The Guardian from London, Greater London, England • 4

THE GUARDIAN Tuesday December 13 1977 HOME NEWS Station's untimely opening Antique dealers withdraw fake stag from sale 'Moving altar makes parish see red boarded it when It stopped further up the platform to let him on. Later, British Rail spokesman said the missing train had not turned tip because of a freighter mishap which had thrown the programme slightly behind. So Sir William had waved off and caught the same train. The station cost more than 230,000 to build, following a campaign led by a local councillor since 19S3. It has no public toilet and no windows yet in the waiting room.

Fares on the half-hourly service Include a 3-a-weck, season ticket for unlimited journeys bus or train arranged by Greater Manchester transport. For a period Brinnington people, who have a special voucher offer, will be able to travel to Manchester Piccadilly for lp. He declared the station open, and added that if everything went according to plan the train would arrive at 11.27. When it didn't, Mr David Binnie general manager of British Rail's London Midland region, greeted fellow passengers, Including dogs, and said the station, one of eight to be opened in the country in the next 12 months typified a renaissance of the railways, When a train did arrive, it was not the one Sir William was supposed to wave off with his green flag before catching the following train to take the official party back to Manchester. He said he waited while everyone got into the only available train, waved his flag, watched the train break through a blue tape, and opened the station on Uie commuter line into Manchester Piccadilly, bemoaned the lack of a brass band which he was sure would have accompanied every opening ceremony in the Victorian railway, age.

It was not until the railways came, he said that people began to count in minutes instead of hours. This turned out to be an untimely remark, as the train he was supposed to wave off did not arrive on platform number one. As the minutes ticked by, he praised the creation of the station the first in Greater Manchester in 40 years and one of very few new stations in the country since the Beeching axe to serve a population of 12,000 living within half a mile. By Michael Morris EVERYONE, was there when a new station was opened, on the line between Manchester and Sheffield yesterday MPs, a mayor wearing his chain, and housewives in curlers and carpet slippers. Surprisingly, there were none of Edith Nesbit's railway children sitting on the fence to wave handkerchiefs.

But if the children from the housing estate surrounding the station 'of Brinnington, Stockport, had not been at school they would surely have been peeping over the footbridge at a scene reminiscent of the great period of railway expansion between about 1830 and 1890. Sir William Downward, Lord Lieutenant of Greater Manchester, who formally 'Torment' of reporter who killed wife Mr John Kay, a Fleet Street reporter, was a soul in torment when he drowned his Japanese wife as they took a bath together, a court was told yesterday. After the killing he made six Unsuccessful attempts at suicide, including slashing his wrists, throwing himself out of a window and crashing his car at 80mph. Mr Kay was cracking up at the prospect of taking over as the Sun's industrial editor a job he did not feel able to hold down, said Mr Daniel Hollis, QC, prosecuting. Mr Kay later told police My mind seemed to be taken over by voices.

I seemed possessed. It was an utter nightmare." After the prosecution at St Albans Crown Court accepted a plea of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility, the judge ordered that Mr Kay (34), be admitted to Friern Hospital, North London, for treatment. Mr Kay had denied a charge of murder. By Baden Hickman, Churches Correspondent A Church of England Consistory Court will today be asked to give its blessing to a rector's plan to move his high altar, take cremation caskets from a church, and to create a lounge within the building. The controversial plan could have national as well as local implications for the hearing into the future use of the Church of the Holy Cross, Greenford, Middlesex, is seen by some churchmen as a test case.

They want parish buildings adapted to meet modern needs. The efforts of the Rev. Malcolm Smart, Hector of Green-ford, to create a parish social centre sets a classical situation because he has the distinction of two churches standing on the same site. The Church of the Holy Cross is also one of the best known Anglo-Catholic parishes in the South. There is a medieval parish church, dating back to the fourteenth century, which seats about 100 people, and a second building, built as an extension in 1939.

The old building is used for weekday services, the new one, which Mr Smart wants to adapt, for the main Sunday service. But Mrs Janet Walter, of Oldfield Lane, Greenford, said Last year, the Rector stripped the high altar of the backclotli, the canopy, the candlesticks, the carpet, and communion rails. It was only when we looked at the plans in February and saw no high altar that we realised what was going on. "The parish is split down the middle. There's never been such trouble.

A lot of people have left, particularly older members. The ashes of the parents of two previous rectors are among the caskets in the vault that would disappear." Mrs Sadie Quartermaine. another parishioner, said her husband did not want his parents' ashes interfered with. Judge George Newsom, QC, Chancellor of the London diocese, will today sit in the parish church to consider an application by Mr Smart for a faculty permission to carry out his plans and a petition by seven parishioners objecting. not feel able to hold down." He said A psychiatrist described it as the story of a soul in torment-Mr Kay, who was a number two on the Sun's industrial staff, attended the Blackpool TUC conference the week before the killing.

He told colleagues They all know that I have cracked. I have lost it, my career is in ruins. I am not able to cope any more." On the train back from Blackpool, Mr Kay was suffering from a black depression and was hearing voices. When- he arrived home his wife joined him in the bath, as she sometimes did. He, thinking it would be better to it all, pushed her head under water.

Naturally, she struggled, but by tightening the hold he held her down by the throat. The cause of death was given as drowning with a degree of manual strangulation," said Mr Hollis. Her body was found by the for habeas corpus. The citizen had a right to expect that remedy to be granted liberally. Mr O'Connor was appearing on behalf of Mr Kemp Palton Jones of Battersea, who had been arrested by the police at 2.0 p.m.

last Thursday in Streatham. Mr Jones was taken to Brixton police station and was visited on Saturday by his fiancee, whom he asked to contact solicitors on his behalf. When the solicitors were contacted Counsel questions value of habeas corpus The movable altar which has aroused protest. PARLIAMENT grill Varley on ships deal Benn unveils 320M energy conservation package By our Art Sales Correspondent A. distinguished firm of antique dealers in London, Mal-lett's, admitted yesterday that a wooden figure of a stag, said to be of the sixteenth century and recently on sale at 9,800, was a fake.

Mallett's had been trying to sell the figure through Har-rod's antiques department. But the Sunday Mirror revealed this week that the stag was carved in 1972 by Mr Frank Sedgwick, a fitter of Petham, Kent. It became the property of a local company, James Croft (Decorations) Limited, which sojd it in the trade. The stag then travelled to France and back- again to Britain to Mallett's shop' in New Bond Street, London. Mallett's paid for it.

In the meantime it had acquired an appearance of age and Mallett's advertised the stag at 5,800 in 1973. Mr James Croft then told Mallett's that he had had it made. Another dealer who had owned the piece also told Mallett's that it was wrong." Mr Peter Maitland of Mallett's said yesterday How could I be sure that Mr Croft had had it made How could I be sure that this was the particular one he had had made I went to look at another of Mr Croft's stags but I thought that ours definitely older. I thought that maybe the one we had was the original and that copies had been done." The stag was put into Han rod's on sale or return if Har-rod's sold it, Mallett's would get 4.800. The price tag at Har-rod's was 9,800, giving Har-rod's a profit of 5,000.

But the Sunday Mirror arranged for Dr John Fletcher, of the Research Laboratory for Archaelogy and the History of. Art at Oxford University to carry out tests. The verdict was that the stag was modern. Mallett's is- a member of the British Antique Dealers's Association, to which the cream of the trade belongs. Mr Michael Hill, president of the association, said yesterday Mallett's fulfilled their obligations by taking back the stag as soon as the error was pointed out.

Mallet's have categorically stated that they will dispose of it as a modern carving they will not contemplate selling it on their, premises. dies. Provision was being made for spending 114 millions over four years. Another 2 millions would go on improving insulation in Ministry of Defence buildings. Mr Benn said the Government was considering bringing in building regulations for appropriate controls on the installation of heating systems in new non-domestic buildings and their replacement in existing ones.

A consultative document would be issued as soon as possible. A new Government advisory and training beard would be set up to promote efficient energy management with a budget of 500,000 a year. The Government liad also allocated 19 millions to expand information to industry in the next four years. A further 2 millions in 1978-79, rising to 8 millions in 1981-82, would go on expanding the programme of demonstration projects. Mr Benn said more efficient cars could make a significant contribution to containing the growth in demand for oil for tranport.

The Government has opened discussions with the motor industry on possible targets for raising the average miles per gallon achieved by new cars and on methods of achieving those targets." He said 500,000 a year would be spent on information and publicity aimed at persuading motorists to keep their cars well maintained and to drive in more economical ways. Mr Benn said the measures would cost 65 millions gross in 1978-79, rising to over 80 millions a year, gross, in the following three years. This would be financed as far as possible from savings elsewhere in those programmes, including savings in energy consumption in later years. vote fails make a nonesense of Clause 3. But the last ditch effort to postpone the vital vote, was doomed when Tories made it plain they did not approve of the procedural motion, but would vote for it anyway as good Europeans.

Earlier, the Commons reaffirmed the basic principle of a directly elected European Assembly when the Government had a resounding majority of 140 in the vote on the first clause' of the Bill (219 votes to 79). This is the basic statement of principle that representatives of the people of the United Kingdom will be elected to Ilia Assembly. Mr Kay. of Alston Road, Barnet, killed his 27-year-old wife Harue by strangling and drowning her and then tried repeatedly to kill himself, said Mr Hollis. He slashed his wrists with razor blades but did not inflict serious injury he flung himself head first out of a window, but" a plastic dustbin broke his fall he tried to gas hi- -elf but an automatic lighting device on the cooker prevented him he tried to hang himself with flex but could not get into the right position and then he drove to a bridge over the Stevenage bypass but found it was too low to fling himself over.

In his final attempt he drove his car into the back of a parked car at 80 mph but miraculously survived with relatively minor injuries. Mr Hollis told the judge that Mr Kay killed his wife while in a state of "agitated depression arising from the threat of promotion to a job that he did When the Lord Chief Justice said that he would either refuse the application or adjourn the case for a day, Mr O'Connor said that the case ought to be dealt with now, and an adjournment was not an appropriate remedy. Mr O'Connor argued that a citizen had a right not to be detained by the police for such a long period, and that in the absence of a Bill of Rights the only remedy he had was the discretion of the court as to whether to grant an application Anger at Salvador sale MPs right across the political spectrum last night joined to attack a Government plan to sell 850,000 worth of military equipment to the central American republic of El Salvador. A motion has been signed by several MPs, including Sir Bernard Braine (C SE Essex), Mr Alan Beith (Lib Berwick) and Mr Jeremy Bray (Lab Motherwell) urging the Government to cancel the deal. What has particularly incensed them is that El Salvador had a standing commitment to support Guatemala.

militarily in any attack on the adjacent British colony of Belize which, the MPs say, would put "the lives of British soldiers and Commonwealth citizens at risk." Nor are tbey happy with the regime's record of internal repression. THE GOVERNMENT is to write off 53,100,000 of the debts of the National Freight Corporation, the Transport Secretary, Mr William Rodgcrs, announced yesterday. Mr Rodgers said he would soon be putting forward proposals for a financial reconstruction of the Corporation following his plan to transfer Freightliners to British Rail. In a written reply he said that the Corporation's debt to the Government would be reduced, from 153.1 millions to 100 millions. This would include the writing off of all debts relating to Freightliners and all but 5 millions attributable to National Carriers, which had been a 6erious loss-maker.

The Govermnent also intended to make a grant of up to 15 millions until 1981 to meet National Carriers' capital requirements. BRITAIN is to raise the case of Cambodia at the next meeting of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in February, 1978. Foreign Office Minister of State, Lord Goronwy-Roberts announced in the House of Lords. THE HOME Secretary yester day invited all groups or individuals interested in the working of the of Terrorism Act to submit evidence in writing to the inquiry headed by Labour Peer, Lord Shackleton. He revealed that Lord Shack-leton's report on the operation of the controversial Act, which is expected to be ready within six months, will be made police after the car accident.

Mr Hollis said the couple had only been married 'for a year and. friends said they were idylli-cally happy." Mr John Mathew, QC, defending, said Mr Kay was very highly regarded in Fleet Street and the Labour Editor of The Times said he had established himself as one of the 10 best reporters in Fleet Street. Mr Mathews said Mr Kay's self-cenfidence was just a facade he- had built up to conceal the tension and worries which were slowly but steadily mounting. In fact he was not mentally tough enough to cope. To the outside world he and his wife were a devoted couple and he was a highly successful journalist with the world at his feet.

In reality the kettle was simmering and was soon to boil" over in an uncontrollable flood. Mr Mathew said that the Sun had written to the court to say there would always be a job open for him on the newspaper. yesterday morning the police refused to let them see Mr Jones or to talk to him on the telephone, so an application for a writ of habeas corpus was immediate put into the Divisional Court and heard at 2.0 p.m. Plans to take the case to the House of Lords for a further application were dropped when Mr Jones was charged yesterday afternoon with conspiracy to rob. He is to appear at Cam-berwell Green Magistrates Court today.

gramme in civil and defence estates at a cost of 5 millions a year. This would help achieve the aim of 35 per cent fuel savings worth 30 millions a year today's prices. A total of 35 millions would be used to improve insulation and heating controls in hospitals and NHS buildings. Another 70 millions would go on making similar improvements in educational buildings, he said. The Government planned to give local authorities up to 7 millions a year to produce efficient energy management and instal heating controls.

The precise sums would depend on talks with local councils. A 10-year programme of bringing public sector homes up to a basic minimum standard of thermal insulation would be launched. This would involve treating over two million buildings and would have major social benefits. Spending for this purpose would be eligible for central government housing subsi are few pointers to be gleaned on the choice of election systems from last night's figures. Most observers believe that a comfortable majority will favour the first-past-the-post system rather than the regional list version of proportional representation.

Last night's procedural motion reversed the debating order of Clauses 2 and 3 in the Bill. Opponents of the move it was unnecessary to hold the Clause 3 debate before the. Christmas recess as the Government that the Government had done a deal with the Liberals, and that amendments to Clause 2, if passed, would By Peter Chippindale A barrister told the Lord Chief Justice yesterday that if the courts did not grant a remedy the right of habeas corpus was non-existent in this country." Mr Patrick O'Connor, was appearing before Lord Widgery-in the Divisional Court to apply for a writ of habeas corpus for a man who had been arrested four days previously in Brixton, South London, and held without being charged. merchant fleet of the Communist world to compete against our own." Mrs Margaret Bain (SNP, Dunbartonshire E) said she would be asking her party to vote for the Government. The Tories had not provided any alternative strategy over unemployment in the shipyards.

Tory front bench spokesman, Mr Norman Lamont, said the Polish deal involved an unprecedented credit" which would cost, in all, about 38 millions before taking account of the penalties for late deliveries, which are certain to be invoked." "How much better if the Government had spent these sums of money on retraining, encouraging new industries or restoring some of the defence cuts they have made," he said. "We are bribing Poland to place its orders in British yards," he continued. "The Government is desperate to protect their own infant industry and they will go to any lengths to get it orders." Industry Minister of State, Mr Gerald Kaufman, said the Tories used to be the party of the Union Jack now they preferred the label Made in Japan." The Tories showed "a callous disregard for unemploy-; ment in shipbuilding areas." All Governments particularly Tory ones used commercial confidentiality" as a reason for withholding details of deals. The real reason the Tories were trying to wreck the deal was because Poland was a Communist country, he said. At the end of the debate the Government had a comfortable majority of 49.

MPs rejected the Tory motion to halve Mr Varley's salary by 295 votes to 246. Today in Parliament HOUSE OF COMMONS European Assembly Elections Bill (committee) EEC Document on eual treatment -In social security. HOUSE OF LORDS Finance Bill (3rd reading) Sheep Code Order Agricultural products processing and marketing (Improvement Grants) regulations 1977 Local Government (Scotland) Bill (Report) Medical Bill (committee) short debate on restrictions on communication between prisoners and the general public. bourne), normally a fierce crl-l tic of Labour Left-wingers, nevertheless supported the call for a debate. It was Parliament's job, he argued, to scrutinise Government spending, and failure to do, so would be a betrayal of trust placed in MPs.

When the House divided, the Opposition front bench Joined the Government In voting against the amendment. The result was a comfortable win for the Government, by 243 to 82 a majority of 101, A SUBSTANTIAL package of energy-saving measures costing 320 millions in the first four years was announced in the Commons yesterday by the Energy Mr Benn. The programme includes talks with the motor industry on raising car mileage per gallon, improving insulation in more than two million council homes, and setting up a new division in the Department of Energy, responsible solely for energy conservation. Mr Benn said the programmes would take up to 10 years to complete. The cost would be some 320 millions at 1977 survey prices for the first four years.

But oil savings could be achieved of up to 10 million tons of oil a year which at the end of the 10-year period could be worth 700 millions a year at current pric The package would also provide some jobs in the construction industry. Mr Benn announced what he called a substantial package" of decisions. These cover a wide field of government and local authority activity including: talks with the motor industry on raising car mileage per gallon long-term insulation projects in National Health Service buildings, educational buildings and council housing energy saving in local authority buildings other than schools; new building regulations on heating systems for non-domestic buildings and publicity information and advisory activity. Mr Benn told MPs that existing policies could lead to energy savinr of some 2,000 millions over four years. The new package had 11 new developments.

The Property Services Agency would extend its existing pro The Prime Minister and the Government could have bought one extra year of employment for the Govan and Swan Hunter yards, but it had been done at the expense of an even worse future for shipyard workers generally. Should the Poles default on the charter of the vessels, the British taxpayer could be liable for 36 millions Mr Nott calculated. They would also have the bulk carriers on their hands, and they would be virtually worthless. In spile of being financed entirely by Britain, the ships-would not employ British seamen, fly the British flag, nor be available to Britain in time of war. He claimed that many parts, including some engines, would be made in Poland, in Norway and elsewhere.

If the Government really had wanted to protect the shipyards, he suggested, it should have spent similar sums of money on fishery protection vessels or oil protection ships. Wouldn't it have been better if we had spent the money on the Royal Navy he asked. The Royal Navy is at least on our side." Mr Varley said that without the package, the UK would never have won the order. As it was, it had been a hard fight. i- We can't allow our shipbuilding industry to be destroyed, and we are not going to let that happen," he said.

Bringing home the largest shipbuilding order for years, on terms within t) requirements of both the EEC and the OECD, deserved congratulations, not the Opposition's malevolent slander." About 50 millions of tiie millions in the intervention fund had been committed. Even with major successes our yards are still hit hard by the crisis which affects the world shipbuilding industry," said Mr Varley. What we have done by this order it to ward off a disaster but we have not yet found a cure." Mr Michael Grylls (C, Surrey NW) likened the deal to "selling tanks to Rommel." It was supreme folly to subsidise the Tories Faced with a censure attack over the controversial 115 millions deal with Poland to build 24 bulk carriers, the Industry Secretary, Mr Varley, last night publicly disclosed details of the British subsidy. He said not more than 28 millions would come from the taxpayer-financed shipbuilding intervention fund. There would also be Export Credit Guarantee Department backing of not more than 70 per cent of the export price and $65 millions would be raised from a consortium of banks, without Government guarantee The Minister also told MPs, during the Commons debate on a Tory proposal that his salary should be halved, that allegations that higher subsidies had been made were not true.

In giving the figures Mr Varley emphasised that he could not be expected to disclose similar details for other because of important commercial considerations. The Minister said that the Polish order would ward off dis- Atkinson ousted by Right By Ian Aitken Mr Norman Atkinson, the Left-wing Treasurer of the Labour Party, was last night deprived of the chairmanship of the party's key finance committee in a Right-wing coup d'etat. The coup took place when three Right-wing members of the Executive of the party turned up at a deferred meeting of the committee and successfully moved Mr John Cartwright, Labour MP for Greenwich and Woolwich Fast, as successor to Mr Atkinson in the chair. Mrs Shirley Williams, Secretary of State for Education, was one of the three Executive members who attended the meeting in time to affect the result. Mr Atkinson, who was under the impression that he had been returned as chairman of the committee unopposed, was surprised to find himself challenged.

The challenge came from Mr Brian Stanley, a trade union member of the NEC. At a meeting which consisted only of Mr Atkinson and his three opponents (barely a quorum, under party rules), there was a 3-1 vote in favour of Mr Cart-wright. The result is a setback for the Left, which is commonly assumed to dominate the counsels of the party's National aster but it should not be thought that a cure had been found for the problems of the British shipbuilding industry. He defended the ingenious financial package and said every country in the Western world had found it necessary to support its shipbuilders. He described the Tory attack on the deal, mounted by industry spokesman, Mr John Mott, as malevolent slander." The Tories wanted to wreck the deal, he claimed.

Mr Varley said that one British shipowner had been offered a subsidy 'deal similar to that for- the Poles but had placed the order abroad. Mr Xott, opening the debate, accused the Government of hypocrisy on the grand scale in condeming the protectionist policies of countries like Japan, while at the same using an unprecedented combination of protectionist measures to secure the Polish deal. The British Government, said Mr Nott, had been in the forefront of the criticism of Japan's protectionist policies. Recently the Prime Minister had complained directly to France about the extension of trade credit to the Soviet Union. "Here we have in my view hypocrisy on a grand scale," he went on.

It is this same Government which in this particular deal is extending the frontiers of shipbuilding credit and protection beyond every method so far used by any other country." Mr Nott suggested that 'the total subsidy from the taxpayer in the Polish deal could be as much as 38 millions. The biggest element was 28 millions as a direct subsidy from the shipbuilding intervention fund which was needed to bring the British tender for the order down to the probable Japanese quote. AH the various subsidies, Mr Nott said, were simply prolonging the crisis in the world shipping trade. Prospects for employment in British yards would deteriorate until there was a long-term recovery in world freight rates. Tories LABOUR and Tory backbenchers briefly joined forces yesterday in a vain attempt to win the right to debate Government spending of about 17,000 millions.

On the Order Paper for the. Commons to approve were four Items of spending over the next two years, the biggest being a single vote of more than 15,000 millions for the cost of the Civil Service in 197879. But it was the smallest single Item a supplemen Bid to hold up Euro join Left in revolt By Derek Brown A spirited attempt by the Labour Left last night to hold up the crucial Commons vote on the polling system for the European direct elections ended in failure. A highly unusual and hotly contested Government motion, bringing forward the debate on the European election system to tonight was approved by 180 votes to 56 during the committee stage of the Bill, with the Government receiving the overwhelming support of Tories and Liberals. Tonight's attendance is bound to be much higher and so there tary defence estimate of 427,404,000 which led to the back bench revolt.

An amendment signed by 39 Labour Left-wingers sought to reduce the item to 259,864,000 by taking out all charges not related to services. Mr Frank Allaun (Salford East) said the Commons was entitled to debate supplementary -estimates. To approve them on the nod would be government by concealment. Mr Ian Gow East.