Portrait of the Week
VENUS WAS SHOT AT: de Gaulle was shot at too. President Kennedy showed that Russia does not have a lap start in the space race when an Ameri- can rocket set out hotfoot for Venus, 141 million miles away. Fears that the rocket—due to pass Venus in mid-December—would be 600,000 miles off target were unfounded. President de Gaulle last week survived a hail of assassin's bullets for the second time: no arrests were made, and none are likely. President Nasser spoke 01 taking Egypt out of the Arab League, in dis- gust at being described as 'the common insulter' by King Saud. The main international cats were away on holiday: so the political mice did play. Abroad, two boatloads of students shelled Havana —no lives were lost, only face. Cuban exiles claimed a moral victory : Cuba claimed the attack was a 'cowardly invasion by imperialism.' At home, the mice had a field day. Dr. Soblen had his month's holiday in Brixton Prison ended by the High Court, though appeals prevent his being carried home yet. The blind mice gathered in force in London, where the True Tories, the Keep Britain Great brigade, the Forward Britain stal- warts et al. crowded into a half-empty Albert Hall to complain about the Common Market: faint heart, they said, never won fair treaty. Major- General Hilton, True Tories' chairman, asked appealingly. 'What would Sir Francis Drake have thought of all this?' Can anyone think of an Elizabethan expletive?
ALGERIA ATROPHIED; Berlin bubbled; the Congo crumbled. Ben Bella acknowledged the Algerian chaos, by announcing that the September 2 elec- tions will not be held then, if at all. The recently formed Politburo and the Army elements con- tinued in-fighting for power, and the Army was having the better of the clinches. Tension in Berlin did not lessen, though the West urged discussions. Tension in the Congo is building up. The UN awaits President Tshombe's reply to its virtual ultimatum: Britain, still hoping to pre- vent any use of force against Katanga, gave her very qualified assent to U Thant's proposals: in Other words, a 'definite maybe.' And Mr. Sam Goldwyn, who coined this and similar ungram- matical epigrams, celebrated his eightieth birth- day this week. Exports rose by 4 per cent. in June: so did deaths on the roads. Far from rising are hopes of a test-ban treaty, though America and Britain joined in offering Russia a choice of treaties. But the seventeen-nation disarmament talks at Geneva will peter out on September 8 with only five months of deadlock to show for their labours. Deadlock also in the London docks, where three thousand lightermen abandoned work. In Naples almost one million abandoned everything when earth tremors caused panic- stricken stampedes for safety. There were tremors in Accra too as President Ntcrumah arrested two °I! his ministers including the egregious Mr. tadamatio.
TUE REST OF THE NEWS WAS FLOTSAM left by the receding tide. From erk to earl—Lord Winterton died, to be succeeded by a fourth cousin, once removed, a flight sergeant in the Canadian Air ,.,1"°rce. Hardly a festival atmosphere for Dr. neeching in Edinburgh, for redundancy-fearing railwaymen gave him a rowdy welcome. And the film Tsar to Stalin was withdrawn from the Festi- val proper for fear of offending Russia; but cen- sorship can have the wrong effect—the three nudes censored from an exhibition in Bradford were returned to display, and attendances at once snot up sixfold. In New York policemen have been working 'Operation Decoy,' impersonating women to catch criminals:in four days fifty-nine men were arrested on charges of purse-snatching or attempted rape. And how many
have been
charged with rape?
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