That this House notes that the Department of Trade and Industry report into the House of Fraser Holding states that all the evidence points to the Sultan of Brunei being the source of the funds used by the Al Fayeds in the takeover of the House of Fraser; notes that on 23rd October 1985 His Majesty The Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan Negara Brunei Darussalam wrote to Mr Mohammed Al Fayed stating there was no connection between the Al Fayed family, the House of Fraser and the Sultan of Brunei; asks those who compiled the Department of Trade and Industry report why they failed to publish this letter which came from a head of state of a country very friendly to Britain; believes that the implication of the comments of those who rightly or wrongly accuse the Al Fayeds of lying is that not only is Mr Mohammed Al Fayed lying but also friend of Britain, The Sultan of Brunei; believes that this is a very grave allegation for an honourable Member or Tiny Rowland to level against a foreign head of state; questions how it is that honourable Members are prepared to leave in Brunei a battalion of Ghurka troops whilst accusing its head of state of being a liar; and calls upon Mr Tiny Rowland to divest himself of control of The Observer newspaper.

That this House notes that the Department of Trade and Industry report into the House of Fraser Holding states that all the evidence points to the Sultan of Brunei being the source of the funds used by the Al Fayeds in the takeover of the House of Fraser; notes that...

That this House notes the comment of London-based journalist Mr Richard Rolfe in the South African Sunday Times of 14th January concerning Mr R.W. Tiny Rowland, 'I can remember being told over dinner 15 years ago by a diplomat with intelligence connections that Rowland was "one of ours, but he's gone of the rails"'; recalls that Department of Trade and Industry Inspector Allan Heyman QC was only permitted to see Mr Rowland's M16 file in the presence of two officers because of its great confidentiality; wonders what other British public companies have enjoyed such close links as Mr Rowland's Lonrho to M16 through directors such as Sir Joseph Ball and Mr Nicholas Elliott; believes it unlikely that Mr Rowland's M16 files disclosed to the Monopolies and Mergers Commission when inquiring into the fitness of Lonrho and Mr Rowland to control The Observer newspaper; takes the view that full disclosure should have been made; and calls upon Mr Tiny Rowland to divest himself of control of The Observer.

That this House notes the comment of London-based journalist Mr Richard Rolfe in the South African Sunday Times of 14th January concerning Mr R.W. Tiny Rowland, 'I can remember being told over dinner 15 years ago by a diplomat with intelligence connections that Rowland was "one of ours, but he's...

That this House notes the publication of the book Fleet Street Remembered by Mr Tony Gray, a collection of quotations and anecdotes from some o those who contributed to Fleet Street's role as the centre of the British newspaper industry; further notes the critical comments of senior Observer journalist Katharine Whitehorn concerning that paper's proprietor, 'With Tiny Rowland, as everybody knows, we don't care if he sells us, it couldn't be much worse'; is saddened by yet another example of how the morale and reputation of a once great radical newspaper has been brought down by the machinations of its proprietor, shamelessly aided and abetted by a complaisant editor who, prior to his appointment, was regarded as one of Fleet Street's finest journalists; trusts that Ms Whitehorn and others of moral fibre within The Observer will do all they can in difficult circumstances to maintain the best traditions of independent journalism and will continue to refuse to bend the knee to an overbearing proprietor; believes that the editor, Mr Donald Trelford, must ask Mr Rowland to go if the paper is to have any sort of future; and calls upon Mr Tiny Rowland to divest himself of control of The Observer.

That this House notes the publication of the book Fleet Street Remembered by Mr Tony Gray, a collection of quotations and anecdotes from some o those who contributed to Fleet Street's role as the centre of the British newspaper industry; further notes the critical comments of senior Observer journalist Katharine...

That this House fully supports the need to scrutinise the background of any person attempting to acquire an important national newspaper; notes that in 1981 the Monopolies and Mergers Commission inquired whether Lonrho plc and its chief executive, Mr R. W. 'Tiny' Rowland, were fit and proper persons to control The Observer; believes that events have proved that the majority decision of the Monopolies and Mergers Commission to allow the acquisition to proceed was wrong and that the views of Dr. R. L. Marshall as to undesirable conflicts of interest should have prevailed; sees nothing in the Monopolies and Mergers Commission's Report concerning any M16 interest in Mr Rowland even though such interest must normally be relevant to the control of national newspapers; draws attention to a letter dated 20th November 1975 from Mr Rowland to his then solicitor Mr John Cama, in which he protests that Mr Alan Heyman QC, a Department of Trade and Industry Inspector investigating Lonrho and Mr Rowland, had a working relationship with M16 which had allowed him to see files so confidential that two M16 men waited in the room when he read them; asks whether the information on these files could not have been made available to the Monopolies and Mergers Commission; and calls upon Mr Tiny Rowland to divest himself of control of The Observer.

That this House fully supports the need to scrutinise the background of any person attempting to acquire an important national newspaper; notes that in 1981 the Monopolies and Mergers Commission inquired whether Lonrho plc and its chief executive, Mr R. W. 'Tiny' Rowland, were fit and proper persons to control...

That this House is concerned by the apparent failure of MI6 to make available to the Monopolies and Mergers Commission its confidential files on Mr R.W.'Tiny' Rowland at the time of the Commission's inquiry into the desirability of permitting Mr Rowland to take control of The Observer newspaper; recognises that the facts relating to Mr Rowland, which were in the public domain caused the Commission misgivings before reaching a majority decision in his favour; believes that the conduct of Mr Rowland as disclosed in the Department of Trade and Industry report of 1976, renders it inevitable that the MI6 files could only give further cause for concern as to his suitability to control any substantial part of the media; recalls the advice given to the Department of Trade and Industry by Sir David Tudor Price QC, following the 1976 report, that Mr Rowland and other Lonrho directors should be prosecuted on a variety of charges ranging from theft to corruption; understands that the government of the day chose to ignore that advice in deciding not to prosecute; questions the role played by MI6 in that decision; believes it likely that MI6 has long used Mr Rowland as a source of African information and that a broadly based criminal prosecution could have focused embarrassing publicity upon that relationship; and similarly believes that Mr Rowland's control of The Observer newspaper might also accord with the wider interests of MI6 and that full information on Mr Rowland may have been deliberately withheld from the Monopolies and Mergers Commission.

That this House is concerned by the apparent failure of MI6 to make available to the Monopolies and Mergers Commission its confidential files on Mr R.W.'Tiny' Rowland at the time of the Commission's inquiry into the desirability of permitting Mr Rowland to take control of The Observer newspaper; recognises that...

That this House is increasingly of the view effective scrutiny of newspaper acquisitions may have been effectively avoided in the case of Mr Tiny Rowland taking control of The Observer by a failure on the part of MI6 to disclose the nature of its true relationship with Mr Rowland and to make its files on him available to the Monopolies and Mergers Commission; believes that the Rowland/Lonrho/MI6 links date from the chairmanship of Lonrho of Sir Joseph Ball, a former head of British intelligence; finds it of further interest that, after taking effective control of Lonrho in 1961, Mr Rowland had on his board Mr Nicholas Elliott, another senior MI6 officer and a man whose high level secret service activities warrant mention in Spycatcher; notes the suggestion that Mr Elliott was Mr Rowland's formal link with MI6; is not therefore surprised to see Mr Rowland's confirmation of 20th November 1975 that his file was so confidential that a Department of Trade and Industry Inspector was only permitted to view it if accompanied by two MI6 officers; believes that the Monopolies and Mergers Commission Observer inquiry was deficient; is disturbed by what may prove to be a close link between MI6 and an apparently independent newspaper with a radical tradition; and calls upon Mr Tiny Rowland to divest himself of control of The Observer.

That this House is increasingly of the view effective scrutiny of newspaper acquisitions may have been effectively avoided in the case of Mr Tiny Rowland taking control of The Observer by a failure on the part of MI6 to disclose the nature of its true relationship with Mr Rowland and...

That this House takes note of a widely circulated letter of 6th February 1990 to Mr John Wood, Director of the Serious Fraud Office, from Mr Tiny Rowland, director of Lonrho and Chairman of The Observer; sees that Mr Rowland's five year obsession over his sale of an essentially controlling interest in House of Fraser continues unabated; draws attention to Mr Rowland's description of the Department of Trade and Industry's inspectors in the affair as 'experienced and impeccable' and 'impeccably qualified to avoid legal quagmires'; wonders whether these can be the same inspectors accused by Mr Rowland, in a letter of 28th October 1987, of bias and of conducting a 'perversion of the inquiry'; recalls that in his letter of 16th November 1987 he accused the same gentlemen of negligence and said that one, Sir Henry Brooke, should be disqualified for being part of a conspiracy; further recalls repetition of these allegations by Mr Rowland in writing on 20th November, 25th November and 8th December 1987; is driven to conclude that Mr Rowland is either alarmingly inconsistent or forgetful; believes that neither attribute is desirable in the controller of a national newspaper; finds it easier, as a result, to understand the sad decline of the paper during his stewardship; and calls upon Mr Tiny Rowland to divest himself of control of The Observer.

That this House takes note of a widely circulated letter of 6th February 1990 to Mr John Wood, Director of the Serious Fraud Office, from Mr Tiny Rowland, director of Lonrho and Chairman of The Observer; sees that Mr Rowland's five year obsession over his sale of an essentially controlling...

That this House notes in The Mail on Sunday of 4th February that, in connection with the unauthorised leak of the Department of Trade and Industry report on House of Fraser to Lonrho and thence to The Observer, the police 'recently arrested a German national in London and questioned him about a bound copy of the Department of Trade and Industry report which was seized in Bangkok'; concludes that the German in question is Mr Hermann Moll, long-time associate of Mr Samuel Evans who wrote the pamphlet, A Hero from Zero, for Mr Tiny Rowland; is surprised that an unpublished Department of Trade and Industry report appears to be more readily available in the sex shops of Bangkok than in the Library of this House; asks whether it has any idea of how many other copies might be found in the increasingly mysterious Orient; asks the Department of Trade and Industry to confirm whether it has been established forensically that the source of this illicit publication following the issue of a court order on 30th March 1989; recognises that the honourable Member for Workington has a reportedly irresistible craving to brandish documents in the Chamber and urges the Secretary of State to pass a copy of the Bangkok volume to him so that his craving may be satisfied and his reputation maintained; and calls upon Mr Tiny Rowland to divest himself of control of The Observer.

That this House notes in The Mail on Sunday of 4th February that, in connection with the unauthorised leak of the Department of Trade and Industry report on House of Fraser to Lonrho and thence to The Observer, the police 'recently arrested a German national in London and questioned him...

That this House recalls that in Early Day Motion 1366 of Session 1988-89 the honourable Member for Workington disclosed that a copy of the Department of Trade and Industry report into the House of Fraser leaked to Lonrho and thence to its Observer newspaper was numbered 26 and had been allocated to the Fraud Squad; asks whether the two officers prematurely taken off the Fraser inquiry following the leak are still serving police officers and whether any formal proceedings have yet been initiated against them; seeks an explanation as to why one of those officers should have ignored orders by meeting Mr Melvyn Marckus, City Editor of The Observer, on a number of occasions, including the evening of publication of the special edition of The Observer which published extracts from the leaked report; wonders when an announcement will be made as to the future of the two officers; will continue to draw the disturbing but inevitable inference that the meetings between the officer and Mr Marckus and the transmission of a copy of report number 26 were linked until such time as a full and clear statement to the contrary is made; and calls upon Mr Tiny Rowland to divest himself of control of The Observer.

That this House recalls that in Early Day Motion 1366 of Session 1988-89 the honourable Member for Workington disclosed that a copy of the Department of Trade and Industry report into the House of Fraser leaked to Lonrho and thence to its Observer newspaper was numbered 26 and had been...

That this House notes the stream of correspondence from Mr R. N. Rowland of Lonrho plc on the subject of the House of Fraser, the provenance of its owners, the role of Ministers during its takeover and subsequently, the report of Henry Brooke, QC, and Hugh Aldous, FCA, the role of the Prime Minister and her family in the Al Fayed affair, and now the allegation that the Right honourable Member for Chingford encouraged Mr Alan Bond to make a bid for Lonrho to silence Mr Rowland; and calls upon the Government to clear up this sorry affair by publishing the Brooke-Aldous Report without delay.

That this House notes the stream of correspondence from Mr R. N. Rowland of Lonrho plc on the subject of the House of Fraser, the provenance of its owners, the role of Ministers during its takeover and subsequently, the report of Henry Brooke, QC, and Hugh Aldous, FCA, the role...