15 DECEMBER 1961, Page 3

— Portrait of the Week— THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT agreed to supply

bombs for the United Nations forces in Katanga. Sir Roy Welensky made a fuss, and so did a number of Tory back-benchers, well known for their passion for the rights of oppressed and especially of black minorities. The British Government then decided to withhold the bombs it had promised; and asked the United Nations for a cease-fire and the House of Commons for a vote of confidence. At this Point a (smaller) number of Tory back-benchers began to insist that the Government should sup- port the United Nations action in Katanga. The United Nations then withdrew its request for the bombs, and the United Nations representative in Elisabethville (Mr. Urquhart, a British subject, not an Irishman) presented the British consul there (who had denied that British arms were entering Katanga from Rhodesia) with fragments of a British mortar bomb fired by Katangans on the United Nations forces. This was not widely reported in the British press. The political corre- spondent of the Times stated that the Cabinet 'have been determined not to give ground to Lord Hinchingbrooke and' his men' and, with equal Plausibility, that Lord Home had 'taken a stand • on principle' in agreeing to give United Nations the bombs, and 'took his stand once again on principle' in withholding them.

GUESTS OF HONOUR at the Tanganyika independ- ence celebrations were Prince Philip and Mr. Jomo Kepyatta. Also present were Mr. Joshua Nkomo, president of the National Democratic Party, the biggest African political party in South- ern Rhodesia, newly banned by the Southern Rhodesian Government, and Mr. Duncan Sandys, Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations, who told Mr. Nkomo that the ban was nothing to do with him, and he'd better talk to Sir Edgar Whitehead about it. The Government of Ghana Published a White Paper alleging that the oppo- sition party had plotted to overthrow the Govern- ment and possibly to kill Dr. Nkrumah, and that British newspapermen in Ghana for the Queen's visit had published 'a whole series of untruths which they not only knew to be false but which, on occasion, they had themselves invented' THE IRAQI Prime Minister ordered the release of five British subjects in time for Christmas, 'out of sympathy for them and as a lesson in humanity for the treacherous aggressors.' The Soviet Union broke off diplomatic relations with Albania, and in a note to the United States demanded the extradition of General Heusinger, now chairman of the NATO standing committee in Washington. By an odd coincidence, the note was delivered on the eve of a NATO ministerial meeting. Adolf Eichmann was found guilty on capital charges of crimes against humanity and against the Jewish People. The Governor-General of Portuguese India ordered women and children to be evacuated from Goa, because of the possibility of an Indian attack, Mr Nehru having said, in words which some thought might have been more carefully chosen, that India's patience was exhausted. A Guardian leader-writer recalled that Article 3 of the Anglo-Portuguese treaty of 1373 obliged this country to come to the help of Portugal if any of her territory were invaded, and suggested that we send a token force of slingers and archers.

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THE DIRECTOR of the Common Cold Research Unit, suffering from a cold, told the Royal In- stitute of Public Health and Hygiene that it was now disproved that women were more liable to catch colds than men. All the same, the Queen, home from Africa, caught an English cold.