-- Portrait of the Week— 'THOU SHALT NOT KILL: but
needst not strive officiously to keep alive.' President Kennedy seemed determined to stick to this harsh attitude in the bargaining over Britain's independent deterrent. Deciding that Skybolt is a very sick patient indeed,_the President prepared to brave the wrath of Congress, the US Chiefs of Staff and the entire British Cabinet to put Skybolt painlessly to death. As Mr. Macmillan flew off to meet the President at Nassau. Tory MPs showed in the Commons that they were not amused at this downgrading of the British deter- rent. At the weekend Mr. Macmillan downed seventy-seven pheasants during his visit to President de Gaulle. but the President saved his big guns for the discussions. Not to be outdone in the summit stakes, Mr. Gaitskell revealed he had been invited to meet Mr. Khrushchev early in January, and had accepted with all speed.
PEERS STANDING AT BY-ELECTIONS to get out of the House of Lords may soon outnumber Service- men standing to get out of the Army. Though legislation is out of the question for a year, a Select Committee .paved the way for the return to the Lower House of most of the Upper House. The Conservatives may reclaim Lord Home, Lord Hailsham and Lord Sandwich (assuming that they want him to return to the Commons): Labour want Anthony Wedgwood Bcnn and Frank Pakenham back in the Commons. More immedi- ate, the number of Army candidates for the next two by-elections passed the half-way mark to the first thousand, though new and stringent red tape regulations may slow down the flow for a short while. Spies returned to the news : Vassall was taken to give evidence at the inquiry set up as a result of his own case. Charles Laughton died of cancer, and rumours flooded Rome that the Pope was similarly afflicted. The trade gap widened in November, and the December unem- ployment figures were awaited ominously. Mean- while in the Commons. Mr. Maudling admitted he could do little that was drastic to relieve un- employment for fear of risking the balance of Payments. The prospects on the home loan front are slightly more hopeful.
THE CENTRAL AFRICAN FEDERATION is finished. for all practical purposes. Sir Edgar Whitehead was
tossed overboard by the Southern Rhodesian electors in favour of the Rhodesian Front leader, Mr. Field. Mr. Kaunda and Mr. Nkumbula eased
into office in North Rhodesia. and an official announcement of the death of the Federation is expected before Christmas. The Prime Minister of Senegal resigned, after an unsuccessful attempt to eject the Opposition from Parliament. Herr Ulbricht abandoned intentions to eject the West !torn Berlin, treading instead the Khrushchev line of 'let's be sensible,' Tshombe made yet an- other final offer—hardly 'unrepeatable'—to share revenue with the Central Congolese Government. Everyone remained suspicious. just as Britain remained suspicious when Dean Acheson put for- ward some more remarks in print, to add injury to insult. The American spacecraft, Mariner
only twenty thousand miles from Venus, relayed a mass of unverifiable information to Earth, and Ben Bella in Algeria sent a mass of appeals for aid to the United States.
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EX-DEFENCE MINISTER Mr. Watkinson bubbled with delight at being made managing director of Schweppes. Bubbling with delight at the success of. the Dreadnought trials, the present Defence Minister ordered a third nuclear submarine. The Mona Lisa was moved from France to America with the maximum of security. The Press Council proudly announced it had the greatest possible confidence in itself, and could hardly understand why the public refused to take it seriously, The Government announced its in- tention of limiting the ITV companies' profits and of diversifying the programmes.
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