27 FEBRUARY 1959, Page 3

—Portrait of the Week

'111E EMPEROR MAC, he would set off, all on his journey to. Moscow.' No new Southey has yet appeared to celebrate, Mr. Macmillan's trip, though Mr. Macmillan does not precisely seem to be in need of a Laureate to get his visit some publicity. Arriving in twenty degrees of frost and a white fur hat twelve inches high, Mr. Mac- millan was doing well until Mr. Khrushchev stole back his own headlines with an offer of a non- aggression pact to last twenty years—or fifty, or even longer. The debate continues.

EVENTS MOVED FAST in Cyprus. All those detained under the Emergency Regulations were released, and British troops in Nicosia were confined to barracks during the celebrations which followed. A few days later Archbishop Makarios was given permission to return , to the island, along with those exiled at the same time as he. Arrangements were promptly put in hand for the Archbishop to avail himself of his newly restored rights in the near future. Meanwhile, no official statement was forthcoming on the amnesty terms to bc offered to Colonel Grivas, and the details of the Cyprus agreement were published, making it clear that each party to it reserved the right to take inde- pendent action to restore the slatus quo if any breach of the agreement should occur, whatever that might mean.

IN NYASALAND, unrest grew. Sir Roy Welensky, emitting unhelpful clouds of smoke, called up the Territorial Army and made ready to shoot. Later in the week his troops did and there were two African casualties. Tear gas was also distributed with lavish generosity, and the country moved rapidly towards a state of siege, or worse.

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PRESIDENT EISENHOWER'S ABSENCE in Mexico, not to mention Mr. Macmillan's presence in Moscow, kept the news from the United States off the front pages. Mr. Dulles's doctors produced cold comfort when they said that their patient's cancer was confined to the abdomen. No moves have been made to replace Mr. Dulles, who appears both indefatigable and indestructible.

THE INDEPENDENT TELEVISION AUTHORITY (by acci• dent, most people agree) permitted the production of a play the first three minutes of which were found by a number of viewers to be convincing. This unprecedented occurrence aroused a storm of telephone calls to the television companies, the newspapers and Scotland Yard, and let to leading articles and questions in Parliament. The Authority much regretted that a few seconds' verisimilitude had been allowed into its programmes, the director of drama of the company concerned resigned, and assurances were given that such a thing would never be allowed to happen again.

THE 'CLOSED-SHOP' STRIKE at Ford's of Dagenham threatened to put all 27:000 men at the factory out of work. The Amalgamated Engineering Union tried to order back the 300 men whose unofficial strike had been thus spreading its ripples through a labour force a good deal larger, and promised to take up the case of the man who refused to join the union. Menwhile, the strike at the Port Talbot plant of the Steel Com- pany of Wales came to an end, all 13,000 strikers going back on being promised that the cause of dispute (which was by no means clear) would he discussed at a joint meeting.

WITHOUT BOUT ANYBODY FIRING shots ow; anybody else's bows, Britain and Denmark agreed that British trawlers would not fish within six miles of the Faroe Islands. Lesser breeds without the law would have to observe the full twelve-mile limit. The lesser breeds arc reported to he somewhat upset at this, and so, surprisingly enough, arc the insatiable British Trawlers Federation.