PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
General de Gaulle resigned as President of France and Capt O'Neill as Prime Minister of Northern Ireland. The first two candidates for the French Presidency to declare themselves were M Pompidou, the former Prime Minister, and M Gaston Defferre, socialist mayor of Marseilles. Herr Franz Josef Strauss said that there might be a revaluatioff of the deutsche- mark provided other countries devalued at the same time and the franc and the pound came under pressure. In Ulster, it was a straight fight between Mr Brian Faulkner and Mr James Chichester-Clark. Miss Bernadette Devlin, newly elected MP for Mid-Ulster, re- ceived four summonses alleging breach of the peace during the Derry riots. Mr John Silkin Was replaced as Government Chief Whip by Mr Robert Mellish, who said the Government would have to go to the country if defeated on. the promised trade union Bill, and Mr Wilson announced the formation of yet another Inner cabinet. The Labour rebels were unim- pressed. A twenty-four-hour unofficial strike affecting national newspapers was announced
in celebration of May Day and in protest against Mrs Castle's Industrial Relations Bill.
The Federal government of Nigeria ad- mitted that Biafran troops had recaptured Owerri. America announced a quarterly trade deficit for the first time in nineteen years. President Saragat of Italy made a state visit to England, and signed a declaration assuring the world of the high esteem in which the two countries held each other. In China, Marshal Lin Piao warned his countrymen to be pre- pared for nuclear war with both America and Russia. Israeli commandos raided Egypt. Mr Tony Lee was officially removed from his post in Anguilla, thereby settling the controversy as to Mr Stewart's meaning when he denied that this would happen. In Sweden, authors invaded the public libraries of Stockholm and stripped them of books, in protest against the 'farcically low' royalty of a penny a book borrowed.
An independent tribunal was announced to hear appeals against dismissal by two LSE lec- turers. The House of Commons decided to refer to its Committee of Privileges the reported dis- ruption,by Essex university students of a Par- liamentary select committee meeting in the university, and a stink bomb interrupted a Greater London Council meeting. A private nursing home in Maidstone had its approval to carry out abortions withdrawn after inquiries by the Department of Social Security. The Monopolies Commission recommended a sub- stantial relaxation of the licensing law. A plan to redevelop Harley Street was scrapped, and Eastbourne's medical officer of health objected to 'dramatic life-saving efforts' for people over eighty. Labour's fortunes continued to drop in all the opinion polls.
The Horse Race Betting Levy Board bid £1,130,000 for the company controlling Epsom racecourse and the Newmarket stewards ordered a dope test after the hot favourite, Ribofilio, came in last in the 2,000 Guineas. Balls of fire were seen moving across the Eng- lish skies; strange objects were reported to have landed in an Ulster bog and on a Welsh hill- side, but nothing was found. Astrologers inter- preted them as a good omen for Mr Wilson. policy on the entry of Britain into the Com- mon Market, he would at least probably drop the refusal to negotiate—and not just because the present monetary situation requires the closest possible cooperation with all the friends of France.
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