Portrait of the Week— MR. DULLES arrived in Britain and
Mr. Macmillan thought of going to Moscow, a general strike took Place in Malta and aparticular strike was narrowly averted in Dagenham, and the Government an- nounced that it was working on plans to help the depressed cotton industry in Lancashire and the victims of crimes of violence respectively.
AT THE WEEKEND, Mr. Morgan Phillips, General Secretary of the Labour Party, issued a statement to the effect that a house-to-house public opinion survey was being made in the marginal con- stituencies, and implied that the information thus obtained (including electoral numbers) might be handed slier to Conservative agents for use at an election. Soon afterwards, it was disclosed that the survey was being made by a market-research firm on the instructions of a Mr. Colin Hurry, a man- agement consultant. He, in turn, was acting for a group of 200 companies mainly concerned in the manufacture of steel or steel products. Mr. Morgan Phillips called it a furtive campaign of frightened businessmen, and Mr. Hurry said he was furious when the British Market Research Bureau declared that it would of coUrse abide by the Market Research Code which forbids them to disclose to anybody the significant details that Mr. Phillip;; was worried about.
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rttE HOME SECRETARY announced what was described by some as a `vast.Plan for penal reform.' Boiled down, it amounted to the building of more prisons, the greater use of detention centres fOr Young offenders, and the establishment of a num- ber of committees. One of these was to consider the plan, mooted by the late Margery Fry, for compensating victims of violent crime: Mr. Butler had nothing to Say about the possible reintroduc-: lion of the birch, at which he had hinted in pre- vious speeches.
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'IHE HOUSE OF COMMONS gave a Second Reading to the Bill under which Malta's Constitution is to be revoked and replaced by direct rule. Mr. Mintoff decreed a 'day of mourning,' and the result was virtual paralysis throughout the island, with few Open shops, schools, cinemas, or factories, no work at all in the harbour, and very little in the dock- Yards. So far no violence has taken place, though there have been demonstrations against the Governor and in favour of Mr. Milne.
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MR. DULLES arrived in Britdin, bringing with him the new Western plan for discuSsing Germany with the Russians. (Later he was going to Bonn to diScuss it with the Germans.) At the same time Mr. Macmillan was understood to have accepted the invitation to visit Moscow later this month, taking with him the Foreign Secretary. Mr. Dulles was not eXpected'to raise any objections.
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HER ulnas to come from the Prime Minister in- cluded a half-promise of direct government help for the depressed Lancashire cotton industry and a quarter-promise to consider the possibility of televising the House of Commons at work.
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SIX OF the Aden Protectorate States agreed on a federation, and announced that they would imme- diately ask Britain for military and financial assist- ance. There Was no likelihood that Britain would refuse them collectively what they had always had severally. Nearer home, a French scandal of pre- war proportions broke out, when charges intolving Young girls were made against a number of dis- tinguished people, including the former Speaker of the Chamber. The next night, one of the chief witnesses was run over.
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