PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
While Mr Wilson denounced 'alehouse gossip' in the City of London, and Mr Heath said there might well be an election in 1969, Lord Robens and Mr Duncan Sandys repeated their calls for a coalition government. So did The Times, while denying that its original leader oh the subject had been written by Mr David Frost. Labour backbenchers called for Lord Robens's resignation.
Mrs Castle successfully persuaded leaders of the building trade unions to abandon their de- mand for a penny an hour cost-of-living in- crease instead of forcing her to freeze the whole of the 3id an hour increase they had negotiated with the employers. On Monday it was an- nounced that trade union leaders, meeting with leaders of industry and economic ministers at Chequers, had reluctantly accepted the Prime Minister's offer of a 31- per cent growth rate in 1969. But this they subsequently denied: they were sticking to their call for a 6 per coat growth rate instead. The Treasury, planning for 24- per cent, kept mum.
The Divorce Reform Bill, helped along by the Government's 'neutral' promise of extra time, won its second reading in the House of Commons by 183 votes to 106; more than half the House evaded the issue by not voting. An eleven year old girl was sentenced to deten- tion for life at Newcastle on two charges of manslaughter.
Mr Nixon's cabinet of old friends had a mixed reception, and the count-down began for the first (American) manned flight round the moon. M Couve de Murville, the French Prime Minister, warned French students against causing trouble, and riot police stood guard round the Paris University extension at Nan- terre, where the May 'troubles' began.
In Ulster Capt Terence O'Neill won a hand- some vote of confidence from his par- liamentary party, but the death of the Unionist MP for Mid-Ulster threatened the Conservative party at Westminster with the only by-election it is likely to lose at the present time. Admiral Beatty was posthumously accused of cooking the books about the Battle of Jutland, but his seven year old grandson sprang to his defence. Mr Andrew Cowan won the London to Sydney marathon car race in a Hillman Hunter. Miss Tallulah Bankhead died in New York, and Mr David Jacobs, lawyer to the Beatles and many other theatrical personalities, was found dead in his Brighton garage.
Students and nurses tried to stage a sit-in at the House of Commons, and departed after a pep-talk from Admiral Gordon-Lennox, the Sergeant-at-Arms. Rolf Hochhuth's controver- sial play Soldiers opened in London to some critical acclaim, although Mr Winston Char-. chill denounced the play's attack on his grand- father. At Newbiggin-by-the-Sea it rained five-pound notes.
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