18 AUGUST 1984, Page 5

Heath's loss

One feels sorry for anyone burgled, and particularly sorry for Mr Edward Heath, who has just lost a wide variety of personal mementoes. The burglary seems particularly senseless because one cannot believe that 'Heathiana' are what the underworld is looking for. A medal from the 1969 Sydney to Hobart yacht race here, a regimental salver there; something from the Pope; perhaps, although we have not been told, some of these framed and signed photographs of themselves which states- men give to one another (how much would a fence get for a snap of U Thant?). Many of the appurtenances of Mr Heath's emi- nent, lonely life have been cleared out and are now, we must guess, circulating among a world which rates most of them very low.