keep off the brink ! what exactly are the Americans up to ? have they actually calculated all the consequences of what they are doing with their tanks and planes in Berlin ? if so , what is the point of it all ? will these American moves really strike the world as a sign of strength - or as a gesture of weakness and frustration ? it is true that there is cause for frustration . with their nuclear tests the Russians are behaving like lunatic children . but that is no reason for the west to try being even more lunatic and childish . it is no reason for a policy of daring brinkmanship . a single shell fired accidentally in Berlin by some unthinking youth from Texas or the Ukraine could now destroy humanity quite as inevitably as any 50-megaton bomb . the British government &apos;s urgent task is to stop the border generals being bold and brave at mankind &apos;s expense . call it off ! can the government possibly persist in its plans for the royal tour of Ghana after the bomb explosions which have shaken Accra ? for weeks journalists and M.P.s have brought reports from Ghana about possible violence during the Queen &apos;s visit . but our Ministers have explained smugly that the facts provided by their own experts show no cause for concern . well , what do they say now ? are bombs not facts ? is an explosion on the very spot where the Queen is due to stand this week not a cause for concern ? did the government &apos;s experts not warn that such things might happen ? if they did , it is a terrible reflection on the cabinet , which concealed the warnings . if they did not , it is a sad reflection on their experts . our royal family has always been ready to take risks for a good purpose . but for what purpose are risks to be taken in Ghana ? merely to bolster up a petty , tottering dictator . it would be little short of criminal if any life were risked in such a cause . the brave servant . there can be nothing but the highest admiration for the Queen &apos;s conduct in Ghana . she knew the risk she was running in going there . she was aware of the bombs and violence in that country recently . she was aware too that during her ceremonial drive with Nkrumah it would have been easy for an assassin &apos;s bullet to have struck the wrong target . and yet she has insisted on keeping her promise to the ordinary people of Ghana . she has gone ahead with her tour . nothing could have been easier for her than to cancel this venture . she merely had to tell her misgivings , in confidence , to the Prime Minister . no one would have been surprised if the visit had been cancelled . everyone would have understood . the Queen has shown many times before that she is a dedicated and sincere servant of her people throughout the world . now she has displayed , as well , the highest form of courage in grave physical danger . wipe off his smile . in Essen tomorrow Herr Alfried Krupp will be celebrating the 150th anniversary of the foundation of his mighty industrial empire . who can blame him if he mixes homage to his ancestors with a little sardonic amusement at the expense of the allied governments ? for if he had obeyed their instructions the Krupp empire would have been broken up long ago . there would have been nothing to celebrate . but Krupp , the convicted war criminal , the employer of slave labour , has succeeded year after year in getting an extension of his promise to sell out his companies . by one cunning dodge after another he has kept this one-time power centre of German militarism intact . it is a scandalous story . how much longer is our government going to be content with just a mild squawk of protest when Krupp asks for yet another year &apos;s reprieve ? answer this today . commonwealth governments are at last to see in full a speech which Mr Edward Heath made more than a month ago . and why are they going to see it ? not because it was on a question which vitally affects their whole future - although it does . not because they are members of an association the first and most precious principle of which is mutual trust . not because most of them , like the members of the United Kingdom cabinet , are loyal Ministers of the same Queen . the only reason they are going to be allowed to see it is because some obscure official somewhere in Europe has already leaked the whole thing to another foreign government . but there is something even more shameful . for in Brussels a common market spokesman indicates that the only reason commonwealth governments were ever excluded from seeing whole copies of the speech was because the British government requested it . can this really be true ? the nation demands an immediate answer from Mr Harold Macmillan . lesson for a critic . the final curtain comes down on the tragic farce of O&apos;Brien in Africa . look at it again act by act . five months ago Dr Conor Cruise O&apos;Brien came bouncing into the Congo as a united nations chief . by UNO standards his qualifications were excellent . he was known as an enemy of colonialism . he had even coined a phrase for the colonialists whom he scorned most . he called us the Brits . he was typical of all those who believe that the representatives of UNO must inevitably be more enlightened , decent , and efficient . well , how has he done in Africa himself ? with his UNO team he has been responsible for more bloodshed , intolerance and racial hatred than almost any other man in recent African history . as he looks at the mess he has left behind he must wonder how the Brits so often managed to succeed in the kind of situation where he has so dismally failed . repeal it . watch the workings of the deplorable homicide act of 1957 . last week Edwin David Sims was found guilty of the horrible killing of two Gravesend teenagers . but under the new law this was not murder - because of his diminished responsibility . his crime - which everyone would unhesitatingly call murder - will go down in the records as manslaughter . it will help the experts to claim that the rise in the murder-rate since the homicide act is not really serious . and that is not all . by the time this psychopath is in his early forties he will probably be a free man . free to roam the countryside once again . is it not a scandal that a law which allows this to happen should remain on the statute-book ? losers . who would lose most if Britain decided not to join the common market and so brought our trade with Europe largely to a standstill ? the answer is : not the British . if you want evidence of that look at the wrangle now going on in Brussels over the common market tariffs . the French say they must sell more wine in Germany . but the Germans retort that wine must not flow only in one direction . if Germany is to buy more , then France must take more from Germany . the fact is , of course , that there is only one country in Europe in which the French wine industry - on which the rural economy of France depends - can sell in sufficient quantities . and that is Britain . what is true of wine is equally true of one industry after another . if our leaders only had the courage we could trade with Europe on our own terms . for the six have a much greater need of our market than we have of theirs . purpose . fashion is turning against the Christmas card . it is argued that there is no purpose in posting a flood of cards often to people you hardly know . yes , but not all the cards in that flood are without purpose . to the old and the lonely a card is a wonderful reminder that they are not forgotten . and to the relation or neighbour you have quarrelled with it is the most tactful peace offering of all . finger on the trigger . whose finger is on the trigger ? off to the united nations forces in the Congo goes a load of 1,000 lb bombs sent with the compliments of the British taxpayer . they go , the government piously points out , on special terms only . on each bomb there is virtually a label saying : not to be used except against pirate planes and air-strips . but can that really keep the government &apos;s conscience clean ? does it have any control over the Indian airmen who are going to drop the bombs ? is there the slightest evidence that they either know or care about our terms ? for all we know the men in charge of these operations may be just as deluded and hysterical as their former chief , Conor O&apos;Brien . for all we know these British bombs may soon be crashing down on hospitals and British missionaries . no wonder the tory rebels are in uproar . the only surprise is that there should be a single tory M.P who is prepared to support a decision which is both weak and wicked . prigs . the nuclear disarmament rioters who have been causing so much annoyance say that this is the only way in which they can stir the nation &apos;s conscience . could anything be more priggish than that ? do they seriously suppose that the rest of us are indifferent to the risk of a nuclear war ? the truth is that their fellow-countrymen have not got less conscience . just more sense . for suppose that these exhibitionists had got their way last year . suppose that both east and west had given up their nuclear stocks . is it not certain that we would already be in the midst of the most terrible conventional war in history over Berlin ? thrift . the Treasury is right to save money by clamping down on embassy parties for the Queen &apos;s official birthday . but the saving is only &amp;pound;100,000 a year . why stop there ? there is , for example , the &amp;pound;18,000,000 in cash aid that we are giving to Tanganyika . there is the Congo which , through our backing for UNO , is costing us around &amp;pound;4,000,000 a year . there is Mr Nehru , who wants to squeeze about &amp;pound;70,000,000 out of us over the next two years . and , of course , there is the army on the Rhine . it is costing us at least &amp;pound;70,000,000 this year . and next year the bill may be near &amp;pound;100,000,000 . these fantastic sums are being squandered by vainglorious men anxious for Britain to play a leading world role . but they should remember this : true authority comes from strength , not from pouring money down the drain . wrong . do you remember the debtors prisons in the novels of Charles Dickens ? probably you associate them with the workhouse and with child labour in the mines . all the more amazing , then , that a century later our prisons should still be crowded with debtors . the cells should be reserved for criminals alone . as for debtors , there will be fewer of them when business men understand that , if you lend to someone whose credit is not good , then you must be prepared to lose . death for no reason . as the week-end began two British journalists were sending this despatch while UNO bombers roared over Katanga : - a moment ago , in the foyer of the Leopold 2 Hotel , where we are writing , they carried in a four-year-old girl . she was dead . in the moments it has taken to type this they have brought in yet another child &apos;s body . the face is gone , the body shredded by shell splinters . if you have seen broken dolls , you have some idea of the picture . read those words again and ask yourself : why were these little children killed ? what was their crime ? was it because - as with Nazi Germany - their country was making war on the world ? no . all it wanted was to be left alone . was it because their country was employing white officers ? no . every other African state has whites in top positions . even the Indian airmen who killed them were white-trained . 