—Portrait of the Week
'ROYAL SCHOOL ALERTED' led the Daily Mail on Tuesday as the typhoid wave threatened to spread to Gordonstoun. Aberdeen's schools meanwhile were closed and the city all but sealed off. Each new statement that the worst was over was fol- lowed by fresh alarms and suspects. Two ratings from the submarine Rorqual were admitted to hospital, Dr. MacQueen, the Aberdeen health officer, was publicly criticised for unnecessary secrecy, and in Parliament Mr. Michael Noble, Secretary of State for Scotland, announced a public inquiry and that the Government were withdrawing from supply two brands of corned beef. The Financial Times, however, foresaw a serious corned beef shortage.
PARLIAMENT RESUMED to face other serious questions also. Mr. Sandys described indignities to British troops and residents in Cyprus, said he wished that British troops weren't there but that they were going to stay. Mr. Bevins, the Postmaster-General, spoke about commercial radio and said the BBC might put out a con- tinuous programme of light and pop music; `piracy' continued, but Mr. Bevins preferred to wait for the Report of the Council of Europe on wavelengths before acting. Mr. Stuart Hood, programme controller of BBC TV, chose this unfortunate moment to announce his resignation to go to a similar job with Rediffusion.
*- OUTSIDE PARLIAMENT Lord Dithorne, the Lord Chancellor, announced that in future alt magis- trates would have to be trained; Mr. Marples gave notice of what amount to the highest park- ing fees in the world for London parking meters; gold reserves went up by £17 million; and the Tory Party is accepting aid from individual mem- bers of Mr. Edward Martell's Freedom Group in an effort to unseat Mr. Wilson. Mr. Wilson himself went to Moscow, talked to Mr. Khrushchev of a nuclear arms freeze and dis- engagement in Central Europe and confirmed that the Russians still don't like the plans for a NATO mixed-manned fleet.
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IN INDIA Mr. Shastri was unanimously accepted by Congress as Mr. Nehru's .successor; in the Californian Republican presidential primary Nelson Rockefeller's chances suddenly dipped and Senator Goldwater won by a narrow major- ity; in British Guiana Mrs. Cheddi Jagan re- signed from her husband's government in pro- test at police discrimination against Indians; and in the Congo, rebel activities started up again, just soon enough, perhaps, to ensure that the UN force will stay. American officials and ambassadors gathered in Honolulu for a full-scale review of South-East Asia while China rejected British proposals for preliminary meetings in Laos before resummoning all the powers behind the Geneva Convention. Members of the EEC disagreed about association with Spain and a Communist took a seat from the Gaullists in a French by-election.
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SANTA CLAUS, one of the few racing tips ever given by this paper (Spectator, December 6, 1963), won the Derby: the Australians went into the first Test match just saved by rain from a possible defeat by Lancashire, and the England football team lost 5-1 to Brazil, its heaviest defeat for six years. Miss Phyllis Dixey, the strip queen, died in her home; Ringo Star col- lapsed with suspected tonsilitis; and Miss Helen Shapiro was engaged to Nick Crouch, leading guitarist of the Liverpool Mojos, then wasn't. Mr. Angus Ogilvy, however, agreed to become honorary financial adviser to Centre 42.
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