Portrait of the Week— IN HIS LATEST last-minute step before
a UDI Mr. Ian Smith wrote to Mr. Wilson asking for independence on the 1961 constitution and offer- ing a solemn guarantee that the constitution would be respected. It seemed like an open bid to end the British. bi-partisan approach to eco- nomic sanctions. Mr. Edward Heath saw some hope of renewing the negotiations. Mr. Wilson sent an interim reply and went to see the Queen, Promising a full reply on Thursday. Mr. Smith's search for British sympathy was hardly helped, however, by the restriction order served on ex- Prime Minister Garfield Todd, who was about to come to Britain to take part in a Rhodesia teach-in.
STUDENT PROTESTS AGAINST America's Vietnam Policy were organised across the United States, and a similar demonstration outside the American embassy in London led to seventy-eight arrests. Meanwhile, US jets destroyed a surface-to-air missile site north-east of Hanoi. President John- son's convalescence after his gall-bladder operation Was going to be a slower process than had been hoped. it was announced, although he went for a mile walk on Tuesday. Britain lent India £10 million free of interest, and also announced plans to protect the cotton industry.
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THE MOTOR SHOW OPENED, full of dazzling Con- sumer goods, and fog and crashes closed down the MI and the M4 for a time. A Russian scientist 'ought asylum in London, and a Hungarian diplo- mat in London sought asylum with the Americans. Mr. Brezhnev went to Prague, and so did Lord Snowdon, and it was announced that the Prince of Wales will spend a term at a hearty Australian school next year. In Glasgow a witness was jailed for thirty days because he was ninety minutes late for a trial, Esso took over the Italian Agip petrol company, thus adding a six-legged beast to the tiger already in its tank, and ICI announced a new Plan to give manual workers the same status and benefits as-salaried staff. The TUC asked for fur- Mer talks with four unions over their pay claims, and the Bristol dockers voted to go back to work on Monday.
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PRP•Sti FROM HIS SUCCESSFUL SPEECH at the close of the Tory conference, Mr. Heath confided that he did not expect an election just yet. Politicians verYwhere began to limber up for the return to Westminster and the long winter ahead: others, tr, looked into the future, with the Iron and Steel _erderation predicting a 'recession' soon, and the ,t 'fish Field Sports Society buoyantly forecasting that more people would ride to hounds next month than at any time since the war.
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