April 12, 1984

The Marsh & McLennan Companies accumulated some $2 billion in government bond positions, in large part as a result of unauthorized trading by one of its dealers, the company said yesterday. The positions were significantly larger than the company realized it held. The figure was also considerably more than the $1 billion or so Wall Street experts had guessed after the company announced on Monday that it had lost some $120 million as a result of the unauthorized bond trades, or about $60 million after taxes. The charge is to be taken against first- quarter profits.

Charterhouse J. Rothschild P.L.C., one of London's newest and most broadly based financial services companies, today announced a preliminary agreement to acquire Hambros P.L.C.'s 24.8 percent stake in Hambro Life Assurance P.L.C. as the first step toward a merger with the insurance company. The merger would bring together Jacob Rothschild and Hambro's Mark Weinberg, two of the most dynamic executives in the City, London's financial district. In addition, the two men say, the merger would create an enterprise with enough capital to take on the large financial services groups being formed in Japan and the United States by deals such as this week's agreement by Shearson/American Express to acquire Lehman Brothers Kuhn Loeb.

''The Council President is behind the times. The Department of Transportation is in the final stages of preparing a major citywide street repair initiative that will be announced Monday.

Cell 72 was typical: a concrete room about five feet wide and eight feet long, illuminated only by the narrow shafts of light that filtered through small holes near the ceiling. The door was steel. There were no windows but on one wall ?former occupant had drawn himself one, complete with bars. Other occupants had scratched their names into the walls or etched off the days. And there was one inscription, in letters about two inches high, written in blood. It read, in French, ''God save me.''

Stephen King is the author of 13 books, including ''The Shining'' and most recently, ''Pet Sematary.'' A TRISKAIDEKAPHOBE is one who fears the number 13, and this is not a good year for the triskies, of which I am one. Living through a year with such a reputation as George Orwell has given this one is bad enough, but consider this added fillip - for only the 27th time since the year 1800, we are living in a year with three Friday the 13ths, the maximum possible. One fell in January, one falls in April (note, that's tomorrow) and the third occurs in July.