7 JANUARY 1966, Page 3

--Portrait of the Week— ENTER 1966, UNCERTAINLY: 'another year, another

deadly blow'? And yet the first days saw President Johnson's doves airborne around the globe, while the American bombers stayed grounded in Vietnam: Ho Chi Minh, alas, seemed anxious to stifle frail New Year hopes, calling implacably for 'complete victory' over the 'American imperialists.' Meanwhile the squeeze on Rhodesia continued, and the petrol ration there was cut: but Mr. Ian Smith's regime was not alone in feeling the pinch, and the price of Zambian copper went up by £32 a ton. In Tash- kent the Russians deftly stage-managed a con- frontation between Mr. Shastri and President Ayub Khan, thus donning the mantle worn for weary years by the heirs of the British Raj.