Portrait of the Week— WHILE U THANT, in the Annual
Report to the UN,
was repeating his belief in one nation, one vote, America and the Soviet Union shadow-boxed the world over and this time the West was seen to be doing more than just parrying. At the last minute the Russians complied with American demands to bring their guards for the Soviet War Memorial through the British Brandenburg Gate instead of the American Checkpoint Charlie; West Germans, jeering at their diplomatic defeat, were soon sad- dened by the murder of another escaping refugee. In the air corridors MiG fighters flew alongside Western planes, but at the same time America was admitting that a U"), on a peaceful mission, might well have been blown off course and flown for some minutes over far eastern Soviet territory. The nation was hardly comforted by the announce- ment of extensive Russian military and technical aid to Cuba ostensibly to help her against 'im- perialist threats: Of threats of a kind there were
Plenty, and Republican Senators (and some De- mocrats) couldn't understand why if it was right tc, invade Cuba a year ago, it wasn't even more right now, and in the end the sadder and wiser President himself warned his neighbour against any aggression in the Western hemisphere. But meanwhile Mr. Khrushchev had his own problems t.11 trying to get China into Comecon, and so into the framework of economic, non-military corn- Petition.
ON THE TWENTY-1HIRD ANNIVERSARY Of the out- break of the Second World War President de Gaulle paid a state visit to Germany. As Mr. Mac-
millan awaited anxiously the Commonwealth
Prime Ministers' Conference, and feared there might have to a second, de Gaulle and the Chancellor took elaborate precautions to prevent
the President's assassination at the hands of the Council of National Resistance. Another war took
Place in Algeria when Ben Bella deterinined to take Algiers from Willaya IV by force. Brief Peace was reached to the country's cries of `Baraket, Baraket,"we have had enough.' President Tshombe charmingly announced his acceptance of the UN plans for a united Congo, as though he thought the issue had never been it doubt. In Hong Kong 134 people were feared killed in a h phoon, while the number of casualties in the Persian earthquake is put at
about 20.000. At home the TUC began its annual
conference with Mr. Woodcock and a new Mr. Cousins suddenly allied in the demand for radical union reform. As George V used to say of the first Labour Prime Minister. `Ah. if they were all like You THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION for the Advancement of Science held its annual meeting in Manchester, called for more money for research in every field and was optimistic about what,might happen if it came. There was enough talent in the country !.9 rutt the United Kingdom twice over, if only du persuaded be ersuaded to try; frogs had been pro- ved with two brains but couldn't yet reproduce themselves: a typewriter had been invented with rt_nl ten keys because ordinary typing, like ordi- nary reading, writing, learning and everything a„s,,e was now acknowledged to be such a strain; a vice-dean of Moscow University said that the Soviet Union would have four and a half Million higher specialists by 1965. e. e. cummings died
• Robert Frost vis Russdia, and r.
Men's deportation orderited could not be changeDd, c Nome Secretary decided.* THE Qat, "UMBER OF AMERICAN BANKRUPTS is rising b,.Ttrophically, but in Britain it is the number of ne-_eneIcirs and the price of silver with its sudden pa'irsintodustrial importance for the space race. Re- cern the ThePalies haMe fhoarbveid dnonw thceoisrt vLihmic leasn do suevsee ratl GI last of the nation's trams was withdrawn in caasgnw and the new penalties for drunkenness rhe in,
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