Portrait of the Week THE meeting of NATO Heads of
Government in Paris ended, as it began, with a great many colourless generalities. It was possible, however, to gather from the vast length of the final communiqué that a certain amount had been accomplished. It was agreed in principle that nuclear weapons and missiles should be made available on the Continent. There was fairly general agreement that the time is ripe for, an- other attempt to talk to Russia; this in spite of a somewhat ill-timed article by Mr. Dulles in Life magazine stating that any parley with Russia was doomed from the start by a dictum of Lenin's that 'promises are like pie-crusts, made to be broken.' On the economic front it was determined that more aid to the under- developed countries would be a good thing and that a more liberal trade policy by America would be no bad thing either.
These results have disappointed such diverse parties as some American Congressmen who have concluded that Mr. Dulles is not up to his job, the six Suez rebels in the House of Commons who consider that Britain is giving up too much of her sovereignty if she allows missile bases to be planted in Scotland (as has been mooted) and the Opposition who succeeded in mauling Mr. Selwyn Lloyd pretty badly in the foreign affairs debate in Parliament. However, Mr. Bevan, who led the attack, found himself hampered by stresses inside the party and nothing much was made of it.
All this has naturally not been allowed to pass without some comment from the Kremlin. Messrs. Khrushchev and Gromyko took advan- tage of the almost simultaneous meeting of the Supreme Soviet to say that a 'summit' meeting is just about due and also that the status qu ought to be recognised; all this in addition to M Bulganin's NATO Christmas cards last.week an a letter from Mr. K. to the New Statesman. j President Eisenhower appears to have stool the strain of the meeting well enough in spit of the presence of numerous vultures looking fo signs of approaching dissolution. He has returner to brood over the report of the Gaither Com mittee which has advised him on the relative strengths. of Russia and the West. From leakec accounts of their conclusions he has a good dea to worry about, for they concluded, apparently that America stood in `the greatest peril of iti history' and that unless vast sums were .spent or defence and anti-Communist measures 'inevitably catastrophe' threatened.
In Cyprus Sir Hugh Foot has released a hun• dred detainees in time for Christmas with corre sponding good effect on Cypriot morale. Arch. bishop Makarios leaving America after a pro longed stay complained bitterly of United State: neutrality on the issue. The second millenary of the death of Cicero has been celebrated with some pomp in Rome. Students of Mainz Uni• versity will wear beards this winter in dis.
• approval of their Rector.
The Commons have departed for Christmaf with a bad end-of-term report. However, before the recess the Government succeeded in winning its foreign affairs debate and raising the salaries of senior executives on Public Boards. The Bank rate leak tribunal has finished its hearings. The executors of Bernard Shaw's will have offered £500 to anyone who will devise a new British alphabet. A statue of Earl Balfour is to be erected, and Lord Salisbury has been appointed chairman of the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England).
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