Portrait of the week
President Reagan appointed a former Democratic Senator, Richard Stone, to be his special envoy for Central America, hoping at the same time that Congress would approve the payment of $600 million in military and economic aid to the region this year. Some concern was expressed about the scale of military aid intended for El Salvador; Nicaragua's left-wing govern- ment made predictable protests; and Mr Stone's former connections with the Guatemalan military government were thought not to suit him for this diplomatic task. Guatemala was reported to have given up its claim to Belize. For the first time, Mr Andropov proposed reducing the number of Russian nuclear warheads to match the total deployed in Europe by the US, Britain and France. Mr Schultz, US Secretary of State, claimed to have made 'lots of head- way' in trying to arrange for the withdrawal of all foreign troops from Lebanon, while Israel continued to demand evidence of Syria's intentions. Suspecting that a Rus- sian submarine was lurking in a fjord, the Norwegian Navy fired missiles and dropped depth charges, but the only thing to come to the surface was a patch of oil, the source of which was not evident. Two Frenchmen were hanged in Zimbabwe for the murder of a German cafe owner.
The Argentinian junta ordered a mer- chant ship, the Lago Lacar, not to sail for the Falkland Islands, in the absence of permission from Britain, with 50 relatives of Argentinians killed in last year's war. The Lago Lacar was prevented by bad weather from joining an official ceremony in the South Atlantic to mark the anniver- sary of the sinking of the General Belgrano, but remained at sea in the hope that its passengers might yet be allowed to visit war graves on the Falklands. A report published by the junta in Buenos Aires stated that the los desaparecidos — about 30,000 people who disappeared in Argentina during the 1970s — should now be considered legally dead, and that their deaths occurred as a result of 'acts of service' by the military. In Spain, the Supreme Court increased several sentences passed last year by a military tribunal against army and Civil Guard of- ficers involved in an attempt to overthrow the government in February 1981. In par- ticular, the Court altered the conviction of General Alfonso Armada, a former tutor to the king, to 'military rebellion', adding 24 years to his term of imprisonment. The leader of East Germany, Herr Honecker, cancelled a proposed visit to Bonn, possibly because of adverse press comment on the recent deaths of two West Germans who apparently suffered heart attacks while be- ing questioned by East German border guards. Chancellor Kohl of West Germany announced that he would visit Moscow in July.
Of the five Thursdays in June three were mooted as being likely for a general, while the results of this week's local elec- tions were awaited. Mr Heath, a former Prime Minister, was very upset by press suggestions that he was being discourteous to the Queen Mother in making a fuss about her car not giving way to his when a vote in the House of Commons was about to be taken. The Prince and Princess of Wales ended their tour of Australia and New Zealand, and travelled to the Bahamas for a holiday, hoping that the 'gentlemen' of the press would not follow them. The Attorney-General failed to get a general declaration in the High Court that the distribution of the suicide booklet A Guide to Self-Deliverance was illegal. George Balanchine died at 79.
The weather continued inclement, with flooding in several parts of Britain. America suffered tornadoes in the east and an earthquake north of Los Angeles. The Sunday Times continued to maintain that the Hitler diaries were genuine, relying on the word of Herr Heidemann, the Stern journalist who on previous occasions had produced bogus letters between Churchill and Mussolini and information enabling the Daily Express to 'find' Martin Bormann. The historian David Irving then did a 'reverse Dacre' and decided that the diaries were authentic because they had been writ- ten by a man with Parkinson's Disease from which Hitler also suffered. Lord Mountgar- ret was fined £1,000 for shooting at a hot- air balloon which threatened to interfere with a grouse drive on his moor in Yorkshire. A Hudsonian goodwit was SPseen
near Hull. C
that she's seen a
'She keeps imagining submarine.'
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