PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK Governor Nelson Rockefeller threw the United
States presidential election wide open. Within hours of announcing his candidacy, he had out- polled Mr Richard Nixon in the Massachusetts primary. Mr Rockefeller and Mr Nixon were both 'written in': the only Republican with his name on the ballot paper finished between them. On the Democrat side, Senator McCarthy won, Senator Robert Kennedy secured a fair 'write-in' vote and Vice-President Humphrey, who had also announced that he would run for President, did less well.
At home, Bomber and Fighter Commands were merged, but the race war rumbled on. Mr Heath returned unscathed from speaking in the Powell country around Wolverhampton, but was given a police guard in London after a threat to murder him. Mr Powell was also guarded. Mr Callaghan, Home Secretary, told a television interviewer that the Government had plans for repatriating immigrants. Mrs Castle fought inconclusive skirmishes over the wage policy, and it seemed that another minister— Mr Mason, the Postmaster-General—would find himself in the front line, as postal workers called a series of short strikes in support of their wage claims.
The British Aircraft Corporation secured an order from Libya for missiles, valued at £100 million. President Nasser said that war with Israel was 'definite and inevitable,' and on the London insurance market war risks in the Middle East were up-rated by 25 per cent. In Germany the 'neo-Nazi' NPD party won 10 per cent of the votes in the Baden-Wiirttemburg election and Herr Kiesinger, the Federal Chan- cellor, said that it would be his party's major enemy from now until the next election. But with a sang-froid worthy of the character of his assumption, Sir Paul Gore-Booth, permanent under-secretary to the Foreign Office, went to Switzerland in the guise of Sherlock Holmes. The Chancellor of the Exchequer having doubled the betting tax, Lord Wigg, chairman of the Levy Board, now doubled the book- makers' levy—their contribution to the costs of racing; and to add to their discomfort, the favourite, Sir Ivor, won the Two Thousand Guineas. Also out of pocket was the British Steel Corporation, whose losses, depreciation charges and terminal dividends to former share- holders set it back £72 million.
President Eisenhower suffered a heart attack. M Clovis Reblain of Paris, who underwent the first heart-transplant operation in Europe, died two days later. But in Perth, Western Australia, doctors have successfully grafted Mr Ben Sangalli's ear to the inside of his abdomen. He lost it in an accident at the trotting races : it will be replaced in situ later. Sir Harold Nicolson, author, critic and minister, for many years a regular columnist of the SPECTATOR, died at the age of 81.
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