PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
While travel in Britain came to a standstill during exceptional snowstorms, the East Ger- mans placed an embargo on land journeys to West Berlin by participants in the West Ger- man presidential election. Mr Wilson arrived in Bonn for talks with Dr Kiesinger, to face large-scale demonstrations against Britain's policy in the Nigeria-Biafra war. Young Con- servatives, meeting at Bournemouth, came down against the Powell line on immigration, and also against withdrawal from East of Suez, but they continued to cheer whenever his name was mentioned, and only just defeated a motion criticising the Opposition's conduct of affairs on Nigeria. Between 300 and 550 Biafran civilians were reported killed by eye- witnesses of an air raid on the market-place of a village near Owerri. In Lagos, Federal authorities denied that the incident had ever occurred. Mr Ian Smith promised an early
referendum on a new Rhodesian constitution.
In response to the fact that the ill-starred £29,500,000 'Queen Elizabeth 2' is still without a completion date, Mr Anthony Wedgwood Henn said that it•would be in the interests of the Clyde, and of British shipbulding tech- nology, if we all maintained 'a respectful silence.' Meanwhile there is to be an inde- pendent inquiry into the ship's failure to func- tion. Mr Sandys attempted to introduce a Private Member's Bill tightening up immigrant control still further, but it was thrown out. Sir Gerald Nabarro continued to hog the head- lines, assuring us that be would refuse to accept the findings of the select committee into his allegations of a budget leak, since it was bound to be biased against him. Mrs Castle ordered a court of inquiry into the protracted strike at the Vickers Barrow shipyard, and, after the roc's failure, tried to find a solutirm to the dispute between blue-collar and white-collar unions in the steel industry. The governors of the London School of Economics decided to reopen the school next week. The gates whose removal caused the closure will be replaced and urade 'less obtrusive.'
New York was crippled by heavy falls of snow, and Kennedy airport was out of action for two days. Mr Healey claimed that every Russian warship in the Mediterranean would be sunk within a few minutes of hostilities breaking out. Miss Nadia Nerina, the ballet dancer, retired at forty-one to have a baby. Campaigners against the Concorde sug- gested that it might melt the polar icecaps and drown us all. Ten seconds had to be cut from a film, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, before it was judged suitable to be shown to the Queen Mother. They will be restored when the film is opened to the general public.
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