The Week
South Africa's worst riots ever continued for six days, with more than 140 deaths.
he Police Commissioner in charge said, Next time we will use tougher methods'. Mr Vorster, the South African Prime Minister, demanded that order should be kept at all costs' before flying to Germany to meet Dr Kissinger, who himself had come from the OECD meeting in Paris. At that meeting the Assistant Secretary to the United States Treasury, Mr Parsky, said that tthe United Kingdom would have to Change its economic policy to regain international confidence.
President Ephraim Katzir of Israel visted London, staying at the Dorchester. He left Shortly before the hotel was bought by an Arab consortium for £9.5 million. Iran bought I 0 per cent of Occidental Petroleum. President Giscard d'Estaing of France arrived in London on a state visit. He and the Queen exchanged mutual protestations of friendship, and promised to forget old rivalries. Bing Crosby began a two-week season in London.
The Government and the Opposition be-. gall to repair their differences. The ban on Pairing, which would have prevented Ministers from joining the French President at the °Dem, was relaxed. The Government promised a re-run of the shipbuilding Bill, but not until it had picked up a supporter at the Rotherham by-election. Lady Castle accused Mr James Callaghan of 'trying to delete the truth'. Unemployment rose to 1.3 Million, the rate of inflation fell to 15 per cent and the growth rate of the money suPPly also fell back. Both the pound and the FT index were steady. A Chief Superintendent at the Lesley Whittle murder trial said that the police came out of the affair 'in a poor light'. 'Judge McKinnon said that a girl who had been seduced under the age of consent had 'lad 'a thoroughly satisfactory experience'. Representative Wayne Hays resigned from the Congressional Administration Commitre. A tax inspector claimed that he had
und his wife half-clad with Lord Aylestone, who was naked.
The Italian election result produced a stalemate: the Christian Democrats held their place with 38 per cent of the vote, the Communists increased their share to 33 per cent. Neither could form a government alone. The Syrians withdrew from the Lebanon as the joint Arab peace-keeping f°rce arrived. Fighting in Beirut continued as usual. The American Navy evacuated 260 refugees. A state of emergency was proclaimed in Jamaica. 'Colonel Callan' announced in court in Angola that he was ready to die.
A dazzling assembly ofextreme moderates, described as the Great and Good, formed an all-part National Committee for Electoral Reform, with the aim of making political life more moderate and thereby bringing about the 'regeneration of Britain'. Mr John 'I'm a bastard' Pardoe continued to gabble inanely, claiming that he would 'build a racing machine which will outstrip the other parties'. An American actor, Mr Robert Wagner, won substantial damages in a libel action against Reveille. The chairman of the jury in the suit in which Mr Telly Savalas had won £34,000 from the Daily Mai/ said that he and his fellow jurors had had no idea how to assess damages.
Gunmen raided the Hilton. A British Airways driver claimed that a Heathrow traffic warden had bitten a piece out of his finger. A Swedish yachtsman was jailed for 180 days for breaking the animal quarantine laws. A Turner painting was sold in London for £.374,000. Two dozen GIs on exercise in Germany had their rations spiked with LSD.
Ascot week had a farcical end when Joe Mercer, unwittingly under suspension, rode a winner in front of the stewards who had stood him down. John H. Stracey lost his world welter-weight title to Carlos Palomino when the fight was stopped in the twelfth round. The All Blacks began a controversial tour of South Africa. English lawn tennis players fell one after another at Wimbledon. The second Test ground, like the first, to a dispiriting draw, with neither England nor the West Indies making any obvious effort to win. But the week saw one remarkable example of what you can do if you really try: Mr Norman Scott's girl-friend had a baby.
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