26 MAY 1961, Page 3

Portrait of the Week— MR. BUTLER WENT TO SPAIN, opened

his mouth to

express his regret that Spain was still cold-

shouldered by the West. and thus put his foot in it. ,,The Opposition found it hard to believe that the Home Secretary—not the most impulsive of men— Performed so complicated a contortion in a fit of absence of mind, and took it as presaging a Government suggestion that Spain should be ad- mitted to NATO. All the more askance, in con- sequence, were the glances directed at the Foreign Secretary (Lord Home), beginning his official visit M Spain and Portugal. The British Trade Fair opened in Moscow. and so did trade negotiations of a sort between the President of the Board of Trade and his Soviet opposite numbers. Mr. Khrushchev turned up at the opening, all beams. bonhomie, back-slapping and bad jokes, and it Was hoped that he would be as benign when he met President Kennedy in Vienna—a meeting slated for June 3.

THERE WAS THE CUSTOMARY bank-holiday slaughter on the roads, and some holiday-makers celebrated Whitsuntide by demonstrating against ,the USS Proteus, in Holy Loch. President Kennedy sent Federal marshals to Alabama to Prevent further violence against Negroes trying to exercise their rights to travel on buses: the American Nazi Party also sent representatives, decked out in swastika armbands, riding in a Vehicle labelled 'Hate Bus'.

FRANCO-ALGERIAN PEACE TALKS opened at Evian, Where armoured cars and anti-aircraft guns were Mounted at strategic points, and where Swiss para- troops guarding the delegations pooped off their 811%11 arms at 'unknown intruders'. In Algeria itself there was a rather one-sided cease-fire, in the course of which French troops were ambushed by the FLN. There were police raids in South Africa ,°,4 the homes of members of the United English- Speaking South Africans Organisation; troops Were mobilised and white women formed 'pistol ,c,_lubs'. Mr. Erasmus, Minister of 'Justice', said in the South African Parliament that It was not in been public interest' to say how many people had e arrested. President Po Sun Yun of South Korea resigned, leaving Lieutenant-General "mug Do Yung as chief executive and Head of State. The general signalised his elevation to the leadership of a freedom-loving democracy by closing down more than half the country's daily newspapers, pc rs, all its weeklies and almost all its news agencies: this measure, according to the general, was designed to 'promote the freedom of the

Press',

* IT WAS ANNOUNCED that there are to be four new universities, at Canterbury, Colchester, Coventry, and another place, not necessarily beginning with a C. There was dismay at an older university when the report of the Oxford road inquiry was Published, approving that much-debated scheme of a relief road across Christ Church meadow. Motorists travelling through Oxford took their customary half-hour to proceed from Magdalen Bridge to the station.

ECONOMISTS WORKED our that food bills in Britain might go up by a shilling a head a week if we Joined the Common Market, but that lower prices for manufactured goods would more than make up for this in the total cost of living. The Daily Express described this as 'a shock'. The 'crusade' that Dr. Billy Graham had planned for the North of England had to be postponed because of clergy- Man's—or, at any rate, evangelist's—sore throat. Mr. Dennis Davis of Denton, Manchester, with Tashi, a Sherpa, climbed the previously uncon- quered peak of Nuptse, 25,850 feet up in the Himalayas, which seemed a long way to go to get away from Manchester.