10 APRIL 1964, Page 3

—Portrait of the Week— SIR ALEC DOUGLAS-HOME set in motion

the 'Cus- tomary processes of consultation' to divine the best date for polling day. Those not consulted included The Times' latest political correspon- dent, `A Conservative,' Mr. Harold Wilson (alias 'A Socialist') and Lord Kilmuir, whose memoirs branded Mr. Macmillan as a man who lost his vision and Mr. Selwyn Lloyd as one who never possessed any.

A WEEK OF UNREST : Mr. Dean Rusk found that his shipping boards had landed him head-first in a major diplomatic row with Mr. Marples, while Britain was in dock at the UN for bombing a fort 'in the Yemen, an act denounced as 'barbaric ,aggression' by, the Arab world. Mr. Khrushchev's slanging match with the Chinese continued. A 30,000-word article in Pravda criticised the Chinese for their mudslinging, while, for crimes past, Messrs. Molotov, Malenkov and Kaganovitch were expelled from the party. When visiting Budapest, Mr. Khrushchev made a plea for better' food before better revolutions: `we must have more to eat, good goulash.' In Brazil a plea for less Goulart resulted in the president fleeing the country, with the more right-wing Humberto Branco likely to take over. Scattered outbreaks of shooting occurred in Cyprus, and President Makarios tore up the Cyprus treaty.

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A WEEK OF SURPRISES: that a book by a Beatle was the week's best-seller, that BOAC made a profit last year, that schoolmasters voted against raising the school-leaving age as yet. It was no surprise that Lord Normanbrook should become chairman of the BBC, or that the London electorate treated its speCial election with a gigantic display of indifference. The Motoring .Defence League is to petition the Queen for defence against the `persecution' of the police and traffic wardens, and 300 couples queued for three days in Surrey for the chance to place a deposit on inbuilt £4,000 houses. Printing unions toyed with the idea of starting a new left-wing daily newspaper, but there was no rush to .head the queue to take out subscriptions.

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I Y DELEGATES WALKED OUT of the UN trade and development conference at Geneva when the Portuguese delegate came to the platform. In a calmer atmosphere the US and Russia held private talks at Geneva on stopping the spread of nuclear weapons. General Franco hinted that he would like to be followed by a king, and ex- President Tshombe of Katanga visited London, hinting that he would like to return to Katanga. Governor Rockefeller heard that his brother was standing for governor of Arkansas, with more chance of election than himself, although opinion Polls showed that the diplomatic candidate, Mr. Lodge, was favourite. Meanwhile, an early form of rnan has been discovered, almost two million Years old, four feet tall, with a flat head and long jaws.

TW0 MEN IN THE_ LIFE OF LADY C' was The Times' intriguing headline, but underneath it was a Yachting story. Jimmy Greaves was dropped from the England soccer team, and half of Coronation Street may be dropped by midsummer. An Exeter man was fined for stealing over ten tons of stone,

and Whitstable police were trying to find the oner of a on the seafrpoanitr. of artificial legs in trousers found