29 SEPTEMBER 1990, Page 31

Olive branch

AS IMF meetings go, this one is almost sober. Popular parties have vanished from the calendar. No circus from Citicorp, no garden-party from the Midland, and an important policy change from Merrill Lynch. It has been Merrill's custom to ask its most valued customers down to Mexico, to shoot doves. I am assured that this is an invitation to prize, if you like dove- shooting. Not this year, though; the shoot is off. It may well be that Merrill, surveying the Washington scene, has decided that doves are an endangered species. They are not the only one.