— Portrait of the Week-
STEVENSON died in London, the city in Which he first sprang to international prominence aS US delegate to the United Nations conference In 1945: and the West mourned a great Ameri- can liberal.
FOLLOWING UP THE WARNING that things would get worse before they got better in Vietnam, President Johnson on Tuesday spoke of 'new and serious decisions' to be taken, involving more American troops in the battle. Mr. Harold Davies, Labour MP and Mr. Wilson's unorthodox envoy, flew to Hanoi and then flew home again re- buffed: his 'friend' Ho Chi Minh would not see him. Ho received another British visitor, however --a Mrs. Verdun Pert, a former Liberal candi- date, who had tea with him and was kissed on both cheeks. '(No fresh impetus to a Lib-Lab alliance is yet apparent, however.) Dr. Nkrumah of Ghana seemed to be next in line to launch an :independent initiative' on Vietnam: mean- „While, Defence Secretary McNamara flew to "mgon with Mr. Cabot Lodge for an agonising reappraisal of the situation.
AFTER SEVEN MONTHS of argument, the Commons gave a third reading to the Bill to end hanging, bY 200 votes to ninety-eight: but Mr. Silverman's Measure has still to survive the Lords. The June trade figures were a little better, but not nearly good enough; and the Finance Bill dragged on to the end of its long dissection. The great Parliamentary Privilege gore continued. While the Committee of Privileges considered Mr. Cal- laghan's case. Labour MPs up and down the country repeated his words: after which nothing Much happened. More rumblings about the Tory leadership were reported by several political correspondents, although Sir Alec said he would be soldiering on.
Kum EVERYWHERE were hunting the escaped train robber. Commuters in the Southern Region were simply hunting for trains (cancelled or de- laYed because of the drivers' go-slow) or even M extreme cases for the scalps of the drivers themselves. An American aircraft-carrier acci- dentally dumped masses of oil on the beach at Cannes, and holidaymakers in this country were ecIttallY scurvily treated by bleak July weather. It was announced that a 'super-salesman' is to be found for the armament industry. President Frei of Chile was the Queen's guest in London, and Mr. Averell Harriman turned up in Moscow Shortly before President Johnson disclosed that the Soviet Union had agreed to resume disarma- ment negotiations. Sir Julian Huxley gave dire warnings about the population explosion, and Sir John Russell, the scientist who had done so much to increase food production, died aged ninety-two.
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