February 25, 1983

The White House counsel has been ordered to examine contacts between senior aides of President Reagan and the Environmental Protection Agency for any evidence of political manipulation, White House officials said today. With the agency's administrator out of town, the White House itself also replaced three high officials of the agency. One had been discharged by the White House and two others were forced to resign. Deputy White House Press Secretary Larry Speakes said the three replacements, plus the appointment of two other new top officials, had been undertaken to give the agency a ''fresh new start'' and ''to improve the management capacity'' of the agency.

Mexico today announced completion of negotiations with about 530 Western banks on the largest commercial loan in history - a $5 billion ''jumbo'' credit that should be ready for signing in New York late next week. In a statement, Mexico's Finance Ministry also disclosed that a 13-bank Advisory Committee, which represents Mexico's creditors, will disburse a ''bridge'' loan Friday of about $433 million to be repaid when the first $1.7 billion portion of the main credit is made available in mid-March. The ''jumbo'' loan is part of a major rescue package for Mexico worked out last December with the International Monetary Fund following the country's worst financial crisis in 40 years. But the timing of the credit also should soften the blow of a reduction in Mexico's oil export price, expected to be announced this weekend.

The Defense Department has concluded that Soviet warheads could disable the land-based command posts that are intended to serve as the Government's nerve center in a nuclear war. As a result it has begun a major effort to develop mobile communication and control facilities. But a network of substitute command centers able to survive a nuclear attack will not be in full operation until the late 1980's, according to senior Defense Department officials. The emphasis on mobile facilities, which evolved in recent years and is now a key part of the Reagan Administration's military policy, represents a significant shift in strategic planning, the officials say.

A Congressional commission concluded today that the relocation and internment of 120,000 Japanese-American citizens and resident aliens in World War II was a ''grave injustice.'' It said the move was motivated by ''racial prejudice, war hysteria and failure of political leadership,'' and not by military considerations. ''The record does not permit the conclusion that military necessity war- Excerpts from report, page A12. ranted the exclusion of ethnic Japanese from the West Coast,'' the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians said in a 467-page report released today.

''A grave injustice was done to American citizens and resident aliens of Japanese ancestry who, without individual review or any probative evidence against them, were excluded, removed and detained by the United States during World War II.'' - Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians. (A12:6.)