Portrait of the Week— A RRANGEMENTS FOR PRESIDENT EISENHOWER'S 'Visit to
Britain and all points east continued. 4 phalanx of security men preceded him, presumably to en- sure that no irreconcilable Democrat would be lurking in the underbrush at London Airport. Other news from the United States included that of an earthquake followed by severe floods, tech- nical trouble with the Boeing 707 jet aeroplane, and another nuclear-powered submarine. Other news from elsewhere included the discovery .by the Chinese Government of an imperialist con- spiracy of aggression in Laos, the restoration of diplomatic relations between Jordan and the United Arab Republic, and the refusal of a Czech orchestra to accompany a Swiss-domiciled Hun- garian in a programme of German music in Scotland, where the Edinburgh International Festival was clearly attempting to live up to its name.
IN NOTTINGHAM AND KNIGHTSBRIDGE battle con- tinued. The Labour majority on Nottingham Council issued a statement sharply criticising Chief Constable Atheistan Popkess for actions which they claimed amounted to political partial- ity. The Conservative minority on the Council retorted that the Labour statement was inaccur- ate and tendentious, and that the Chief Constable had done his duty properly throughout. Mean- while, Mr. Hugh Fraser appeared to be winning the long tug-of-war over Harrods, though many experts were of the opinion that the rope was by now almost frayed right through.
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IN SOUTH AFRICA the day of reckoning crept nearer, and for a moment it looked as though it had actually arrived. The arrest of a number of African women in Natal set the spark to a gun- Powder-situation, which exploded in riots, burn- ings, shooting (so far, of two Africans) and more arrests. White people barricaded themselves in a hospital, and from later reports it appeared that rioting had spread to the Johannesburg area. Any- way, the Saracen armoured cars supplied by Great Britain were coming in handy, and were expected to come in handier still as the days went by. The Opposition party, as its contribution to the crisis,
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711E REPORT OF THE Radcliffe Committee on the working of the monetary system in Britain was Published. It pleased the unorthodox with its criticism of excessive government reliance on monetary policy as a Budget device, and of the secrecy with which the Bank of England continues to shroud some of its operations; the Committee was of the opinion that the Bank should disclose its intentions more often, and give reasons for them. The Bank of England was expected to reject the Report, though suggestions that the Governor had been taking lessons at the Colonial Office were considered unworthy.
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DUDLEY ROAD HOSPITAL, Birmingham. came (belatedly, some thought) to the conclusion that it was unwise to give 1,000 dangerous tablets at a time to a man of unstable mentality and no fixed address. Other signs that the silly season was well advanced included the high-level meeting between Princess Alexandra and a koala bear, the breach between Mr. R. A. Butler and the Association for Moral and Social Hygiene .(ex parte the Street Offences Bill), civil war at Lord's Cricket Ground over the bare-torsoed fashion adopted by some (male) spectators, and the Maldive Islands.
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