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Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32563, 24 March 1971, Page 7

The White House has fust released this official picture of Tricia Nixon and her fiance, Mr Edward Cox. The couple’s engagement, which they have kept secret for two years, was announced last week. Washington’s redoubtable band of women gossip columnists ran stories of the coming announcement several days before the official word. It is one of the few occasions on which the newspaperwomen, labelled somewhat bitterly, the “Washington witches,” managed to petertate Miss Nixon’s code of secrecy. To the reported disappointment of society page writers, the pretty, selfcontained Miss Nixon has chosen to remain out of the limelight she could so easily have commanded.

Her private life has been very little publicised. She is seldom photographed on dates, and—like her mother—retains an imperturbable poise on her rare public appearances. After the engagement announcement Miss Nixon invited 26 women reporters to the White House for an hour’s talk. Smoothly ■ she dampened any speculation that her fiance, a Harvard law student, may prove to be politically embarrassing. True, he had some political views which differed from her father’s, but then so had she. During discussions, she and President Nixon sometimes disagreed, she said, but it was never unpleasant.

Mr Cox once served with Ralph Nader’s “Raiders,” a group of youngs mostly radical law students, who investigate consumer complaints. As America’s “crusading consumer,” Mr Nader has done battle with many powerful companies, including General Motors. He is both admired and feared in Washington and throughout the United States. However, in one report from Washington, Miss Nixon was reported as saying she thought Mr Cox would be voting Republican in future. The marriage date has been set for June 5, but Miss Nixon says its confirmation depends on her fiances examination schedule.