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> Britain. Hauser, 56, whose previous allegations have been characterized by the Dutch commission as 'largely incorrect and based on false premises," struck again last week when he told the London Sunday Express of rumors that a Tory Cabinet minister had received a $ 1 million payoff three years ago to prevent Air Holdings Ltd. from backing out of its commitment to order 30 Lockheed TriStars (with options for 20 more). Since the TriStar was the one plane that could use Rolls-Royce RB-211 engines—and therefore the plane on which the Tory government's efforts to bail out bankrupt Rolls-Royce's aero-engine program depended—it seems unlikely that Lockheed would have to bribe government officials into backing the purchases. A Labor M.P. called for a parliamentary investigation, but no one else took up the issue.
> Japan. Right-wing Lobbyist Yoshio Kodama, a powerful operator at many levels of government and business, was indicted last week on charges of having established a Hong Kong "cover" company to launder illegal funds from Lockheed. Although 19 other top political and business figures, including former Premier Kakuei Tanaka, have been arrested on bribetaking charges in Japan, Kodama has so far avoided arrest on grounds of illness.
While princes and politicians wade through the debris of the scandal, Lockheed itself is flying high. Despite fears that the turmoil overseas might endanger the survival of the company, which had accumulated $645 million in bank debts by 1974, the corporation's post-scandal business appears to be thriving—particularly its foreign sales. These amounted to $1.7 billion in the first six months of 1976, putting this year's sales at the largest annual rate in Lockheed's 44-year history. Overall 1975 sales were $3 billion, and the corporation's 24 major banking creditors have agreed to a longer-term financing of part of the company's debt, now $560 million. Says Lockheed's new chief executive, Robert Haack, a former New York Stock Exchange president who took over in February: "We have a handle on things now and we are taking as much probity with us as we know how. I am the man in the white hat and I'm trying to fly right."