16 APRIL 1954, Page 7

In Berlin eighteen German teams have entered for a cricket

championship; seven Scottish miners have accepted an invita- tion to spend three weeks in the Chinese coal-fields; the Soviet Military Attaché has been allowed to watch a cloth- model exercise at the School of Infantry in Wiltshire; and the Russian Government wants to join UNESCO. When one recalls that this week has also seen the settlement of the bitter controversy about the use of sponge rubber bats by certain players in the World Table Tennis Championship, one cannot but conclude (if one is that sort of person) that things are looking up all round.