24 AUGUST 1951, Page 4

Of all the deplorable incidents connected with the three-man mission

to Bechuanaland appointed by Mr. Gordon Walker, the most deplorable has been the conduct of the trade union member of the mission, Mr. H. L. Bullock. According to reports from newspaper correspondents on the spot, Mr. Bullock at an early stage in this judicial enquiry decided that he was definitely anti- Tshekedi. Regarding Mr. D. L. Lipson's mention of the fact that he had been an Independent Member of Parliament, Mr. Bullock thought fit to comment : " He has not told you that the British people in their wisdom slung him out at the last election." This, of course, may have been meant to be jocular, for Mr. Bullock is dearly given to jocularity ; the Daily Telegraph Special Correspondent mentioned one day last week that Mr. Bullock repeated for the tenth time his entirely unappreciated jest about being ' the only bullock in the Reserve on two legs.' And it was Mr. Bullock who contributed to the unseemly wrangle between the three observers before assembled tribesmen the remark, addressed to Mr. Lipson, "I think you/ are being ridiculous." Professor Macmillan, the third member of the Com- mission, has tactfully left Mr. Lipson and Mr. Bullock to travel home a deux.