,860,000 on the complicated deal. As for Marcia Williams, 41, the Prime Minister insisted that she had played no part in running her brother's land company and "there is no reason why any member of my staff should forfeit the trust I place in them."

Loud hoots arose from the Tory benches when Wilson tried to explain the distinction he makes between "property development" and "land speculation." Even to many ardent Labor supporters, he seemed to be making a distinction without much of a difference. The row is peculiarly embarrassing to Wilson because land has become a highly emotional issue in Britain. The price of property for housing has trebled since 1969, driving the cost of a decent home beyond the reach of countless thousands of British families. To end speculation, the Labor campaign platform vowed to nationalize land required for housing and school development.

In a television interview after his Commons speech, Wilson dismissed the row as a "silly little diversion" and a "seamy, squalid press story which has now been put into its proper context." The affair is not likely to blow over so easily. If nothing else, the disposition of Wilson's libel suits against the newspapers will keep the matter before the public for some time. Then there is a Scotland Yard investigation of an increasingly murky subplot involving Land Developer Ronald Milhench, 32. He has claimed that he received a letter discussing terms for the parcel that Field was trying to sell; at the bottom, Harold Wilson's signature was reportedly forged.

Last week Milhench announced that he had destroyed the letter because of a telephone call in which "the caller said he would kill my children if I handed over the letter to the police or newspapers." Somewhat mysteriously, Milhench told police that he knew who the caller was.

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