Portrait of the Week
WHILE the workers of the world have been demonstrat- ing their May Day solidarity in the usual way it has not been a noticeably good week for agreement between their leaders. The honeyed words which have been pouring from Russia over the last month or so are beginning to produce re- actions, not all of them so sweet. Mr. Macmillan, it is true, has sent a civil reply to Mr. Bulganin's letter but plainly reserves his fire; Western Ger- many and Denmark, on the other hand, have reacted more violently. The Soviet proposal to Germany had been that there should be no atomic weapons on German soil and had been accom- panied by the warning that Germany would be likely to turn into a graveyard if an atomic war broke out; the warning to Denmark had been in similar terms. The replies, protestations of loyalty to NATO in its defensive capacity, cannot have given much satisfaction in the Kremlin. In the meantime Germany acts as host for the first time to the Council of NATO at Bonn this week. Judging from recent remarks by the genial Mr. Mikoyan on a good-will visit to Austria, Soviet thoughts on Europe are turning in the direction of the Eden Plan, and the Russian proposals for disarmament produced with a prestidigital flour- ish from the London disarmament talks point in much the same direction. They include a partial concession to President Eisenhower's 'open skies' proposals (whereby a large stretch of Siberian desert would be swapped for the purposes of aerial photography with a big industrial tract of the US), the renunciation of the use of atomic weapons, and, most significantly, the liquidation of foreign bases within two years.
The other large-scale exchange of recrimina- tions has been over the crisis in Jordan. Here it appears that King Hussein has succeeded in re- storing order at the cost of suspending all political parties and the present session of the Jordan Par- liament. He has also declared martial law in Amman, imposed a curfew, and appointed as military Governor his new Minister of Defence— one of the Bedouin loyalists on whom his position rests. Having taken these Draconian measures he departed to confer with his traditional enemy King Saud, now his principal Arab supporter. What prompted the Russian complaint that America was engineering Western intervention in the country was the abrupt movement of the Sixth American Fleet to the Eastern Mediterranean, the prompt offer to King Hussein of ten million dollars' worth of American aid 'to help the main- tenance of political stability,' and the ostentatious shore leave given to American marines in Lebanon over the weekend. The State Depart- ment' produced the riposte that the unrest had been fomented by international Communism, but did not disclose whether this would count as aggression under the terms of the Eisenhower declaration.
Meanwhile the Suez Canal dispute has not made much progress. The debate on the subject in the Security Council when it finally took place pro- duced nothing but the old arguments and no one was surprised when it was again adjourned sine die. It seems generally agreed, however, that the utmost has been wrung out of the Egyptian Gov- ernment in the way of concession that is ever likely to be, and that under pressure from the shipping companies (who have already reduced their freight rates in anticipation of the reopening of the short route) the governments of the user Powers will have to accept the situation as it is.
Another dispiriting example of UN ineffective- ness has been the report of Hr. Jarring, appointed to look into the Kashmir dispute. He has to some extent succeeded in pleasing both sides, judging from their comments, but at the cost of professing himself unable to make any concrete proposals for a settlement.
Reports are seeping through of large-scale re- bellion in Eastern Tibet against Chinese rule, and there are rumours of approaching talks on the future independence of the country. In Singa- pore Mr. David Marshall, the former Chief Min- ister, has for the moment retired from public life after his defeat over the new constitution, which he opposed. An- inquiry is going on in Padua into the disappearance of Mussolini's treasure, which amounted to about £35 million worth and is suspected to have been diverted into the hands of the Communist Party via the partisans who had shot the Duce on his last attempted escape fram Italy. Mr. Eisenhower has been golfing in Augusta, Georgia. Smyslov has captured the world chess championship from Botvinnik.
At home things are settling down very nicely for the summer. Parliament has reassembled, the cricket season has started, and wage claims are on the Wing. The AEU, at present in conference, has been particularly militant but not without some altercation between the leadership and the rank and file about the rights and wrongs of strike action. The Navy is to install guided missiles in its new destroyers. Sir Anthony Eden has walked out of his Boston hospital on his way to conva- lescence. Scotland his celebrated the 250th anni- versary of the Act of Union with a dispute about closer ties between the Presbyterian and Anglican Churches. Earl Attlee,has been accused of having sacked Mr. Bevin without due warning, but has successfully rebutted the charge. Mr. Bevan has returned from a 'highly successful' tour in India and the Middle East, but was met at the airport on the wrong night by his wife and the papers. It was the press apparently who were to blame. 'It does become very serious,' said Mr. Bevan, `when newspapers begin to believe themselves.'
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