Portrait of the Week— THERE WAS NO TRUTH in the
report that the Evening Standard was *about to 'reproduce its famous placard from' the MacDonald days, "Premier visits England,' but there might well have been. Mr. Macmillan, hardly back from Paris and Bonn, left for Washington on Tuesday night. Most of the international traffic had been the Other way; apart from Cirivas's triumphant return to Athens; Mr. John Stonchouse had arrived back in Britain, Mr. Susloy (of the Soviet Communist Party) con- tinued his tour, and Signor Pella (of the Italian Foreign Ministry) came on a visit. So did the Comedic Francaise. But in Central Africa nobody budged an inch.
PRESIDENT NASER said some ve,ry hard things about the Communists, particularly those in Iraq, and Mr. Khrushchev (though he is not in Iraq) retaliated by saying some very hard things about • .President Nasser. Since Mr. Khrushchev was speaking at the celebrations consequent upon the agreeing Of a Soviet loan to Iraq, the exchange added an ironic overtone to the debate in the House of Commons on Suez and the belated financial agreement with Egypt. This last out of the way, not to mention his talks with the remark- ably frank Dr. Adenauer (1 am not so completely mad as to think that I can influence British policy,' said the Chancellor), at which the usual complete unanimity had been discovered between irreconcil- able views, Mr. Macmillan left for 'Washington, where he will find President O'Kelly, of Ireland, getting over St. Patrick's Day.
IN NYASALAND, more people Were killed, all of them black,:...The situation was reported • to be getting more tense, despite (or because of) the elaborate plans for taking a 'show of strength' to the remoter villages of the Protectorate. In Northern:Rhodesia, the Territorials mobilised in panic a fortnight earlier were stood down, and here was a flare-up of violence; in Southern Rhodesia the police-state legislation proposed by Sir Roy .'Welensky ran into criticism from the churches;;.the 'opposition, and ev'en sotne of his supporter's. But there were no signs of second thoughts on his part. Meanwhile, Mr. John Stone- house, the celebrated prohibited immigrant, arrived back in 'Britain and almost immediately had some sharp things to say about the accuracy of Mr. Alport, who had attacked him in the House of Commons the week before. .
THE NATIONAL UNION OF itAd.wArNMN decided to put in a claim for an immediate and substantial increase in pay, andThe talks between the Printing. unions and the employers reached deadlock.' What with these items on the one hand, and the election' of another C7onununist (Mr. Will Payhter) to succeed Mr. Arthur Horner as General Secre- tary of • the National Union of Mineworkers on the other: the fact that there Was no major strike in progress anywhere in the country seemed likely to prove , a strictly temporary state of affairs. More news from the Labour front was that Mr.. Morgan Phillips had decided that after all he was. not putting up for the safe scat at North-East Derbyshire, Where the sitting member will not seek re-election. 91r Vincent Tewson was immediately operated on for appendicitis, but it is not thought that the two incidents were connected. Unemploy-
ment fell by 58,000. •
Previous page
