—Portrait of . the Week— T HE ENDING of the credit
squeeze, the arrival of summer, the continuation of the long-drawn wage-talks between the busmen and the London Transport Executive, Mr. Macmillan's insistence that Gladstone, if he were alive today, would be a Tory, the privilege debate in the House of Com- mons—these things have made it on the whole a domestic week, though the mounting tide of violence in Cyprus, and the interesting reception of Mr. Hammarskjold's oil-pouring report on the Lebanon situation, have served to remind us that no man is an island. Mr. Heathcoat Amory's announcement that banks would no longer be asked to restrict the level of overdrafts beyond what they themselves thought was prudent was well received in the country, and when the sun came out shortly afterwards, and presently took the temperature up into the eighties, the general outlook began to look metaphorically as well as literally bright.
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THE INDUSTRIAL VOLCANO continued to rumble, occasionally sending up a warning puff, of smoke. The deadlock continued in the negotiations that began after the London bus strike ended. The gap between the Executive's offer of 5s. for the country busmen and the union's demand of 8s. 6d. showed no sign of being narrowed by a concession from either side. Meanwhile, Mr. Frank Cousins has been ordered by his doctors to rest for a fortnight, and the negotiations are proceeding without him. In any case, it seems unlikely that the strike will be resumed. No such forecast can be made in the case of the dockers, though if they strike now it will be on their own behalf, and not that of the Smithfield men. Their claim for a wage increase having been rejected for the third time, they are to hold a national delegate conference to discuss possible courses of action, and the head of the docks section of the Transport and General Workers' Union said that strike action could not be ruled out. As a backdrop to this development there came the report of the three-man committee of inquiry set up by the Minister of Labour to investigate the recent Smithfield lorry drivers' strike. The strike was roundly condemned, being described as a flagrant violation of the constitution of the Joint Industrial Council of the docks industry. There the matter rests, though on the wings Mr. Ernest Jones, President of the National Union of ,Mineworkers, has said that the miners want a shorter working day at the same wages.
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THE POT IN CYPRUS went nearer to boiling over entirely. So far the Government's plan for the future of the island has been followed by at least six deaths, several score injuries, and a general strike, with the, promise of another to follow. When British troops opened fire during a demon- stration, and killed two Greek Cypriots, the uneasy calm which had prevailed since the promulgation Of the Government's plan was finally shattered. Not far away, the Lebanese Government was con- siderably put out by Mr. Hammarskjold's report to the United Nations, rejecting charges of 'ma: ;ive interference' by the United Arab Republic in Lebanese affairs. The Lebanese revolt having thus been officially pronounced a domestic matter, notice was served on anyone who had been thinking of intervening in it that they would be on the wrong side of the legal blanket if they did N. The week's light touch came from the United States, where Mr. Bernard Goldfine's investigation by a Senate Committee took a dramatic turn. • Mr. Goldfine, it appeared, was having his con- versations tape-recorded by a man who worked for the Committee and also for Mr. Drew Pearson, the columnist. Mr. Goldfine was very upset, but Mr. Pearson had the last Word. Admitting that his assistant had been imprudent, he added: 'But I need him.'
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