THE CRISIS: A Telltale Tape Deepens Nixon's Dilemma

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Why did she say she told him about the noise in the President's Oval Office, while the White House log shows that she saw him in his E.O.B. office? Why, as Bull testified, did she ask him the precise hour at which the Uher had been purchased?

There are other intriguing questions for other White House officials. Why was Nixon apparently unconcerned about Miss Woods' mistake on Oct. 1, while he, Buzhardt and other aides became worried later, when they presumably first learned that the gap was 18 minutes long? Would an 18-minute erasure be much more alarming than the five-minute gap Miss Woods took responsibility for? Why was not the Haldeman portion immediately played on Oct. 1 to determine just how long the erasure was? When the subpoena for this entire tape seemed quite clear to later lawyers, why did Nixon and Buzhardt insist at first that it applied only to the Ehrlichman portion? Was this claim part of an intended cover-up of the Haldeman conversation wipeout?

There may be innocent explanations for these and other such questions. But until they are produced, the shadows over Nixon's White House and the presidency itself will continue to darken.

Nor was the 18-minute tape erasure Nixon's only setback of another painful week. Other developments:

> Assistant Special Prosecutor Ben-Veniste reported that two Nixon-dictated recordings furnished to Jaworski's staff by the President also contained gaps. Nixon's voice as he summarized conversations with John Mitchell (on June 20, 1972) and John Dean (March 21, 1973) either begins or ends in midsentence. Buzhardt testified that many of Nixon's personal recordings are like that, since he does not always coordinate his hand and speech movements. Sirica ordered the technical experts to examine both tapes for tampering.

> Edward L. Morgan, a former White House assistant, announced his resignation as an Assistant Treasury Secretary and admitted that it was related to the investigation of Nixon's income tax deduction for donating his official papers to the Government. Morgan, who has testified in Congressman Mills' investigation of Nixon's taxes, had handled much of the transaction and had signed the deed transferring the papers for the President, possibly without authority. Investigators are not sure that the transaction was legally completed before a new law banned such deductions.

> Special Prosecutor Jaworski said in an NBC interview that "discussions" between his office and "more than one" potential defendant in Watergate crimes are under way. Jaworski did not quarrel with the interpretation that this involved plea bargaining, in which some deal might be made to get the person's cooperative testimony.

As the bad news continued to engulf the White House, Nixon made a show of tending to more important matters. He went on television to express satisfaction in announcing the negotiated separation of Egyptian and Israeli forces on the Suez front (see THE WORLD). But he looked haggard, and phrased his thoughts uncertainly in a quavering voice. He took to radio to discuss the energy crisis. He called in photographers and reporters as he discussed his State of the Union message plans with House Republican Leader Rhodes.

The effort was a conscious one to show that he is still leading the nation.

Yet the effort was