PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
A force of 315 paratroops and forty British Bobbies landed without resistance on the tiny Caribbean island of Anguilla which had had the impudence to secede from the British-made federation of St Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla. Mr Stewart claimed, however, that he had no in- tention of forcing Anguilla back into the federa- tion, and Foreign Office spokesmen claimed that the operation arose from concern over the alleged possibility of gambling on the island and the criminal elements which it might attract. Mr Harold Wilson announced his intention to visit Lagos. Ilms 'Fearless' was dispatched there, and Mr Wilson was rumoured to be seeking General Gowon's permission to meet Colonel Ojukwu, the Biafran leader. It was announced that Sir David Hunt would retire from his post as High Commissioner in Lagos some time dur- ing the early summer, after nearly twice the normal term of duty.
The Ford strike ended after three and a half weeks. Financial penalties for unofficial strike action, in the form of reduced bonuses, stayed in the final settlement. This year's farm price review gave the farmers £34 million to meet in- creased costs of f40 million; they were advised to make up the difference by greater efficiency, and the National Farmers' Union thought this was cheese-paring. The Building Societies Association decided to increase the mortgage rate from 7: per cent to a record 81 per cent. Arguments followed as to whether Mr George Brown had actually promised that a Labour government would reduce them to 3 per cent.
In Vietnam, a big American counter-offensive was launched to forestall a communist assault on Saigon. Incidents proliferated' on the border between Russia and China. President Nixon decided to adopt a modified version of the Sentinel anti-ballistic missile system, where- by nuclear missile sites would be protected but not cities. Artillery fire continued across the Suez Canal, as Mrs Golda Meir, the new Israeli Prime Minister, offered to go to Amman for peace talks with King Hussein.
The report of the Board of Trade inquiry into
the existence of rings at art auctions was de- clared secret on the advice of Sir Elwyn Jones, who thought that certain material in it might be defamatory. The Longhope lifeboat, from the island of Hoy in the Orkneys, was lost with all hands. Yorkshire's commercial television went off the air when its transmitting mast, the highest in Europe, fell down. George Harrison of the Beatles and his wife were remanded on bail at Walton-on-Thames magistrates' court, charged with possessing cannabis resin. The Brighton Corporation Bill, enabling the road construction necessary for the Brighton Marina scheme, already passed by Parliament. was de- feated by sixty votes to fifty-six in the House of Commons. The Cunard company prepared a substantial damages claim against the builders of the 'Queen Elizabeth 2.'
The Rt Rev David Cashman, Roman Catho- lic Bishop of Arundel and Brighton, apologised to the League Against Cruel Sports for having said that shooting pheasants was 'the nearest thing to heaven in human terms that I know.'
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