World Notes BRITAIN

Fledgling Prime Minister John Major could be forgiven for expecting his Conservative Party to seek a little harmony after the internal revolt that ousted Margaret Thatcher. No such luck.

Some Tories in the genteel spa town of Cheltenham staged a rebellion when | they discovered that the candidate designated to run in the next general election is black. A local party member, Bill Galbraith, reportedly described nominee John Taylor, 38, a lawyer and a former government adviser on race relations, as "a bloody nigger." Others claimed that the nomination had been "bulldozed" through by a national party eager to elect its first nonwhite representative since 1906.

The party and local leadership promptly condemned the racist slurs and rallied around Taylor. But having promised upon his election to build "a country that is at ease with itself," Major was reminded by the Cheltenham rebels just how hard that task is going to be.