Portrait of the Week T HE announcement that British forces in
the • tvt,o,l, . East are to be reinforced to the extent of two parachute battalions comes at the end of a perfect week in Jordan. There was serious rioting in Jerusalem and Amman. attacks in the former city on the American consulate and other buildings used by Western agencies, and vociferous demands for assurances that the Government would not adhere to the Baghdad pact.- The Jordan Prime Minister, Samir el-Rifai, has stated that no such move would be made, but that his government would • maintain order. Meanwhile, a Jordan spokesman has alleged that Israeli troop concentrations are taking place on the frontier between the two countries. These events seem to be the result of Egyptian and Saudi propaganda with, no doubt, some help from Communist sympathisers, and it is probably to discuss them that Mr. C. A. E. Shuckburgh. assistant Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office in charge of Middle. Eastern affairs, has gone to Washington. Perhaps he will also have something to say about the Saudi-Arabian use of American oil royalties to pursue their anti-Western policy of indiscriminate bribery. At the United Nations, Russia is moving a draft resolution before the Security Council con- demning the 'outrageous' Israeli attack on Syrian military posts in the Lake Tiberias area. As usual, when Russia tries to curry favour with a group of powers, the move is quite palpable, but this, unfortunately, will probably not make it any less effective as a technique for disturbing the Levant.
Elsewhere in that troubled area, Cyprus provides the usual toll of bomb explosions, though Sir John Harding has been having more talks with Archbishop Makarios. The Greek parliament has been dissolved at last, and there will be elections next month. After they are over, the Cyprus problem may be a little easier to solve. In Morocco there has been a meeting between the French and Spanish zonal authorities for the first time in three years. The French Resident-General, M. Dubois, crossed the frontier to have a talk with General Valino. the Spanish High Commissioner, and it may be that this conversa- tion will do something to restore co-operation between Fiance and Spain in North Africa--,especially since the Spaniards now appear to filo e their own nationalist troubles.
The main news of international affairs is President Eisen- hower's message to Congress, in which he referred to the `shifting tactics' now employed by the USSR and especially to her incursion into the Middle East, which he described as `hardly compatible with the reduction of international tension.' He also suggested that agricultural surplus might be sold to Iron Curtain countries. At home, the picture given in the State of the Union message was one of prosperity and stability, though uncertainty about President Eisenhower's political intentions continue. Also in the Washington news is the investi- gation being carried on into the press by the Senate security sub-committee which recalls more notorious inquiries.
In Latin America a general strike declared by the Chilean Central Workers Union has been broken by the Chilean Government, and Senhor Kubitschek, the new Brazilian president, visited London after all in spite of the rather tactless handling of protocol which caused the visit to be cancelled for a moment. In France MM. Mendes-France and Guy Mollet have announced that they intend to try to take office with their Republican Front, while the Communists are still angling for a Popular Front. In Milan there has been a bomb outrage at the archbishop's palace, but no one was hurt. The Icelandic fisheries dispute may be settled after an attempt at arbitration by OEEC, whose plan has already been accepted by representa- tives of the fishing industry in this country. It proposes that Iceland should not change the four-mile limit of territorial waters and that Britain should lift the ban on the import of Icelandic fish. In Kenya a gang of Mau Mau terrorists has been rounded up, and the government has tabled the Coutts report on the best method of ensuring African representMion in the Legislative Council. The government has accepted the main proposals.
At home a statement from Downing Street has denied that the present Prime Minister is going to resign in the immediate future. It is said that Sir Anthony Eden is due to tackle the cost-of-living question in his speech at Bradford on January 18, and news from the motor-car front suggests that this is not too soon. Much discontent is also manifest among teachers who have not been appeased by a Government hint that they might get an interim increase of pay under the Burnham scale, and have begun their boycott of the national savings cam- paign. Perhaps the bad weather has had something to do with it. There has been the worst smog since 1952, a bad blizzard, and even a minor earthquake in the Midlands.
Mistinguett, the French cabaret singer, died this week at the age of eighty. In India alarm and despondency has been caused by the discovery of three cracks in the structure of Shah khan's Taj Mahal, while the approaching marriage between Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier of Monaco has prevented any depres- sion from affecting the Sunday papers. Miss Kelly's brother Jack made the reporters' day by announcing his intention of calling his unfortunate future brother-in-law 'Rainy or some- thing personal.' After all, what could be more personal than 'Rainy'?
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