— Portrait of the Week
A DEPRESSING WEEK for trade unionism, with Brighton setting too many springes to catch Woodcock. The TUC general secretary's silent prayers against wild Hills and rough uneven ways of wrecking an incomes policy hid from public view the gloomiest news of the week. TUC attempts to reform union structure have floundered. Meanwhile the only remaining mem- ber of the Union of Port Workers decided to sue the Port of London Authority. Also in the realms of the inexplicable was the Home Secretary's umpteenth rejection of an opportunity to show humanity. Asked to release from prison a preg- nant girl who disobeyed a court order, he decided he could brook none of this. More amusing were police attempts to find £2 million and the two dozen participants in the Mail Robbery. Mailbags were found in the sea, and curtains left at Leatherslade Farm seem to have come from an Army establishment, increasing the number of suspects by 160,000 at one blow.
MR. notnicruit. offered non-union jobs to printers, but it is still possible Dr. Martelli may lose his at Euratom. Two plans were post- poned: the proposed Piccadilly development was rejected by the Ministry of Housing after two years' consideration, and Mr. King promised that the Daily Herald would stay until after the next election. The depressing news that Britain is to have thirty days of heavy rain was countered by the hint that The Mousetrap is to run for at least another twelve months. Labour politicians tried to prevent the party's annual back-biting contest, and George Brown was praised by the Beavcrbrook press just when his popularity was on the increase. Mr. Wilson in HambLirg denied that he was anti-German, but succeeded in up- setting West German Socialists nevertheless, even after the more controversial parts of his speech had been removed. In the statistics department, gold and dollar reserves fell but really rose, road deaths rose by 9 per cent in June, and Britons drank 155 pints of beer each last year. Louis Mac- Neice and Guy Burgess died. Radio Free Scot- land is to take up the claymore again and an ad- vertisement in a Birmingham paper asked for a man of 'tearaway disposition' for the 'out of the ordinary' job of murdering the advertiser's wife.
TILE HOT LINE began operation, but the hottest line just now remains the mutual mud-slinging between the Russian and Chinese press. izvestia attacked the Chinese People's Daily for printing 'slanderous inventions of the rubbish of the anti- Communist press,' apparently objecting to the latter's depiction of Mr. Khrushchev as a 'pitiable creature' who spoke 'the spittle of imperialists and renegades.' Also playing chicken, the United States and EEC seemed about to settle their trade war scare before any shots were fired. As a further worry for President Kennedy, President de .Gaulle cryptically offered help to South Vietnain, little of it financial. Down went peace hopes in the Yemen, with U Thant pleading for a longer UN mandate, in Kenya, where talks with the Somalis came to nothing, and in Malaysia, due to begin on September 16.
THE 'DAILY MIRROR' pensioned off 'Daughter of Jane' in mid-story, not even allowing . her the honourable exit of marriage that was granted to her famous mother. A terrible week for sport: another footballer banned for life, Scotland Yard to investigate whether the Derby winner was doped, and the first appearance in London of the world heavy-weight champion, Sonny Listdn. Interrupting the champion's lunch, Brian London, the British heavy-weight, told Liston he wanted to act as sparring partner. Afterwards London said he felt he had to do this 'for the self-respect of British boxing.'
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