11 FEBRUARY 1966, Page 3

THE RHODESIAN CENSOR was empowered to alter stories and headlines

at will, and news- papers were forbidden to leave spaces showing where they had been censored. Private Eye was ordered to pay damages it could ill afford in a libel suit brought by Lord Russell of Liver- pool; whereupon The Times reprinted the offending article in full. It was announced that this year's Arts Council grant would be nearly half as much again as last year's. Mr. Edmund Blunden was elected to the Chair of Poetry at Oxford : 'What a bit of luck!' he said. Veauville in Normandy declined to join in celebrating the anniversary of the Norman conquest, on the grounds that Duke William extorted ten gold talents from the town to finance his expedition in 1066.