— Portrait of the Week A HUMILIATING WEEX for the police:
the biggest mail robbery of all time, and not a trace of the thieves for five days. The hideout was eventually found, but the thieves had already disap- peared. So had the L21- million. On the report that new police handcuffs had been used in the robbery, one police spokesman commented that 'a pair might have been lost by a police force, either by an entertainment group or one of the security services'. Once the horse had truly escaped, the Postmaster-General, Mr. Bevins, announced dramatic measures to shut the stable door. Also embarrassing to ,the police were public questions on how they obtained witnesses in the Ward trial. Lord Denning, ploughing manfully beyond his 150th witness, saw both girls who have on various occasions admitted perjury and claimed police pressure. Latest state of play in the civil court circular see-saw: Lucky Gordon is suing Miss Keeler who is suing Robin Drury who is suing Miss Keeler who is suing the People. An extra worry for the police was the investigation into the death of Mr. Harold Woolf, keeping the public appetite for scandal on edge.
THE GLORIOUS TWELFTH, and Mr. Macmillan still attending to public affairs; according to Whitehall a move 'of no political significance'. The Premier went to Scandinavia, and Lord Home quoted Burns on Russian TV, almost as mysterious as Mr. Khrushchev's proverbs. At home the Stratford and Bristol by-elections plodded peacefully towards polling day, and the Gallup Poll in the Daily Telegraph showed as much discord with its fellows as ever—although recording a fall in the Labour lead, it gave the Opposition a lead almost twice as large as the other polls. Mr. Godber, Minister for War, tounded the trumpet for the Army's new Chieftain tank as it 'meets all NATO requirements for the 1970s' just as Belgium and Holland decided it did not meet their require- ments. Better no-claims bonuses were introduced for car-owners, but only one-third of all the local authorities in England and Wales are willing to introduce fluoridisation. On the religious front, Canon Pearce-Higgins pronounced that Christian scholars should admit that much in the Bible if taken literally is 'just plain wrong.' In the building industry employers and unions were unable to agree, and strikes are threatened for next week.
THE US-COMMON MARKET SQUABBLE came home to roost with the threat that the chicken war would he extended by the US into a troop withdrawal from Western Europe. Better news on the inter- national front came from Bonn, where the test-ban treaty will be signed. But President de Gaulle was rumoured to have ordered another French under- ground test. In the pleasanter East-West atmo- sphere, Mr. Khrushchev defeated Mr. Dean Rusk at badminton, and the Russian film on the spying activities of Mr. Greville Wynne was withdrawn after one day. A warmongering bulldozer near Helsinki put the 'hot line' out of action for four hours by scything the cable in two. The UN rejected the proposed economic boycott of South Africa, and began work in the proposed Malay- sian federation, to see how popular the federa- tion is. The Haitian revolt petered out, and Egypt claimed that she had virtually completed opera- tions in the Yemen. Dr. Schroeder came to London. There were demonstrations in New Delhi against Mr. Nehru and in Brazzaville against the Abbe Youlou.
A TEAM OF BRITISH POTHOLERS broke an assortment of, world potholing records. But it was an unin- spiring week for British sport. Mr. Donald Campbell issued two writs for slander against the industrialist who has invested if million in the Bluebird car, and the US defeated England 6-1 in the Wightman Cup tennis tournament.
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