Portrait of the Week— IN BRITAIN, it snowed. Where it
didn't snow, there was fog.
THE GENEVA TALKS on the suspension of atomic tests were resumed. President Eisenhower, in his State of the Union message, revealed that the United States had perfected an anti-continental ballistic missile, and that he was aware that the Soviet Union had the same sort of thing. General Blagonravov, a Soviet space scientist, said that it was too early to fix a specific date for a Soviet landing on the moon, The United States Navy bathYscaphe, Trieste, reached an undersea depth of four and a half miles, a new low.
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MR. MACMILLAN said farewell to Ghana and arrived in Nigeria where, according- to the Daily Mail, he walked arm-in-arm with an African `mammy' and, according to the News Chronicle, told a multi-racial club that it was an example 'of what should be everywhere.' The Governor of Kenya declared an end to the seven-year-old state of emergency, and rumours persisted that the Nyasaland administration was on the verge of releasing Dr. Banda. Those old acquaintances, the Governor of Cyprus, its President-elect, and its future Vice-President (Foot, Makarios and Kutchuk) converged on London for talks about the future of the island—a mere five weeks before it becomes independent. India and Pakistan resolved five outstanding border disputes, and Lord Montgomery, leaving New Delhi for London, and a proposed visit to Peking in the near future, said variously that the true Chinese government was the Communist one, that Franco was a good man who was fighting the Com- munists, that India needed economic aid, and that
I never interfere with things that are not my business. Mr. Malik, Soviet Ambassador in Lon- don, got promotion, and M. Pinay, Finance Minister in Paris, got the push.
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THREE LEADING BRITISH aircraft companies— Vickers, English Electric and Bristol—merged, and Mr. Duncan Sandys promised increased government aid for the industry. Lloyds Bank and the District Bank announced their 1959 profits, LIP by 25 and 17 per cent. respectively, bringing the
average profits of all the banks for their first
uncontrolled year to 22 per cent. Mr. Jasper, and Mr. Murray. company directors, were arrested, Charged respectively with offences under the Prevention of Fraud (Investments) Act and with aiding and abetting Mr. Grunwald in fraudulent conversion and, like Mr. Grunwald, were re- manded on bail of £40,000 apiece. Mr. Marples, 'taking speeches in Washington, proposed to employ traffic wardens in Britain who would issue tickets' for 'stationary' offences by motorists. It was announced that London's pink zone is to con- tinue, but in a paler shade, for certain parking restrictions are to be raised and certain temporary Parks to be closed.
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SIR BRIAN ROBERTSON offered a back-dating of whatever pay increase is awarded to railwaymen bY the independent pay committee in April, but 'ears of a token strike remained, One of the first trains on the £2 million Bedford-St. Pancras diesel service broke down, disorganised the first day's working and made a lot of people very cross, but the London-Glasgow express demonstrated the benefits of unpunctuality by being too late on Ihursday to run into a derailed goods train.
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WEI KAO-HOU, a Chinese mill-machinest, did a ;.;ear's work in an eight-hour shift on New Year's 'ay. News is awaited of a revision of the norm , L"r mill-machining, and so is a translation from the Chinese of the congratulations of Wei's fellow Till-machinists. Brigitte Bardot gave birth; Lady Pamela Mountbatten got married; and Nevil Shute died,
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