8 NOVEMBER 1975, Page 5

For Heath • • •

sir I have been slightly alarmed by the Profusion of letters recently published 11.1] Your magazine berating Mr Heath for 8 "volte-face" in office and especially fOr fOr his stand against the miners two Yeats ago. Above all, Mr Heath was the victim of circumstances. The appalling condi

imposed on his administration, in Particular those of economic exigence

an,c_l trade union activism with un-_ „ts.aaMed political motives, forced him to change his tack; but he adjusted out of necessity and not because he genuinely doubted the "Conservative principles',

Which had swept him into power in 1970.

, These same conditions still exist, of ,-Ourse. The trade union problem has been ominously palliated, not solved, and our economic deficiencies remain acute • Yet many people are content to reiterate the traditional Tory precepts as If they will suddenly be feasible and

_I'S if Mr Heath had enthusiastically disavowed them.

Unless the new Conservative proposals are made practicable, they will be

thwarted as effectively as Mr Heath's were in 1974. Moreover, it ill becomes adherents of a party perennially associated with loyalty and chivalry to condemn so prematurely a man who never hesitated to give of his best and to serve his country.

After being elected party leader in 1965, Mr Heath promised: "However difficult the time ahead may be, we shall do our duty." I believe that, despite the difficulties incurred, this pledge was fulfilled.

Christopher Peto. The Stowe Political Club, Grenville House, Stowe School, Buckingham