Gentleman of Plymouth

Thousands of kippers cooled on thousands of breakfast tables last week while Britons stared in amazement at an advertisement in the "agony" (personals) column of the Times:

GENTLEMAN OF PLYMOUTH, conscientiously believing that the present Parliamentary representative from the Sutton Division should be opposed at the next election, would like to communicate with a gentleman who would be willing to oppose the present member as an independent Conservative candidate.

The representative from the Sutton Division is probably the best known British M.P. not of Cabinet rank: angular Lady Nancy Astor, newly returned from consorting with Communists in Soviet Russia.

The Times kept locked in its professional bosom the secret of the Plymouth Gentleman's identity, nor would it hint whether his conscience was bothered by Lady Astor's visit to the Soviets, her U.S. origin, her advocacy of Prohibition or her own inimitable personality. The Conservative Executive Committee of the Sutton Division took the advertisement seriously enough to hold an emergency meeting, and pass a resolution of "unabated confidence" in their Lady of Plymouth and Virginia.

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