—Portrait of the Week— FAIR AND SOFTLY PASSETH LENT; the
weather over the Easter holiday was not quite as bad as could reasonably have been expected, and the same could be said for the traffic-jams. The Aldermaston march for nuclear disarmament arrived in Trafal- gar Square 15,000 strong, and the Dalai Lama; apparently attempting to arrive in India, found difficulties on both sides of the border. The Treasury closed its books for the year L377 million to the good, and the Economic Survey announced that 'The Government's policy is to do all it can to foster expansion.'
THE NEWS FROM TIBET was as confused and un- certain as any follower of the adventures of Dingi-Poos and Colonel Egham could have wished. The Dalai Lama was reported to have escaped from his Chinese pursuers, and to be making for asylum in India or Bhutan (the latter venue was said to have the enthusiastic support of Mr. Nehru). The Chinese, still maintaining that the Lama had been abducted by the rebels, sent strong forces after him, but after unconfirmed reports that he had been injured in a fall on the mountainside, he was still apparently at large. Meanwhile, the Chinese occupying forces began to play the Hun- garian Rhapsody for firing-squad (with the Panchen Lama playing t4e Kadar) and a group of Tibetan refugees who had managed to reach India appealed to Mr. Nehru for help. It did not appear likely that they would get it.
* THE EASTER PARADE, which nowadays goes from Aldermaston to Trafalgar Square rather than along Rotten Row, got off to a fine start with over 2,000 marchers. These did not include Dr. Edith Summerskill, who withdrew from the march on the grounds that members of the Direct Action Committee for Nuclear Disarmament had been urging people not to vote for the Labour candidate in the South-West Norfolk by-election (which he won, with an increased majority), The procession grew as it approached London, and 9,000 set out from Turnham Green on the last day's march, increasing until 15.000 entered Trafalgar Square to the sound of a drum beating out the Morse Code equivalent of N D.
* THE SOVIET UNION suddenly agreed to a meeting of Foreign Ministers on May 11 and in Geneva, but what precisely they (or we) would be pro- posing ,there had long since been buried in t'he pile of suggestions, counter-suggestions, Notes, resolu- tions, chntarches, broadcasts, speeches, headlines, leading articles and well-informed circles, On the whole, it was considered likely that one of the things that would not be discussed there was the 'buzzing' by the Russians of an American air-liner on its way to Berlin, which it was alleged had violated the 10,000-ft. 'ceiling' agreed on for air- craft on the Berlin route. Since no such 'ceiling' existed, the Americans were put out, and said so. with little practical effect. But the incident' pro- vided another warning of the hazards attendant upon any new airlift to a beleaguered Berlin.
* IN MONGOLIA AND BYEI 011.1-SIA there were incidents which indicated that Britain was not the only country that. has trouble with her colonies; purges and reprimand's were freely distributed. The war in Algeria, which had been very much out of the headlines for some time, perked up again with renewed fighting, during which one of the chief Algetian rebel leaders was ah'bushed and killed.
* THE NUCLEAR-POWERED American suhmarine, Skate, made another voyage under the Polar ice- cap, pushing its way up to the surface every now and again to see what the weather was like, and Oxford made a quicker 'voyage from Putney to Mortlake than Cambridge.
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