Portrait of the Week
Mr. Ben-Gurion said he was prepared to accept a United Nations Commission to investigate the situation in the Gaza strip. Whether the United Nations will also be prepared to accept and send it is, at the time of writing, very doubtful indeed. The long-deferred debate in the General Assembly has been notable so far for a com- promise suggestion by the Canadian delegation based on the 1949 armistice agreement—a UN force should be deployed along the armistice line to keep the peace after Israeli withdrawal, and free passage through the Gulf of Aqaba -should be guaranteed—a proposal perfunctorily attacked by the Russians. It still seems pretty certain that Congress would oppose sanctions against Israel in spite of President Eisenhower's broadcast to the nation and Mr. Dulles's lobbying of prom- inent Jewish citizens. Mr. Macmillan has added the British Government's view which is that it would rather have a settlement than sanctions.
Beside all this many other important inter- national events have paled into insignificance. The Cyprus debate in the political committee of the UN, for instance, ended in the passing of a nebulous resolution tabled by India expressing 'an earnest desire that a peaceful, democratic and just solution'will be found.' In Nicosia Sir John Hard- ing has announced the casing of some of the emergency regulations. There has been more fighting on the Yemen border in spite of British imprecations. The Indian elections are now beginning and seem certain to end in another overwhelming victory for the Congress party. Election speeches and press comment have taken on, as might be expected, an extravagant look, and Mr. Nehru has been tempted into saying some harsh things about the West and also about the Commonwealth. We may or may not lose India, but we are gaining Ghana, whose indepen- dence will date from March 6. Eminent assistants at the birth are to include the Duchess of Kent, Vice-President Nixon and no less a person than Dr. Cheddi Jagan of British Guiana.
-The week's top-ranking wayfarers, apart from Mr. Eban, have included the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh back from their state visit to Por- tugal; M. Mollet, the French Premier, has flown to Washington, where he is said to be trying to restrain the Arabist fervour of the Administra- tion; the Foreign Ministers of the Western Euro- pean Union countries meeting in London, where they have discussed, among other things, the pro- posed reductions in the British army in Germany; King Saud of Arabia, who has stopped off in Cairo on his way home from America to confer with President Nasser, King Hussein and Presi- dent Kuwatly; and Sir Anthony Eden, who has arrived in New Zealand.
There has been a fair amount of political way- faring going on at home, though it is sometimes a little difficult to see who is travelling with whom. The by-election scene, for example, gets more and more confused. Independents have raised their heads at Carmarthen and at Wednes- bury; two rival Conservative candidates have been thrown up at Newcastle. A very high- powered huddle took place at the weekend, when the Prime Minister's six most powerful colleagues joined him at Chequers.
Quite apart from the by-elections they must have had a fair amount to talk about. The doctors reacted violently against the Government plan to appoint a Royal Commission to inquire into their claim for a big increase in salaries, regarding it as an attempt to fob them off for another couple of years and threatening very menacingly to resign from the Health Service. This seems to have had the desired effect, for the Prime Minister has hinted that he may be prepared to give them an interim award while the Commission comes to its conclusions.
Averted, at least for the time being, was the strike called by the Amalgamated Engineering Union at Briggs Motor Works over the dismissal of a shop steward; neither side seemed likely to give way or to win until it was agreed to pay the man his wages without employing him, while an inquiry was held into the causes of the strike; this was described by the Minister of Labour as a victory for common sense. Whether common sense will work similar miracles at a colliery where 500 miners have struck in defence of a lady dismissed for making their tea too strong remains to be seen.
The Duke of Edinburgh has received the official title of Prince; the Pope has pronounced favour- ably on the use of anesthetics; the MCC has made radical proposals for brightening county cricket, including the restriction of leg-side fielders to five and the number of overs in a first innings to eighty-five; the large sum of f20,000 has been awarded against Kemsley Newspapers in a libel case.
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