Portrait of the week
The tong-awaited storm broke in Greece. King Constantine broadcast an appeal to the Greek people to help him restore democracy and free- . dom. 'There will be ,no compromise,' he said. The military, junta which has ruled Greece since the April coup broadcast its reply: 'The King has been misled by criminal opportunists.' Tanks and troops appeared in the streets of Athens, a big army mutiny was reported, civil war threatened.
Trouble of a more familiar kind was disclosed at home. The trade gap for November was put at 1153 million by the Board of Trade, making devaluation month the worst ever recorded in peacetime for Britain's overseas trade. Imports soared, exports faded away under the influence of the dock strike. Mr Heath complained of the Gmiernment's flabby response to devaluation, and Mr Crosland, warning of new measures to be taken in the new year, said that in coming months the im- port figures may actually look worse as a result of devaluation.
The House of Lords had a busy week, dam- ming the Government over Stansted airport on Monday and over the British Museum affair on Wednesday. Mr Thomson, Commonwealth Secre- tary, told the Commons that his recent talks with Mr Smith could not possibly form the basis for renewed negotiations; among Mr Smith's latest pro- posals was a plan to appoint African chiefs to the Senate instead of elected representatives: Mean- while, seventy Labour tars feared that the Gov- ernment meant to resume the sale of arms to _South Africa, and, alarmed by Lord Chalfont's denial, tabled a motion deploring the idea. Niro ' defence ministers, meeting in Brussels, approved the streamlining of operational forces in Europe.
Russian writers petitioned for an open trial of the four publishers of the underground magazine Phoenix-66. Concorde made, its public debut: Mr ;.Wedgwood Benn declared that the final `e' stood for 'England, Europe, and the entente.' 'General' Peart continued his battle against foot-and-mouth, and Brian Jones, the Rolling Stone, had his Ore- month jail sentence for drug offences changed to -a f1,000 fine, with three years probation and psychiatric treatment.
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