—Portrait of the Week— IN WASHINGTON the Soviet Ambassador and
the United States Secretary of State resumed their talks about the Berlin situation—not before the American proposals and possible concessions had been let out and brooded over in Bonn, to the alarm of the West Germans and the annoyance of the Americans. In Geneva eight neutral powers put forward a compromise plan to end the dead- lock over the international control and inspection of nuclear tests, but it didn't look like commend- ing itself either to the Soviet Union or the West.
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oN THE EVE of the Easter holidays and the mass flight from the English climate BEA announced that it would have to lay off 3,000 men at London Airport because of a disputed pay claim, and that this might 'cause a certain amount of inconveni- ence' to travellers. The NUR, on the other hand, put off till the end of the month the calling-out of 10,000 members working at British Transport Commission docks and servicing English Channel and Irish Sea sailings. Family doctors were offered bonuses by the Ministry of rtealth for taking refresher courses, and compensation for keeping their lists of patients down to manage- able size. A former Conservative MP refused a life peerage and. a sitting Conservative MP, .in trouble with his constituency association, appar- ently because of his dedication to the Moral Re- Armament movement, said that he put his trust in Almighty God, Aberdeenshire and his fiancee. Mr. Woodrow Wyatt was told to stop advocating a Lib-Lab pact, and stopped, and Mr. Gaitskell said that it was time to begin to study the implica- tions of the Common Market and, presumably, began.
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THE THREE BIGGEST steel corporations in the United States cancelled price increases after the President had denounced them as being against the national interest, and the Defence Department had told contractors to ,buy their steel elsewhere. The New York stock Market dropped to its lowest level for month's consequence, and the Attorney-General' ordered 'a Grand Jury inquiry into the price increases. In Britain the shortage of potatoes continued : Alsatian dogs guarded six, hundred tons in a Manchester warehouse after thieves had hijacked a, lorry-load of them, and a Liberal MP put down a question in the House about the fines imposed on farmers for growing more than they were told to—a category which also includes potato-growers.
EX-GENERAL JOUHAUD, of the OAS, was condemned to death by a French military tribunal for 'organ- ising rebellion and crime.' President de Gaulle accepted M. Debres resignation as Prime Min- ister, and appointed in his place M. Pompidou, a banker, who belongs to no party and has never stood for Parliament or any other elected body. A former Prime Minister, M. Bidault, was said to have 'gone underground' in support of ex-General Satan and the OAS. Having solved the Algerian problem, President de Gaulle turned his attention to Monaco which, he said, must fall into fiscal line with France and stop encouraging inter- national firms to settle there, tax-free. To show that he meant it, he gave notice that he would abrogate the Franco-Monegasque good-neighbour treaty.
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ATV DROPPED one of the principal players from its series, Probation Officer: he was asking for more than £800 an appearance, or over £400 a week. The maximum salary for an untelevised principal probation officer is rather less than £20 a week, less still for each appearance. Sir Albert Richardson advocated the setting-up of a Ministry of Fine Art, with either Mr. Peter Thorneycroft or Field-Marshal Lord Alexander of Tunis as the
first Minister because, paid, too much planning was in the hands of 'du:Tel-coated pipsqueaks.'
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