Portrait of the Week
A JOINT statement by the British Prime Minister and the Russian leaders brought the Khrushchev-Bulganin visit to this country to a close, and probably provided the most significant political news of the week, in spite of the rather Crushing remark made by Dr. Adenauer at the congress of the Christian Democratic party. He is reported to have said that the statement was perfect bf its kind, since it was long and Contained nothing. Rather more absorbing than the results of the talks has been the question of who said what to whom at the dinner which Labour Party leaders gave to the Soviet leaders. A delegation headed by Mr. Gaitskell waited on them at Claridge's, presumably to do some patching- 11,13 of rather moth-eaten relations, but the attacks delivered on the Labour Party by Marshal Bulganin and Mr. Khrushchev on their return to Russia seem to indicate that the criticisms h. ad gone home. The Labour leaders were described as 'curry- ing favour with reactionary circles'; what Sir Anthony Eden was doing in that case was not stated.
However, if co-existence took a beating at the Labour Party dinner, Marshal Zhukov's pacific speech at the Soviet May Day Parade in Red Square indicates that it is still official Russian Policy. In East Germany and Poland there have been more releases of political prisoners. Against this there is the failure to reach agreement on disarmament, which led the Prime Minister "3 say that the discussions were in 'a certain tangled state.' 1,,„In the Middle East the efforts of Mr. Hammarskjbld, the `s-'1N Secretary-General, have been crowned by a modicum of uccess. Israel and Egypt have both agreed to a proposal for further UN observation posts and mobile patrols in the area t,„"tile Gaza strip. Cyprus, however, continues to provide its u of violence. The suggestion made in a Greek Cypriot news- PaPer. Phos, that influential citizens should get together to dinand a truce has met with no response, while there have .en more outrages. The Archbishop of Canterbury, who eicently expressed his concern about the imprisonment of Arch- bishop Makarios, was attacked by members of the Government over the weekend and explained in a statement that he had not be ant to insinuate that there were any differences of opinion `ween the Colonial Secretary and the Prime Minister. In Algeria the repercussions of the flight to Cairo of Ferhat Abbas, the leader of CDMA (the more moderate Algerian nationalist party) have not yet made themselves felt. But it is apparent that the fellagha movement is not diminishing and is now likely to be endowed with a more effective political leadership. In France itself the Poujadists have been holding their national congress at St. Cere, their leader's native town. M. Poujade in-his opening speech demanded the calling of `States-General,' an ambiguous concept which he has not so far elaborated in sufficient detail to enable any very clear idea to be formed of what he means by it. In Spain there have been widespread strikes with 40,000 men out in Bilbao alone. In Burma the Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League has lost ground in country areas in the elections, while still retaining a majority in Parliament. In Nepal King Mahendra's coronation has taken place with the pomp traditional to that monarchy.
At home there is a row over the appointment of Mr. Gerard D'Erlanger to be Chairman of BOAC. Protests have now been made at a meeting representing six thousand BOAC staff, and their attitude has not been affected by the appointment of Mr. Basil Smallpeice as managing director or the retention of Lord Rennell on the board of the corporation. These troubles are rubbed home by the news that the sister organisation, BEA, has made a profit of £500,000 in the last year. Other industrial troubles have been taking place in Coventry, where 11,000 workers from Standard's are out over automation. The AEU have voted for a 40-hour week and everything else that you can think of. Field-Marshal Montgomery has tried to make our flesh creep about civil defence, but there is no evidence that he has succeeded.
The only notable death this week has been that of Senator Barkley. An Etruscan vase with a band depicting the war of the gods and the giants has been found at Spira in the Po delta, and the empty sarcophagus of Neferu Ptah has posed•a riddle to archeologists. The National Gallery has acquired an important Delacroix, and Sir Winston Churchill has been made Grand Seigneur of the Hudson's Bay Company: Exactly what the droits de seigneur are on this occasion remains obscure.
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