Tuesday after a lavish farewell VIP ceremony on the front lawn of the Cabinet Office.

The couple plan to arrive by landau for the 6 p.m. ceremony, which will see Sir Desmond inspect a Guard of Honour from the Bermuda Regiment for the last time as Commander-in-Chief.

Premier the Hon. Sir John Swan will give a farewell speech before an audience of MPs, senators, judges, members of the clergy and other dignitaries and friends.

The couple will leave via Court Street and Front Street while a 17-gun salute is fired. They will then get ready for the evening's British Airways flight to London.

If it rains there will be a shorter ceremony in No. 1 Shed. The Governor Designate, Lord Waddington, is due to arrive in Bermuda on Tuesday, August 25 and will be formally sworn in at the Senate Chamber the next morning. In the gap before his arrival, Deputy Governor Mr. John Kelly will be Acting Governor.

CHEQUE THIEF FOOLED DEPT.

CTS A Warwick man who stole a cheque for $775 from the Social Services Department was given a suspended prison sentence after he appeared in Magistrates' Court yesterday.

Cecil E. McNair pleaded guilty to the charge on June 26 and was sentenced by Senior Magistrate the Wor. Will Francis after he read a social inquiry report.

The court was told by Police Prosecutor Insp. Peter Duffy that on February 8 McNair received a cheque for $775 from the social assistance office in his parish. He cashed the cheque and later reported to the Social Services Department that he had not received it.

The Department believed McNair and sent him another cheque which he also cashed.

The mistake was later discovered and McNair arrested.

Mr. Francis ordered a four-month sentence suspended for one year.

CIGARETTE ASSAULT CTS A 41-year-old deaf mute who burned another man on the cheek with a cigarette was given a year's conditional discharge after he appeared in Magistrates' Court yesterday.

Linden O. Simons, of Witchery Lane, Warwick, pleaded guilty to the charge on July 14 and was sentenced by Senior Magistrate the Wor. Will Francis after he received a social inquiry report.

Previously the court was told by Police prosecutor Sgt. Peter Giles that on Saturday, May 23 at 4.15 a.m. Simons entered the Table Spoon Restaurant. While inside, a patron told Simons that he was being a nuisance and made gestures urging him to leave.

Simons then left the restaurant and waited for the man to come outside. When he did, Simons pushed his lit cigarette into the man's right cheek causing a minor burn.

STORM WATCH WEA US Navy weather experts were yesterday keeping a close watch on an area of thunderstorms about 600 miles from Bermuda.

But the area, south-east of the Island and moving west to south-west, was not thought likely to develop into a tropical storm.

"It's so common this time time of year we don't want to get anyone alarmed for no reason,'' said Lt-Cmdr Hank Pomeranz, new commanding officer at the Naval Oceanography Command Facility. "We've been watching it all day on the satellite. It doesn't even look as impressive now as it did this morning.''