PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
Down, by order of the occupation forces, came the black flags from the Wenceslas statue in Prague, down too the anti-Soviet graffiti from the walls; up, once again, went the street signs, and out, at least from current usage in the press, went the word 'occupation.' Dr Ota Sik, a deputy Prime Minister, resigned in Belgrade and Dr Hajek, Foreign Minister and another rumoured candidate for purging, sat tight in Switzerland. In Europe the crisis provoked a good deal of heart-searching: Mr Kenneth Tynan wrote to The Times to suggest banning the occupying countries from the Olympics; Mr Patrick Gordon Walker chose the same platform to appeal for a wholesale dole-out of British visas to would-be expatriate Czechs; the usually timorous French Communist party found them- selves for once in accord with their Italian com- rades in condemning the invasion.
So, after unusually impassioned debate, did the ruc, meeting for its annual congress in Blackpool. A motion urging union support for industrial action over equal pay for women was also carried (against the advice of the general council) and Mr Sidney Greene, the railway- men's leader, predicted that unemployment would reach the 700,000 mark by next spring. Mr George Brown, in Bradford, expressed his opinion that the incomes policy was inescapable and back to the political fray from three weeks in the Scillies came Mr Wilson. Meanwhile, in darkest Soho, the offices of the Black Dwarf were raided by the police and sharp-eyed Special Branch men discovered instructions for mixing a Molotov cocktail on the walls. Britain's gold reserves fell by £28,000,000 in August.
In north-east Iran, where a relay of earth- quakes was estimated to have killed nearly 20,000 people, aircraff-dropped supplies to the survivors and Queen Farah donated some of her blood; meanwhile the earthquakes moved on to Turkey and the Black Sea. In Nigeria federal forces began their 'final' attack. The Red Cross announced the commencement of mercy flights to the Ibo heartland: the airlift had been scheduled to go ahead despite threats of 'grave incidents' from the federal government, but at the last minute General Gowon agreed to let it proceed unmolested for ten days. On Monday rrN filmed a federal officer shooting a pinioned Biafran : the execution of the offending officer took place the next day, after a slight delay while a cameraman changed his battery.
The bank holiday was bathed in sunshine but spirits were dampened by a rise in the accident figures; still on the travel scene, the Victoria line was inaugurated without event, but too late to improve the figures of the 1966 sample census which showed that most of us prefer to go to work by bus. The postmen, who were getting very excited about the forthcoming fivepenny postal service, provoked strong opposition from the newly formed Fourpenny Association, and Glamorgan cricketers incited Sobers to set a world record of six sixes in one over. Won over, too, according to eye-witnesses, was the phleg- matic An-An, though unlike his countrymen he seemed far from contemplating anything as undignified as an actual rape.
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