OTHER NEWSPAPERS and periodicals have been awarding their accolade to
the men, women, children, dogs, films, and starlets of 1957; as a last-minute addition, I would like to announce my own prize for the silly ass of the year. It goes unhesitatingly not—as you might expect—to a certain member of the Government, but to Mr. James Hagerty, Press Secretary to the White House. Many people, will have read transcripts of Mr. Hagerty's ludicrous press conferences on occasions when the President has been ill, with their detailed accounts of the movements of the President's pulse, temperature and bowels. But last week Art Buchwald, the New York Herald Tribune's entertaining Paris columnist, did a neat parody of them—so close to the original, in fact, that it was not until I was well stuck into it that I realised it was a parody. Mr. Hagerty himself did not realise; he hurriedly issued a denial, and spent his next conference denouncing Buchwald, even going so far as pathetically to beg the New York Herald Tribune to give his remarks equal play with Buchwald's on the front page. This the Tribune did; but it also carried a further contri- bution from. Art Buchwald on the subject, and if anybody takes Mr. Hagerty seriously again I shall be surprised. A COUPLE OF WEEKS AGO Sir Hugh Foot's govern orship of Cyprus appeared to be following the traditional depressing course; good intension! without good advice are a quick road to disaster in such cases.. But by his actions in the last few days Sir Hugh has proved his critics, myself among them, to have been wrong. He has shown courage, good will, and good sense; in particular by calling off the auxiliary forces, and allowing the Greek Cypriots to celebrate 'when they want to celebrate, he appears to have changed the atmosphere in the island completely. True, his troubles are only beginning. What seems like good will to the Greeks must seem like bad faith to the Turks, who have for so long' relied on British backing. Nor can, the Greek Cypriots necessarily be kept indefinitely in a state of gay, rather than terrorist, animation; the delight in having a sympathetic Governor will survive only it he can find some way to break the diplomatic deadlock which clouds the future of Cyprus. Nevertheless Sir Hugh has taken the essential first steps. He has shown that Britain is not simply an occupying power with no interest in the island's future except to ensure that it will continue to be coloured red on maps; and he has done much to wipe out the ugly memory of the past months.
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