Portrait of the week
The world's first space crash killed the Russian cos- monaut Vladimir Komarov: his returning spaceship went out of control, and he was given a state funeral in Moscow's Red Square on Wednesday. America suggested it might be safer for boll? countries to cooperate in space exploration in future, but Russia's response was slow. Another state funeral, that of Dr Konrad Adenauer in Germany, saw other efforts at inter- national cooperation, with President Johnson in- viting President de Gaulle to visit Washington and Mr Harold Wilson bustling around the mourners to discuss Britain's application to join the Common Market (expected very soon). De Gaulle, it was said, expressed 'pleasant interest in Britain's plans.
The military junta which seized power in Greece at the weekend was busy arresting its opponents, setting up military courts, and banning mini-skirts; King Constantine's prospects remained unclear, however. Three roes came back from Northern Ireland demanding a royal commission to inquire into the state of things over the water, rumblings of impending disclosures preceded the publication of Mr Anthony Nutting's book DO Suez, and the voters of Brierley Hill went to the polls in a by- election which had been brightened up by the Liberal campaigners singing 'Harold Wilson is a Tory' to the tune of 'Clementine.'
There was a great row at the National Theatre, with Mr Kenneth Tynan saying Sir Laurence Olivier might resign, Sir Laurence saying that he certainly wouldn't, and nobody suggesting that Lord Chandos had any such thought. Oxford de- cided to stick to its demand that candidates for admission must have two foreign languages regard- less of what Cambridge thought. The London Stock Exchange had some nasty moments. Mr Cecil King announced that the Sun was off the danger list and would be with us in the 1970s; later be went to America and told a gathering of editors there that their papers were unreadable and shabby.
It was announced that the Royal Mint was to move to Wales, to the distress of many of its employees; the Bank of England called in all old five-pound notes; and the Inland Revenue, anxious to keep the nation's finances up to scratch, dispatched an income tax demand to one Samuel Pepys, whom they understood had made a deal of money out of some diary be had lately published.
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