In the run-up to the attempt by the British government to ban sponsorship by cigarette companies, there is pressure in the arts world to protect this source of cash. A thousand leading members of the arts world got together recently in London to praise the maker of Benson & Hedges and Silk Cut cigarettes, Northern Ireland's Gallaher Group, for its role as "good corporate citizens" in its support of the arts world. Gallaher won the Best Arts Sponsor award presented by the Association for Business Sponsorship of the Arts for support which included £1 million worth of sponsorship to the Ulster Orchestra. Gerry Watson, Chief Executive of Cothu, which is ABSA's nearest equivalent here, confirms that his organistion would be "happy to see the tobacco companies coming back to arts sponsor- ship again." He added: "The arts are never in a position to turn away sponsors." He clarified that "the good sense and integrity" of arts managers acted as a brake on inappropriate sponsorships and that the tobacco companies themselves should great restraint; Players had pulled out of the Tops of the Towns because it had become so popular among young people.