Portrait of the Week— ANXIOUS TO PROVE himself no Goldwater
in Ken- nedy clothing, President Johnson settled into the White House with vigour, firmly nailing his colours to the civil rights mast, agreeing to meet Dr. Erhard soon after Christmas, with Sir Alec Douglas-Home to follow six weeks later, and offering Mr. Khrushchev a joint ride to the moon. While considering this revival of Mr. Kennedy's offer of two months ago, Mr. Khrush- chev sent the FBI the Russian file on Lee Oswald, an appreciated act of conciliation; and contem- plated crushed glass found in newly-imported Canadian wheat. At-,home political business con- tinued ; comments on Mr. Brown's 'emotional behaviour' were balanced by comments on Mr. Wilson's disapproval, and in the Commons Mr. Amory, Minister of Aviation, trod a tightrope over BOAC, explaining why, without warning, he had sacked contracted executives, who had failed only in that they kept to a virtually im- possible brief agreed to by the Ministry. His reasons were all in the Corbett Report, Mr. Amery insisted, and he regretted he could not Ilow anyone else to read it.
A MIXED WEEK for governments : Sir Robert Menzies scored an unexpectedly large success in the Australian election, and Mr. Holyoake stays in power in New Zealand. Italy remained with- out its long-awaited coalition, and the Turkish Government resigned. Ten people were killed in Senegal's first elections since independence, and shooting disrupted polling in Venezuela. In the more genteel Marylebone air Mr. Quintin Hogg combined his crucial Cabinet respon- sibilities for Science, Sport and all the rest of it with trying to hold for the Tories a 15,000 majority, and a reminder that a politician's lot is not a happy one was the news that the Con- golese Foreign Minister had been arrested.
`PRINCESS MARGARET has settled it. Any woman who is not expecting a happy event early next year is in danger of being labelled unfashion- able,' With such gems of vacuous rubbish, the Daily Mail informed its readers of the year's fourth Royal pregnancy. National Productivity Year came to an end, and the Treasury emitted warning signals at recent pay rises, with Mr. Maudling throwing all caution to the winds by giving the NIC something to consider. The British Safety Council wants trading stamps to be given as an incentive to cut absenteeism, and Mr. John Bloom is entering the stamp war, just as his attempt to win control of a London soccer club came to nothing. The Metropolitan Police, look- ing for a public relations officer, found a Train Robbery suspect living in Eaton Square: Mr. Martell is to sue Private Eye, the Pope is to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in January, and plans were announced for a 1965 Commonwealth Arts Festival with celebrations in London, Car- diff, Glasgow and Liverpool,
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'HIE BBC IS TO AUCTION 13=1(1101'S House,' which was renovated during a do-it-yourself series, as no buyer has been found, and there were claims that the new Victoria Line tube has been especially diverted to avoid passing under Buck House. A London publisher published a 45s. edition of Fanny Hill, 'a de luxe edition for those who like good books,' and Oxford humanists called for abortions to be made available through the NHS. Italian medical. students at Pisa went on strike because local hospitals were not supplying enough corpses each week for post- mortem experiments to be conducted, and the switching-on of the Christmas decorations in Oxford Street brought traffic to a complete stand- still.
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