Portrait of the Week— THE NOTE OF THRIFT, not to
say parsimony, which has been creeping into governmental pronounce- ments was made manifest by a spectacular fall of k50 million, if not twice as much, in gold reserves last month. If they continue to fall at this rate they will be halved by the end of the year. No wonder the Parliamentary Labour party has astonished everyone, not least the proposers of the measure, by apparently agreeing to a 25 per cent cut in defence spending. None the less, the debate on Monday. in which Mr. Heath appeared for the first time in his new colours and made a Speech which was less than a triumph, generated more sound and fury than significance. 'They wanted blood. They got it.' said The Times, and they seemed to want little else.
"IR. IAN SMITH thought that Rhodesia was 'some- thing of a hot potato' to the British Government, but there were more hot potatoes left in the oven When the House broke up for the summer holi- days on Thursday. 'Parliament can always be recalled if necessary,' said Mr. Bowden apprehen- ivelY, and most Cabinet Ministers planned to retreat no further than to convenient nooks in the southern counties. Mr. William Warbey re- frained from 'voting in the censure debate and was reprimanded, but it was thought that time and his constituency committee would take care ,.°1 him; however, the Labour members for Northampton and Oldham West also showed signs of fractiousness. The White Paper on trnmigration, which made rto pretence at a sugar coating, shocked supporters of the Government and others.
MFANWHILE ABROAD, holidaymakers in France lied from forest fires to the beaches, Jim Clark ,„won his sixth Grand Prix, and Tiffany's in New York put gin instead of water in their fountains, because of drought. Mr. Averell Harriman met r resident Tito, India and Yugoslavia issued a Joint request for peace in Vietnam, the Ghanaian mission returned with a smile on its face from talks with Ho Chi Minh, but the disarmament conference in Geneva revealed only the West in disarray.
iliE BARDIC CROWN was won for the first time by a drama on nuclear war. The deatlf of Sir Sidney Patrick Shelley, eighth and last baronet of that 'me, has left the baronetcy to which Percy Bysshe was heir to a member of the Sidney family. So, reported The Times contentedly, the Arcadia 01 Philip Sidney and the Adonais of Shelley merge at last,' And so, when Mr. Maudling be- came deputy leader to Mr. Heath and Mr. Macleod Shadow Chancellor, did the Tory trium- virate finally take over the party.
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