The World - News from Aug. 31, 1988

An Anglican Church envoy stepped up efforts to gain the release of three British hostages in Lebanon and voiced cautious optimism about their prospects. “I am optimistic and hopeful, but this is only a feeling. I would not wish to set any time on the release,” the Rt. Rev. John Brown, bishop for Cyprus and the Persian Gulf, said after meeting top Muslim clerics in West Beirut. Brown, flanked by heavily armed British Embassy bodyguards, crossed into Beirut’s Muslim sector with Ambassador Allan John Ramsay and held talks with the Sunni and Shia Muslim leaders. At a news conference, he expressed the belief that one of the three hostages, Anglican Church envoy Terry Waite, who was captured in January, 1987, is still alive.