—Portrait of the Week— MR. BUTLER held out hope for
gamblers, but none for Podola. A City Committee came to the con- clusion that take-over bids were admirable things but that a code of conduct should be laid down for them in case some nasty government should take it into its head to lay down the code of con- duct itself. Many restrictions on imports into Britain (including some paid for in dollars) were lifted, and infinitesimal progress was made at Geneva towards putting some restrictions on ex- ports of fall-out into the atmosphere. The Labour Party announced that it would hold a short con- ference at the end of November to discuss the General Election and a number of its members continued to give every indication that they had not yet heard about the result.
MR. KHRUSHCHEV addressed the Supreme Soviet at the start of its new session (the House did not divide at the end of the ensuing debate) and said that the ice of the Cold War was cracking. So, though he did not put it like that, were rifles on the North-West Frontier; Mr. Khrushchev re- gretted the incidents between India and China which he called 'our two friends.' For the rest, he seemed friendly to all Western leaders (particu- larly President de Gaulle), and expressed a desire to push on to the Summit where, he hinted, Soviet concessions on disarmament would be forth- coming. What that meant became apparent the following day, when the Soviet delegate at Geneva, Mr. Tsarapkin, impugned America's motives in the inspection talks but expressed his government's willingness to consider seismic information sup- plied by the United States, but only to help decide when the appropriate inspection team should go to the site of suspected bomb-explosions, not to further agreement on the number of such inspec- tions each country should be free to make. Western delegates clutched at half a loaf made without straw.
THE NEW LONDON-BIRMINGHAM motorway was opened, to the plaudits of all those who have long thought a quicker method of getting away from Birmingham should be devised. The vehicles moved along it faster than they have been doing for some years, and Mr. Marples inspected the flow, of traffic and expressed himself appalled by the speed at which cars were travelling.
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IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA surgeons Success- fully sewed an amputated leg back on to a man, and a Congressional Committee successfully sewed a charge of rigging back on to practically every quiz show in the television business. Mr. Charles van Doren made a two-hour clean breast of the way in which he had 'won' $129,000, but made no move to give any of it back. In Britain, the new Betting Bill was published, with regulations a good deal more stringent than those apparently obtain- ing in the American television industry; betting shops are to be allowed, though every effort will be made to ensure that they are nasty, uncomfort- able and depressing places, and gambling parties will also be allowed, though not apparently if the runner takes a cut.
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THE DINING-CAR STRIKE continued, and passengers were looking healthier than for'years. Legal action was contemplated by the strikers against the leaders of their union, to prevent the latter imple- menting their agreement with the Pullman Car Company.
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THE DEATH was announced in Laos of King Som- dech Phra Chau, Sisavang Vong. He was the son of King Zakarine of Luang Prabang and Queen Thongsi, and was succeeded by the Crown Prince Savang Vatthana. And that is all there is space for this week.
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