Portrait of the Week— A WEEK OF CONFERENCES, conspiracies and
cam- paigns. Mr. Macmillan's pamphlet on the Six became an immediate best-seller, even though not published by the family firm. Meanwhile the Tories tramped out to Llandudno for their annual conference. Labour leaders sighed with relief when their Brighton gathering passed off with the bland leading the bland and with few daggers drawn.: deputy-leader Mr. Brown afterwards re- mained convinced Labour was on its way, but most brothers considered Mr. Brown is on his way out. On the way out of the country go American SPY Dr. Soblen's ashes, and the United States gets him back in the end. A year of austerity was forecast for the Ghanaian people and for Oxford University, as a result of increased public spend- ing by the one and decreased public spending by the other. Public industries were very much in the news at home: the Gas Council made a £3 million profit (after raising prices during the year): BOAC lost £14 million, Though last year was a bad one for all aircraft companies, none had it worse than BOAC. After they lost £14 for every seat sold, the chairman, Sir Matthew Slattery, de- scribed their financial set-up as 'bloody crazy': at least Dr. Beeching is sure of a job when he's finished with the railways. After the one-day strike, from which nobody won anything, the NUR murmured threats of further strikes in the coming weeks. The balance of payments is better, and the Midland Bank has cut its interest rates on overdrafts.
CELEBRATING THEIR INDEPENDENCE, rejoicing Ugan- dans presented the Duke of Kent with a harp: but the man who may soon have a need for it is President de Gaulle. Aloof as ever, the President accepted the resignation of his Minister of Edu- cation seven days after it was submitted : other Ministers are trying to summon up the courage to inform de Gaulle of the constitutional crisis. Plans go ahead for a referendum at the end of this month and a general election at the end of next. The Cuban Government was expected all week to release the thousand prisoners from the Ray of Pigs fiasco, but the Southern Rhodesian Government will not release Mr. Nkomo : both Cuba and Southern 'Rhodesia caused strong words and unruly scenes in the United Nations Assembly. But General Walker, most right-wing member of the John Birch Society, was released on $50,000 bail after the recent Mississippi riots: old soldiers never die, they only take up lost causes. While Mr. Heath returned to more tussles in Brussels after a nine-week break, Catholic church leaders met in the Vatican Council after a ninety-year break. Talks between India and China over border disputes showed all signs of breaking LIP, and trade between Russia and China showed all signs of breaking down—last year's figures reveal a drop of over 40 per cent. Mean- while the world becomes too accustomed to space travel: though Commander Schirra made six orbits of the globe, one American TV station totally ignored the flight to show World Series baseball.
WHILE GLASGOW PUBS were at last allowed to drop the pretence of serving only travellers on Sundays—a law that has been ignored for decades—the people of Munich counted the cost of the recent Oktoberfest: damages were less than feared-115 people were arrested and 1,500 treated for minor injuries. More serious injuries were threatened to eight Dartmoor prisoners, who were immediately put under special protec- tion. Reason for the threats was that all eight had appeared on a TV programme and had said conditions inside prison were not as bad as many other prisoners made out. Excellent conditions of work were offered for an assistant by a secretarial agency advertising in the Times: only condition --must be daughter of titled peer, though not life
Pe i
peer. After all, there's no room for the nouveau riche in secretarial agencies.
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