TORY headquarters has moved decisively to quash the ''civil war'' in

the Argyll and Bute constituency by closing the local Conservative

association and arranging for a new organisation to be set up.

Officials hope that the move will effectively end the damaging

long-running row over Mr Bill Hodgson being the Conservative candidate

in Argyll.

As the association which elected Mr Hodgson as prospective

parliamentary candidate no longer exists, then Mr Hodgson can do little

to fight the move.

Originally, the Argyll and Bute Conservative Association had voted by

a narrow margin that it had no confidence in Mr Hodgson as its candidate

and asked him to resign, which he refused to do. Then a petition by more

than 200 members supporting him asked for an extraordinatry meeting of

the association to give him fresh backing.

Mr Adrian Shinwell, vice-president of the Scottish Conservative and

Unionist Association, was sent to Argyll to try to bring the warring

factions together, but he reported that the two sides were too

entrenched for a compromise to be reached.

Eventually, Scua took the decision that disaffiliating the entire

Argyll association was a quicker and cleaner method than allowing local

officials to continue squabbling over whether Mr Hodgson should be

removed. One of the first moves of a new association will be to choose a

candidate.

Mr Michael Hirst, president of Scua, said yesterday that the decision

to disaffiliate had been made with considerable reluctance but in the

firm belief that it was the only practicable way to resolve the serious

and public disagreements in the constituency -- one of Britain's

largest, stretching from Oban to Campbeltown, taking in Dunoon and

Lochgilphead.

''Scua was faced with an intolerable situation of what amounted to

near civil war in Argyll and Bute,'' he said yesterday.

''Efforts have been made over the months to resolve things in a

peaceful and principled way, but I regret that they have not been

successful.''

Technically, Mr Hodgson, who gave up his farm and wine business in the

south of Scotland to move full-time to Campbeltown to fight the

election, can seek to become the candidate of the new association, but

the odds are not in his favour. He said yesterday that he was a bit

shattered at the early Christmas present the Conservative Party had sent

him.

It was too early to say what his next move would be, but he is

privately conceding that his hopes of remaining as candidate had been

scuppered. He believes he has been led up the garden path in moving to

the constituency and that headquarters in Edinburgh had treated him

shamefully.

Doubts about Mr Hodgson's candidature emerged when he had to enter

hospital for a heart by-pass operation. Some local officials questioned

whether he would be fit enough to remain as candidate.

Mr Hodgson, however, saw this as a smokescreen, knowing that his

zestful, but sometimes abrasive, style, which meant he had little time

for people he thought were not pulling their weight, had led to him

making enemies among certain sections of the constituency.

Local councillor, Mr Noel Faccenda, organising secretary of the

association, who was regarded as a main opponent of Mr Hodgson, said

yesterday that the move to disaffiliate the association was not entirely

unexpected. He said it was too early to say whether he would be seeking

a position in the new organisation.

Mr Archie McCallum, constituency chairman, who had tried and failed to

heal the rift, said the step was the only one that could sort out the

problems locally.