— Portrait of the Week SPEAKING IN THE ORNATE grand ballroom
of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, the Prime Minister told a cheering audience of upper-echelon American businessmen that his government had a ten-point programme for Britain's industrial regeneration : 'Given the response of which our people are capable, we shall be ready to knock hell out of you.' On his return to England and immediate departure for a well-earned rest in the Scillies, Mr. Wilson was not so sure of the outcome of events in Vietnam. Full and frank discussion had been held with President Johnson, and the Prime Minister felt that the President's recent con- ciliatory speech 'for the first time held out a prospect of discussions which could lead to a peaceful settlement.' Other Labour MPs dis- agreed over Vietnam in a weekend of snow, hail, assorted demos, marches, speeches, assemblies, and amphetamine-loaded mod-rocker brawls at Brighton. Mr. Sydney Silverman said US action in Vietnam was 'a classic case of aggression,' while Mrs. Anne Kerr denounced the fighting as a 'filthy, bloody fascist war' launched by the US.
THE SLAUGHTER ON THE ROADS, with 109 people killed over the holiday period, continued un- abated. The railway unions asked for a £20 million pay increase; while Mr. Greene, general secretary of the National Union of Rail- waymen, made it clear that if the newly-created Prices and Incomes Board tried to interfere, it would 'go out of the window.' Mr. George Brown was away on holiday, not available for comment. Dr. Beeching's successor was named—Mr. Stanley Raymond—at £12,500 a year against Dr. Beech- ing's £24,000: which was one piece of good news for Mr. Brown. In Bulgaria a coup d'etat by a possibly pro-Chinese Communist dissident group was foiled when Soviet intelligence got wind of the plot.
AWAY FROM THE BIG PICTURE, it looked as if the coming winter season at Olympia will be the last appearance there for the Bertram Mills Circus; it was revealed in, Washington that Gus Grissom had smuggled (and consumed) a corned-beef sand- wich abroad Molly Brown,. the Gemini space- craft which carried him around the earth three times last month, so disrupting the elaborate pro- cess of flight medical requirements; , and Henry Cooper, British and Empire heavyweight champion, pulverised his opponent, Chip Johnson, within two minutes of the bell with a punch that moved only nine inches, incidentally providing what was indubitably the headline of the week : GOODBYE. MR. CHIPS.
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