— Portrait of the Week— THOSE FEW who had hoped until
the very last minute that the Prime Minister was only teasing had the smiles wiped off their face: Lord Home really did become Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. Earlier Mr. Derek Walker-Smith had resigned as Minister of Health, and Mr. Roy Jenkins abdicated his Front Bench, position as the Opposition's' No. 2 spokesman on economic affairs : he disagreed with Mr. Wilson's and Mr. Healey's doubts about the wisdom of joining the Common Market. Both Mr. Heathcote Amory and Mr. Lennox Boyd Joined Lord Home in the House of Lords and Mr. Walker Smith accepte I a baronetcy.
RIOTING BROKE OUT IN SALISBURY (Southern Rhodesia) and Bulawayo after the arrest of African leaders, and police opened fire on the rioters. Mr. Garfield Todd, former Prime Ministcr of Southern Rhodesia, and Mr. Joshua Nkomo, former leader of the African Congress Move- ment, asked the British Government to withdraw its support of an unjust and undemocratic Government and for British troops to intervene, suspend the constitution and maintain order dur- ing 'the establishment of democratic rule.' British troops were, in fact, flown out in that direction, but to Kenya, to 'reinforce the strategic reserve' there. The African National Union declared this to be provocative. The Nyasaland constitutional conference opened in London and listened to an ultimatum from Dr. Banda and an attack on him as 'a self-seeker' by Mr. Chinyama. Also in Lon- don, outside the Ritz Sir Edward Asafu-Adjaye, the Ghana High Commissioner, was struck by demonstrators who may have mistaken him for Mr. Lumutrba, the Congolese Prime Minister. Mr. Lumumba later visited New York and issued a Joint statement with the Secretary-General of the United Nations, stating that peace in the Congo was 'conditioned on the immediate depar- ture of Belgian troops.' An official statement by
I I the Katanga Ministry of the Interior that two
I Russian spies had been arrested was later modi-
,. fied : it wasn't two but one; he wasn't a Russian
1: but an Austrian; he wasn't a spy but a motor mechanic; and he hadn't been arrested.
THE SECURITY COUNCIL rejected by nine votes to two a Soviet condemnation Of the United States for the RB47 incident, and the Soviet Union vetoed a United States propokal to set up an international commission of inquiry. Mr. Cabot Lodge said that a Russian trawler had been spy- ing on American submarines in American waters, and the United States demanded the withdrawal °I a third secretary at the Soviet Embassy who had been buying aerial photographs of naval installations. Mr. Eisenhower challenged Mr. Khrushchev to a world popularity contest, and Mr. Nelson Rockefeller made it clear that he would not oppose Mr. Nixon for the Republican nomination.
• •
'CIE AVERAGE WEEKLY EARNINGS of men in British industry in the last pay week in April was announced as having been £14 2s. Id., as against £13 I Is. Id. in October. Whether the money went as far seemed doubtful, for bank loans had gone 11P since then by £99 million. Average weekly hours of work went down from 48.5 tond unemployment went down too, for the first Vme since 1957.
ABROAD THE GREAT PARIS couturiers showed their autumn and winter collections: Balmain gave his Camelhair suit, buttoned and bowed, with a mink-lined coat over all, the appropriately exotic and sumptuous name of `Manchester; Dior boosted" the Chianti-bottle line with waists 'half Way down the thigh.' and Ricci announced that the bust is narrow, flat and rectangular, and is rarely seen before evening.'
Previous page
