PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
Mr Harold Wilson and Mr Ian Smith broke off their 'last chance' talks aboard nms `Fearless' with the Rhodesian dispute still unresolved. NIBMAR—no independence before majority rule —proved, as was suspected, to have been dropped from the British terms; and so, too, had the proposal for an intermediate period with the Governor in charge. Both sides em- phasised that `the door was not shut.' But on the central point—progress towards, and guarantees for, majority rule—the gap still seemed wide.
At home, the threat of a national engineering strike was being met in the traditional manner, with talks late into the night at the Department of Employment and Productivity (which older hands recognised as the Ministry of Labour). The engineers' union arranged a £3 million over- draft at the Midland Bank, happy to oblige an old and valued customer. The September trade figures, with exports again a record and the visible deficit little changed from August, were a pleasant surprise—especially to holders of sterling. They failed to inspire the Chancellor into increasing the foreign travel allowance: fixed at fifty (pre-devaluation) pounds, it was to stay that way for yet another year. Journalists, said a leading article in The Times, could get round this.
As the Foreign Office swallowed his depart- ment, Mr George Thomson, Britain's last Com- monwealth Secretary, became Minister without Portfolio, but with responsibility for Rhodesia : he remained in the Cabinet. The Ministries of Health and of Social Security were to unite on 1 November, with Mr Crossman at the wheel.
The Olympic Games began in Mexico City, for all its student violence (abated) and rarefied air (still there), The Surinam team had the mis- fortune to be knocked out in the first heat in which he competed. The British did better, and Mr David Hemery won the 400 metres hurdles, breaking the world record in the process.
Police in Cheltenham charged a poet with setting fire to the Imperial War Museum. dart aged—though without irreparable loss—after the explosion of two petrol bombs. Miss Vanessa Redgrave and others demonstrated in Grosvenor Square against the sentence of t :o years' imprisonment passed on Dr Benjamin Spock, for encouraging young Americans to escape being called up for the Vietnam war. No one demonstrated on behalf of Mr Pavel Lit• vinov, sent into exile for five years after taktot part in a peaceful demonstration in Red Squaw against the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia Mr Robert Maxwell, mP, at the head d Pergamon Press, made a £26 million takeoffs bid for the News of the World. Manches United lost 2-1 on aggregate to Estudiantes the world club championship decider.
0
r.
Previous page
