5 JULY 1957, Page 19

As I WRITE, the news is coming through of the

latest palace revolution in Russia. The temptation to 'interpret' the affair is even greater than usual : what fun the great pundits of the press are going to have explaining how --ouch an ill-assorted quartet should all have been put in the same galley! Does this portend the final fall of Molotov? Is Shepilov's terrene moon now eclipsed? Or is Russia merely reaching the stage that the French reached under the Directory, when anything might happen for the flimsiest and most absurd of reasons? Candidly, I do not know; and I shall be surprised if any of our experts do.