— Portrait of the Week — THE BERLIN SITUATION remained confused. A
re- ported Soviet proposal for negotiations, said to have been couched in conciliatory terms, found the West undecided whether it had in fact been made, and if so, whether, assuming it had, it ought to be regarded as encouraging and taken up, or, on the other hand, not. The French said not. The West German position could not be clari- fied until Dr. Adenauer (elected Chancellor for the fourth time, but hedged about with con- ditions) arrived in Washington—which he was expected to do later this week. Meanwhile con- fusion was further confounded by the report that Dr. Kroll, West German ambassador to Moscow, had taken an 'unauthorised initiative' by suggest- ing to Mr. Khrushchev a possible four-power status for West Berlin, to be recognised by East Germany under Russian guarantee. Dr: Kroll, re- called to Bonn, denied making any such sug- gestion, but added that if an ambassador could not take an initiative, what was he there for?
EQUALLY DISCORDANT NOISES Could be heard coming from the Communist camp. One of the sounds was of falling masonry. The giant statue of Stalin on Stalinallee in East Berlin was dis- mantled and the street renamed. In Russia Stalin- grad was metamorphosed into Volgograd. But there were reports that Communists elsewhere— notably in Italy—were annoyed at not having been given fair warning of the change. General Hoxha continued his attacks on revisionism and the 'vile calumnies of Mr. Khrushchev against the Albanian party and people. Mr. Molotov left Vienna, destination Moscow, future obscure.
IN narrAmi the Communists suffered a big defeat when their ten-year grip on the ETU was broken (nine out of eleven seats on the executive going to declared anti-COmmunists), but the outgoing executive, which remains in office until January 1, fought back by appointing a Communist, Mr. R. G. McLennan, as acting general secretary in the absence through illness of Mr. Byrne, the general secretary. Mr. Byrne left hospital vowing to quash this latest piece of delaying tactics. In the House of Commons Mr. Macleod announced that the committee stage of the Immigration Bill (introduced this week) would be taken on the floor of the House and not upstairs, where it would have had relatively little publicity or chance of being amended. Mr. Macmillan revealed at the Lord Mayor's Banquet that 'you've never had it so good' had been intended all along as a warn- ing, not as a boast, and had been misinterpreted.
A COMMISSION set up by the French National Assembly was reported to have found marks of torture on prisoners. in Algeria. A Portuguese air- liner, hi-jacked by the opposition, showered Lis- bon with thousands of leaflets urging people to refrain from voting in the 'elections.' A United Nations inquiry said evidence suggested that Mr. Lumumba was shot by a Belgian officer in the presence of Mr. Tshombe. According to another UN report, between 300 million and 500 million People are suffering from acute malnutrition. There was widespread famine in Kenya. where prolonged drought was followed by floods.
IN AMERICA Dr. Edward Teller, 'father of the 1-1 -bomb,' said that America must resume testing In the atmosphere if it is to keep an adequate deterrent, ,but that this need not involve any con.: siderable increase in fall-out. A golden squirrel monkey called Goliath blew up in an Atlas rocket over Cape Canaveral. A chimpanzee called Beauty sold ninety-five pictures and made $5,000 In a ten-day exhibition of painting in New York. in South Croydon a mother's help was savaged by a pet rabbit which had been given the run of the house and had sat watching television with the family. Lord Montgomery, who was convicted of a driving offence, said, 'I have driven all kinds of vehicles from El Alamein to Berlin with no trouble to anyone except the Germans.'
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