PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
War persisted on the usual fronts; Vietnam, Nigeria, France, the universities, the Liberal party. In America last week's victim, Robert Kennedy, was buried beside his brother, the murdered president. Senator McCarthy, on the Democratic side, and Governor Rockefeller, on the Republican, made ready to proclaim them- selves Mr Kennedy's political heirs; each need- ing new support if the election were not to be fought between Vice-President Humphrey and Mr Nixon. A New York mail-order firm sug- gested, as a Father's Day present, a sub-machine gun. Meanwhile at London Airport, Ramon George Sneyd was arrested. The United States Attorney-General's office obtained a provisional warrant against him on a charge of murder. They believe him to be the James Earl Ray suspected of the assassination of Martin Luther King.
Another unexpected arrival .at London air- port was M Danny Cohn-Bendit, the French student leader, imported by the BBC. He found a 'free university' proclaimed at Hull, and a student putsch at the Birmingham College of Art, where insurrectionists were reinforced by commandos from Hornsey—liberated two weeks ago. In spite of M Cohn-Bendit's ab- sence, France, with elections only a fortnight away, was again in disorder. A million workers were still on strike. The government banned demonstrations and declared illegal six 'revo- lutionary' groups. President Tito of Yugoslavia staked his office on meeting his students' de- mands, and pardoned the British student Mr Philip Dobson who had been sentenced to six years' jail after a disastrous road accident.
Pillars of the Liberal party, the tallest pillar being Mr Eric Lubbock, rallied to Mr Jeremy Thorpe's defence after the party's senior vice- president, Mr Richard Holme, had said that the leadership problem should be speedily and firmly resolved. Mr Holme was a person of no consequence, riposted Mr Lubbock, and besides, the leader was on honeymoon. Mr Wedgwood Benn announced that Britain needed a new Labour party for the 1970s, and that the new party would need modern technological equipment. What it did not need (said the Prime Minister, slapping down Mr Bean's earlier sug- gestion) was government by referendum. In default of a referendum, the Gallup Poll showed that the Conservatives had lost 4} points of their advantage, and now led Labour by 231 per cent. This, the pundits thought, was enough to give them at least one of the Labour-held seats—Oldham West and Sheffield Brightside in the by-elections on Thursday.
General Westmoreland laid down his com- mand in Vietnam. Another unsuccessful com- mander was Mr Colin Cowdrey, whose England XI, though packed with batsmen, suffered two batting collapses and lost the first Test Match to Australia by 159 runs.
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