Portrait of the Week
WITH the Western world heading for the last Geneva round-up, this has been a week of brooding carried on by leader-writers and politicians more after the manner of hens than of Rodin's thinker. 'Anything that the Western Powers propose at the Geneva talks,' remarks The Times with its usual caution, 'must be the result of a careful balancing of risks.' Dr. Adenauer is reported to be firm in his determination not to go to Canossa, even if lie does travel to Moscow, while, on the other hand, Sir Anthony Eden, though rejecting the idea of a neutralised Germany, has suggested that there might be 'reasonable arrangements to give Russia assur- ance.' The risks, in fact, are being so carefully balanced that it is quite impossible to say on which side the scales will tip, and a world in which a speech by M. Khrushchev at a garden party has to be weighed against a new wave of arrests in Hungary is obviously olie to bring into sharp relief the weakness of journalism as a technique for conveying information. Mean- while, we can place the reluctant disgorging of Mrs. Sispera and her children by the Czech Government to the credit side of the account, though the fact that ordinary humanity on the part of an iron-curtain country should be counted by its rulers as a considerable concession indicates how accustomed the world has become to men and women being used as the pawns of a police state. Less welcome is the news from Laos (a part of the world that notoriously gives Mr. Dulles the shakes), where forces of the Pathet Laos (a group opposed to the royal government of Laos and having affiliations with the Viet-minh) have attacked and taken the fortified post of Muong Peua. The unfortunate coincidence by which this took place on the anniversary of the first Geneva Conference was presumably not intentional. The situation in Southern Viet Nam remains obscure, with the elusive Ba Cut still being pursued by govern- ment troops and no sign that anyone knows what to do about fulfilling the Geneva agreements. Perhaps Mr. Nehru was able to give some suggestions during his meeting with the Prime Minister at Chequers last week. But would they be the right ones? On another level from these preliminaries is the appeal for an end to war issued by nine scientists—among them seven Nobel Prize winners—including Bertrand Russell, Einstein and Professor Joliot-Curie.
Miscellaneous foreign news includes an offer of resignation by the ministers of the Refugee Party from the Bonn Govern- ment, more rioting in Buenos Aires, a major defeat for locusts in Libya and the arrest of the managing director of the Societe Monegasque de Banque et de Metaux Precieux. President Eisenhower has wisely ordered the cancellation of the Dixon- Yates contract, and the TVA is now reported to be safe from private power companies. In French North Africa the troubles continue, and the arrival in his fief of M. Grandval, the new French Resident-General in Morocco, does not seem to have stopped terrorist and counter-terrorist outrages. It is difficult not to agree with M. Mendes-France when he calls for the 'application in Algeria and Morocco of solutions as precise and clear as those which ended Franco-Tunisian tension.' The rati- fication by 540 votes to 43 of the Tunisian agreements seems to show that a substantial majority of French deputies arc coming to agree wish him. Apart from North Africa, however, this has been quite a week for bombs. M. Cernak, a minister in the Slovak government during the war, was blown up (to- gether with two other people) in Munich by a bomb sent through the post by his political enemies, who have been described with fine impartiality as Communists, Slovak Social- ists or partisans of a united Czechoslovakia. Less efficient were the explosions that heralded the arrival of the Colonial Secre- tary in Cyprus. However, at the moment an Anglo-Greek reconciliation appears possible without its being sealed in the blood of Mr. Lennox-Boyd, and, if his meetings with Arch- bishop Makarios make a successful conference possible the only people who will want to assassinate him will be some of his own party.
At home this week Old King Coal has raised its ugly head, turning out on closer inspection to be wearing the rough-hewn features of Mr. Nabarro, and life at Westminster has been agreeably diversified by the sharpening of knives for Mr. Geoffrey Lloyd. The announcement that coal was to be 18 per cent. dearer has rocked industry on its feet—not to mention the wretched householder—and nobody is likely to be com- forted by the discovery made by the National Union of Mine- workers that the National Coal Board would be making a profit if the arithmetic were done by radar. Depressing too was the announcement that exports were down £90 million during June owing to the rail and dock strikes. Altogether it. was forcibly brought home to the British public that its industrial habits are not keeping pace with history. though a note of sanity was struck at the conference of the Transport and General Workers' Union by the rejection of a demand to nationalise seven new industries. Sane too was the Minister of Transport's indication that the Government is probably not going to dis- pose of the BTC's long-distance haulage vehicles.
Lovers of peace and quiet will be glad to hear that the Government has come to the conclusion that supersonic bangs actually do shatter windows and should therefore not take place over land if possible, a decision that confirms the suspi- cion many sufferers had already felt. The heat-wave has been bringing the joys of sun-bathing, swimming and traffic jams on the main roads to the inhabitants of these islands with the single, but notable, exception of those of the village of Blaengwynfi, who have been all but swept away by a down- pour of torrential rain. Needless to say, with all this week- ending, the road casualties are up at their summer level. On the sporting front, South Africa has defeated England by three wickets in what was one of the most exciting Test matches for some time, while Peter Thomson has won the Open golf cham- pionship for the second year running. Culture, of course, is a poor starter at this time of year, but it is nice to know that the Land government of Lower Saxony has acquired the collection known as the Guelph museum (not to be confused with the Guelph treasure) from the Dukes of Brunswick. A more sombre note is struck by the Methodist conference, which has come to the 'appalling and devastating conclusion' that chil- dren are leaving Sunday school at the age of eight (as soon as they can run?), and by the announcement that Britons are eating fewer Spanish oranges than they once used to. Saddest of all is the news that Mr. John Arlott and Mr. Frank Owen, those two great pillars of the Commonwealth. have been elected members of the Liberal Party executive. 'And if I laugh 'tis that I may not weep.'
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