Portrait of the Week
rTI HE main event of this week has been the outbreak of 1 serious rioting in the Polish town of Poznan, where an international trade fair was being held at the time. This sign that all was not well behind the Iron Curtain was the most striking in a series of news items from Eastern Europe. The revolt seems to have begun as a strike after the refusal of demands made by a delegation of workers from the Zispo engineering factory. The security forces fired on the crowd, who then proceeded to storm buildings and lynch secret police- men, and the trouble was finally suppressed by a massive use of military force including tanks. The Polish Prime Minister, Mr. Cyrankiewicz, flew to the area and announced in a speech that this would not hinder the continuance of 'democratisation' of the Government, but it remains to be seen whether or not this was simply intended to placate opinion. In Hungary there have been public meetings, in the course of which severe criticism was made of the. Government, while Rajk's widow attacked the First Secretary of the Hungarian Communist Party, Mr. Rakosi, by name as the murderer of her husband. Mr. Rakosi and the Czech leaders Mr. Siroky and Mr. Novotny are thought to have been in Moscow, where a resolution of the central committee of the Soviet Communist Party seems to indicate that some of Mr. Khrushchev's opponents are getting back at him (open disapproval of some of his actions was displayed the other evening by other members of the Politburo at a Moscow banquet).
The rest of the world is perhaps rather less troubled than Poznan, but the old perennials are still with us. The British Government, having brought Turkey into the Cyprus question with both feet, has now sent the CIGS to Ankara to try to persuade the Turks to agree to a compromise solution for the island which would include a NATO base and a possible undertaking by the Greeks not to keep any military forces of their own there. However, it seems probable that this is an even more difficult assignment for General Templer than was Malaya, and he is not likely to make any progress, since the Turkish attitude has become even more intransigent of late. Across the water from Cyprus the Lebanese Government has announced that it intends to nationalise (or rather confiscate in lieu of taxes) the Iraq Petroleum Company's pipe-line, a move which is an obvious piece of blackmail. The visit of the Libyan Prime Minister to London has ended with a British promise to supply arms and equipment for a Libyan army as well as to increase financial assistance. On his way Mustapha ben Halim had talks in Paris, where he denied reports of arms trafficking between Libya and Algeria. In the Maghreb relations are worsening between France on the one hand and Morocco and Tunisia on the other, while at home M. Mollet has succeeded in getting his Algerian policies approved by his own party.
Germany is to pay Great Britain £34 million 'support costs' in the next year, though the German Foreign Minister, Herr von Brentano, has stated that his Government does not intend to pay any more after that period. This agreement has been strongly criticised in this country, while it coincides with moves by the German Evangelical churches against any conscription in the Federal Republic. Great Britain has promised to help Malta to the tune of £73- million in the next eighteen months, which is rather less than had been asked for. In Holland the Queen has set up a three-man commission to inquire into rumours in the foreign press about relations between her and her husband. In the US there is a general strike of steel workers and President Eisenhower has left hospital. In the Far East the Chinese Foreign Minister, Mr. Chou En-lai, has offered to negotiate the 'liberation' of Formosa with the present Nationalist regime, but has met with no particular enthusiasm in response. The Prime Minister of Ceylon, Mr. Bandaranaike, has stated that agreement in principle has been reached with the British Government over the question of British bases in the island.
At home dismissals in motor-car factories have dominated the scene. Import cuts of 50 per cent. in British cars by Australia have led motor-car manufacturers to declare more redundancy. The action of the British Motor Corporation in dismissing 6,000 men without discussion caused alarm and despondency both in the.unions concerned and in the House of Commons, where a group of Conservative MPs put down a motion deploring this step. New wage demands from the mine- workers and the railwaymen are looming up, and not everybody will agree with the Chancellor of the Exchequer when he talks in the House of 'encouraging signs' in the economic situation. Other news from this front includes the NCB's appointment of a new director of 'reconstruction' (whatever that may mean-- presumably not what certain Tory MPs hope), and a (to the lay mind) mysterious breach between the Halifax Building Society and Building Societies Association.
However, the great British public has been much more taken with the alluring problem of vice in the West End. What ■ with shootings and slashiugs the West End is said to be be- coming like Chicago, and MPs were disappointed by the Home Secretary's refusal to contemplate new legislation until the Wolfenden Commission has presented its report. It seems, however, unlikely that its recommendations will include one to 'ouVrir les maisons closes.' Other news includes a bad air crash in the Grand Canyon, a new six-hour train service between Paris and Zurich and the' fascinating fact that Mr. Geoffrey Acland is not going to join the Labour Party.
Previous page
