Portrait of the Week
THE Eisenhower doctrine, whatever its virtues, has at least had the demerit of pro- voking a great deal of un- welcome activity in the Soviet Foreign Office. Among the pronouncements, messages and notes which have been buzzing angrily out of that hive has come a personal note from Mr. Bulganin to Dr. Adenauer violently attacking West German membership of NATO and its steadily growing military strength, also remarking obiter that Russia understood the sacrifices made by the German people in two world wars. A sixty-third birthday card arrived for Mr. Macmillan from the same source saying that Moscow would be glad to see him any time. More far-reaching ripples are liable to spread from the new disarmament proposal made by the Russian delegate to the UN (that the next meeting of the disarmament sub-committee should consist of Foreign Ministers) and Russia's answer to President Eisenhower—Mr. Shepilov's declaration on the Middle East made to the Supreme Soviet on Tuesday. To describe this document as `not constructive,' as the Foreign Office has done, is a masterly understatement, since it is clearly designed to destroy the Eisen- hower doctrine, proposing an agreement to halt arms deliveries and withdraw from military bases. The doctrine itself has been grinding through the mills and appears to be surviving pretty well intact. Israel has asked for clarifica- tion of Mr. Dulles's offer to guarantee passage of the Gulf if Israel withdraws unconditionally.
Reassuring work is being done on the Anglo-- American alliance, though. The Prime Minister is to meet the President in Bermuda in March; more and more of the big American oil companies are cutting down supplies to their refineries to allow more crude oil for Europe, though the results have not yet been startling; and a good deal of confabulation is still going on over defence— General Norstad has been in London, no doubt to try to limit the cuts in British contributions to NATO.
From the other side of the Curtain comes news of an economic crisis in Eastern Germany caused by lack of coal supplies from Poland, the tighten- ing of control in Hungary—entailing, apparently, dire punishment for children who refuse to learn Russian—and the televised parade in Moscow of four `self-confessed' American spies. The Kremlin will also be brooding over a severe political set- back in Italy where Signor Nenni has succeeded in leading his Socialist Party out of the Communist camp towards fusion with the Social Democrat Party. This congress was enlivened by the presence and intervention of Messrs. Bevan and Morgan Phillips as (evidently rather too partial) observers, their support of Signor Nenni being regarded by the Democrats as 'intrusive.'
In Cyprus the situation remains tense but quiet; in Aden less tense but also less quiet since the RAF spent six hours and ninety-six bombs in destroying a small Aden village where an ambush took place last week. The White Paper on the independence of the Gold Coast has come out in spite of rumours that a last-minute visit of African leaders to London would postpone it.
Parliament has% been debating the country's economic situation, though the absence at the meetings of the Council of the OEEC of the Chancellor and the President of the Board of Trade did not help its lucubrations. This meeting, which is to give birth to the proposed European free trade area, has begun well in spite of the gloom that must have been cast by the news that the trade deficit rose in January to almost £104 million. Nevertheless the Bank rate has been cut back to 5 per cent. The elements have come startlingly into promin- ence by producing not only enough storms to flood the Thames, but also an earth tremor which, as the Daily Mail put it, 'rocked and rolled' eleven counties. Storms have also surrounded the Royal Family since a report appeared in the Baltimore Sun that relations between the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh were strained, an insinuation strenuously denied by Buckingham Palace and disbelieved by the country.
Industry has taken some knocks with a doubling of rates payable by industry and freight transport, a disastrous fire at the Jaguar motor works in Coventry and continued labour disputes at the Briggs factory over the dismissal of a shop steward. Militarists alarmed at defence cuts will have taken heart from the news that there is enough army blanco in stock to last ten years.
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