PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
All sixteen steel unions threatened to strike against British Steel Corporation's decision to recognise two white-collar unions. Britain's bank workers, too, planned a strike for the end of the month. The Cabinet appeared to have approved Mrs Castle's plans for curbing the trade unions, despite Mr Crossman's defection. In Czechoslovakia. printers went -on strike against having to print Russian propaganda and in protest against the replacement of Mr SmrkoVsky. In his farewell State of the Union message, President Johnson forecast history's verdict: 'I believe it will be said that we tried.'
The December trade figures showed a deficit of £55 million. The Archbishop of Canterbury came out in support of the proposed merger between Anglicans and Methodists. Both will require a majority of 75 per cent in their re- spective assemblies to implement the scheme. Civil Rights marchers set fire to eight police vehicles in Newry, County Down, and pushed another one into the canal, at the beginning of Church Unity week. The Commonwealth Con- ference closed after demonstrations outside Marlborough House in support of Biafra and many other causes. President Obote of Uganda attacked Britain for racialism in refusing to accept Asians expelled from his country on racial grounds. The four African countries con- cerned refused to discuss the matter, and the Conference ended with a communique which said that the British government stuck to both NIRMAR and the 'Fearless' terms, and that most of the rest were not amused.
The biggest warship in the world, the us nuclear-powered aircraft carrier 'Enterprise,' suffered a number of explosions off Honolulu, killing at least twenty-five men. Russia put four "cosmonauts, in twin space ships, into orbit. More than 105 vehicles were involved in acci- dents on a twelve-mile stretch of the Ml. Police 'blamed fog, ice and lunacy. United News- papers made a takeover bid for Punch which was accepted by the Bradbury Agnew board, and Mr Harry Hyams, the well-known 'mystery' property tycoon, entered the battle for control of the CLRP property company.
Dr Michael Swan was sentenced to fifteen years for drug offences. Bruce Reynolds, the train robber, received a sentence of twenty-five years and said crime did not pay. In Antwerp, a man_ arrested on the charge of stealing a car was revealed to have been performing brain operations for two years without any medical qualifications. The GPO claimed that decimali- sation would not result in higher telephone charges, and revealed that fewer letters have been posted since the two-tier system was in- troduced. Miss Richmal Crompton, creator of 'William,' the scruffy schoolboy, died at seventy-eight. Police claimed to have found £16 million worth of LSD during a raid in Paddington. A lorry driver was found not guilty of failing to provide a blood specimen after he insisted that it should be taken from his penis, which the doctor had refused to do.
Previous page
