BRITAIN: Let the Flowers Wilt

Umbrella companies are folding, Hyde Park looks like a sandlot, and at the London zoo, bath water for the elephants is being reused to water plants. Hundreds of grass and scrub fires are erupting in the parched countryside as Britain, which has had exactly one-tenth of an inch of rain this month, suffers through the worst drought since meteorological records were started in 1727. Last week Prime Minister James Callaghan summoned vacationing Cabinet members back to No. 10 Downing Street for an emergency meeting and asked Sports Minister Denis Howell to assume responsibility...

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