PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
Pressure on the franc increased as Frenchmen swarmed across the borders to buy German marks, in spite of official denials that Germany would revalue. The Group of Ten finance ministers met in Bonn to discuss what, if any- thing, could be done to avoid devaluation of the franc and financial chaos all round. M Couve de Murville announced cuts of £170 million in the French budget. Sterling plunged as usual, and the prospect of further domestic squeezes grew. The Government's proposals to reform the House of Lords appeared to have no friends outside the two front benches in the Commons.
The Italian cabinet resigned. Fire in a Glas- gow warehouse burned twenty people to death. Another in a Brighton hotel killed seven people and resulted in a charge of arson against one of the hotel porters. Mr Powell made another of his speeches on the race issue to Rotarians in Eastbourne.
Mr Thomson, newly returned from Salisbury, announced that no settlement could be reached on Rhodesia for the moment. Chileans in national costume sang `Will Ye No' Come Back Again?' to the Queen during her triumphant tour of South America. Policemen used pick handles to smash the windows of a car near Luton under the mistaken impression that there were armed criminals inside. One of the occu- pants, Miss Janice Eaves, eighteen, was taken to hospital. Three people died in a gas blow-
out off the Norfolk coast before a man arrived from Texas to plug it up again. A married man was charged with the murder of Christine Darby.
No further news from Biafra, but there were rumours that the Biafrans were reaching the end of their supplies of carbohydrate foods in addition to their chronic shortage of proteins. Mr Stewart repeated that he could see no reason to stop supplying arms to the Nigerians. The Bishop of Exeter urged a simplified wed- ding service for divorced people, conducted on a 'penitential note' to re-emphasise Christ's teaching about marriage as a lifelong union. The Labour party produced a dictionary of its achievements, price 6d.
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