than the water which separates us. If the virus isn't licked by next summer...'

'But these people are starving now!'

'They have our deepest sympathy.'

She stared at him, for once in undisguised dislike.

'How can you!'

Roger stared back. 'We once agreed about my being a throwback - remember? If I irritate the people round me, don't forget they may irritate me occasionally.

Woolly-mindedness does. I believe in self-preservation, and I'm not prepared to wait until the knife is at my throat before I start fighting. I don't see the sense in giving the children's last crust to a starving beggar.'

'Last crust...' Arm looked at the table, covered with the remains of a lavish tea. 'Is that what you call this?'

Roger said: 'If I were giving the orders in this country, there wouldn't have been any cake for the past three months, and precious little bread either. And I still wouldn't have had any grain to spare for the Asiatics. Good God! Don't you people ever look at the economic facts of this country?'

'If we stand by and let those millions starve without lifting a finger to help, then we deserve to have the same happen to us,' Arm said.

'Do we?' Roger asked. 'Who are we? Should Mary and Davey and Steve die of starvation because I'm callous?'

Olivia said: 'I really think it's best not to talk about it. It isn't as though there's anything we can do about it we ourselves, anyway. We must just hope things don't turn out quite so badly.'

'According to the latest news,' John said, 'they've got something which gives very good results against Phase5.'

'Exactly!' Arm said. 'And that being so, what justification can there possibly be for not sending help to the East? That we might have to be rationed next summer?'