EDITORIAL Dilemma of South Africa 
PRIME Minister after Prime Minister speaks out in revulsion against the South African Government 's policy of apartheid as we wait for the curtain to rise on the Commonwealth Conference in London . 
Will it end with South Africa 's exclusion from the Commonwealth ? 
The issue is touch and go . 
There is a possibility that it will not be settled at this conference . 
It may be agreed to wait until South Africa actually becomes a Republic later in the year . 
But if a final decision is to be faced now , on which side do the strongest arguments lie ? 
A MISTAKE 
THE Archbishop of Capetown has shown that the matter is not clear-cut . 
The Archbishop has long been a courageous fighter against apartheid . 
He must be heard with attention . 
On purely practical grounds he holds that it would be a mistake to expel South Africa , weakening the whites who are working for a change of policy . 
In his view it would also be against the interests of the Africans . 
He holds that more pressure can be put on South Africa while she remains in the Commonwealth than could be exercised were she cut off from it . 
On the other hand , those who favour expulsion , including African leaders , feel that nothing less than the shock of expulsion will weaken the grip of Dr. Verwoerd and the Nationalists . 
They point out that Dr. Verwoerd refuses to consider abandoning the apartheid policy . 
WIDER PICTURE 
THE Commonwealth is a multi-racial society . 
A policy of racial discrimination in any of its countries is surely the one thing that it could not survive . 
Whatever statesmen say at the conference table in London , millions at home would regard as fraudulent a Commonwealth which had room for a racist South Africa . 
And this is a Commonwealth in which five citizens are coloured for every one who is white . 
Seen in this wider picture , a South Africa that clings to apartheid is a menace to the Commonwealth and a liability to the whole Western world . 
A practical solution would be for the Commonwealth to draft a set of principles excluding race discrimination . 
And so leave South Africa to make the grade , or go out . 
The Queen 's return 
THE Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh come home tonight from their tour in the East . 
The duke 's trigger-finger and the ritual slaughter of beasts have taken the headlines in this country . 
Nevertheless , the tour has been an immense success . 
The Queen has won a triumph . 
It would be pleasanter if such cruel and feudal performances as tiger and rhino hunts were dropped from future Royal programmes . 
But the Queen and the Duke have pleased millions by their visit . 
The warmth of their welcome in India and Pakistan are happy memories . 
Becoming a better neighbour 
WEST GERMANY — followed yesterday by the Dutch — has made the gesture of a good neighbour . 
She has put up the value of her money . 
Certainly , the rise is very small . 
But it is a step in the direction of live-and-let-live . 
Hopes will now grow brighter of further international co-operation , which is the only way to solve the payments difficulties that upset the Western world . 
Britain and the U.S. , which have problems with their balances , will gain some immediate help . 
What it means in practical terms is that our exports to Germany will now be a little cheaper for Germans to buy , while the goods which Germany exports will be made a little dearer . 
UNPOPULAR 
BOOMING Germany is deliberately encouraging more imports as a means to curb rising prices at home . 
She is also aware how unpopular she has been growing by failing until now to co-operate as a creditor nation should . 
Germany exports much more than she imports . 
For upwards of five years the world 's reserves of dollars have been drained into Germany . 
There they have stayed uselessly locked up because Germany has no tradition of trading abroad . 
In addition the strength of Germany 's trading position has attracted speculators to hold marks rather than pounds or dollars , hoping for the mark to rise , as has now happened . 
IS IT ENOUGH ? 
WILL the new valuation be enough to correct Germany 's massive trading surplus and choke off speculation against dollar and pound ? 
That is doubtful . 
If , however , in addition to her new good-neighbour gesture , Germany takes a really big share in giving aid to underdeveloped nations , the world outlook will be brighter . 
What gives rise to optimism is the sign that Germany and the other leading Western nations are at long last moving towards a solution of currency problems by co-operation . 
An advertisement 
A CURIOUS advertisement appears on page nine , paid for by that curious body Moral Re-Armament . 
Those who lend their names to this kind of advertisement are worthy people , a little innocent of politics , perhaps , or carried away by the idea that moral regeneration would solve all our problems . 
So it would . 
While we are waiting for the millenium , however , most of us would prefer to put our hopes for earthly justice in instruments of democracy , such as trade unions and our local and national Parliaments . 
Should the Herald publish such advertisements ? 
This is a difficult question . 
It would obviously be wrong to refuse all political advertisements with which we disagree . 
When an advertisement contains statements whose factual truth is doubtful , or where the total content would be deeply repugnant to our readers , it is right to exercise editorial discretion . 
The MRA advertisement falls into neither category , though many readers will dislike it . 
We publish it in the belief that the alert readers of the Herald will not be beguiled by this kind of soft-soap . 
The hard way of peace 
THE authority of the United Nations has suffered grave injury in the Congo . 
It must be restored . 
A United Nations force composed of 135 Sudanese has been disarmed and expelled from the supply port of Matadi , after being heavily attacked by a much stronger force of Colonel Mobutu 's Congolese troops . 
The first reaction of the Sudanese Government was to denounce the United Nations for " negligence and impotence , " and to say that its 400 troops in the Congo would be taken home . 
The reaction can be understood . 
The Sudan 's concern for its men is natural . 
But this could hardly be a dignified exit . 
WRONG TARGET 
IF the UN is blamed for being weak , it would be more logical to send in more men , not weaken it further by desertion . 
It is unjust to pass the buck to Mr. Hammarskjold and the UN 's servants . 
The responsibility rightly belongs to the nations which have undertaken the task of preserving peace in the Congo . 
That is not a ceremonial duty , and the soldiers have every right to blame the politicians unless they see it through . 
When the United Nations instructed Mr. Hammarskjold to use force if necessary to prevent civil war , it was clear that new dangers would arise unless it gave him the physical power to comply with the policy . 
That was the first point that Mr. Hammarskjold made . 
India has responded handsomely by providing 3,000 men , who must take about a fortnight to arrive . 
If the UN forces were thick enough on the ground , such incidents as that at Matadi would not happen . 
U.S. SHIPS 
THE UN 's ability to keep peace depends simply on adequate support by the nations which have set their hands to this plough . 
The big Powers involved in the Cold War must of course keep out . 
The Americans were justified in diverting naval ships in case non-combatant help was wanted ; but they stressed that there was no intention to intervene in fighting . 
Yesterday the ships turned away again , satisfied that they were not required . 
It is to be hoped that the UN will be re-established in their port by negotiation and that there will be no more outrages . 
But back , Mr. Hammarskjold is determined , they must go . 
The best news for the Congo would be agreement between its rival political leaders . 
Through the patient efforts of UN conciliators they are meeting for the first time , in Malagasy ( formerly Madagascar ) . 
ONLY SAFEGUARD 
THE world will sigh with relief when this strife-torn land gets itself a government which all outsiders can recognise . 
Nobody will want to police the Congo when the Congo itself can do the job . 
All the UN contingents will be glad to go home . 
Meanwhile every statesman in Africa must realise that there must be far worse consequences if the UN had to abandon its task . 
Small nations would not remain free for long in this world if the UN was not their bulwark . 
The smile on the face of Verwoerd 
THE British public has now had the chance to take a close-up look at Dr. Hendrik Verwoerd , Prime Minister of South Africa , the foremost apostle of the pernicious doctrine of " racial purity . " 
He has made a strong impression . 
But not , perhaps , quite the impression that he intended . 
For most people the sight of that bland , unctuous , impregnably righteous face , wreathed in smiles , has been enough to make their blood run cold . 
Some misguided people might have a sneaking sympathy for a man who defends a racial policy on supposedly practical grounds . 
At least it would be possible to argue with him rationally . 
But a man who believes , like Dr. Verwoerd , that a basically evil policy is good , that it has the sanction of religion and is a bulwark of Christianity , is beyond the reach of reason . 
COCOONED 
ONLY a man wrapped in the impenetrable cocoon of what he regards as a divine mission could have spoken of apartheid as " a policy of good neighbourliness . " 
We may be sure that he is not being hypocritical . 
That is what he really believes . 
A good neighbour to those Africans who , under apartheid , will be forced back to their tribal reserves with no prospect but a cramped and primitive existence . 
A good neighbour to those Africans who will continue to live as hewers of wood and drawers of water in the white areas of South Africa , without rights and without hope . 
NIGHTMARE 
THE same sort of good neighbour that he proved to be to the Jews fleeing from Hitler in the thirties . 
It was Dr. Verwoerd who led a protest against admitting any of them because they would " defile " the national white stock . 
It is impossible to make contact with Dr. Verwoerd in his nightmare world . 
It is this that makes illusory any hopes that he may be influenced to change course . 
The Archbishop of Capetown , Dr. Joost de Blank , has pleaded that South Africa should be allowed to stay in the Commonwealth . 
Otherwise , he says , those inside the country who still oppose apartheid will be left even more isolated and alone . 
The views of the Archbishop , who has maintained an unflinching witness to what Christianity really means , must carry weight . 
But what , in fact , can the other Commonwealth countries do to bring support and comfort to this gallant minority ? 
EXPULSION ? 
THERE is no evidence that the policy of appeasement has modified the actions of the Nationalists . 
On the contrary , apartheid is being applied ever more ruthlessly . 
The shock of expulsion from the Commonwealth now seems to be the only way left to try to bring home to the people of South Africa that Dr. Verwoerd is leading them to disaster . 
It may be that the Commonwealth Prime Ministers will decide against this final step . 
If that is their decision they should also go unequivocally on record that they regard apartheid as evil and indefensible . 
Unless they do at least that , Dr. Verwoerd will be able to return home claiming a triumph . 
His smile will be blander than ever . 
The old routine 
WE are in for it again : another Royal Wedding . 
Between now and June , when the Duke of Kent will marry Miss Worsley , hardly a day will pass without a story or a picture or probably both , about the nuptial arrangements . 
Men readers may grow more than a little weary of it all . 
So may a few emancipated women who pride themselves on their commonsense . 
Time to start talking 
One of the grim oddities of the Berlin crisis is that everyone is in favour of talking but nobody seems to know how to start . 
The State Department keeps approving of " meaningful negotiations " and so even does President de Gaulle , though his notion of what makes talks useful or timely is a lot more restrictive than other people 's . 
In the intervals of bandying about threats of annihilation Mr Khrushchev too sees " a glimmer of hope " for talks , preferably on terms that would give him right from the start everything he wants . 
Yet hardly anything is done to bring talks nearer . 
On the Western side the chief obstacles , apart from the stiffening of the diplomatic joints which afflicts everybody , have been two : the West German election campaign and the objections of France . 
When the Western Foreign Ministers meet in Washington tomorrow the first of these will be nearly out of the way . 
It will be time for the Ministers to get down in earnest to the business of working out a common approach to Russia on Germany and Berlin . 
The means of setting talks going are clear enough provided that the Soviet Government wishes to talk at all . 
The session of the United Nations Assembly which opens on Tuesday should anyhow bring together the Foreign Ministers of Britain , the United States , and Russia . 
The French Government largely ignores the " tumultuous and scandalous " Assembly . 
But that might give President de Gaulle a convenient excuse for keeping out of talks if he still thought this was not the time to start them . 
What seems certain is that those who advocate putting off any approach until Mr Krushchev gives evidence of a change of heart ( whatever that may mean ) would have us run risks greater than the West ought to run — and greater than President Kennedy 's most influential advisers seem disposed to face . 
The real question is what we should put to the Soviet Government as a basis for talks : and that means working out what we know to be the essential interests of the West in Berlin and what we suppose that the Soviet Government may now be after . 
The West needs to make it absolutely clear that the freedom of West Berlin and free access to it are vital interests not to be retreated from in the present state of Europe . 
Yet the question remains , as before : is the Soviet Government interested chiefly in sealing off East Germany and securing some kind of general recognition for it ? 
Or is it determined to do away with the freedom of West Berlin and free access to it ( on the excuse of keeping out " revanchists " and so on ) at almost any risk ? 
If the first , the signs now are that Britain and the United States at all events might well exchange some kind of recognition for an up to date guarantee of access , perhaps to be supervised by a commission of the four powers and the two Germanies , and that West Germany might well fall in with this , however reluctantly . 
( Mr Diefenbaker 's proposal of United Nations supervision has the drawback that , like other proposed ways of bringing in the United Nations , it would presumably mean admitting both Germanies to the organisation — and that would be a lot for a lot of people to swallow all at once ) . 
If , however , the Soviet Government seems determined to swallow up West Berlin then there is little for the West to do except stand firm . 
This is where many people see with horror the prospect of a nuclear war : if everyone stands firm , they ask , will not the next step be a clash leading inexorably to mutual annihilation ? 
After looking upon such a prospect Bertrand Russell has chosen to take the way of civil disobedience and go to prison . 
All honour to him for acting once again on his beliefs whatever the consequences . 
But those who differ with his analysis are not necessarily less concerned at the dreadful risks we all run . 
Nor need they be less concerned than Mr Victor Gollancz , who in a letter on this page proposes that Mr Macmillan should proclaim his readiness to negotiate " naked " and unconditionally for the sake of saving the world . 
Why this should move our allies or Mr Khrushchev — or indeed what it would mean — is not clear . 
The choice lies not between nuclear war and Soviet domination ; it lies between the constant risk that attends the exchanges of human beings formidably armed and the perilous self-dissolution of the West that would come of a surrender of West Berlin . 
On this reading what Mr Gollancz calls manoeuvring , and what we should call cool-headed and inventive negotiation , is a means not to destruction but to safety . 
Second revise 
The Government 's pompous little statement on Northern Rhodesia does not say much , but it says what is necessary — that the Northern Rhodesia Constitution is open to revision . 
This is news , however much the Government tries to disguise it by saying that the revision would be " in accordance with normal practice . " 
The formula which has caused all the trouble is itself a revision , brought about in deference to Sir Roy Welensky , of proposals which the Colonial Secretary tabled in February ; "reasonable representations , " which the Government now invites , have been made against it for many weeks . 
The Government is now saying that consideration of these reasonable representations is being delayed by the outbreak of violence . 
In fact , the cart and the horse are the other way round : the violence broke out because the reasonable representations went unheeded . 
The request which all interested parties ( except the United Federal ) have made is that the Legislative Council elected under Mr Macleod 's system of three blocks of seats shall contain a representative majority . 
Formula One , which appeared in February , appeared to make this likely ; Formula Two , which appeared in June , made it very unlikely ; if Formula Three restores the original principle , that is all that need be required of it . 
It is a pity that the Government should ever have been led away from this principle . 
It is a great pity that the Government should give the appearance of responding , not to Mr Kaunda 's reasonable representations , but to the violence which he tried to prevent . 
Programme for Katanga 
The United Nations had already had a bad press before reports were received yesterday of alleged indiscipline by some of its troops in Elisabethville . 
A full account of these incidents will no doubt be demanded by the General Assembly next week . 
The general feeling is that if the United Nations wanted to clean up the Congo it could have started with stables more Augean than M. Tshombe 's . 
But Katanga has for so long been represented — not altogether falsely — as a secure and industrious little state beset by wild and envious politicians that its less agreeable side has been overlooked . 
It can equally be seen as an alliance between M. Tshombe and the Union Miniere ( which has a substantial British shareholding ) to apply the huge copper revenues properly belonging to the whole Congo for the unbalanced development of only a part of it . 
A long time will be needed , of course , to bridge the gap between the admirable industrial welfare services provided for copper employees and the general lot of rural Congolese . 
This will be true however the money is shared . 
But the disproportion between Katanga 's happy-go-lucky expansion and the perpetual Budget deficits of the Congolese Central Government has for too long been an obstacle to the rebuilding of the Congo . 
It is odd that the very people who apply this argument to the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland , and who blanch at the thought of losing Northern Rhodesia 's copper revenues , should not see that it applies even more forcibly to the Congo , where there is little light industry and no European agriculture ( apart from the plantations ) to bolster up the rest of the economy . 
The explanation may be that in neither case is the argument disinterested . 
M. Tshombe has once or twice been brought to see the discrepancy , and has even talked of sharing his revenues . 
But he has never signed the cheque . 
Independent Katanga has never , in truth , looked like a permanent proposition , which is why no country has recognised it , and why most of the Europeans serving in its forces have been ne'er-do-wells . 
The jolt had to come ; and unfortunately it does not seem to have come as cheaply as at first appeared . 
Dr O'Brien may have taken one of the tides in the affairs of men ; omitted , Katanga might have straggled on to a worse tragedy . 
It remains to consolidate the reunion of Katanga with the Congo , and for this purpose the Central Government is sending a commissioner formerly associated with M. Gizenga 's Stanleyville regime . 
The development may sound more sinister than it is . 
M. Gizenga has notably failed to make capital out of his succession to Lumumba : it is too early to say that he is not a Marxist at all , but if he is he comes from a peculiarly Congolese strain . 
The Russians seem to have no time for him . 
Thus his accomplice now sent to Elisabethville may be no more than a personification of the Central Government 's new authority . 
But this is not the way for the Congo-Katanga dispute to be ended . 
The key to a solution surely lies in the continued recognition by the United Nations of M. Tshombe as President of Katanga Province . 
If he has taken flight he should be invited to return to head the provincial Government . 
An attempt has already been made to organise the Congolese States into a confederation . 
Now that President Tshombe has been shown that independence is not allowed he should strive for as much provincial autonomy as the other States will give him . 
He should not despair of keeping a large part of his copper revenue . 
Dr O'Brien has praised the valour of Katanga soldiers . 
M. Tshombe should not encourage them to drive the point home . 
Instead of putting up a desperate resistance he should spend an hour reading the Nigerian Constitution . 
The first step 
It is encouraging news that Mr Gromyko , the Soviet Foreign Minister , will meet Mr Dean Rusk in New York next week for a talk about German problems . 
The Soviet Government has lost no time in taking up President Kennedy 's suggestion , made on Wednesday , that such a meeting should be arranged while Mr Gromyko is over for the United Nations General Assembly . 
No one supposes that Mr Gromyko and Mr Rusk will settle the problems of Berlin and the two Germanys on their own . 
But , as Mr Modibo Keita said after his talk with Mr Kennedy on Wednesday , a Summit meeting must be prepared at a lower diplomatic level . 
This is the necessary first step . 
And indeed it is the first time since the crisis began that any specific arrangement for serious discussion between the two sides has been made . 
There have been plenty of general declarations about willingness to meet and talk , but conspicuously no mention of time and place . 
To be able to say " New York next week " is an important advance . 
We must not be overconfident that this meeting will lead on to further and decisive ones ; but without it , we could not look for them . 
Getting it over 
Federal Germany votes tomorrow and not a day too soon . 
There can seldom have been an election campaign which more people in and out of the country wanted to see over and done with . 
To Germany 's Western allies the campaign has been a millstone weighing down and almost paralysing their efforts to work out sensible ways of dealing with the Berlin crisis . 
It need not have been such a burden if Western Governments had not been convinced that they must do nothing to harm even remotely Dr Adenauer 's chances of being returned as Chancellor . 
But they were so convinced and they have had to take the consequences . 
Meanwhile in Germany itself the course of the campaign has dismayed a good many people : they too will be glad when the polling stations close . 
ACROSS BARRIERS 
The third assembly of the World Council of Churches in Delhi has added substance to the aspiration of its title . 
The entry of the Russian Orthodox Church and its sisters in Bulgaria , Poland , and Rumania has had two stimulating effects . 
Some east European churches had been members already , and one major meeting was held in Hungary in 1956 , but only now is the Christian witness in communist countries strongly represented . 
Although the Roman Catholics are no more than observers , the charge of pan-protestantism loses its validity . 
The other Orthodox churches and the Old Catholics in the council are no longer a few among the many that come from the world of the Reformation . 
At the same time the evangelical complexion of the council grows stronger through the integration with the International Missionary Council and the admission of growing communions in South America and newly independent churches in Africa . 
There are now twice as many churches from these continents and from Asia as there were at the first assembly in Amsterdam in 1948 . 
The approach to universality is gratifying . 
It has its complications . 
Many of the churches which came together at Amsterdam thirteen years ago had long cooperated in the two movements — Faith and Order and Life and Work — whose confluence formed the council . 
Cooperation since then has steadily grown . 
The entry this year of so many churches unaccustomed to these ecumenical encounters may hold up the movement towards closer cooperation for a time . 
There will have to be wider geographical representation on the central committee and other continuing bodies and this may be at the cost of some efficiency . 
Unanimity will come less easily . 
The Anglican and main Protestant communions readily agree on many questions , such as birth control and the population explosion , which the presence in strength of the Orthodox churches makes more contentious . 
On the other hand , there has been a striking agreement on the delicate matter of defining the actual theological basis of the council itself . 
Such a body can not address itself successfully to many of the immediate temporal issues . 
It should seek and share guidance not on what is to be done in such and such a special field but on the criteria by which the Christian should be guided . 
The declaration on racialism could reasonably be unequivocal , although it has cost the allegiance of the Dutch churches in South Africa . 
But discussion on current points of east-west conflict could not go much farther than , for example , the truism that policies of menace and mutual disarmament can not be followed together . 
What the council has done — and it is an achievement — is to make religious contact across the greatest political barrier in what is not yet a unitary world . 
In the words of one Russian delegate , older churches like his own have personally discovered younger churches for the first time . 
The theme of facing together the broader tasks that can be tackled only together ran through speech after speech . 
It is worth recalling the prophetic words in 1938 of DR . 
J. H. OLDHAM , elected honorary president at Delhi : — " 
Study must be undertaken by the churches in common , for the new forces are world forces ; they will sooner or later affect the life of every church , and it is therefore essential that on this point the churches should learn from each other and share with each other whatever light God has given them in their attempt to face new and unprecedented situations . " 
The shifting weight from western to eastern communities emphasizes the challenge to the receptivity of individual churches . 
The effect of the assembly will depend on the willingness of parishes and congregations to respond to the call to fresh service , and to assimilate into their daily witness the common thought of the member churches . 
One of the duties of the assembly is to set the standards for continuing common study and action . 
Since the last assembly help for refugees of every faith has been extended to cover more of the world and different needs . 
It is now perhaps the best known ecumenical activity . 
Here again , however , the new and enlarged council speaks with different voices and stresses . 
In the Russian Orthodox Church the council has incorporated a community with a distinctive tradition of Christian witness , emphasizing devotion and not social work . 
In abstaining from voting on the resolution which extended the definition of religious liberty to political opinions the Russians in Delhi followed a tradition far older than 1917 . 
Their position is close to the statement at Evanston in 1954 by PROFESSOR HROMADKA , of Prague , who is an evangelical : — " 
The Church marches through our secular world avoiding and rejecting identification with any human absolute and rejecting also any efforts to look for an absolute evil in any secular institution or in any man . 
We must not apply human , civil , or political categories of freedom to the church . " 
Some problems of such a world meeting remain unresolved . 
A thousand delegates are too many for corporate thinking , but corporate thinking there must be if all member churches are to have an effective voice in deciding future lines of cooperation . 
The aspiration of visible as opposed to merely " spiritual " unity was endorsed at Delhi ; but it is doubtful if it was greatly advanced — or , indeed , could be so at so comprehensive an assembly . 
A Man of Peace 
Although he is no longer a titular chief ALBERT LUTHULI is in the truest sense of the word a leader of his people in South Africa . 
His arrival with his wife in Britain on a flying visit before he goes on to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo will give British people a chance that they gladly take of expressing their admiration for his courage , sincerity , and restraint . 
It is ironical that he should reach Europe only a few days before the Republic of South Africa will be celebrating the annual holiday which in origin commemorates the victory of the Voortrekkers over the Zulu Impis at Blood River . 
MR . 
LUTHULI , who belongs to that proud and warlike people , is one of those Africans who have buried the hatchet . 
He has always shown himself ready — and no one who knows him can doubt his sincerity — to lead the Zulus and others down the paths of peace . 
Coexistence with their white neighbours on terms of mutual self-respect has been his ideal . 
A forward looking Government would have understood the significance of this powerful encouragement to moderation and would have taken MR . 
LUTHULI into its counsels . 
Unfortunately it is looking backwards that has prevailed . 
Those who put MR . 
LUTHULI into prison and then placed indefensible restrictions on his rights as a man have never forgotten Blood River . 
They live in a perpetual state of mental laager . 
They can see MR . 
LUTHULI only over the sights of their rifles . 
Even the permission given to leave the native land which is half a gaol for him is grudging and qualified . 
The MINISTER of the INTERIOR emphasized , when his passport was granted , that in the opinion of the South African Government MR . 
LUTHULI did not measure up to the international standard laid down for the award of the Nobel Peace Prize . 
The South African Government is the last quarter to which any reasonable man would refer on such an issue . 
The decision of the Swedish judges has rightly been applauded in all countries that believe in freedom and scorn racial injustice . 
MR . 
LUTHULI can not speak freely to us . 
But he must draw encouragement from the reception that he will receive here and elsewhere on his journey . 
" Who will deny " , he has said sadly , " that thirty years of my life have been spent in knocking in vain at a closed and barred door ? " 
Alas , no one can deny it . 
But that is all the more reason for saluting a veteran fighter for peace . 
Hire-Purchase 
With the first and fundamental clause of MR . 
W. T. WILLIAMS 'S Hire-Purchase Bill general agreement can be expected . 
An increasingly important weakness of the existing legislation ( the 1938 Act as amended in 1954 ) is that , apart from livestock , it governs only agreements involving goods worth £300 or less . 
As the Conservative Political Centre report on consumer protection recently pointed out , both inflation and affluence have made it reasonable to raise the limits for all agreements to £1,000 — the level already established for livestock . 
MR . 
WILLIAMS sets out to achieve this . 
The existing limits have long been out of date , especially since the growth of car hire-purchase , and most citizens ' advice bureaux could probably produce cases illustrating the difficulties and abuses which have arisen as a result . 
The efforts of MR . 
WILLIAMS to make the terms of agreements even clearer to the customer are also to be commended . 
The notification he envisages must be given at least two days before the agreement is signed . 
To this there will be some opposition . 
The Bill is short and modest in scope , and it is doubtful whether the other Private Members ' Bills in the offing will fill all the gaps . 
This fact may give the Government an extra excuse for counselling patience until the next report from the Molony committee . 
Comprehensive legislation is obviously preferable . 
They should not , however , disdain this opportunity of obtaining a useful sample of parliamentary opinion by at least allowing these Bills a fair run . 
By Degrees 
Centigrade v. Fahrenheit . 
The fight is on . 
The challenger has behind it not only the authority of the SECRETARY of STATE for AIR but also the backing of the DIRECTOR GENERAL of the Meteorological Office . 
The press and the broadcasting authorities are asked to help . 
To begin with , both temperatures will be put in the ring together . 
SIR GRAHAM SUTTON , however , made no bones about it yesterday . 
The purpose is to give fahrenheit the knock out . 
The backers of centigrade would have got off to a better start if they had taken more pains to explain the advantages to the general public of the change . 
It is true that SIR GRAHAM said there is at the moment " an awful mess up " in the measurement of temperatures . 
This , however , seems a matter of the convenience of specialists . 
The ordinary British man and woman is conscious of no difficulty . 
Rather than fifty million people having to be put out for the sake of 50,000 is there any reason why the centigrade countries should not change to fahrenheit ? 
Can it be shown that the one scale is demonstrably better than the other ? 
The centigraders may be in for a stiffer fight than they think . 
They may have to call up the reinforcement of the Common Market . 
Even then it might be easier to persuade the British public to go over to decimal coinage — in certain circumstances the time would come when this would suit their convenience — rather than to change their system of recording temperatures . 
In any case , fahrenheit need not lose heart . 
Once before , and that not so long ago , the authorities ganged up to alter the habits of the people . 
That effort was to enforce the adoption of the twenty-four hour clock . 
Then , also , the B.B.C. were roped in . 
The only result was that the well-meaning corporation became very unpopular . 
So much so that the new system , which was inaugurated in April , 1934 , was thrown out in August of the same year . 
It is generally a sign that Governments are balked in the big things when they can not leave the little , familiar ways of life alone . 
Summons to the Unknown 
One of the little trials that a man must learn to bear when he admits the telephone to his home is that , when he hurries to its side to answer a call , it will sometimes stop ringing before he gets there . 
He is dividing the dahlias at the bottom of the garden , or hanging a critical bit of wallpaper in the spare bedroom , or delicately adjusting the car in the garage , or listening absorbed to a concert on the wireless when the persisting summons penetrates to his dream world . 
OPINION SPEAK UP FOR OUR FRIENDS ! 
A BAFFLED and bewildered little country stands at the centre of an international storm . 
Belgium is accused — without a scrap of evidence — of being implicated in the murder of Patrice Lumumba . 
Her leaders are insulted , her embassies are attacked in a score of countries . 
In Ghana , President Nkrumah , who has done more than most to stir up trouble in the Congo , orders every Belgian citizen to quit his country . 
Boldly and clearly 
HOUNDING Belgium has become an international pastime . 
Why ? 
Because those who said the Congolese could govern themselves will not admit they were wrong . 
So Belgium , bowed down by internal troubles , mourning a terrible air crash , is made their scapegoat . 
Who will speak up for Belgium ? 
Who else but Britain . 
We have fought beside Belgium in two world wars . 
We are allies still . 
Britain should champion Belgium . 
Not with the careful , hooded language of diplomacy , but boldly and fearlessly . 
It is time to show the world that this country does not desert her friends . 
THE FULL TABLE 
HAPPY , happy families ! 
Never before have Britain 's larders been so well stocked . 
Supplies of meat and dairy produce were substantially higher last year than in 1959 . 
Lucky , lucky housewives ! 
To have such a splendid variety of goods to choose from . 
Not so long ago older folk were reminding young wives , harassed by shortages , of the good old days of abundance . 
Now it is mother who picks up recipes from her daughter . 
The dinner table is the best answer to the grumblers in Britain today ! 
GO AHEAD 
" THIS is colour day , " proclaimed the American television network , N.B.C . 
And hour after hour it poured out its programmes in bright colours . 
In America colour TV is five years old . 
There are already 600,000 sets in use . 
What about Britain ? 
The B.B.C. is ready to launch a colour TV service , but the commercial TV contractors want to delay it for 10 years . 
The Government should settle this argument with two words to the B.B.C. : — 
Go ahead ! 
MAN OF SYMPATHY 
ONE man beyond all others is saddened by the deaths of two elderly sisters who killed themselves because they had to leave their cottage . 
Mr. John Crabb , clerk to Newmarket urban council , says : " I shall always feel this as a personal failure . " 
There is no reason whatsoever why he should reproach himself . 
The sisters had to quit as their home was falling down . 
And Mr. Crabb did his best for them , even driving them to a new house . 
John Crabb has the qualities of sympathy and understanding . 
Too often lacking in officialdom . 
LION RAMPANT 
MR . 
HENRY NEWTON of Acton does not want his daughter to marry a Scotsman . 
He says that the Scots are foreigners who have no business to be in England . 
The first ruler of the United Kingdom was a Scot . 
The Lord Chancellor is a Scot . 
The Prime Minister is a Scot — and so were four of his predecessors this century . 
Let Mr. Newton beware . 
By protesting against Scotland he may be guilty of rebellion ! 
THE EMPIRE IS PUT ON TRIAL 
ARCHBISHOP MAKARIOS puts the Commonwealth on trial . 
His ex-Eoka Government decides that Cyprus will join it for five years . 
During this period Britain will be expected to subsidise and defend the Cypriots . 
They will enjoy all the trading benefits of Imperial Preference . 
It is a safe bet that at the end of five years Makarios and company will sign on again . 
It is equally certain that the British Government will welcome them . 
How splendid it would be if , just for once , the Government were to voice the real feelings of the British people . 
And tell Makarios they are not prepared to accept him on such terms . 
OPTIMISTS WIN 
GOOD cheer for the week-end . 
Ford Motors are to put 13,000 men back on a five-day week . 
One more demonstration of the industry 's recovery . 
As springtime approaches , orders pick up . 
And the car men get ready for another bustling season . 
The pessimists said the motor industry was on its knees . 
The optimists said " Nonsense . " 
As usual , the optimists have been proved right . 
OUT AND ABOUT 
EARL RUSSELL and his friends have hit on an original way of spending this afternoon . 
They intend to sit outside the Ministry of Defence . 
It is their protest against the H-bomb . 
They ought to have a pleasant time . 
The weather forecast is good ; except for them , Whitehall should be deserted . 
And they will have a fine view of St. James 's Park , with its placid lake , pelicans , rare ducks , and other wild life . 
Why not follow Lord Russell 's lead today ? 
Head for the parks to enjoy the sun . 
Not in a foolish cause , but in a glorious one . 
Good health ! 
THE TOILERS 
THIS group of men , says a report , work on average between 55 and 60 hours a week . 
They also put in an extra two or three evenings . 
And they never go on strike . 
Who are they ? 
The trade union officials of Britain . 
Men who earn only a fraction of what their talents and responsibilities could bring in the open labour market . 
The unions are fortunate indeed to find dedicated leaders at cut-rate prices . 
But it is time the members decided to pay up and be good employers . 
WRONG TARGET 
THE Labour Party says that the Tory Government is destroying the social services . 
Under the Labour Government 18.1 per cent of the national income was spent on social services . 
The present figure is 19.5 per cent . 
There are many worthwhile targets for the Opposition . 
What a pity to aim at the wrong one ! 
HOW MANY SERFS ? 
MRS . 
MARCIA POWER , whose husband made her clean his uniform , wins a divorce . 
The judge says she had to act almost as a serf . 
Up and down the country husbands will be saying they would never behave like that . 
But do they ever ponder how their gardening tools are mysteriously returned to the shed ; their books tidied ; and often , even their shoes cleaned ? 
How wonderful if they showed their appreciation this morning with a surprise box of chocolates or a bunch of flowers ! 
THIS IS THE PRICE OF HASTE 
HOW the Government must repent its haste and folly in Rhodesia ! 
Eighteen months ago this territory was peaceful , orderly , and thriving . 
Africans within the Federal Government were getting valuable experience in administration . 
Then Mr. Iain Macleod became Colonial Secretary . 
Suddenly everything changed . 
Timetables were scrapped . 
The ill-conceived Monckton Commission was rushed out to Rhodesia . 
Overnight , minor African politicians were inflated into international figures . 
And as the British Government stepped up the pace of change , so the Africans stepped up their demands . 
No choice 
TODAY , in London , that rash and thoughtless policy has caused a crisis — a crisis that never should have happened . 
No wonder there is doubt and fearful heart-searching . 
If the Government now reverses its plan to give the Africans control in Northern Rhodesia it may indeed face difficulties from African politicians greedy for power . 
But if it fails to modify that plan Rhodesia may well be plunged into chaos , like the Congo . 
For Mr. Macmillan and his ministers there is no choice . 
They must safeguard Rhodesia against chaos . 
And try to repair the damage they have done . 
PROSPERITY LEAGUE 
WHO can grow the fastest ? 
That is the exciting competition going on among Britain 's major industries . 
Top of the table , at the moment , is the chemical industry . 
Then comes engineering , followed by iron and steel . 
Even the staid and timid Treasury is cheered by the tremendous upsurge in investment . 
It reports that new factory building this year is likely to be 40 per cent up on 1960 . 
Britain 's business men are right to back their faith with cash . 
For expansion today means still greater prosperity tomorrow . 
THEIR FREEDOM 
BERTRAND RUSSELL , the 88-year-old standard bearer of the Ban-the-Bomb crusade , has a devoted following . 
Thousands march with him — and sit with him too . 
It is said by some that he is a saint ; by others that he is a prophet . 
He is , in fact , a philosopher with a highly developed sense of publicity who has been spectacularly wrong on the great issues of our time . 
How long ? 
BEFORE the war he urged the British people to welcome Hitler 's troops as tourists . 
After the war he favoured a preventive war against Russia . 
Now he wants Britain to demolish her defences . 
Throughout the years Lord Russell and his supporters have been able to pursue their eccentric campaigns in freedom . 
They should ask themselves this question : How long would that freedom last if their policies were adopted ? 
GOOD WILL MAN 
AN experiment in courtesy is launched by the Electricity Board . 
The board is laying a cable along a seven-mile route in Surrey . 
A warden , Mr. Jack Finlay , has been appointed to smooth out difficulties for householders when trenches are dug outside their front gates . 
Splendid . 
By showing concern for the people the board will earn their good will . 
Happy patrolling , Mr. Finlay ! 
THE FACTS BACK WELENSKY 
GOOD for Sir Roy Welensky ! 
The tough , resolute Premier of the Rhodesian Federation shakes the life out of his critics . 
He calls them " jelly-boned . " 
He promises to preserve federation against African fanatics and woolly minded individuals in the West . 
Some may ask : Is Welensky justified in being so harsh to those who disagree with him ? 
The facts answer that . 
Congo shambles 
CONTRAST his firm , successful rule in Rhodesia with what has happened in the Congo . 
There Welensky 's opponents have carried their theories into practice . 
There a UNO army of Africans , bossed by an Indian , has been in charge for months . 
And what has it made of the Congo ? 
A bloodstained shambles . 
No wonder Welensky has lost all patience with his misguided tormentors . 
They have earned his strictures . 
And his contempt . 
THE THRIFTY ONES 
SOME people are for ever complaining that teenagers earn too much and spend it all when they get it . 
Now a survey of the Post Office Savings Bank shows how wrong that idea is . 
The biggest group of depositors in the bank is made up of boys and girls aged 15 to 19 . 
Certainly teenagers earn more than ever before . 
Certainly they spend more . 
But how splendid that in the most prosperous days in this country 's history the old-fashioned virtue of thrift should still have a powerful appeal for young people . 
UNDERSTOOD ! 
THE Danes are annoyed with British farmers for fighting against Danish competition . 
They say that our farmers do not seem to understand the meaning of free trade . 
There is no doubt what the Danes understand by free trade . 
It is that they should be free to sell as much as they like here , while buying more and more from our rivals . 
Germany has now supplanted Britain as Denmark 's principal supplier . 
The farmers of Britain understand free trade . 
That is why they fight it . 
CURTAIN UP 
THE Palace cinema at Buckley , near Chester , will be reopened next week by Barry Flanagan and Eric Platt , both aged 19 . 
Eric says : " We believe in the cinema . 
And we know what people want . " 
The combination of enthusiasm and shrewd anticipation of public taste has launched many great enterprises . 
Barry and Eric have enthusiasm . 
They are backed by a resurgent film industry . 
It could be curtain up on two success stories . 
Of the old Palace . 
And Barry and Eric . 
FOLLOW OXFORD ! 
DONS at Cambridge want the study of agriculture to become an honours degree course . 
Farming is Britain 's most vital industry . 
It is increasingly dependent on new techniques — and on the universities to provide men of knowledge and skill . 
The older universities are often accused of being interested only in dead subjects . 
Now Cambridge has the opportunity to show it is just as interested in the living . 
Particularly as its rival , Oxford , has had a similar course in farming for 15 years ! 
HERE ARE THE NEW PIONEERS 
JOHN GLENN , Virgil Grissom , Alan Shepard . 
One of these three men has a date with destiny — the first journey into Space . 
At the beginning of this wonderful century many people believed that there were no more worlds to conquer . 
A STRANGE PEOPLE 
AT this time of the year Americans from Kansas , Seattle , Scranton , Fresno , and another ten thousand pin-points ( you try telling a native of Kansas that his home-town is a pin-point ! ) all over the United States , arrive in our islands . 
The British Travel Association , which does excellent work in taking care of all foreigners who want to have a good time here and study what is pompously called " The British Way of Life , " have a hard time on their hands . 
From American sources I have just heard of two examples of The British Host at Work . 
One : A citizen of the U.S. was last week walking down Oxford-street when he was seized by a total stranger who said somewhat incoherently : " You 're an American , eh ? " 
He pleaded guilty . 
" I Hate You " 
" I 'm an Englishman — see ? 
And I hate you Yanks — see ? " 
Our transatlantic friend mildly replied : "That 's just too bad . " 
Pause while the visitor correctly adjudicates that his accoster is well loaded — or drunk . 
The assailant then resumes : " But if there 's anything I can do for you , anywhere you want to go , or you feel that somebody is trying to put it across you , just you let me know and I 'll be right here . 
Nobody 's going to shove ole Uncle Sam around ! " 
He then took out a piece of paper , wrote his address on it and added : " Anybody mucking the Yanks about had better call on me first . 
I wo n't stand for it . " 
Exit a puzzled American . 
The other incident occurred in the boat-train from Cherbourg to Paris . 
Two Americans on a visit to Europe — it was at least their twentieth trip — fell into conversation with a shy , diffident Englishman who they had seen on the Queen Mary . 
They renewed mild pleasantries and , after some international chit-chat , they told him that they were going to end their explorations of the Old World by touring England . 
They had in mind a kind of reviving postscript to the eccentricities of the Continent to be concluded in the sage , philosophical calm of the Anglo-Saxon world . 
The Englishman in the train said : " Mind if I give you just one tiny point of advice ? 
" All our chaps will be absolutely delighted to see you BUT IF YOU ARE IN A PUB FOR GOD 'S SAKE DO N'T RAISE YOUR VOICE ! " 
The travellers from the New World who had been in Britain many times before , were slightly stunned . 
Afterwards they said : " We thought we knew it all , but you Britishers never run out of unturned stones . " 
To the British Travel Association , doing their excellent darndest , I offer these sad complexities . 
The Ant Society 
IN the 1830's the Luddites took sledge-hammers to their looms and many a good trade unionist since then has , in the hope of improving the lot of his fellow workers , taken the theoretical Luddite hammer again . 
Hence the hostility to automation and the stop-watch manufacturing methods that have led to restrictive practices . 
Now a new threat to those who toil and spin has been developed by a firm specialising in electronics in Los Angeles . 
They have developed a new system whereby completely untrained workers can be taught their trade by means of tape recordings and television . 
What happens is that the unskilled worker is processed , by high-speed listening to recorded instructions on how to do the job coupled with explanatory TV pictures , into becoming a highly skilled , obedient craftsman in no time at all . 
Not only can the raw human mind be technically equipped very quickly to do one set of skilled manufacturing processes in one trade but , by being given another of the new audio-TV training techniques , he can be switched to a different industry if he just gives in and listens and looks . 
From being an assembler in an aircraft factory to becoming a paint sprayer in a ceramic factory , he can be qualified for a completely new job in less time than it takes to say " Tolpuddle Martyrs ! " 
A STRAIGHT THEODOLITE 
" CRICKET , " says the Oxford Dictionary , is " an open air game played with ball , bats and wickets between two sides consisting of eleven players each . " 
Not so , dear Oxford Dictionary . 
You are out of date . 
Cricket in 1961 is played with a theodolite , six surveyors , a ball , bats and wickets between two sides . 
Shades of the village stalwarts of Hambledon who are now the patron saints of the game ! 
What would THEY have thought of these civil engineers creeping about the pitch with their optical instruments ? 
The village green is the real home of cricket . 
A couple of bumps on a pitch have no terrors for a good batsman with a stout heart , a firm grip on the willow and a hefty contempt for batting averages and all the statistical blight that makes a mighty six these days as rare as frostbite in summer . 
They 'll be clapping the man who plays a straight theodolite next . 
The Eichmann Mind 
EICHMANN continues to reveal the extraordinary watertight divisions of the German mind . 
Not content with arguing that he was only an efficient cog in the machine , he now claims that his part of the endless massacre that led to the death of six million Jews was " decent , feasible and workable . " 
He feels satisfaction " from the fact that my personality had been tested and weighed and not found wanting . " 
He feels like Pontius Pilate who washed his hands before the multitude saying : " I am innocent of the blood of this just person . " 
Like Dr. Globke , whom I interviewed the other day , Eichmann said : " I drew a certain solace from the fact that I did what I could despite my low rank . " 
Eichmann is on dangerous ground when he pleads that he was only a small unit on the base of the triangle that led to Hitler , Himmler , Hess and Goering at the apex . 
In examination he betrayed an expert and intimate knowledge of every link in the chain of command that led to the top . 
He understood the whole apparatus with an exact and meticulous comprehension that could only have come from a man who used the system — and used it with power and authority . 
The appalling thing about the Germans is that they can kid themselves and feel a sense of righteousness when their hands are red with blood . 
They really believed that the Treaty of Versailles was an iniquitous injustice . 
When they burst into Czechoslovakia , Poland , Holland , Belgium and France they really believed Hitler when he screamed at them that they were being " encircled . " 
They really believed in the moral superiority of "The New Order " which Himmler on October 4 , 1943 , expressed thus : " Whether nations live in prosperity or starve to death like cattle interests me only in so far as we need them as slaves to our Kultur ; otherwise it is of no interest to me . " 
Dispatched ... 
This concept of slavery included Britain . 
General Brauchitsch signed a directive ordering that after the successful invasion of our islands all the " able-bodied male population between the ages of seventeen and forty-five will , unless the local situation calls for an exceptional ruling , be interned and dispatched to the Continent . " 
The Baltic States were to have been our destination . 
In no other conquered country , not even Poland , had the Germans begun with such a drastic step . 
There is no doubt that the compatriots of Eichmann would have been as good as their evil word . 
Officious Efficiency 
THE Inland Revenue people have a thankless task . 
But they do not make themselves less disliked by their attitude to their customers — who incidentally pay their salaries . 
Their demands are invariably couched in hectoring , out-of-date language , but in spite of all their bluster , they let many a big fish through the net while they are bullying the minnows . 
I have just heard a good example of their officious efficiency . 
A young chap I know got his first job last week . 
He is paid monthly in arrears and will not get a bean for the next twenty-one days . 
But the blood suckers have already been after him , demanding particulars in the usual minatory language including a blackmailing line which says : " If you do not do this , you may have to pay more tax than you need . " 
Truly are the tax gatherers an unbeloved people . 
May His Tribe Increase 
MY favourite piece of rhymed writing , when I was young and in the catapult-and-conker stage of life , was a piece of sentimental verse by Leigh Hunt . 
It was called " Abou Ben Adhem and the Angel . " 
I do n't know why I was so impressed with this poem but , on reflection , it might be that I took a guilty interest in the devilment business . 
I may well have felt that I was hell-bound under a strict Presbyterian upbringing and a possible reprieve might come through the sugary sentiments of "Abou Ben Adhem . " 
What happened in the jingly-jungly jingle was this : 
" Abou Ben Adhem ( may his tribe increase ! ) 
Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace 
And saw , within the moonlight in his room , 
Making it rich , and like a lily in bloom , 
An Angel writing in a book of gold . " 
More — or Less ? 
To cut a long story short the Angel got on well with Abou and wrote his name at the top of the book of gold . 
However , I was only intrigued by the blessing " May his tribe increase ! " 
I did n't realise , in my world of swarming , suburban kids in which I was reared , that more of us might be considered a good thing . 
But they were — and still are . 
In Burma the Government is urging the population to multiply because , says the Minister of National Planning : " If present trends continue and there is no increase , the Burmese will disappear one day . " 
Not far away , across the Bay of Bengal , India 's Government is urging the population to have themselves sterilised and paying them to have the operation . 
But neither of these pluses and minuses affects the main picture . 
The Earth is crammed with teeming , multiplying humanity . 
The blessing " May his tribe increase " in 1961 sounds like a curse . 
In our own country there are nearly 53 million of us . 
We are more thickly populated than teeming , bursting Japan . 
Only one country in the world has more people per square yard than we have — Holland . 
In 1850 there were 1,000 million people in the world . 
In 1900 the figure had swollen to — 1,500 million . 
Half a century later , us chicks had increased by another 1,000 million to 2,500 million . 
By 1975 we can not , on present figures , be less than 3,800 million , and by the year { 6Anno Domini 2000 ( bar nuclear accidents ) we will be about 6,300 million in all . 
There 's going to be an awful lot of us around . 
Unless ... 
Un-nuclear less ... 
Did They Know ? 
I HAVE cast doubt on the repeated claims of the Germans that they did not know of the appalling deeds that were inflicted on millions of human beings for the glory and honour of the Third German Reich . 
Yesterday I received a letter from an ex-SS man now living in England . 
He asks me not to publish his name and address " as it might well cost me my job . " 
He writes : " Your statement that the German people knew what happened to the Jews is wrong . 
From 1942-1944 I served as a volunteer in the German SS . 
During that time I served in various SS divisions and never heard the slightest rumour that Jews were murdered . 
" On the contrary we believed just as sincerely as the allies that we were fighting for a just cause and humanity . 
" We often fought against odds of twenty to one and got through . 
You do n't do that unless you have a deep conviction that your cause is right . 
" Our officers always told us never to degenerate to the level of our opponents . 
Even when our patrol found two of our comrades murdered ( shot in the neck ) by Russian troops who had captured them the day before , we were told by our patrol leader : " No reprisals . " 
West German Build-up Tories up to old tricks says BOB LEESON 
SOME 17 years ago , in the early summer of 1934 , the German ambassador in London was dictating a secret report to his chief von Papen , in Berlin . 
" Britain is uncomfortable in her role of champion of German rearmament , in opposition , to France . " 
Later that year he warned that Britain knew Germany was breaking the agreement to stop building bombers , and added : "Without Britain 's tolerance German rearmament in the air would be jeopardised . " 
When Hoesch 's reports , along with other nazi documents , were captured and published after the war the pattern of British Government connivance became clear . 
At nazi Germany 's request , Britain was providing the cloak for Germany to build an air force bigger than that of France . 
Yesterday West German Defence Minister , Herr Strauss , started talks with the British Defence Minister , Mr. Watkinson . 
Their talks are another stage in the cloak operation , 1961 variety , by which the West German militarists are advancing their rearmament . 
Strauss ' aim 
Herr Strauss told the Daily Mail last October that his policy was to make his country the " strongest militarily in Europe and the United States ' principal Nato ally . " 
His job is to build up the military apparatus which will back West Germany 's economic domination of Western Europe through the Common Market . 
He continued this week the argument with Mr. Watkinson which he had in public at a Nato council meeting last year over the question : do we fight a 30-day war or a 90-day war ? 
A 90-day war , the West German view , provides the pretext for huge German armed forces ( within Nato of course ) and for those to have bases all over Western Europe . 
In the past year West Germany has secured agreements for " facilities " in France , Holland and Belgium . 
After much bargaining the British Government has agreed to give similar " facilities " to German troops in Britain . 
The process has been too slow for Herr Strauss and last month he attacked Britain for being an obstacle for West Germany 's plans for a " unified supply apparatus " in Nato . 
( A supply apparatus which would link together the various West German " facilities . " ) 
By the end of the year there will be 11 German divisions in Nato compared with four divisions of British troops . 
Alongside these divisions a force of over 600 Starfighters provided by the Americans is growing up . 
These " fighters " are in fact fighter bombers which could launch an atomic attack on Eastern Europe . 
By 1963 the Germans plan to have nine missile battalions , with 288 missiles and 36 firing ramps , including weapons like Matador ( range 950 miles ) , also provided by the Americans . 
Last month West Germany was reported to be halfway toward this target . 
Her position as " America 's principal Nato ally " grows stronger and stronger . 
Now this target which Herr Strauss and his fellows have their eyes on is control of the warheads to these weapons . 
General Heusinger , the man who caused a great disturbance last autumn with his demand of nuclear weapons for his army , now heads Nato 's military planning committee . 
All this has been achieved through Nato under American leadership . 
But a big role has been played not only by the British Government but by Right-Wing Labour in this country . 
They have helped build up Nato and rearm Western Germany , in pursuit of the old familiar anti-Soviet policy which brought disaster in 1939 . 
No bases ! 
Now the argument is being used that Nato must be maintained and Britain must stay in it to keep the Germans in control . 
Nato , far from being a means of controlling the German militarists , is , in fact , the cover for building up their power . 
What must Britain do ? 
Today , again , she has a key role . 
Let her tell men like Strauss that he shall have no bases or " facilities , " no help in his quest for atomic arms . 
A policy which breaks with military alliances like Nato and seeks friendship with the Soviet Union can prevent another betrayal like that of the '30s . 
GAITSKELLISM IS BANKRUPT HARRY SMITH National president of the Association of Engineering and Shipbuilding Draughtsmen , writing in his personal capacity : 
I WAS pleased to read J. R. Campbell 's article , for , as president of a union which fought for and still stands on the policy decisions established at the Scarborough Labour Party Conference I am appalled at the character of the current attack against those decisions . 
For many years my union had to present its views to the two major conferences of the movement and take a licking . 
For us , unity meant accepting unpalatable majority decisions as binding on the movement and having a go next time . 
Alongside many others , we conducted our fight by putting down unambiguous alternatives to official policy and seeking to win majorities for them . 
Obstruction 
When Scarborough carried our point of view we were naturally delighted , more so because the alternatives had been put clearly to the movement , which had then chosen a vigorous anti-Nato , anti-Tory , anti-bomb and anti-German rearmament policy . 
Hopes rose as we saw a perspective of sharp struggle based on consistent lines of difference with the Tories . 
Many members understood that the bread-and-butter struggles of the union would become easier in the context of a movement advancing to attack the Tories on the whole front of their policy . 
For we have always felt , even if we have then by our practice ignored it , the inconsistency between support for the war alliance , with resulting colossal spending on armaments , and our basic effort to improve living standards . 
Instead , we saw the Gaitskellites using the position of organisational dominance established during their years of control of policy to offend every principle of democratic practice and unity . 
They obstructed every effort to fight for the Scarborough decisions , while scratching around frantically to overturn them next time . 
Confusion 
Confusion of the original issue by misrepresentation of the decisions , the introduction of a pseudo third way and the call for party unity — in effect , a demand that the movement unite with the Gaitskellites on their policy and no other seems to have done the trick of moving a number of unions temporarily away from Scarborough decisions . 
It would become easy to become cynical and to despair . 
And yet , wherever the issues were put clearly , sections of the movement reaffirmed their original stand . 
Only where the issues were posed so as to cause doubt and confusion were positions lost . 
It is my view that this immediate confusion hides the fact that the Peace movement is still advancing and that clarification of the issues can bring a majority to secure the Scarborough decisions . 
Powerful units have stood firm . 
In unions where the central issues were confused , clear policy details — as on bases — were decisively carried . 
Peace policy 
This , and the numbers of active workers who are beginning to understand how and why the trick was done , provides a strong , immediate basis for a campaign against weak and doubtful positions , and for a consistent peace policy . 
All recent events show how correct the Scarborough decisions were . 
The Kennedy Administration 's sharpened policies , the speeded-up drive to improve West Germany 's armament , the new attempt to rush Britain into the European Common Market , and the kite-flying on Spain present a whole new proof that to abandon Scarborough is to expose Britain and her working class to sharp new dangers — that Gaitskellism is bankrupt . 
Ordinary working people will never rally to defend a policy founded on political chicanery or elect a Labour Government to carry through Tory policy — Gaitskell 's stupid hope . 
The tragedy is that enormous inroads could already have been made into Tory strength by a fighting policy , based on Scarborough . 
ABE MOFFAT Scottish Miners ' leader : 
THE desire for unity in the Labour and trade union movement following the discussions that have taken place during the past two years on defence is something that should be recognised by all concerned . 
At the same time that unity can not be established on a false basis , or by creating further confusion within the movement . 
Unity will never be established on the basis of leaders being a law unto themselves and opposing conference decisions when it suits their own convenience . 
Unity can never be established by any formula uniting those who oppose German troops being trained on British soil and Polaris , and those who are for this policy — which is the same as that of the Tory Government . 
It is impossible for Labour 's new Defence statement to unite the movement as the Labour leaders are not only in favour of American bases , but are in favour of German bases and troops being trained on British soil . 
The new Defence statement , while accepting that Britain can not remain an independent nuclear Power , now supports the policy of depending on American nuclear weapons and the H-bomb , placing Britain in an even more dangerous position . 
The statement of Padley and Crossman is no different in principle to the new defence statement . 
They accept American nuclear bases , and also the use of nuclear weapons and nuclear strategy until some future date . 
They deceive the people by their talk of political and collective control of Nato . 
The Pentagon has made it perfectly clear who controls the American H-bomb , and who will actually give the instructions to press the button for nuclear warfare . 
There is only one way to develop unity and at the same time defend Britain . 
This was shown at the Scottish Trades Union Congress , representing 800,000 organised trade unionists , when it decided by overwhelming votes , to reaffirm the Scarborough decisions on unilateral disarmament , and to oppose Polaris and military bases being installed on the Holy Loch , or any other part of Britain . 
Tory menace 
Such a policy would unite the whole movement and lay the basis for the defeat of the present Tory Government , which has become a real menace to the British people both in home and foreign policy . 
It is quite evident that the movement will go on record against the Polaris base and facilities for German bases and military training . 
This should strengthen the campaign to end the manufacture and use of nuclear weapons in Britain . 
Britain then could play a leading and independent role for an international agreement to ban all nuclear strategy and weapons of mass destruction , and lay the basis for real peace and progress . 
Ballyhoo Wo n't Solve Youth Training says JOHN MOSS 
WHEN all the ballyhoo about Commonwealth Training Week subsides it is doubtful whether more than a handful of new apprenticeships will result . 
This week of window dressing will not prevent most of the hopeful 15-year-olds leaving school in six weeks time from ending up in blind alley jobs . 
It needs more than 10,000 church parades and open days at techs , more than descents into Brighton 's sewers or balloon ascents over Wolverhampton for Britain 's technical training to catch up with the space age . 
The heli-hopping Duke of Edinburgh , opening a few technical college extensions , will not keep us abreast of the scientific revolution . 
Out of the 550,000 young people aged 15-17 starting work in 1960 420,000 ( 73 per cent ) went into unskilled work . 
The percentage is expected to swell to 80 next year . 
Low wages 
The Duke , possibly speaking from experience , stated : " Most unskilled jobs are reasonably well-paid and many look attractive . " 
But last year 's average wage for boys under 21 was £5 4s and for girls £4 13s . 
If a minority got as much as the Press says they do , then those below average must have received a pittance . 
Apprentice wages are below average : a 19-year-old engineering apprentice may get as little as £5 8s 1d . 
But the Duke is wrong when he implies that young people prefer unskilled jobs . 
Countless numbers who want training are denied it . 
One area electricity board in 1958 offered six craft apprenticeships and received 450 applications , of whom 100 were considered suitable by the board . 
There were only 17 vacancies for the 58 boys who passed the Admiralty exams for Rosyth dockyard last year . 
A small number of recently widely publicised apprenticeships demanded seven passes in G.C.E. Getting Ready for the Budget 1 . 
Tax Reforms for the 1960s By DAVID HOWELL 
THERE are two basic points which seem to be a necessary preface to any sensible discussion of taxation reform . 
The first is that , whether we like it or not , with the increasing demands of a prosperous society , the revenue required by central and local government in the coming years is highly unlikely to get any smaller . 
The assumption of this article is , therefore , that most of the " natural " increase in the revenue in 1961 , due to increased wages , salaries , consumption and profits , will be needed by the Chancellor . 
If he does have £100m. or so to return to the taxpayer then indication is given as to where his priorities should lie . 
The second point to be made is that tax reform is a very different thing from putting forward a radical scheme for altering the whole tax structure . 
Raising the revenue is already a major administrative miracle . 
The only proposals for change which can be labelled practical are those which involve the minimum administrative complications when set beside the existing structure . 
The Objectives 
THIS said , it is nevertheless worthwhile trying to define some of the long-run objectives towards which tax reformers should aim . 
For although progress may be slow , it is no less important to have a clear idea about the direction in which all tax changes should go — something noticeably lacking in recent years . 
The objectives might be listed like this : 
1 — that the system should be efficient . 
2 — that it should be fair as between one taxpayer and another . 
3 — that it should encourage personal saving and the wider spread of ownership of assets and property . 
4 — that it should contain the minimum disincentive to , and where possible should actively encourage , risk-taking , enterprise , exports and investment in efficient production methods . 
It is the last of these four objectives about which we have heard most in the past year . 
With a disappointing export performance and a slow rate of economic expansion many people have been turning to the taxation system as the source of the trouble , citing individual cases . 
Yet strangely enough it is here that there is least evidence that the present system offends . 
Nevertheless , the grumbles and complaints are too frequent to be ignored . 
It is , therefore , with direct taxes on income ( income tax and surtax ) and capital ( death duties and stamp duty ) that we will begin . 
When talking of our highly progressive system of income tax we often forget that below £2,000 the taxpayer is only charged at progressive rates over a band of £360 . 
Otherwise he ( or she ) is either paying no tax at all or the full standard rate . 
A sensible first step , therefore , would be to make the ascent to the standard rate more gentle and less forbidding to the millions who are now attempting it . 
Further up the scale , where progression starts again with surtax , one of the most painful transition periods for the taxpayer is when he has to start writing a surtax cheque instead of having tax taken off by PAYE . 
There is no obstacle in principle or in administration against the abolition of the concept of surtax altogether and the continuation of the income tax scale to the top . 
Even with this change the PAYE deductions at the top end would still be at a near-confiscatory rate . 
The real objection to taking away more than , say , 15s in every pound a man earns , is not so much that it is unfair or discouraging to the nation 's decision makers , but that the imposition is grossly inefficient . 
Businessmen threatened with these high rates merely spend more and more time with their accountants seeing how their incomes can be kept out of this range . 
The temptations increase to draw benefits in kind , and sometimes in unnecessary business expenses , rather than taxable income . 
The cost to the Exchequer of placing a ceiling of 15s in the £ on direct personal taxation would be about £20m . 
This should be done . 
Two other important aspects of income taxation worry people . 
The first is the tax status of married women . 
Where the husband and wife 's combined incomes come to less than £2,100 ( where surtax for a married couple without children starts ) , they have a slight advantage over single persons . 
But above this level they are severely penalised . 
When shortage of labour is one of the main checks on our scope for increasing output rapidly , the case for making separate assessments seems particularly strong . 
The cost to the Exchequer of separate assessments for surtax ( or , as we have redefined it , income tax above £2,100 ) on earned income alone , but not on investment income , would be only £4m . 
This would still be an encouraging start . 
Capital Gains 
THE second source of concern is the widely-held suspicion that a number of professional dealers in property and shares pay no taxes since their "income " is mostly in the form of untaxed capital gains . 
It is from this suspicion that the main support for a capital gains tax comes . 
The trouble with a capital gains tax is that it hits so many other things as well , including small savings and the smooth working of the capital market , besides being of low and uncertain yield . 
It is generally recognised as a second best to much more radical schemes for transferring the main burden of taxation from income to expenditure . 
But the alternative suggestion that the Inland Revenue should apply its power to levy tax more vigorously against those who earn " regular " capital gains raises almost insuperable problems of legal definition . 
Thus a capital gains tax , for all its obvious deficiencies , is not without its advocates in all parties . 
There is no need to regard it for ever as an unmentionable heresy , nor as a general panacea . 
It can be discussed on purely empirical grounds . 
This raises the question of capital taxes on the individual . 
One of the weaknesses of Conservative government has been its reluctance to use the tax system as an instrument of policy as its Labour predecessors did freely . 
On the contrary , Conservatives have been content to accept a system which works directly against their declared objective of more widespread property ownership . 
Estate Duty is a good example . 
The main victims of Estate Duty ( which yields about £185m. ) are not ageing millionaires , who can easily make provision to avoid paying it , but middle-aged owners of small family firms , whose death often means the liquidation of the firm to pay death duties , in spite of the 45 per cent . 
rebate allowed on the industrial assets of a business , assessed at market value . 
The tax should long since have been replaced by a Legacy Duty — duty paid on the inheritance received rather than what is left . 
This would actively encourage the spread of property and would allow small firms to pass into wider family ownership without forcing them to close down . 
It is hard to estimate how much loss to the Revenue the changeover , keeping the same rates , would involve , but a figure of £30m. has been quoted . 
More Incentives 
FURTHER incentives to small savers are also long overdue . 
Stamp Duty on share transactions is prohibitively high for the newcomer with less than £500 to invest and exemptions could be made for sums under this . 
If the Chancellor really wanted to get more people into the saving and investing habit he could , without difficulty , go further and give relief on the first slice of an individual 's income from his investments . 
For the coming year the cost of these two concessions should be adjusted to about £50m . 
This still leaves an important area of direct taxation uncovered company taxation . 
At present net company profits are taxed at the standard income tax rate plus a 12 1/2 per cent . 
profits tax . 
The smoothing out of income tax rates , without any special concept of a " standard rate " or surtax levels , as I have suggested , would mean that companies would have to be taxed on a separate schedule . 
The obvious candidate to replace the present complicated two-part system ( which includes investment allowance reliefs ) would be the straight corporation tax . 
This could have the added advantage of flexibility ( it could be varied independently from personal taxes ) and speed , since it could be assessed on a current year basis . 
It does raise certain difficulties with regard to double taxation of dividends . 
But these have been successfully overcome abroad . 
In these ways the more painful , inefficient and discouraging aspects of our taxation system could be modified , at a cost of little more than the amount which , on the gloomiest view , the Chancellor may have to spare — just over £100m . 
But little has yet been said about the way in which we might start shifting some of the burden of tax from income and earning ( what we put into the pool ) on to spending ( what we take out of it ) , and about the main existing indirect tax , purchase tax . 
It seems to me that discussion of changes in this field can be most usefully combined with a look at local government finance . 
Getting Ready for the Budget — 2 Why Not a Local Sales Tax ? 
DAVID HOWELL 
WHEN the idea of more taxes on spending is canvassed , it is sometimes overlooked that we already have a kind of sales tax on a wide range of goods in the form of purchase tax . 
The estimated yield from purchase tax in 1960-61 is £535m . 
In addition , the estimated revenue from customs and excise duty on tobacco , beer and spirits is £1,229m . 
The other taxes on spending are the oil tax and tariff charges , which together have an estimated yield of £580m . 
Thus any suggestions for a further impost on spending in the form of a sales tax have to be made with these important taxes firmly in mind . 
Purchase tax , at four rates varying from five to 50 per cent. , spreads its net so wide that it is almost simpler to list some of the items not affected . 
Food and sweets , fuel and light are not taxed ; nor are books , magazines , children 's clothes , some kitchen equipment , sheets and towels . 
No services bear any kind of tax . 
On the other hand , a wide range of consumer durables is affected ; so are most household goods and appliances ; and so , too , are cosmetics , radios , records , jewellery , toys , cameras , carpets , wallpaper , most clothes , hats , gloves and furniture . 
Thus if goods alone are considered , few items are free of a spending tax of some kind , and those that are include a number of goods which it is rightly considered undesirable to tax . 
For these reasons it is usually argued that the first move towards a sales tax should be to modify the purchase-tax system into a uniform percentage rate tax and that this should be extended , if administratively possible and right in principle to tax . 
High and Wide 
Some calculations were done for Lord Amory when he was Chancellor on this basis and the conclusion was reached that a uniform sales tax over the widest possible range of goods would have to be levied at 20 per cent . 
to yield the same revenue as purchase tax . 
" The widest possible range " chosen could , in fact , have been wider . 
Some consumer services , and clothing , furniture and luxury food items , taxed in other countries , were excluded . 
Had they not been a figure of about 17 per cent . 
might have been reached . 
But this is still impracticably high . 
Moreover , this would replace purchase tax alone . 
If we wished to reduce income tax as well , the level of a sales tax would have to be well above 20 per cent . 
The real trouble with this kind of approach , which inevitably points to a very high rate of tax , is its assumption from the start that the proposed sales tax has to be a major revenue-raiser for the central government . 
Yet in those countries where a sales tax has worked most successfully , it has been employed as an additional source of revenue for the local or provincial government . 
NOW WHO 'S TIPPED FOR No. 10 ? by WALTER TERRY 
WITH one mighty spurt , Mr. Selwyn Lloyd has dashed from his rut and is now in the race for real power within the Conservative Party . 
In so intensive a contest the most difficult task of all is to judge one 's timing properly . 
Mr. Lloyd has done this superbly with his Budget . 
Once he was a non-starter . 
Today he is running well along the track towards No. 10 Downing Street . 
But wait a minute — Selwyn Lloyd , the little Liverpool lawyer , as he was contemptuously described a few years back , as Prime Minister ? 
Laughable , they used to say . 
The man could hardly make a decent speech , fluffing and floundering over a dreary brief . 
Dominant 
BUT Mr. Lloyd as Prime Minister is ridiculous no more . 
The very thought , I am sure , has struck Mr. R. A. Butler , Home Secretary and apparently the heir to Downing Street . 
For Mr. Lloyd , old nerves gone and seemingly dominant for the first time in his political career , has made a tremendous impact on the Tories of Westminster with his Budget . 
Maybe they do n't like some of its detail , specially the payroll tax . 
But the key significance is that for the first time in ten years of power a Tory leader has produced an alternative programme to Butlerism . 
For years many Conservatives , disgruntled but not quite clear what they wanted , have been searching for something to match the liberal , radical-type Toryism that Mr. Butler has inspired . 
Unafraid 
DRAMATICALLY , Mr. Lloyd has emerged — a Chancellor willing to grapple with the economy , unafraid of it . 
A politician of endurance ( as proved over Suez ) , able also to produce new ideas that can excite . 
Mr. Lloyd 's timing has been miraculously fortunate . 
His Budget has come immediately after a week in which Mr. Butler fared badly . 
Mr. Butler , a humanitarian who dislikes corporal punishment , was openly flouted by 69 Tories in the biggest Conservative revolt since the war . 
Next day another 15 disobeyed his advice over the Wedgwood Benn affair . 
Result at the weekend : Mr. Butler 's stock suffered a remarkable drop . 
Then into the limelight stepped Selwyn . 
It is not only Mr. Butler , the deserving candidate for Downing Street , who is in trouble . 
So are many other prominent contenders for the Premiership in the radical sector of the party . 
Mr. Iain Macleod , supremely able but facing frightful dilemmas as Colonial Secretary , is set back by the revolt , inspired by Lord Salisbury , against his Africa policies . 
Mr. Reginald Maudling , President of the Board of Trade , is disappointed . 
He would like to have been Chancellor . 
Now he is being tempted by Beeching-sized offers to leave politics and go into business . 
Mr. Edward Heath , Lord Privy Seal and Deputy Foreign Secretary , has not succeeded so far in turning his shadowy role into substance . 
And Viscount Hailsham , a radical Tory even if he would dislike being labelled a Left-winger , is down in the dumps of the whimsically named Ministry for Science . 
Cast a glance along the Right Wing : it is there that success lies at the moment . 
Lord Home is wielding immense power at the Foreign Office . 
Duncan Sandys works quietly as Secretary of State at the Commonwealth Office ; and Mr Henry Brooke , the Minister of Housing and Local Government is almost ready to take up the promotion that is his due . 
Over them all is Mr. Macmillan , silent about his own future . 
In about 18 months or so he will have to make it clear to the Conservative Party whether he intends to fight for another term of office at the next election or make way for a successor . 
Adored 
THE Prime Minister has never given the slightest indication who he considers should follow him in office . 
It has always been presumed to be Mr. Butler . 
In everything but title he is Deputy Premier . 
He holds the reins of power over party and domestic policy . 
But Mr. Butler 's everlasting disadvantage has been the undercurrent within the party against him . 
After Suez it rose to the surface to rob him of the Premiership . 
It still lies waiting ( though Mr. Butler has been an able fellow at winning friends over the years ) for a chance to cheat him again . 
Now Mr. Selwyn Lloyd , sponsoring a Budget that is strictly Right Wing , adored by Tory constituency parties , and an intimate of the Prime Minister , is on the scene with just as much power and authority as Mr. Butler ever had . 
Clever 
WHEN you think about it , Mr. Lloyd owes it all to Mr. Macmillan . 
As Foreign Secretary he could have been sacked at any time . 
Hardly anyone would have wept . 
Uphill , against current thinking in the party , he was promoted Chancellor by the Prime Minister . 
Maybe a scheme is coming to fruition . 
Can it be that the Prime Minister has been grooming Selwyn all along for the highest office of all ? 
There are plenty of Tories now who are ready to believe it . 
The Prime Minister is not only very clever . 
He has an uncanny habit of thinking years ahead of his colleagues . 
INTIMATELY REVEALED ... 
FRANCE 'S MAN OF THE CENTURY ... 
AND THE HOUR Yes , his sight is failing but not his vision ... by MAURICE EDELMAN M P 
HAS de Gaulle lost his grip ? 
Is the old chieftain who has won so many battles and crushed so many revolts now to be eaten by the young warriors of the tribe ? 
I have known de Gaulle for 17 years . 
I first met him when he was the young , defiant leader of the Free French , in Algiers on the eve of his putsch against General Giraud . 
Since that day I have been fascinated by the paradoxical personality of France 's greatest leader . 
Has he the strength left now in 1961 to pull it off again ? 
I believe he has . 
His power lies in his curious contradictions . 
He is , for instance , a professional soldier . 
And yet , once again , he is called on to resist the French Army . 
He is a devout Roman Catholic . 
And yet he is drawing on support from the anti-clerical left . 
He is often accused of being a dictator . 
And yet he is today fighting a battle against militant dictatorship . 
HIS INTEGRITY 
THE greater part of the professional Army is ranged against him . 
But there is no doubt that the concentrated strength of the French people is behind him , because of a respect for his integrity which no French soldier or civilian has commanded in this century . 
Physically , he is a sick man . 
His sight is failing him ; he suffers from a cataract of both eyes . 
That is the principal reason why he never speaks with notes ; he could n't read them if he had them . 
He memorises all his speeches , and when he was in England in 1959 I congratulated him on his memory . 
He told me that it had always been good ever since he studied philosophy at the Jesuit College in Paris , before going to St. Cyr , the French Sandhurst . 
Spectacles could do something for his eyesight , but he wo n't wear them because of a pardonable vanity which makes him feel that spectacles are unsuitable for a man fulfilling the role of soldier-father of the French people . 
As the family man , the father who each Sunday visits the grave of his daughter Anne in the medieval church of Colombey-les-deux-Eglises , he is a figure which the ordinary Frenchman and Frenchwoman understand . 
That is why even the Communists , who number millions in France , although officially opposing him during the last referendum which endorsed his Algerian solution , are in very many cases his secret backers . 
For the first time since 1945 the Communist , Socialist , and Catholic trade unions have rallied in agreement . 
They will provide the active leadership and civilian resistance to the Algiers mutiny which the inert mass of the French middle classes — the attentistes or fence sitters — are unlikely to offer and which de Gaulle is unlikely to expect them to offer . 
Like most supremely powerful men he believes in his " destiny . " 
HIS NATURE 
HE sees himself marked out as the saviour of France . 
And in the course of his often dangerous and adventurous life he has said many times that he possesses the " baraka , " an Arab word which means the divine blessing which protects its bearer from evil . 
But this Joan of Arc mentality does not mean that he is lost in the clouds . 
It is balanced by an icy , calculating nature , a quality he learned from his father who was a teacher of philosophy at Lille . 
He has always been predictable , in the sense that once he has made his position clear all his actions flow logically from that position . 
It is certain that he would never yield to the blackmail of the insubordinate generals . 
HIS POLICY 
IT is this strange mixture of mysticism and rational logic which makes what is perhaps his most powerful contradiction . 
As a mystic ( a quality inherited from his mother ) he regards himself as France 's predestined deliverer . 
As a rationalist ( inherited from his father ) he anticipated the Algiers revolt by rallying the French people behind him , and making the issue of his Algerian policy a straight one between the professional soldiers with their vested interest in war and the French people with their vested interest in peace . 
The last word may well be with the Army — not the clique of Salan , but the army of conscript soldiers , whose hearts must be with their families on the mainland of France . 
This Clore touch at the Post Office by JOHN HALL 
I MIGHT have been listening to Mr. Clore or Mr. Cotton . 
" In cities and towns all over the country , grubby Victorian buildings sitting on magnificent central sites , " the man at the other side of the desk was saying . 
" Sites worth millions , asking for redevelopment , begging for the old buildings to be razed and replaced with new money-spinners . " 
But it was n't either of the Mr. Cs speaking — or any other property tycoon . 
It was Mr. Reginald Bevins , the Postmaster-General , and he was talking about — our post offices , the old ones , the shabby relics of another age , and the plans he has to give them the Clore-Cotton treatment . 
" I 've had a firm of specialists make a pilot survey and it is most encouraging . 
In site after site all over the country there 's a lot of money waiting for us to collect , money we can put to good use improving our services . " 
Property tycoonery in the G.P.O. — what 's happening ? 
Just this : After years of subservience the G.P.O. has been liberated from the clutches of the Treasury . 
It is as free as makes no matter to " go it alone " as a strictly business concern , and that is Mr. Bevins ' aim . 
From here on we can call it the G.P.O. , Ltd. , and fall in with the unofficial title the G.P.O. staff have given Mr. Bevins . 
To them this 52-year-old ex-elementary schoolboy from Liverpool is no longer the P.M.G. He is The Chairman . 
And with his Guardsman 's silhouette and his iron-grey hair , and his quiet , incisive speech he looks the part too — executive director model . 
I went to see The Chairman to ask him about the new G.P.O. He told me : "Although we are a State monopoly our aim is to be as competitive as if we had rivals breathing down our necks . " 
He means it . 
Almost before the Treasury ties had been severed he sent down the line a directive which comes pretty close to the customer-is-always-right precept . 
Changing 
THE odd telephone operator who snaps at us ; the occasional clerk behind the counter in the Post Office who glares when we fumble or are not quite sure what we want : The Chairman is after them . 
From June 1 , in all except the biggest post offices , there will be no segregation at the counters : no segregation in the sense that whether we want stamps , postal orders , or both , we will be able to march up to any station on the counter and get them from the same assistant . 
I asked about television — colour television . 
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Need to disperse immigrants 
Sir , — While I fully endorse your attitude to the Commonwealth Immigrants Bill , and am repelled by that section of its supporters who detergently echo the racialist slogan , " Keep Britain White , " nevertheless I urge that the particular problem of immigrants from any source crowding into congested areas in London , Birmingham , and elsewhere must not be evaded . 
This does not at present affect my own constituency of Leyton , but there are other areas where immigrants can only find lodging under deplorable circumstances or by acquiring houses that could have been occupied by those who have been waiting for reasonable accommodation for many weary years . 
Hospitality is an excellent virtue , but not when the guests have to sleep in rows in the cellar ! 
No wonder some returning immigrants have spoken bitterly of the wretched conditions under which they have been compelled to live , even if they forget that is the plight also of white brethren . 
Surely , in the interest alike of our indigenous inhabitants and of immigrants who have made and can make a valuable contribution to our economic needs , it is imperative to enforce dispersal of newcomers to less congested areas and substantially to expand house-building . 
If this is not done reprehensible racial prejudice will , alas , be encouraged and mischievously exploited . 
— Yours etc. , 
R. W. Sorensen . 
House of Commons . 
Polarisation of the Labour Party 
Sir , — Nothing could illustrate the polarisation of the Labour Party more aptly than the behaviour of Mrs Sylvia Brooks , who claims to be a member of the Hornsey Labour Party and bitterly attacks a speech I made as a guest speaker in Hornsey the other day . 
She attributes to me the words " The worst country under socialism is better than the best country under capitalism , " and then claims that the Labour Party will only flourish when it gets rid of people like myself who " consider freedom relatively unimportant . " 
Fortunately the part of my speech to which she refers was reported in the " Hornsey Journal " which quotes me correctly as saying : " The last ten years have proved that the most backward totalitarian form of socialism is superior to the decadent type of capitalism we have in the Western world . 
The only alternative to communism is democratic socialism with planning and freedom combined . 
The issue is whether we can get the people to see this in time . " 
Does Mrs Brooks think it really helps the Labour Party that she should seek to smear me by deliberate and malicious misrepresentation ? — Yours truly , 
R. H. S. Crossman . 
House of Commons . 
Anomalies of the wage pause policy 
Sir , — Is not the Government 's failure to convince the nation of the necessity of the wage pause very largely due to its failure to present a policy with conviction , clarity , and imagination ? 
What , for example , is the " plain man " expected to make of the Prime Minister 's recent forecast of a £20 minimum wage for the lowest paid workers in ten years ' time ; the undertaking by Lord Robens shortly afterwards that coal prices would not rise for five years ( broken this very morning ) ; and the Prime Minister 's repeated warnings that the Common Market will demand real competitive pricing of our products — and all this in the context of a pay " pause " ? 
Moreover , the plain man can not understand how the country 's future can possibly depend upon a pause in the pay claims of the few . 
If , as is asserted , the pause is so vital to the country 's economy , why not invite us all to share it ? 
Indeed , why does not the Government begin with a voluntary 10 per cent cut in the tax-free pay of MPs , as did the Churchillian Government in the early days of the war ? 
The Government , too , must make up its mind as to whether we need a stable economy or a fluctuating one , whether the cost of living is to continue to rise ( the promise of a £20 minimum ) or whether it should be stabilised , as it so easily could be . 
Finally , the crux of this matter is surely not wages , but spending power . 
The higher income groups and those whose incomes are derived from sources other than wages are deliberately put outside this pause ; yet it is common knowledge that these groups , as groups , spend lavishly . 
For the present Government to ignore this aspect of the situation is to create its own opposition on a far wider than party scale , and can only lead to a defeat of its own half-hearted appeals . 
— Yours etc. , 
S. J. Streek . 
Holmbridge Vicarage , near Huddersfield . 
Sir , — How silly can we get ? 
If the Treasury official really believes that " money is in the Bank of England " just as jackets and raincoats are in the Post Office stores , waiting for the end of the pay pause , he ought to take some lessons in elementary economics . 
Yours etc. , 
Leonard Cohen . 
112 Wythenshawe Road , 
Manchester 23 . 
BEA services in Scotland 
Sir , — In the " Guardian " of November 24 Lord Douglas is quoted as saying of the Toothill Committee 's report on BEA services in Scotland that " For sheer ingratitude , this report is hard to beat . " 
He is further reported as saying that the Scottish service is subsidised by the profitable BEA Continental service , and that the best place for this section of the Toothill Report is the waste-paper basket . 
I suspect that the waste-paper basket is Lord Douglas 's filing cabinet for many good ideas which might be presented to BEA . 
But is it not the duty of a common carrier system which operates on a monopoly basis to provide adequate service to all parts of the country ? 
Or are they only obliged to offer service where profitable to them ? 
Is it not the nature of the business to offset the losses of one line with the profits of another ? 
And if Lord Douglas is so distressed about the loss incurred by the Scottish service , why has BEA been so reluctant to allow any other airlines an opportunity to provide service ? 
The attitude of BEA towards internal service is reflected in their London booking office . 
Vast gleaming counters await the prospective Continental traveller . 
The internal passengers need a native guide and the Gods on their side to find the booking counter allotted to them . 
For Lord Douglas 's information , Scotland extends beyond Edinburgh and Glasgow . 
There is Aberdeen , Inverness , Wick , and the islands . 
During the summer holiday season or New Year holiday a passenger can get from London to Edinburgh with only a little difficulty . 
But farther North ? 
One has to book at least six weeks in advance . 
Put on extra flights ? 
There 's another idea for the waste-paper basket . 
Yours faithfully , 
Mark Murray Threipland . 
Dale House , Halkirk , Caithness . 
Deceived by Hitler ? 
Sir , — Mr R. H. S. Crossman proclaims , in his article in Monday 's issue of the " Guardian " : "The white-washing of Chamberlain is completed by the claim that he was never deceived by Hitler and never believed in the possibility of a general peace settlement with him . " 
On Tuesday , March 23 , 1942 , the Joint Consultation Board of Standard Telephone and Cables held its fourth ordinary meeting . 
According to the minutes of that meeting , the visitor was Air-Commodore H. Leedham , who , in the course of his talk , said that Chamberlain , on his return from Munich , requested that 20 RDF stations be established around the coast before the next April . 
It would seem , therefore , that Chamberlain did not trust Hitler ; if he did he would have been most unlikely to request the establishment of those stations . 
— Yours faithfully , 
Paul D. C. Hudson . 
Exeter . 
A Radical alliance 
Sir , — May I , as an active Liberal in my own constituency , sympathise most warmly with Mr R. A. Buchanan 's plea for a Liberal-Labour election arrangement . 
In spite of post-Moss Side , post-Oswestry , and cosy Liberal optimism it will be some years yet before the Liberal Party can form a Government , while it is obvious that the unique event of a Labour majority in the Commons is unlikely to be repeated . 
But what we need is not a Lib. -Lab. pact but a new party ; not coalition but coalescence . 
Is it too much to hope that the Radicals , now sprinkled in all three parties , may one day be united and that the Liberal Party may find itself the anchor of a new radical alliance ? — Yours sincerely , 
J. Mackay Cousins , Political Secretary Brentford and Chiswick Young Liberals . 
33 Mayfield Avenue , Chiswick , London 
W 4 . 
Letters to the Editor The bill for drugs 
Sir , — If Mr. Corina wishes to make two mutually exclusive propositions he will be well advised not to publish them in the same journal in the same month . 
On November 9 he states : " Since price restraint became operative the industry has won success in export markets . " 
This must mean that he believes that the advent of price restraint in 1957 ( the Voluntary Price Regulation Scheme ) resulted in substantially increased drug exports after 1957 . 
But in his letter twelve days later he states : "In the period 1957-59 the volume of exports fell by 1.2 per cent . " 
At least one of the propositions must be incorrect . 
Mr. Corina says that the Hinchliffe Report " showed quite clearly " that between 1949-50 and 1959-60 the total cost of the Health Service rose by 80 per cent . 
I am unable to find this reference in the report — which is hardly surprising as it was published in 1959 and its latest reference to costs is in the financial year 1957-58 . 
What the Hinchliffe Report does say on page 27 , paragraph 63 , is : " These figures do not support the general belief that the cost of the pharmaceutical service is increasing at a much faster rate than that of other branches of the National Health Service or that it is absorbing an increasing share in the total cost of the Service . " 
If the rise in the drug bill is " phenomenal " the rise in the total Health Service bill must also be phenomenal , as both have gone up at much the same rate . 
However , in his recent book , " Health through Choice , " Dr. D. S. Lees , Senior Lecturer in Economics at the University College of North Staffordshire states : " Between 1949-50 and 1959-60 ... health expenditure fell as a proportion of social service expenditure from 28 per cent to 23 per cent , and as a proportion of gross national product from 4 per cent to 3.9 per cent . 
Far from being extravagant , expenditure on NHS has been less than consumers would probably have chosen to spend in a free market . " 
It therefore comes as no shock to read Dr. Lees 's conclusion on the drug bill : "It would seem that much of the furore over drug costs has been misplaced . " 
— Yours faithfully , 
Ronald C. Clark , Director 
Smith Kline and French 
Laboratories , Ltd . 
Welwyn Garden City . 
Diplomacy and trade 
Sir , — During extensive travelling in many parts of the world seeking export trade , I have often criticised the lack of facilities accorded to business men by some British embassies and our official commercial representatives in foreign capitals . 
For a change I would like to pay tribute to our embassies in Spain and Portugal for providing examples of just what can be done to foster British trade . 
I held receptions for leading figures in the motor industries in Spain and Portugal , and in both Madrid and Lisbon my efforts to promote new trade were actively supported by the British Ambassadors , who not only saw to it that my visits were widely known but personally came to the receptions and introduced me to useful contacts . 
In Spain , in particular , where 300 people attended a reception , there was official British representation at all levels , and I was immensely encouraged by the splendid effort made , particularly by our own British information service . 
Indeed the joint effort between embassy personnel and first-rate Spanish agents demonstrated to me for the first time in my long experience just what 100 per cent co-ordination can achieve . 
Surely what can be accomplished in Spain can be done by our embassies all over the world . 
— Yours faithfully , 
Baron Rolf Beck , Chairman 
Slip Group of Companies . 
Letters to the Editor Directors ' Rewards 
Sir , — Mr. Aucott ( August 21 ) implies that all expenses incurred by directors on behalf of their companies should be disclosed to shareholders . 
The law on this subject is perfectly equitable : if the expenses in question are disallowed by the Inspector of Taxes — in other words , they were not " wholly exclusively and necessarily " incurred — then quite properly they are shown in the accounts under " Directors ' Emoluments . " 
Where , however , such expenses were " wholly exclusively and necessarily " incurred they were plainly not remuneration in the hands of the directors and can not therefore be shown as such in the accounts . 
Mr. Aucott is not , I hope , suggesting that the standards of honesty in British companies today are such as to require that every penny spent by a director in performing his duties should be declared to the shareholders . 
J. F. STADDON , 
Secretary , 
Institute of Directors . 
10 , Belgrave Square , S.W.1 . 
Exports on a Plateau 
Sir , — I feel that the letter from Mr. E. J. Bunbury , August 22 , can not go unanswered . 
To begin with , Mr. Bunbury assumes that the Chancellor 's measures are sensible and correct and are likely to achieve the objects desired . 
It has been repeatedly pointed out that the Chancellor 's measures to restrict sales in the home market in order to increase exports are quite mistaken and are having the opposite result . 
There is already ample statistical evidence available to prove this is the case . 
It is not correct to say that none of the Chancellor 's critics have put forward a practical alternative . 
Perhaps you would allow me to state the alternative which a considerable number of people believe infinitely preferable to the present patchwork and uneffective measures . 
The Chancellor must take steps to curtail inessential exports . 
It is perfectly ridiculous in the present serious situation to allow people to fritter away hard-earned foreign exchange on the purchase of rubbish and things we could perfectly well do without . 
The most effective way to achieve this would be to revive the control of availability of foreign exchange . 
Indeed , the Chancellor is already doing this , but unfortunately , because he will not face up to the true issues involved , he is tackling it at the wrong end . 
He is cutting off availability of foreign exchange to people who would use it to create an overseas investment which would ultimately yield a return instead of cutting it off to people who would merely waste it in buying a lot of rubbish . 
N. F. T. SAUNDERS , 
Managing Director , 
Kelvinator . 
New Chester Road , 
Bromborough , 
Cheshire . 
Butter Dumping 
Sir , — I was interested to read the article by your Commercial Editor on butter ( August 21 ) . 
I ought not to have to express my ignorance to such a degree , but I find it very difficult to understand how it is possible for another country to invoke anti-dumping legislation inside the U.K. Surely the three sections primarily concerned are the citizens of this country in their dual capacity of taxpayers and consumers , together with our own farmers ? 
The point I really wish to make , though with great sympathy for both Denmark and New Zealand , is that anti-dumping legislation is primarily designed to protect a country 's home industry , and it would be setting a most undesirable precedent if rival exporting countries and companies are permitted to apply for discriminatory action in their mutual overseas markets . 
Should we join the Common Market , it is appreciated that dumping will be prohibited between members , but this is quite a different problem from that now raised by Denmark and New Zealand . 
M. C. BENTALL . 
East Falinge , Bent Meadows , 
Rochdale . 
Potato Acreage 
Sir , — Mr. Merricks writes ( August 21 ) as a Special Member of the Potato Marketing Board , and in that capacity he is well aware of the reasons why it is necessary to have quota restrictions on the planning of potatoes . 
To have violent fluctuations in the acreage , and consequently in prices , serves the interest neither of producers nor consumers , as was well shown in the years before the Board was set up . 
Of course it is not possible for the Board , by its quota prescriptions , to plan for an exact acreage . 
There are too many factors which affect farmers ' own intentions for any quota laid down by a Board , or by any other body , to do more than influence the position . 
But the Board would surely be failing to carry out its responsibilities if it did not exercise the powers conferred on it by the Potato Marketing Scheme to assist growers to plan their production from year to year at a level normally adequate to meet the consumers ' needs at reasonable prices . 
Mr. Merricks is also aware that £1m. a year from the increased contributions would go to meet the Board 's share of the proposed market support fund and would attract twice that sum from the Government . 
It would therefore get back to the producer in the form of higher prices for his crop in surplus years and should thus encourage greater stability in acreage and prices as between one year and another . 
It is difficult to see how amendments to the Scheme which produced this result could be described as " harmful . " 
J. E. PICCAVER , 
Chairman , 
Basic Acreage Committee , 
Potato Marketing Board . 
Norfolk House Farm , 
Gedney Marsh , Spalding . 
Building Bricks 
Sir , — In reply to the article in THE FINANCIAL TIMES of August 3 re building bricks , the Scottish brick works have about 40m. composition bricks in stock , made without the help of foreign labour , and could produce more if need be . 
There is a freight opening for British Railways , 120m. tons , if the price were right . 
Composition bricks are imported from Belgium and distributed to various parts of England cheaper than the freight charge from Scotland to the south . 
G. R. NICOLL . 
35 , Glenview Avenue , 
Banknock , by Bonnybridge . 
Letters to the Editor The Airlines 
Sir , — With reference to your leading article of August 23 , the causes of airline troubles are surely simple to diagnose . 
In the long haul category the operating cost of the U.S. big jets of just under 2 cents per seat mile is no improvement on existing types . 
It is not , therefore , possible to lower fares appreciably and so widen the market with these aircraft . 
Basically the same trouble also applies to regional operations with the additional difficulty that the sectors are so short that the aircraft can not get down anywhere near to the best point on the range-cost graph . 
These airlines have ordered aircraft which only get down to the best position at 1,000 miles and in many cases the airlines do not have a single European sector approaching this . 
At 300-400 miles it is off the graph at the bottom end resulting in costs of 3 , 4 and 5 cents a seat mile . 
If the turbine engine and propeller had been configured differently , cost of 1.5 cents would have been realised , perhaps 1.2 with prospects of 1 cent on the horizon . 
So airlines have only themselves to blame if air does not secure a bigger part of the apparently static common carrier market due in turn to the growth of private carriers . 
Airlines must surely get back to the principles of careful husbandry , and demand economic progression in the new vehicles they order . 
R. G. WORCESTER . 
66 , Sloane Street , S.W1 . 
Economies in Drugs 
Sir , — In the outpatient departments of many hospitals , the habit survives of prescribing small quantities of drugs , bandages , etc. , which have to be collected at the hospital dispensary . 
Frequently , the charge for these prescriptions is considerably higher than the cost at which they can be bought at the chemists . 
In addition , patients have often to wait a long time , up to two hours , for the dispenser to prepare the prescription . 
Issuing such small prescriptions , which of course were originally free , in the hospital might have made sense when outpatients were presumably paupers to whom a saving of a few pence was material , and to whom time was of little value . 
To-day , the N.H.S. , the over-worked dispenser and last but not least the patient , who may lose wages while waiting , would be better off if the latter were simply instructed to obtain small quantities of simple supplies at the chemists . 
It is , of course , not suggested that this method should be applied to complicated special prescriptions on which the effort of the hospital dispensary freed from petty orders could be concentrated . 
HANS A. BLUM . 
7 , Holders Hill Avenue , 
N.W.4 . 
Cost of H.P. 
Sir , — I presume that Mr. G. H. Woolveridge 's letter ( August 23 ) is written in his official capacity , and it is for this reason that I do not think it should be allowed to pass without comment . 
Firstly , what does it cost a motor trader to assist in filling up an H.P. form and posting it ? 
Bearing in mind the profit he is making on the sale of the car I would have thought that he would be delighted to do the work for nothing , especially as he would be unable to sell the car if the finance was not forthcoming . 
Secondly , the 10 per cent . 
he receives is excessive . 
Thirdly , if business is on recourse , in what way does the finance house share the risk ? 
Fourthly , in my opinion H.P. charges have gone up by 1 1/2 per cent . 
flat even though commission has gone down . 
Fifthly , can Mr. Woolveridge publish the rebate scales used by F.H.A. members and state that they adhere to them ? 
I doubt it . 
At least one F.H.A. member charges many £s extra for early settlement where no new business arises , and it is simply not true to say that finance houses would lose money if they gave a bigger rebate in such cases . 
Sixthly , his penultimate paragraph suggests that banks when offering personal loans have no paper work , no collecting and recording of monthly instalments and do not have to make provision for bad debts or make enquiries about the integrity and standing of their customers . 
J. E. FOSTER . 
26 , Boyle Avenue , 
Stanmore . 
Polythene Bags 
Sir , — The rapid increase in the use of thin polythene film has added another " home hazard " against which precautions should be taken , in order to avoid accidents as a result of misuse of the material . 
This applies particularly to children , in that they can become suffocated if polythene bags are placed over their heads . 
This Association through its Polythene Product Committee has collaborated with the Ministry of Health and the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents , in order to determine methods of publicising both the dangers and the recommended preventive measures . 
Polythene film has certain characteristics which make it an excellent packaging material for a wide variety of applications . 
In many forms , such as small bags , there is no need for any particular precautions , but with larger bags and sheets , and in particular where film is used as a cover for mattresses and pillows , the material should not be left on the articles when they are in use . 
It is realised that such bags , and also those used for the packaging of a large number of garments , are useful in the home . 
If , therefore , these bags are retained , in order to use them from time to time for storage purposes , they should be kept out of the reach of children . 
If , however , they are not required for storage purposes , it is the recommendation of the film manufacturers , and the above mentioned bodies , that they should be disposed of immediately out of the way of children . 
A. R. THOM , 
Chairman , 
Packaging Films Manufacturers ' Association . 
P.O. Box 121 , 
301 , Glossop Road , 
Sheffield 10 . 
Exports of Capital 
Sir , — It is evident that the succour provided by the I.M.F . 
merely cancels some of our short-term liabilities to foreign countries , transfers them to the I.M.F. , but correspondingly reduces the possibility of gold losses from British reserves . 
Let us have no illusions about this " { Monte de Pieta , " and hope that the cold storage period will be long enough . 
For the future , it is important that any move on the part of British industry to establish factories in hard currency countries as a result of the impetus set in motion by entry into the Common Market should not constitute a further drain on reserves . 
THE PRESIDENT 'S SPEECH 
Sir , — We are much indebted to The Times for publishing yesterday , in full , the broadcast of the President of the United States to his people — and to the world — an account of his recent visit to Europe . 
This address , and the President 's Inaugural Speech , has brought a voice and an authority to the councils of the Free World — and outside it — that speaks in frank , clear , and unambiguous terms , enabling those who hear and read to appreciate the dangers and the immense issues involved . 
His language , more than that of any other , reminds me of the great utterances of Sir Winston Churchill during — and immediately after — the war . 
Your obedient servant , 
HENRY MORRIS-JONES . 
Bryn Dyfnog , Llanrhaiadr , near Denbigh , North Wales , June 9 . 
REPEATED INTERFERENCE 
Sir , — Mr. Kelf-Cohen , in his letter to you published on June 6 , criticizes the emergency resolution passed by the Transport Salaried Staffs ' Association 's annual conference in regard to the interference of the Government in the running of the undertakings of the British Transport Commission . 
That resolution pointed out that the present attitude of the Government precluded the possibility of an integrated and coordinated transport system , which conference believed to be essential to the economy of the country . 
In abandoning the policy of integration , the Government had made it impossible for the commission to pay its way . 
In speaking to the resolution I quoted from the leading article in The Times in connexion with the Government 's proposals , which article stated that : " Disintegration is being carried too far . 
In many respects there will be less integration than there was in the 1930s . " 
The article added : " The plan will put the railways in the position of splendid isolation , except for pipelines , which is commercially unrealistic . 
The railway boards should be put in a reasonable position to provide interlinked and complementary transport . " 
In spite of this " commercially unrealistic " position , Mr. Kelf-Cohen alleges that each member of my association receives £4 per week in subsidy from the taxpayer , and apparently he has arrived at this figure by dividing the total B.T.C. deficit by the number of employees , and then debiting the whole of the deficit ( including the sums paid for interest and other commodities ) against the employees . 
The payment of proper remuneration is generally regarded as the first charge on an industry : Mr. Kelf-Cohen appears to regard it as the last charge . 
Mr. Kelf-Cohen asks if the members of the association are now prepared to give up £4 per week , but does he know what he is really asking ? 
A junior clerk of 16 receives £230 { 6per annum : does Mr. Kelf-Cohen expect him to work for him for £22 { 6per annum , or a young man to return from the forces at the age of 20 and work for him for £162 { 6per annum ( £370-£208 ) ? 
It should be remembered that until the implementation of the Guillebaud Report , under which railway rates of pay were based on the principle of "comparability " with those of comparable employees in other employments , railwaymen had worked for considerably debased rates of pay , and it was they who had been providing the subsidy necessary for the running of the railways which are necessary to the economy of the country . 
Yours faithfully , 
W. J. P. WEBBER , General Secretary , 
Transport Salaried Staffs ' Association of Great Britain and Ireland . 
Walkden House , 10 Melton Street , N.W.1 . 
OPENING PAIRS 
Sir , — In 1907 at Westminster , Charterhouse made a first wicket stand of just over 400 . 
M. H. C. Doll , 294 not out , and R. L. L. Bradell about 104 not out . 
There were only six or eight extras . 
Yours truly , 
R. R. TRALL . 
Ridgeway House , Ottery St. Mary , Devon . 
MATHEMATICS 
Sir , — Several of your correspondents on this subject have put forward the view that , over the passing years , there has been a gradual increase in difficulty in university honours courses in mathematics , and that their content is now less suitable for intending schoolteachers than formerly . 
I believe these views to be incorrect . 
It is true that there have been considerable changes over the years in the character of the mathematics taught in British universities , but this is to be expected of any living subject . 
The main change has been a move away from the mathematical "jugglery " referred to by one of your correspondents to a more logical study of mathematical structures and ideas . 
The type of honours examination question at present set is in fact easier , in that it demands less in the way of memory and manipulative technique than the type of question common 50 years ago . 
One would like to claim also that present-day examination questions demand more in the way of understanding , but this high ideal is not always attained . 
Because of the use of special terminologies , the newer mathematical subjects may be meaningless to teachers in the schools ( or even to some university mathematicians ) , but this does not necessarily make them harder for the student . 
The present-day student tackles with ease questions on abstract algebra or topology , for example , but finds difficulty with questions on older disciplines such as elliptic functions and spherical harmonies . 
None of these subjects , old or new , has any direct application in the school curriculum . 
Nevertheless , many of the newer subjects are likely to be of more use to the intending school teacher than the older ones ; this is especially true of abstract algebra and set theory , which should help to clarify his understanding of elementary mathematical and logical processes and in this way should improve his skill as a teacher . 
In conclusion , although I believe that university courses have benefited , and that students ' lives have been made easier , by the reduction in the demands on manipulative " jugglery " , the pendulum should not be allowed to swing too far in the opposite direction . 
There are certain basic mathematical techniques and methods which should not be omitted from university courses , but which should form part of the equipment of every mathematician . 
Yours faithfully , 
R. A. RANKIN . 
Department of Mathematics , The University , Glasgow . 
COOPERATION IN EUROPE NOT AT EXPENSE OF COMMONWEALTH TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES 
Sir , — We , the undersigned , while fully realizing the need for the closest possible cooperation with all European countries , would deplore any step that prevented closer economic cooperation with the Commonwealth . 
We therefore hope that the Government will refrain from either signing the Rome Treaty or associating themselves with the Common Market until arrangements have been made to ensure that the Commonwealth does not suffer thereby . 
Yours , &c., 
JOHN DUGDALE , ROBIN TURTON , ARTHUR CREECH JONES , ROBERT GRIMSTON , E. SHINWELL , JOHN BARLOW , H. A. MARQUAND , BEVERLEY BAXTER , ARTHUR HENDERSON , RONALD RUSSELL , DOUGLAS JAY , PATRICK WALL , BARBARA CASTLE , JOHN HOLLINGWORTH , JOHN MENDELSON , PETER WALKER . 
House of Commons . 
STATEMENT ON KENYA 
Sir , — Lord Salisbury in his letter to you does not very clearly define either whether he knows what the Secretary of State for the Colonies actually meant when he said of Kenya : " I am sure that the right thing to do is to study the position and to take constitutional advance at the pace that is appropriate to the economic circumstances of the country " , nor does Lord Salisbury say what he himself thinks Mr. Macleod should have meant by these words . 
Having just paid a visit to Kenya and having met and talked with a cross-section of opinion there it is my firm conviction that the economic and political stability of Kenya can best be safeguarded by ( 1 ) releasing Mr. Kenyatta as soon as possible in the hope that this will strengthen the Government now in office and lead to a settling of present African unrest and ( 2 ) going forward to independence phased towards the end of 1962 or the beginning of 1963 . 
With this , I am quite satisfied , White opinion in the great majority agrees . 
To give independence overnight too quickly would be a disservice to Kenya in general and to the future stability of the African administration in particular . 
On the other hand to wait too long can not serve the economic or political well-being of the country . 
It can not help the White population in Kenya and they accept this ; and it will not enable the African political leaders to control their followers . 
Mr. Macleod has a difficult decision to make on timing . 
In the interests of Kenya political leaders in Kenya , both British and African , and political representatives in both Houses of Parliament at Westminster should not read into his words more than there is . 
The words seemed to me to express an open mind for future negotiations . 
If all parties in Kenya can have such a mind then all will be well and there will be a great future for the country in which European and African will play a part . 
Yours sincerely , 
K. LEWIS . 
House of Commons , June 8 . 
Sir , — Lord Salisbury , in his letter on June 8 , wisely draws our attention to the statement by the Secretary of State for the Colonies on constitutional advance in Kenya . 
He finds satisfaction in the apparent willingness of Mr. Macleod to tie constitutional advance to the economic circumstances in Kenya . 
The statement was no doubt not intended as a comprehensive pronouncement on the conditions in which constitutional advance might take place . 
Having said that , it must be made clear to every interested person that the economic situation can not , and must not , be used as a brake on constitutional progress . 
The deteriorating economic situation , serious as it is , is the result of political and constitutional uncertainty , among other factors . 
The economic condition of Kenya can not finally recover until further constitutional advance takes place ; that is , until a responsible government with an African Prime Minister and an African majority in the Council of Ministers , with popular support , is in effective leadership of the country . 
We shall fail seriously again if we do not take note of the fact that the majority of people in the country want political advancement first and economic progress second . 
There are great issues to be settled before full independence can come , and here " the needs of all the races " must be faithfully considered . 
But his Excellency the Governor was surely right in his speech at the opening of the present session of the Legislative Council , when he clearly hinted that with the encouraging formation of a Government under the Lancaster House constitution , further steps in constitutional development are now possible and probable . 
Yours truly , 
R. ELLIOTT KENDALL , Head of the Methodist Church in Kenya . 
10 , Ravine Road , Boscombe , Hampshire . 
HOSPITAL DISPENSING 
Sir , — In providing information for your Special Correspondent for his article on the shortage of hospital pharmacists in today 's edition of The Times I discussed many aspects of the problem . 
I am disturbed to find that some remarks of mine are liable to be misinterpreted and could be taken to refer in a derogatory fashion to the ability of retail pharmacists to interpret correctly the prescriptions written by hospital doctors . 
This was never my intention and such an interpretation is possible because my remarks were of necessity condensed . 
What I intended to imply was that doctors often prefer not to be used solely in a consultative capacity in recommending treatment for patients to their general practitioners because they prefer to prescribe such treatment themselves , to know that it has been supplied and then to follow up their patients by seeing them again . 
This situation can be realized by the use of E.C.10 ( H.P. ) forms written by hospital doctors and dispensed by retail pharmacists . 
It falls down , however , when the patients fail to take their prescriptions to the chemists and this does sometimes happen . 
Yours faithfully , 
G. BRYAN , Chief Pharmacist . 
The Middlesex Hospital , W.1 , June 5 . 
SPAIN 
Sir , — May I , as one of the younger generation to whom Sir Thomas Moore on June 7 addressed a lesson in Spanish history , be permitted to comment on some of the points he raised ? 
Sir Thomas 's history is clearly partial . 
He claims that in 1938-39 Spain was in convulsion and that Franco created order from this chaos . 
But how did the chaos arise ? 
Overtones of Crisis 
WHATEVER magician 's wand of economic recovery the CHANCELLOR may flourish in the next few days , it is impossible not to feel that the Government has come rather ill out of the preliminary skirmishes . 
July is a traditional month for economic crises , and the beginning of the period of seasonal weakness for sterling . 
In 1955 , 1957 and 1961 it has also been the month in which the Government has chosen to create a national sense of economic anxiety . 
In fact , this time the recognition of the crisis comes surprisingly late , for Britain 's trading position deteriorated sharply last year , and is now getting slightly better rather than worse . 
The Government 's propaganda may indeed have over-reached itself . 
Undoubtedly the CHANCELLOR 'S speeches , and the PRIME MINISTER 'S blunt warnings to the 1922 Committee , were intended to prepare the nation and the Conservative Party for strong measures to put the economy right . 
These warnings , however , have run too far ahead of action . 
After so long a period of uncertainty we are left with a sense more of emergency than of urgency . 
Nor has this helped the national confidence . 
There is a growing feeling that the economic crisis is only a symptom of a profounder failure to find Britain 's proper international position in the post-war world . 
The delay in working out the new economic policies , and in deciding on our European policy , has left an impression that the Government does not itself know what to do . 
Certainly there has been a lack of that sort of leadership which inspires national unity . 
Current bickering about the surtax concessions in the Budget evades the point . 
The Government is not to be blamed for wanting a more dynamic economy with higher incentives , but it has failed to explain to the nation any consistent and practical policy to achieve expansion , and it has therefore failed to carry the nation along with it . 
The economic measures which are going to be introduced will need to be tough , and must be judged primarily by their effectiveness ; but it is also very important that they should be fair . 
The mixture of slow economic growth with financial " get rich quick " in recent years has been wholly bad in its social effects . 
The sacrifices that are now to be called for must be carried by the whole country and not by any one section of it . 
The general public , and the trade unions , will be the more willing to accept the need for restraint , for earning first and buying later , if they can see a clear objective which sacrifices will help to achieve , and if those sacrifices fall as heavily on the private sector as on the workers . 
Liking Yuri 
THE wave of goodwill that has accompanied Major Yuri Gagarin has been remarkable , not least for its apparent detachment from conventional Anglo-Soviet attitudes . 
After all , he arrived here hard on the heels of Mr. Khrushchev 's declaration that Russia must spend substantially more on arms because the West was doing so , and of an impressive and well-publicised display of Soviet air-power . 
These were not ideal heralds . 
Nor is his undoubted success entirely accountable in terms of his personal charm , great though that is , nor of the presence of the Russian Trade Fair . 
What in fact Major Gagarin seems to have done is to have shown us how much we want to like the Russians , in a spirit of genuine neighbourliness . 
This , and the fact that British visitors to Russia usually find a reciprocal warmth of welcome there , is surely a portent worth noting by the political leaders on both sides . 
" Giant " of the Left 
MR . 
FRANK COUSINS 'S success in maintaining the support of his Transport and General Workers ' Union for the lost-cause campaign of unilateralism is a personal triumph , though it is fortunately unlikely to affect Mr. Gaitskell 's new firm control of his party . 
But the Brighton conference at which he won a 3 to 1 victory is important for other reasons . 
The extent of the personality cult which has sprung up around Mr. Cousins astonished many observers . 
The nadir came after the disarmament vote , when his principal opponent unblushingly declared : " I feel like a dwarf in the shadow of a great man . " 
The big stick of the T.G.W.U. , with its 1,250,000 well-disciplined members , is now held firmly in the Left hand of Mr. Cousins . 
In the days of his distinguished predecessors , Ernest Bevin and Arthur Deakin , the union was always inclined to the Right . 
It seems that T.G.W.U. politics depend upon the personal views of the man who heads its permanent machine . 
The majority trot comfortably in the wake of the reigning "giant . " 
It is a disturbing view of democracy . 
South Bank Puzzles 
THE non-party enterprise of the London County Council in stimulating at least the possibility of action over the National Theatre is wholly commendable . 
But it is clear from the latest proposals that the problems involved have not been adequately thought out ; when the Council meets on Tuesday to consider the report of its General Purposes Committee it will be faced with the raw material for many hours ' debate . 
The suggestion that Sadler 's Wells opera should join the National Theatre on the South Bank entirely changes the whole picture . 
In a statement to THE SUNDAY TIMES yesterday , reported elsewhere , Sir Isaac Hayward said that it may be necessary to think of three auditoriums . 
There is no question of " may " : such an extension will be quite essential if the National Theatre is not to be reduced to a travesty of what it should be . 
In any case the whole building will have to be redesigned . 
Perhaps this is no bad thing , for the existing plans are already twelve years old . 
If the new proposals are accepted , the design of the new building should be put up to open competition — and a building might emerge at last of which Britain could be proud . 
The Council might also think it wise to ask the Chancellor for a clarification of his statement that his subsidy would be limited to £400,000 : a statement that seems to take no account of the fact that the new building can not in any case be ready for at least three years , nor allows for possible changes in the value of money . 
1,000th Refugee 
BRITAIN received last week her 1,000th refugee under the scheme initiated by World Refugee Year in June , 1959 . 
Of all the refugees resettled since the first humanitarian impulse of the Year , we have taken in almost one-third ; more than any country in the world . 
Most have come from the " hard core " of physically or socially handicapped families rejected by almost every other State . 
Public response did not drop after the end of the Year , and places have already been found for the 100 or so refugees who are still to come before the limit set by the Government is reached . 
But what then ? 
There are still 80,000 unsettled refugees in Europe . 
Britain can be proud of the new impetus she has helped to give to this essential task , but where many have shown charity , there have also been apathy and intolerance . 
No doubt some refugee families have shown ingratitude ; have spurned the houses provided for them , or even returned to their camps . 
But we can not deny responsibility for the mental as well as the physical condition of those left rootless for sixteen years by a warring world . 
Until the last refugee is resettled our obligations must remain . 
Tell the Patient 
MOST doctors will agree with the Minister of Health that " the patient and all concerned with him have the right to be treated as intelligent persons . " 
Most will say that they do tell the patient all he should know about his condition . 
But , of course , they will invariably add , when pressed , that there are others who are not so forthcoming , so frank or thoughtful . 
What Mr. Powell calls , in modern jargon , the failure of communication is a fact of the medical service , particularly in hospitals , that is not the fault of any small minority . 
It has persisted into these frank-speaking days as a result of a professional attitude , fostered and inculcated from one generation to the other as a kind of mystique — or as a safeguard against being proved wrong . 
It is usually justified on the grounds that " a little knowledge " can be harmful . 
But , as the Minister says " the failure to speak two sentences can cause deep antagonism . " 
Training in communication should perhaps be included in the medical student 's curriculum . 
A Call to Unity 
THE British are a realistic people who do not always choose to face reality . 
At present they are trying to avoid facing not one but a number of crises with an almost desperate complacency . 
For a few days , a nine-day wonder , it seemed that the economic crisis was really penetrating the national consciousness . 
But by the end of last week people were waiting for Tuesday with all their usual tepid equanimity ; even the Stock Exchange was edging upwards . 
Yet at least the economic crisis made some impact . 
That was more than could be said of the impending decision on the Common Market , and certainly more than of the crisis of Berlin . 
The decision to be made on joining Europe is possibly the most important Britain has had to make since the war ; yet no one could claim that the public debate has been on a high level . 
So great is the apathy that the Government could probably go in or stay out without vitally offending either its own followers or the country . 
The national awareness on Berlin is even more unawakened . 
This is the gravest of the three crises , one on which the issue of peace or war could turn . 
The British Government has from the beginning sought a negotiated settlement , but has always accepted the basic decision that the people of West Berlin can not be abandoned . 
Yet the national attitude seems almost to be that Berlin is not to be allowed to interfere with the summer holidays . 
This complacency is a poor basis for policy ; and a poor substitute for that sense of moral purpose for which the PRIME MINISTER and the CHANCELLOR have appealed . 
The economy , Berlin , the Common Market — here are three issues whose gravity has during the past few days led to regretful sighings over the impracticability of a National Government . 
The British system has never taken kindly to government by Coalition , which is certainly not the answer now ; but almost as disturbing as the national complacency is the apparent lack of any real sense of national unity . 
Party Views Not Far Apart 
YET even in the economic field , where the division is widest , and where the Labour Party can most reasonably expect to reap political credit , the judgment and sentiment of the party leaders are not all that far apart . 
Mr. GAITSKELL 'S speech last Tuesday was a constructive and sensible contribution to the economic debate . 
On Europe it seems almost certain that Mr. GAITSKELL would find himself moving along the present line of policy if he were Prime Minister . 
( He would be foolish to risk splitting his party in Opposition ; Governments have to make unpleasant choices , Oppositions can avoid them . ) 
On Berlin again the responsible Labour Party view and the Conservative view are so close as to be indistinguishable . 
There is therefore a genuine basis for unity , and many people in the country would like that unity to be made apparent , for a bi-partisan policy would undoubtedly strengthen British influence for peace — an influence more necessary now than it has been for years . 
At present the obstacles to a bi-partisan policy , at any rate over Berlin , are partly personal — Mr. MACMILLAN and Mr. GAITSKELL have never fought side by side as Lord ATTLEE and Sir WINSTON CHURCHILL did in wartime . 
These differences need to be reconsidered . 
Yet the greater weakness is perhaps the failure to waken the British people . 
When great issues are shirked , little differences are given more than their proper weight . 
The call to national unity and the call for national leadership perhaps come in the end to much the same thing . 
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 's urgent task is to stop the border generals being bold and brave at mankind '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 '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 '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 '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 '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 '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'Brien in Africa . 
Look at it again act by act . 
Five months ago Dr. Conor Cruise O'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 1,000lb. 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 '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'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 '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 's official birthday . 
But the saving is only £100,000 a year . 
Why stop there ? 
There is , for example , the £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 £4,000,000 a year . 
There is Mr. Nehru , who wants to squeeze about £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 £70,000,000 this year . 
And next year the bill may be near £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 '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 . 
"A tax on invalids ! 
It is shameful that such a levy should be collected by a Ministry of Health ... worse still there is a tax on childhood " Let's give the Welfare State a shot in the arm By KENNETH BARRETT 
INCREASED National Health charges . 
A further conjuring trick with National Insurance contributions . 
The Minister of Health 's announcement the other day of changes to take place in April was a signpost on the road of retreat from the first vision of nationwide personal security . 
There have been other signs of this retreat over the years . 
To many of us it has long been evident that the Welfare State was in danger of destruction from within . 
First of all , the administrators have muddled one of the main issues . 
They have been determined to uphold a meaningless fiction . 
They have insisted that part of the National Insurance stamp should go towards the cost of the National Health Service . 
This has deepened the widest-spread fallacy in the community — the mistaken idea that the man who buys his National Insurance stamp pays for the National Health Service . 
He does n't , of course . 
The total cost of the National Health Service in this financial year will be about £867,000,000 . 
Of that vast sum , £663,000,000 comes from general taxation , not from National Insurance stamps . 
Confused 
Small wonder that the man-in-the-street is confused . 
Because the existence of the stamp as a source of supplementary revenue to the National Health Service is a temptation to the administrator in search of the appearance of economy . 
It gives him a chance to make the Health Service look as if it costs less . 
Today the employed man pays 9s 11d. a week towards the whole bill of social security in his weekly stamp . 
Of that , 1s 10 1/2d. is earmarked for the health service . 
In April he will , as a basis , pay 9s 9d. a week and the same amount of 1s. 10 1/2d. will go to the health service . 
At the same time , from April , he will have to pay , if his wages are high enough an additional contribution to the State 's massively confusing graduated pension scheme , unless his employer " contracts out . " 
If he is earning £15 a week , he will be paying , in all probability , 5s. 1d. a week towards the graduated scheme . 
The Minister of Health 's proposals will alter the position again in July . 
His total basic contribution will be 10s. 7d . 
Of this a larger proportion , 2s. 8 1/2d. this time , will be earmarked for the health service . 
With the highest contribution to the graduated scheme , his stamp will cost him 15s. 8d . 
Do n't think for one moment that it 's going to stop there . 
Higher pensions will be sought . 
The health service will cost more . 
The contributions , total and fraction , will all go up again . 
The mere cost of the complex administrative tasks involved in recording contributions is vast in proportion to the amount of tax that is collected . 
Yet the tempting fiction of the stamp will always be there . 
Enemy 
But the health service has another inside enemy . 
It is , of course , on the face of things , reasonable to charge people a little when they get some special extra benefit . 
Why should n't the ordinary citizen , in an age of high wages , pay some proportion of the cost of dentures or of spectacles ? 
That 's the question . 
Why should n't the special beneficiaries pay a little extra out of their own pockets ? 
It 's an insidious argument . 
It seems so reasonable . 
But once you start agreeing that the proposal is reasonable , you can reach the extreme lengths of unreason . 
For example , a well-paid patient , whose firm still continues his wages , who draws sickness benefit on top , may have surgical and hospital treatment costing many hundreds of pounds . 
And if he needs spectacles , when in hospital , he gets them free . 
And yet a widow , whose pension , for which her husband paid , is wiped out because she works for a living wage , will now have to pay 12s. 6d. for each lens in her spectacles , and 17s. 8d. for the frames . 
This is what the Minister proposes . 
The truth is that you ca n't make sense out of small private charges under a vastly expensive public scheme . 
You can only alter the shape of the national bill . 
But , at least , it ought to be a Minister 's duty to refrain from doing positive harm just to collect a token tribute to the total tally . 
And social harm , I fear , is what two of the proposed changes are going to achieve . 
For example , from March 1 , each item on a National Health Service prescription is to cost 2s . 
Children 
I leave out of account , for the moment , the estimate which I have been given — that nearly one-third of such items cost less than 2s . 
I am thinking of the marginally poor , who happen to be in constant ill-health . 
There are countless thousands of them . 
The retired folk , getting on in years , with their retirement pensions and £3 or so a week from their old firms . 
The man who , in protracted illness , receives half-pay from his firm . 
The Army officer 's widow . 
I could go on indefinitely . 
They may need half a dozen prescribed items a week , easily . 
Twelve shillings a week . 
A tax on invalids . 
It is shameful that such a levy should be collected by a Minister of Health . 
Worse still . 
There is the tax on childhood . 
Pregnancy , like death , is democratic . 
The last war forced the state to protect the health of children through the Maternity Clinic . 
With the help of the National Health Service it has become a possession beyond price . 
All mothers go there . 
The solicitor 's wife , the schoolmaster 's wife , the clerk 's wife , the plumber 's wife , and the wife of the chap who is doing a stretch in gaol . 
Never has the health of children been better . 
Never has infantile mortality been so low . 
And one of the reasons was that it cost nothing , or very little , to take advantage of everything the clinic had to offer . 
From June 1 , instead of paying 5d. for the bottle of orange juice and getting a free supply of vitamin tablets and cod liver oil , there are to be higher charges . 
The orange juice will be 1s. 6d. , the cod liver oil 1s. , and the tablets 6d. a packet . 
These sums might have been deliberately fixed to keep the poorest sort of mother away . 
And it will be the child that suffers in health . 
By these particularly petty tactics , the Minister will save £1,500,000 out of the £800,000,000 and more that we have to pay . 
I have been very close to the crises , the challenge , the hopes , needs , and anomalies of the Welfare State . 
And I think the time has come to take a close look at what is going wrong . 
SLASH THIS HEALTH SERVICE RED TAPE 
YOU will have noticed the fierce House of Commons rumpus over the proposed Health Service changes and charges . 
I gave my views in detail about these last Sunday . 
It seems from the size and shape of my mail that most of you agree with me . 
Over the debate in the House the other day brooded the shadow of the late Nye Bevan . 
He was the architect of the Health Service . 
The Act of 1946 defines his vision . 
It gives the Health Minister the duty of establishing "a comprehensive Health Service to secure improvement in the physical and mental health of the people ... and the prevention , diagnosis and treatment of illness . " 
To the creators of the service there was no hesitation about one further principle . 
It was to be free . 
How far have these great objectives been achieved ? 
There are no longer two standards of medical treatment , one for those who can afford it and another for those who ca n't . 
DOCTOR 'S MERCY 
No longer does a deduction from the wages of the lower-paid worker simply cover him during sickness , leaving his wife and children to the mercy of the family purse or the doctor 's kindness . 
No longer is there a patchwork of clubs and voluntary associations seeking to ensure some kind of medical treatment for those who were not " on the panel . " 
Of course , there were ominous rumblings at the start . 
The best people , it was passionately argued , would still prefer to pay their own doctors . 
The best doctors , it was alleged , would stay resentfully out of the National Service , refusing to become the minions of a Minister . 
All these were myths created by prejudice . 
Within three months of the appointed day under the Act , 39,000,000 were on Health Service lists . 
It is officially estimated today that 97 per cent of Britain 's inhabitants are using the Health Service . 
Only 600 doctors engage wholly in private practice . 
This is indeed a success story . 
But it is my task to look critically and constructively at the flaws and the failures . 
There is , in my mind , no doubt about the first mistake . 
The nationalised industry of medicine presents a stupendous administrative challenge . 
It is now so complicated that the prime purpose of it all , the prevention of ill-health , the welfare and re-assurance of the sick , can disappear in the difficulties of departmentalism . 
Today , Regional Hospital Boards plan hospital and consultant services . 
Management committees administer hospitals at local level . 
Executive councils are responsible for the general practitioner , the dentist , the supply of drugs . 
The local health authority looks after maternity services , child welfare , the visiting midwife , the health visitor , the home help and the ambulances . 
MINISTER 'S JUNGLE 
Somewhere up at the top of this jungle the Minister of Health is supposed to keep an eye on it all . 
No wonder he ca n't see the wood for the trees . 
The hospital service , the general medical service , the local authority , each tends to work in isolation . 
The family doctor is not encouraged to study his patient in hospital . 
Often there is no follow-up system from the hospital to the home , or , if there is one , it does n't work . 
Each service washes its hands of responsibility when it passes a patient to another branch of the system of National Health . 
These divisions can rise to ludicrous levels . 
An ambulance will take a patient to a hospital which ca n't admit him but , quoting the correct rules , will refuse to drive him to a hospital which can treat and cure him . 
The costs of each section of the Health Service are scrutinised as though they were isolated problems . 
Of course , they are all interdependent . 
Busier and better general practitioners in one area can reduce the financial burden on the local hospital . 
More money spent on local authority dental services when the children are at school keeps down the bill of the general dental service when they are grown up . 
A rise in prescription costs may mean a shorter period of sickness . 
To take one illustration . 
Hospitals are given a certain amount of money to spend in any one financial year . 
They ca n't save any of it up and spend a little more in the following year . 
During the last month or two , therefore , of the arbitrary annual accountancy , there is a mad rush to spend anything left in the kitty . 
A National Health Service is bound to be expensive . 
It deserves to be so if it works . 
We still spend less than 4 per cent of the national income on keeping people well and treating them when sick . 
I do n't call that unreasonable . 
The cost of prescriptions is a topical problem . 
Here is an ever-rising and very significant part of the bill . 
Let's look at it . 
It has more than doubled since the service started . 
Last year 214,000,000 National Health Service prescriptions were made up . 
Goodness knows how many unidentifiable pills linger in bathroom cabinets and how many bottles of cough linctus were emptied down the sink after the first distasteful dose . 
Five prescriptions a head last year , for everyone in the United Kingdom at nearly 7s. a go ! 
The bill still goes up . 
Not primarily because doctors prescribe more , but because drugs cost more . 
Two sides to the closing door By COLIN LEGUM , Our Commonwealth Correspondent 
THE Government is going to have a hard job defending its intention to change Britain 's traditional " open door " policy for Commonwealth citizens — a policy that goes back to 1608 , when Lord Chief Justice Ellesmere declared that James 1 was "one entire king over all his subjects in whichsoever of his dominions they were born . " 
Of Britain 's right to change this policy there can be no question : she is the only Commonwealth member who has not so far acted under the 1918 Imperial Conference decision giving each member " complete control of the composition of its population by means of restrictions on immigration . " 
The question is not , therefore , about her right to make this change , but whether it is wise . 
Nobody tries to deny that the problem of immigration into Britain is primarily a problem of colour : the need for control was never raised so long as immigrants were largely European , as , until recently , they were . 
A nauseous campaign waged by a group of Tory M.P . 's has been directed almost exclusively against coloured immigration ; and it is unfortunate that the Home Secretary waited to make his formal announcement until the end of an unpleasant ( though by no means one-sided ) debate at the Conservative Party Conference at Brighton . 
Hence the need to disentangle the facts from the racial prejudices which have obscured them . 
Voluntary control 
What are the facts ? 
Until 1953 immigration from the Commonwealth was negligible ; and the permanent coloured population was less than 50,000 . 
The largest intake was from the West Indies , running at about 2,000 a year . 
The one exception were the Irish : the citizens of the Republic were treated for purposes of migration as if they were Commonwealth citizens . 
Between 1945 and 1959 Irish immigrants ( 353,000 ) exceeded immigrants ( 333,000 ) from all other Commonwealth countries . 
The great wave of West Indians started in 1954 with 10,000 immigrants ; by 1960 the figure had risen to more than 54,000 ; and the estimated figure for this year is likely to reach 70,000 . 
This great increase is due to fear of immigration controls . 
There are now about 200,000 West Indians ( mainly Jamaicans ) in Britain . 
There is , however , another factor which weighed perhaps more heavily with the Government 's decision to introduce some form of control . 
In the past the Governments of both India and Pakistan voluntarily agreed to maintain strict control over emigration to Britain . 
This system worked well until last year . 
The net inward movement of Indians never exceeded 6,600 ; in 1959 it was down to 2,900 . 
In the first eight months of this year , however , it reached 13,500 . 
For Pakistan , the highest figure was 5,200 in 1957 , which dropped to 2,500 in 1960 . 
But in the first eight months of this year it rose sharply to 13,160 . 
Clearly , the control systems operated by India and Pakistan have broken down . 
It is difficult to find exact figures of non-coloured immigrants because many people from Australia , New Zealand , Canada and South Africa are in fact emigrants returning home . 
But , with the exception of the Irish , they are a negligible proportion of the total figure . 
Non-Commonwealth immigrants ( mainly Europeans on restricted work permits ) rose from about 45,800 in 1959 to just over 53,000 last year . 
Public services 
What conclusions can be drawn from these figures ? 
There is first the overall picture of an expanding working population , with immigration accelerating , emigration decelerating ( 230,000 in 1957 , about 130,000 in 1960 ) , and very little unemployment . 
Immigrants starting new jobs totalled 177,500 in 1959 , and 236,000 in 1960 . 
Immigration has therefore been meeting a real need ; without it British industry could not have expanded as fast as it has done . 
As Mr. Butler stressed last week , London transport and hospitals would have been in poor shape but for the immigrants , especially the West Indians . 
The same is true of many public services , particularly in the Midlands and Liverpool . 
But there are clearly other factors which must be considered . 
As things stand , there is no evidence that immigration will slow down of its own volition . 
The reality of the world to-day is of unequal economic development , with the richer countries growing richer and the poorer being forced to export their unemployed . 
Within the Commonwealth all other countries control immigration . 
The West Indian islands even discriminate against one another . 
The older Dominions ( especially Australia ) discriminate against non-whites . 
The United States and Latin America have also recently tightened up their immigration controls . 
This is no reason for Britain to behave likewise , but it does raise the problem of what will happen if Britain remains the only uncontrolled area into which the spill-over can go . 
Is it right to assume that the volume of this spill-over should be allowed to find its own level without any attempt at planning ? 
Will immigration slow down once the British employment market begins to reach saturation point ? 
Or shall we suddenly wake up to find that failure of plan has produced a large surplus of unskilled and semi-skilled labour , largely among the coloured communities ? 
What would result from such a lack of foresight ? 
Real problems 
If undiminished West Indian immigration is now to be matched by a rising tide of East Indian immigration ( after the breakdown of the voluntary system of controls ) , can we believe that racial and social tensions will not be increased ? 
And who would benefit from this ? 
Even though the real problems have become obscured by the deplorable arguments of racists , it remains true that they are real problems , and can be dealt with most effectively by rational discussion . 
Mr. Butler has firmly rejected the idea of any controls based on discrimination . 
He has made the reasonable suggestion that people with criminal records should not be allowed free entry , and that immigrants with bad criminal records in this country might be deported . 
He has also suggested that it might be desirable to relate immigration to employment opportunities here . 
There can be no real objection to these proposals , in principle . 
What should concern us is how this policy is to be administered , and whether in fact it can be administered without racial discrimination . 
Since the majority of immigrants to-day are coloured , it will be difficult to avoid the suspicion of discrimination . 
It is vital therefore that , before any form of control is introduced , Britain should consult all her partners in the Commonwealth , and possibly her future allies in the Common Market as well . 
For it is not only a question of deciding how best to arrange for immigration to continue into Britain ; it is equally important to explore the possibility of greater migration within the Commonwealth itself . 
Trinidad , Australia and Canada might all be expected to make a greater contribution than they have done in the past . 
Finally , there is the central question whether Britain will not somehow be altering the whole nature of her relationship with the rest of the Commonwealth if she abandons her " open door " policy . 
We should not pretend that Britain has somehow been behaving in a way worthy of special praise . 
Our own economy has benefited enormously from immigration . 
Nor must we think of ourselves as being uniquely generous . 
France has always maintained an " open door " policy for members of her Community — a policy much more difficult to maintain during the Algerian troubles than anything we have so far had to face . 
Holland , too , has kept open house for her associated territories . 
Also we must remember that even if the coloured immigrants in this country should reach 500,000 in the next year or two , they would comprise only 1 per cent . 
of our total population . 
To shirk from the implications of trying to integrate this tiny minority of coloured peoples into British society is to show little confidence in our own ability to practise what we always preach . 
Danger-spots 
But the problem of absorbing immigrants harmoniously into British society is as important to the immigrants as to the British . 
One of the important conclusions reached by Mr. James Wickenden in his valuable study on " Colour in Britain " is that a danger appears to lie " where a concentration of immigrants has formed too quickly for an area 's capacity to absorb them . 
Where this occurs there has been violence and the danger of violence and hostility will always be present . 
As a short term measure it is therefore surely desirable to keep the number of immigrants to a level which can be absorbed . " 
The " open door " policy is of value only so long as genuine hospitality and security can be offered to the newcomers . 
It is with this aspect that we should be mainly concerned . 
RUSSIA TO-DAY by Edward Crankshaw WHY MR . 
K IS OUT OF DATE 
In twenty years Russia may well achieve the prosperity promised in the new party programme , but the Russian people are not likely to be satisfied with material progress alone . 
WHAT Mr. Khrushchev was talking about in the Kremlin last Wednesday was 1984 . 
He was looking twenty years ahead . 
But the picture he painted — a picture which , he said , many people would dismiss as Utopian — was not in the least Orwellian ; and for this we should be thankful . 
It was not Utopian either . 
It was , rather , a picture of Metroland in 1961 , extended to cover the vastness of the Soviet Union . 
That Mr. Khrushchev should be able to think of it in the same breath as Utopia is itself a sign that he is hopelessly behind the times , not only in relation to the world as a whole but , more interestingly , in relation to his own people . 
He was introducing the new Party Programme to the Twenty-second Party Congress , convened to approve his development plans for the next two decades . 
Twenty years is a long time : Mr. Khrushchev will be eighty-seven if he lives to see his Utopia come true . 
And if there is one certain thing about this programme , it is that long before the material promises are realised the whole concept will have become irrelevant , overtaken by events ; or , to use Mr. Khrushchev 's own favourite expression , life itself will have shown up the startling insufficiencies of his present thinking . 
Air of triumph 
This is not to say that there will not be great material advances , or that these are not necessary . 
Indeed , they are highly necessary if the Soviet Union is ever to stand comparison with the advanced nations of the West . 
For the West is also moving , and a great deal will happen in the next twenty years . 
Whether because Mr. Khrushchev is ignorant of the social revolution in , for example , Britain , or whether because he thinks we shall stand still , or collapse , Mr. Khrushchev seems incapable of visualising any forward movement outside the Soviet Union . 
He says , for example , with an air of triumph , that within the next two decades every family in the Soviet Union will have a comfortable apartment to itself : is it inconceivable that this may also happen here ? 
Apparently unaware that British agricultural labourers get holidays with pay , pensions , and benefits under the health services , he announces that paid holidays will " gradually be extended " to farm workers , who are also , some time in the next two decades , to receive old-age pensions and sickness and temporary disability grants . 
With regard to education , he said that " about 40 per cent . 
of the country 's workers and over 23 per cent . 
of its farm workers " now have a secondary or higher education : by 1981 all children are to receive a complete secondary education . 
During the same period the goal of free medical treatment and hospitalisation for all , as well as free rents , will be reached . 
All this , with a reduction of working hours , is designed to bring about in the next twenty years " a living standard higher than that of any capitalist country . " 
For the first time in history , Mr. Khrushchev said , insufficiency would be fully and finally eliminated : no capitalist country , he asserted , could set itself this task . 
But he adduced no evidence to support either of these statements . 
Productivity only 
It is one thing to congratulate Mr. Khrushchev on breaking down the Stalinist paralysis ( somebody had to do it ) and setting the Soviet Union on the road to material prosperity after the negative horrors of the cruel years . 
Letters to the Editor Defier of Lenin 
SIR — Prof. Seton-Watson used my father 's name in his article on Persia last Sunday , meaning a man who would pave the way for the Communists . 
When the uninstructed speak like that , one takes it from whence it comes , but from Prof Seton-Watson ... 
In 1917 the Bolsheviks were not yet known to be totalitarians and a great proportion of Russian Socialists were not prepared to fight them with the gloves off , but Kerensky was . 
He was "promoted " to the premiership because he did not regard the Bolsheviks as "old comrades " and could overcome the hesitations of Socialist leaders when it came to stern measures against them . 
During the summer of 1917 he dispersed a Communist rebellion with a whiff of grapeshot now described by such " progressive " historians as A. J. P. Taylor as a " massacre . " 
It was a blundering general , with the active encouragement of the English and the French , who destroyed Russian democracy by attempting a right-wing putsch , which was suppressed without a shot but left the masses confused and distrustful of Kerensky . 
This turn of events enabled Lenin to mount a counter-attack which the vast majority of Socialists — tantamount to a majority of the nation — resisted only with talk . 
Kerensky collected a large enough army to defeat them , but the troops fell for the siren song of " peaceful co-existence " and that was that . 
The darlings of democracy today are the men who , long after the Communists have shown their true colours , have handed country after country to them : Benes surrendering Czechoslovakia , Roosevelt giving them half of Europe , Truman and Attlee abandoning China to its " mild agrarian reformers . " 
Might I suggest that " Moscow " knows that Kerensky has been one of its most unhesitating and determined enemies for 44 years , and what it is really looking for in Persia is not Kerensky ( nor Mikhailovich , nor Chiang ) but a nice Western-style statesman with half-a-round-table-full of crypto-Communist advisers ? 
Southport , GLEB KERENSKY . 
*** Alexander Kerensky , Prime Minister of Russia between the fall of the Tsars and the rise of the Bolsheviks , is now 80 . 
He lives in California , where he is engaged in research and lecturing in Russian history at Stanford University . 
Sir — My article , " Russia 's Southern Doorstep , " had to be condensed for reasons of space , and in the process a slight but important change occurred . 
It reads : " In so far as the United States has hitherto been the protector of the re2gime , the people tend to be emotionally anti-Western .... " 
What I had written was : " ... the opposition tend to be emotionally anti-Western . " 
What proportion of the people belongs to " the opposition " is a matter of opinion . 
There can be no doubt that there are millions of Persians who are devoted to the Shah , and have no hostility to the West . 
HUGH SETON-WATSON . 
London , S.W. 19 . 
Religion at Redbrick Points from readers ' letters 
I WAS most distressed at the impression of Christianity in this University , which was given by " Inquirer 's " article , " Redbrick Wilderness . " 
Apathy is prevalent throughout the University , not merely among Christians . 
Indeed it is a most interesting sign that so many non-Christians look to Christians for a lead . 
In societies and on Hall committees Christians take a leading part . 
" Inquirer " gives 250 as the number of those attending a place of worship some time during the term . 
A more realistic figure would be 500 , of which at least 300 attend with some degree of regularity . 
— ( Miss ) Hilary M. Gray , Ex-Sec. , Joint Christian Committee . 
Southampton University . 
One look at the University newspaper would show how largely the discussion of religion and politics figures in the student 's life here . 
We personally were attracted by the friendly , unbiased atmosphere of the Anglican Society , where free , intelligent discussion is a normal practice . 
Jazz Club is popular because it is the only weekly social occasion which gives one the opportunity of meeting one 's fellow students { 6en masse . 
Among our acquaintances at the corporate communion mentioned by " Inquirer , " very few were not present at Jazz Club the previous evening . 
Jazz does not exclude religion . 
— Elizabeth A. Bunn ; Judith M. Steel ; Jennifer Summers , Southampton . 
It is true that many students have little or no religious ideals and standards . 
But as members of the Southampton Catholic Society , we can assure you of the existence of a very strong body of regular church-goers who also take an active part in many other branches of University life . 
— Patricia Friend ; Winifred Colfer , Southampton . 
What an odd University Southampton must be ! 
When I went to the University sermon in the University church here , St. George 's , Bloomsbury , on April 30 , advertised as at 8.0 p.m. , I found the church packed , and had to wriggle my round to an obscure seat at the side . 
If you want to be certain of a seat at the London University sermon , you have to go to Evensong first . 
The sermon was about Pascal , no doubt an interesting modern person : but nobody knew that beforehand . 
— Margaret Deanesly , London , N.W.1 . 
Rotten potatoes 
Sir — It seems to me that Mr. Rennie , Chairman of the Potato Marketing Board , stands condemned out of his own mouth . 
His first letter stated that no significant quantity of potatoes sold to the board had been left to rot in clamps and that in general they had removed such stocks before deterioration prevented their use . 
Having spent public money on these potatoes was it not his inspectors ' duty to ensure that they were sold before they deteriorated ? 
It was also widely reported in the Press that 2 1/2d. per lb was the producers ' price and 5d. a lb the retail price . 
Mr. Rennie did not query the figure until you published it . 
But the most surprising of all his statements must be that " the question of compensation for deterioration does not arise as the potatoes remain the property of the farmer until loading instructions are given . " 
In that case why were farmers not allowed by the Board to load potatoes when asked for them by merchants ? 
Farmers who sought permission to cancel their contracts and sell to merchants were refused by the Board . 
How can the Board buy potatoes under contract and not own them ? 
YOUR AGRICULTURAL CORRESPONDENT . 
London , E.C.4 . 
Exotic Chelsea 
Sir — Would it not be possible slightly to change the date of the Chelsea Flower Show so that it was not dominated year after year by the azaleas and the rhododendrons ? 
They are not a typically British feature , and I can not help feeling that the organisers of this show , by waiting two or three weeks , would achieve effects more popular and more subtle . 
Some of your readers may have ideas , but I would suggest the first week in July . 
Eastbourne . 
HELEN SPICER . 
Irish Partition 
Sir — Perhaps your comments on Northern Ireland last Sunday could be put in a wider context . 
Surely people nowadays are aware of the benefits ( particularly economic ) of integration , association , and federation . 
Cyprus — where differences between the two communities are surely as strong as any in Ireland — has shown that it is possible to unite an island and to safeguard the interests of a large minority . 
In Ireland it seems that Catholics are now tolerated north of the border in such positions as shop stewards in the shipbuilding industry ; perhaps religious passions are cooling a little at last . 
Certainly it might be argued that the political and economic division of Ireland perpetuates traditional animosities which are now largely irrelevant . 
Perhaps a more integrated Ireland would be feasible within the wider framework of the Commonwealth or the Common Market . 
London , S.W.1 . 
J. F. TAYLOR . 
Taking it Back 
Sir — Jean Robertson 's admirable article on guarantees prompts me to ask for your readers ' experiences . 
The Consumers ' Advisory Council is at present consulting various manufacturers with a view to agreeing model guarantee terms , fair to both manufacturer and shopper . 
We are also preparing a comparison between different car manufacturers ' guarantees . 
It would help over both these projects if your readers would tell us if they have ever suffered injury or damage from a defect in goods they have bought , and been unable to claim compensation from the manufacturer owing to " exclusion clauses " in the guarantee . 
If they could send us also a copy of the guarantee itself , so much the better . 
D. R. VICKERS , 
Sec. , Consumers ' Advisory Council . 
Orchard House , Orchard St. , W.1. 153 m.p.h. at 77 
Sir — I read with interest Courtenay Edwards 's comments in THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH about whether it is wise or not for a middle-aged man to buy a fast sports car . 
I agree with him that it depends on the individual . 
The thing one has to remember is that the faster one goes the greater is the need for concentration . 
At the age of 77 I myself am still driving fast sports cars . 
I run a 300 S.L. Mercedes in which I have done 153 m.p.h. and also a 135 m.p.h . 
Aston Martin . 
I claim that in spite of my age it is certainly not necessary for me to give up these exciting cars . 
But then I used to be a racing driver and I have been driving these cars all my life . 
This is the main point really . 
HOWE . 
Chairman , 
RAC Competitions Committee . 
London , W.1 . 
Self-Criticism 
Sir — You may print what you like in your entertaining Sunday paper , but please do n't print inaccurate statements about films . 
On page 28 last Sunday you reported that the film "{ Rosen Fu " r Den Staatsanwalt " ( the correct title of which is , incidentally , " Roses for the Prosecutor " ) is of East German origin . 
The film was made in Western Germany , although it is true that the director , Wolfgang Staudte , has worked for the East German DEFA , and therefore , in some eyes , may be politically suspect . 
" Roses for the Prosecutor " is merely one of many new West German productions , which , like " The Girl Rosemarie , " take a tilt at their Establishment — a very healthy sign in German films in view of their 1933-1945 productions . 
PETER SEWARD . 
London , S.W.4 . 
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR When MPs Go Abroad 
SIR — The article by your political correspondent , Mr. Ian Waller , drawing attention to the concern over MPs ' sponsored trips abroad , raises an issue that has been avoided for years . 
The plain fact is that it is extremely difficult for MPs to accept invitations from foreign Governments , or from public relations organisations working for them , without being compromised . 
In any case , you tend to become inhibited or you have to be very thick-skinned to the point of rudeness . 
And if you end up taking the opposing view to the one you are supposed to have taken , it can not help but leave bad blood . 
As someone who has travelled fairly extensively in recent years , since I became a Member of Parliament , I have reluctantly come to the conclusion , after experience , that it is usually better not to go on sponsored trips rather than face invidious difficulties . 
Thus I have declined a number of invitations from foreign Governments and have only gone when I have been able to " work my passage , " usually with my pen . 
But I am very fortunate in being a professional journalist . 
The existing parliamentary bodies arranging trips abroad , like the Inter-Parliamentary Union , do not always meet the need . 
What , then , is the answer ? 
I believe that the best solution probably is to make available to every MP an overall foreign travel allowance which he has to use ( if he wants it ) within the lifetime of a single Parliament , either in one or two major journeys or in a series of short ones . 
Only in this way can we hope to enable the House of Commons to have independent , first-hand impressions of many problems affecting this country and on which our Parliament has on occasion to make major decisions . 
DESMOND DONNELLY . 
House of Commons . 
Sir — Of course there are rogues in Parliament , but no more than one would find in commerce , the Church , or even the Press . 
Without being pious about it I know of no MPs who would allow their parliamentary activities to be influenced by a 10-day trip to East Germany , Central Africa , or anywhere else . 
Russia 's new plans 
In the light of post-war history , which reached its tragic climax with the Russian betrayal of the attempts at Geneva to reach agreement on atomic disarmament , there must be some excuse for the coldness of the reception which has so far been accorded to the latest Soviet proposals for settling the status of West Berlin before Russia signs a peace treaty with East Germany . 
According to a Foreign Ministry spokesman in Paris , there have been no official communications or conversations between the Soviet leaders and the Western ambassadors , with the exception of Dr. Kroll , the West German Ambassador . 
Nevertheless , the proposals which were made public yesterday do seem to serve as a basis upon which to resume discussions : and they make an important concession . 
This is the willingness of Mr. Kruschev to waive his earlier demands for a peace treaty before Christmas , and the reasons for it are worth considering . 
It is reasonable to assume that part of the answer lies within the difficulties which the Soviet Union are experiencing inside the Communist bloc . 
Another cause is probably the spirited reaction of the so-called uncommitted nations to the gigantic exercise in atomic explosions carried out by the Russians . 
Mr. Kruschev and his friends have succeeded in shocking a large part of the world that might have been more friendly towards them by their callous indifference to the consequences of these explosions that have threatened the health of the whole world , not least the Russian people themselves . 
Another important factor is the way in which the West have stood firm , refusing to panic in the face of this show of atomic might . 
It appears that Mr. Kruschev has had to concede that negotiation is the only way he can attain his ends short of war , on which he is obviously not prepared to embark . 
He has toned down his demands by placing the emphasis on the need for the four Powers to reach agreement on a new status for West Berlin which guarantees the freedom of its inhabitants and the freedom of its communications with the West . 
The conclusion of a peace treaty becomes an also-ran . 
But it is there , and , despite what obligations the NATO powers may feel towards West Germany , a time will come when a divided Germany , and , indeed , a divided Berlin , must be recognised by the West . 
There is only one alternative , and that , again , is war . 
Or perhaps there may be a third way out of the difficulty , a way which has been suggested in several countries . 
Berlin could be an independent city and used as a home for the United Nations . 
It is true that , whatever happens , the Germans look like being left with a divided country , in itself a dangerous situation , but , as has been said many times before , it is the Germans themselves who are at the root of all these problems and they must be satisfied with whatever terms their conquerors feel are necessary to maintain the peace of the world . 
Spiritual values 
WHEN Mr. Butler opened a new social sciences building at Nottingham University yesterday he discussed a problem which is important to us all and one that has exercised his consideration for many years , particularly since he became Home Secretary . 
His concern was with the problem of juvenile delinquency and the need for ways of combating this social evil . 
He said that he was going to hold a conference in London to launch a campaign aimed at increasing the moral and spiritual content of school life . 
He submitted that in our society there was evidence that education was failing to keep up with the increasing tempo of materialism . 
It is , of course , this aspect of the matter that is disturbing the Home Secretary . 
One of the great tragedies of modern times is that our busy schools are kept at full stretch educating the young in the practical things which they will need to make their way through a highly complicated world . 
But this is not enough , as Mr. Butler knows , and moral and spiritual values must be restated clearly and taught as an essential part of living . 
Religion is a difficult subject at school where a balance has to be kept between the various denominations , but time should always be found for communal devotion that is acceptable to all . 
It is a lamentable fact that many of our children today feel embarrassed and uncomfortable at the idea of worshipping God . 
The new look 
IT was a heavy , distasteful task that fell to Mr. Frank Foulkes yesterday . 
For Mr. Foulkes is , of course , the president of the Electrical Trades Union , and it was in that Union , and it was in that capacity that he announced the results of the elections for the membership of the union 's general executive , in which the Communists have suffered an overwhelming defeat . 
Naturally Mr. Foulkes , who is himself a Communist , put as good a face on it as was possible in the circumstances , but it did not amount to much . 
After all , there is no gainsaying the facts , which are that the Communists , instead of having a majority of eight to three , as was the case after the previous elections , are now reduced to a minority of two to nine . 
" I would only say , " remarked the president , " that it is a matter for the members . 
I have always said that our members are always right until they have been proved wrong , even when they have taken unofficial actions against an employer . " 
And this , certainly , is in accordance with the Communist creed , but now the members , that is , the rank-and-file members , have cut right across it . 
They have taken the democratic path , as a result of which it is very possible — but no more than possible at the moment — that the ETU may be readmitted to membership of the Trades Union Congress . 
Here , however , much , if not indeed all , may depend on the attitude of Mr. Foulkes . 
For while , he said yesterday , he thought it probable that the Labour Party would agree to the reaffiliation of the union , he did not know whether , in the event of his not resigning the presidency , the TUC itself would agree . 
But , he added , " if affiliation to Congress depends on my resignation , we will not be affiliated , I can assure you . " 
This was , of course , a reference to the directive by the TUC General Council before the actual expulsion of the union , asking that Mr. Foulkes should resign his office and submit himself again to the members for re-election . 
There can be no doubt , however , that readmission is what the members , or at least the vast majority of members , of the ETU want . 
But apart from whether or not this actually comes about , a heavy blow has been struck against Communist influence , one that should , and could , have been struck long ago . 
For the executive of a British trade union can always be called upon to give an account of its stewardship to those who elected it . 
If what is tantamount to dictatorship — and dictatorship is the mainspring of the Communist creed — is suffered to continue in a union it can only be put down to apathy on the part of the ordinary members . 
Apathy in others is the main ally of the Communists . 
It is what has enabled them to rule the roost for so long in the councils of the ETU . 
But now there is to be a change at the top , one which it is to be hoped will be reflected in policy and performance . 
Barrier to peace 
PRESIDENT DE GAULLE 'S recent optimistic statement on the prospects of the Algerian problem makes somewhat curious reading in the light of the latest developments as reported from Oran . 
For yesterday it was announced that ex-General Raoul Salan has ordered a progressive recruitment of the whole of the European male population in Algeria for the illegal OAS army , of which he is the leader . 
Salan , it will be recalled , was in France sentenced to death in his absence for treasonable acts against the State . 
He is determined , come what may , that Algeria shall remain French , and that despite whatever the native population may say or do in the matter . 
Salan , in short , is one of de Gaulle 's bitterest opponents . 
He has , too , certain advantages , although these will not necessarily prove decisive . 
For one thing , he is the man actually on the spot , even though he may weave his plots from an " underground " headquarters . 
And indeed he has little if any option here , for to come out into the open would obviously carry with it very serious risks for himself ; he might be captured and taken under guard to Paris , in which case it would undoubtedly go hard with him . 
There is still that sentence of death hanging over him . 
But President de Gaulle , too , has advantages on his side . 
He has , presumably , the main weight of native opinion behind him , not to mention the considerable resources of the French Government itself . 
Nevertheless , the omens are not at all good . 
All the indications are that there is a long way to go before the Algerian problem is finally resolved . 
Grants to students 
WHATEVER blemishes there may be in the new Education Bill , the second reading of which was moved by Sir David Eccles in the House of Commons yesterday , it is fair to say that so far as its fundamental principles are concerned it should prove acceptable to the vast majority of the public . 
In the matter of grants to students attending first-degree courses at universities , there are , as things stand at present , certain inequalities that cry out for correction , and it is one of the main purposes of the Bill to bring this about . 
As the Minister said , the measures proposed are not likely to satisfy everybody in all respects , but the desirability of automatic awards and uniformity of treatment is generally accepted . 
The grants system , remarked Sir David , had grown over the years to a most complicated animal . 
Not that it is expected that the Bill will result in any really significant increase in the number of awards students at universities . 
But once a student has been accepted for a first-degree course , and has the necessary qualifications , then the award would be his ( or hers ) by right . 
And so far as local education authorities are concerned , the Bill would impose upon them the duty of making these awards , and would empower the Minister to prescribe financial and other conditions , with which they would be obliged to conform . 
Moreover , it is intended that future Governments should be committed to ensure that public funds available for such purposes keep pace with the increase in the number of university students . 
In future , a student would know for certain , no matter where he lived , precisely how he could qualify for an award , and how the amount of that award would be determined . 
As for the means test , that would be retained , though in a relaxed form . 
But the Bill has another purpose , one concerning school-leaving dates for children aged fifteen . 
The intention here is to reduce these dates in the school year from three to two , that is , at Easter and the end of the summer term . 
This would seem to be , in effect , a compromise between what would be the ideal method from the point of view of school organisation on the one hand and the requirements of industry on the other . 
For so far as the organisation of the schools is concerned , the best , most convenient plan would undoubtedly be to have only one leaving date in the year , but then that would obviously pose certain special difficulties for industry . 
It would mean , as Sir David pointed out , that practically a whole age group would be looking for jobs at one and the same time . 
In such circumstances it would find it hard , and perhaps , indeed , impossible , to absorb within a reasonable time all the young people who had thus been thrown , at one swoop , so to speak , on to the labour market . 
A FAMILY AFFAIR 
THE flood of facts and opinions lately released from the conference season may at times seem indigestible to the layman . 
Perhaps this is particularly true at this time of year when many conferences have been dealing with education in its various forms . 
Yet there are few subjects more vital to the future of the nation and ourselves as individuals , and a great many of the discussions are at a level which is readily understandable to the layman . 
The truth is that every layman ( and woman ) owes it to himself and his children to take a greater interest in education , for the basis of all education is the family . 
This is a point which has been made many times before , but it can not be overemphasized . 
And it should be more widely appreciated that the family influence for good is not necessarily related to a high level in income . 
Miss M. G. Green , headmistress of Kidbrooke School , London , and a member of the Crowther Committee , made this clear when she addressed the North of England Education Conference in Newcastle the other day . 
The best parents are not those with high incomes or from the professional classes , she said . 
They are those who are prepared to put themselves out and make sacrifices to see that their children have advantages which they themselves lacked . 
Indeed it has always been so . 
And for those who believe that the family is a waning influence because of declining moral standards , the distraction of television , or some such modern menace , real or imagined , there was heartening re-assurance from a speaker in Glasgow . 
Mr John A. Mack , Stevenson Lecturer in Citizenship at the University of Glasgow , speaking on the eve of a three-day meeting held by the Science Masters ' Association of Great Britain , told his audience that although family ties were weakening , the family was the toughest , most flexible , most adaptable , most ineradicable institution in the history of human society . 
Such intensive studies of family life as had been made indicated that this ancient and formidable institution was standing up well to the strains of modern life . 
Yet the family unit , virtually indestructible as it may be , is often capable of improvement as an instrument of education . 
The means of improvement are available to all . 
Only the will is sometimes lacking . 
True comprehensive education can be achieved only when parents , teachers , and children , work as a team — with the senior members occasionally exercising the veto of authority . 
MERGER MOVES 
THE bargain struck with shipbuilding workers to help improve the competitive power of the industry in return for an immediate wage increase is by no means one-sided . 
Reorganization of the yards may have an important part to play . 
One of the most experienced shipbuilders on the North-East Coast , Sir William Gray , chairman of the West Hartlepool shipbuilding , repairing and engineering company which bears the family name , said recently that more integration of shipyards would achieve economies and lead to better planning . 
His view was that larger units , operating more closely together , could undertake research aimed at producing ships which are technically more advanced . 
There are two schools of thought about the advantages of consortiums — one believes that they lead inevitably to cheaper ships and engines : the other , that they can become administratively top heavy and out of touch with what is happening in shops and ships . 
The experience on Wearside of grouping of shipyards is that efficiency improves without the loss of the family ties which have established the river 's reputation for good ships and good relationships at yard level . 
Exploratory talks are now about to begin into the possibility of a closer link between William Doxford and Sons and the Sunderland Shipbuilding Group ( which includes the North Sands and Deptford Shipyards ) . 
A statement issued by the two companies uses the phrase "increased co-operation , " thereby inferring quite accurately that the two concerns already work together . 
A check of the ships launched by Laing 's and Thompson 's shows that in recent years a high proportion have been fitted with Doxford machinery . 
And there could be no clearer indication of the Sunderland Shipbuilding Group 's faith in the Doxford product than its decision to equip the 20,000-ton Deptford-built tanker Montana with the first Doxford " P " engine . 
The talks are confined at this stage to a full and frank exchange of views and any speculation is premature . 
Nevertheless the companies have announced their intention to the London Stock Exchange . 
It may be some months before a further statement is made but one has been promised when " the position is clarified . " 
Meanwhile the second ship to be fitted with a " P " engine will be launched next week on the Wear — and the builders are Thompson 's . 
RELAXING A BAN 
WEAR shipbuilders , experiencing difficulty in engaging skilled platers , welcome the decision of the district committee of the Boilermakers ' Society to allow a limited number of boys to train as platers . 
So , too , will all others with an interest in Sunderland 's basic industry . 
It is more than two years since the Society imposed its embargo on the entry of apprentices into the yards because of unemployment among its adult members . 
Although the number of boilermakers who are out of work has been reduced steadily during the past year , the Society does not consider that the time is opportune to relax the ban so far as welders , riveters , burners and heaters are concerned . 
The shipbuilders , however , put forward an irrefutable case for resuming apprenticeships in the plating trade and here the Wear District Committee of the Society has given ground , although the intake will still be strictly limited . 
The Society has stated that it is watching closely unemployment among its members so that the ban can be raised as soon as possible . 
The Wear Shipbuilders ' Association considers that full recruiting of apprentices should be resumed immediately if the best interests of the industry , the union and the boys are to be served . 
If the level of shipyard unemployment continues to fall on Wearside , the Society will find itself hard pressed to justify its action in depriving upwards of one hundred boys a year of the opportunity to train in the town 's chief industry . 
STRIKING APPEAL 
THE 58,000 people who saw Sunderland defeat Arsenal at Roker Park last Saturday included probably a preponderance of trade unionists . 
Yet very few of this majority could have regarded the game as a combined operation between fellow trade unionists . 
There were occasional delicate demarcation disputes , it is true , but for the most part mass partisanship recognized no boundaries , and certainly did not easily concede equal rights to the white-shirt workers . 
All that , however , may soon be forgotten if the threatened footballers ' strike kicks-off on January 21 , one week before Sunderland are due to visit Liverpool on urgent business . 
The T.U.C. and the Ministry of Labour have already become involved , and now an emergency resolution is being sent to the North East Federation of Trades Councils from the Jarrow and Hebburn branch urging moral and financial support designed to keep crowds away from any game which might be arranged , other than by the players themselves . 
( Hitherto the problem has been to get the crowds in . ) 
In the name of working solidarity the good trade unionist is asked to change his leisure habits in support of players who may cease to play , and , for good measure , to give up his chance of an overnight fortune by boycotting football pools , too . 
There is a danger that even the white ball will be declared black . 
Whatever the rights or wrongs of the dispute , the impartial spectator — if one can still be found — will surely agree that rarely has trade union loyalty faced a more baffling test . 
COLD WAR FRONT 
THE announcement by the Medical Research Council that experiments at the Common Cold Research Unit at Salisbury are having to be postponed because of a shortage of volunteers is not to be sneezed at . 
Apparently people who are quite prepared to take a 50-50 chance of catching cold during the summer shrink from the risk in the winter months , notwithstanding the promise of a free pint of beer each day and 3s pocket money . 
In view of the importance of the experiments and their potential value to suffering humanity this seasonal lack of " guinea pigs " is , of course , regrettable , but is the explanation quite so simple ? 
Could not the shortage be due to the grip the common cold takes at this time of the year of places and people far removed from Salisbury ? 
Wearsiders , for example , may reasonably reflect that there is not much point in making a sacrificial journey to Wiltshire if the object of the pilgrimage overtakes one at Newbottle , Shiney Row , Pity Me or Cold Hesledon . 
Come to think of it , any of these places — and others whose names contain less cold comfort — might well claim to have Common Cold Research Units of their own at this season . 
The problem is that a common remedy is uncommonly difficult to find . 
In fact , the only discovery to which most of us would subscribe is that established long ago by an American sufferer . 
A cold is both positive and negative : sometimes the Eyes have it and sometimes the Nose . 
HOME AND SAFETY 
FEW men would covet a constantly nagging wife , though many may have difficulty in escaping occasional one-sided exercises in the ungentle art of feminine raillery . 
Yet it seems that in certain circumstances a nagging wife can be an asset . 
According to Coal Board officials who made 1960 a special "safety " year for Yorkshire miners sharp tongues at home may have helped to reduce the number of deaths and serious injuries . 
At the start of the year 120,000 miners each received a letter from the divisional chairman urging them to be more safety conscious . 
It was sent by post to the men 's homes so that wives could also read it — and perhaps nag their menfolk into taking extra care . 
Now provisional accident figures for the year suggest that wifely strictures were by no means ineffective since rates for both deaths and injuries were reduced . 
Seriously , however , it is doubtful whether miners ' wives ever need prompting in their concern for their men 's safety in the pits . 
An efficient pit is a safe pit , is the slogan in the Durham Division , and the fact that the accident rate in this coalfield is lower than the national average is at once a measure of progress and an incentive to further improvement . 
It may also fairly reflect the good influence of naturally anxious wives . 
ENTER THE UNKNOWN 
UNLIKE his two predecessors in the American Presidency , Mr John F. Kennedy will take office this week at a moment when the world is , technically , at peace . 
President Truman took over during World War 2 . 
President Eisenhower assumed office during the Korean War , a conflict which to the Americans ranked close in importance to the world war itself . 
The surest way of winning a war is the relatively simple one of building up physical strength , which both Truman and Eisenhower achieved . 
Mr Kennedy , however , takes office at a time when problems are more subtle and the answers are harder to find . 
In wealth and physical resources America is still the world 's strongest nation , but she no longer holds the position of world dominance which was hers when President Eisenhower took office . 
Over the past decade Russia and Western Europe have recovered from the devastation they suffered in the war . 
China is developing towards the status to which her vast population entitles her . 
New nations emerge in Africa and Asia which are less willing than were the West European countries to regard American economic aid as part of a pattern of political and military co-operation . 
Thus the United States for the first time in her history finds herself playing a major role on the world stage without being the sole centre of attraction . 
Other stars have joined the cast . 
That the growth of the other stars has been largely a result of wise American statesmanship in the past does not make the present situation any easier . 
Last years at school 
LORD Amory is to head the Central Advisory Council for Education during its consideration of the 13 to 16 age group in our schools and further education institutes . 
It is within this age group that outlooks are formed and decisions are taken that lead to lamentable waste of young people who could make a valuable contribution to our national life and who do not , for the most part , make the best of their own lives . 
Lord Amory 's long-standing interest in youth — particularly in the young teenagers now to be considered — will be of great value to the Council as will his personal experience in medium-sized industry in which large numbers of youngsters must find their first jobs . 
One of the most important considerations for the Council will be the use made of the last year in school and the use to be made of the additional year when the leaving age is raised to 16 . 
It took far too long for the secondary modern schools to adapt themselves to the new situation when the leaving age was raised to 15 , and the Council will no doubt feel that much more positive planning must be done soon to prepare for a further year . 
They will have a lot of useful evidence from the experience of the schools in dealing with the 14- to 15-year-olds . 
The pattern has been very uneven over the country , but at least the evidence is likely to be highly informative . 
Reduced to its simplest form , the problem is whether the last year in school ( for those children who will not go on to a grammar or senior technical school ) should be used to broaden the youngsters ' minds or for elementary vocational training to equip them for jobs . 
Apart from the broad arguments about desirability one way or another there are often local complications when particular kinds of industry need regular intakes of school-leavers in particular localities . 
Any teacher will agree that it is impossible to pursue both lines effectively during a single year . 
Some formal subject teaching must go on in either case . 
The time left over can be fully occupied either in lectures , discussions and demonstrations aimed at broadening the understanding or in practical group work taking in pre-apprenticeship training , but it will not accommodate both . 
It might be that when the leaving age is raised to 16 the last two years should be marked by a departure from strict subject teaching . 
Vocational training and appreciation courses could then be developed in one two-year curriculum with some hope of success in both directions . 
While the Advisory Council will be concerned mainly with children of average ability , they are charged also with considering those who fall below the average . 
It seems a pity that the terms of reference should cover both and it is to be hoped that the Council 's report will treat them separately for special provisions may have to apply in the second case . 
S. Rhodesia agreement 
PERHAPS one does not have to look very far for an explanation of the unexpected agreement on the constitutional future of Southern Rhodesia . 
It illustrates the fact that an ounce of example is worth a ton of exhortation . 
The example that has confronted Southern Rhodesia is the Congo , and reports from Salisbury show that Africans and Europeans alike have been severely shaken by the realisation of what can happen when political extremism leads to a break-down in the rule of law . 
Africans in Southern Rhodesia do not want to lose what they have gained in the past , little though it may be . 
The European community certainly does not want to see everything they have created come crashing down about them . 
Neither side can go forward alone . 
The fact that African and European leaders have now decided to go forward together , even a limited distance , is the most encouraging event in Central Africa since federation of the three territories there took shape . 
It is still too early to see what the effect will be upon Northern Rhodesia , where the European community is much smaller , but there are grounds for hope , even though the present constitutional conference in London may achieve little . 
Hitherto , it has been the Europeans in Northern Rhodesia who have favoured federation and the Africans who have mainly opposed it ( on the ground that it would mean permanent subjugation to the powerful European community in Southern Rhodesia ) . 
Now , with signs of a more liberal outlook in the south , and with the prospect of an advance in the Africans ' position there , a softening of the attitude of the Africans in Northern Rhodesia is possible . 
This , in turn , should ease or remove some of the worst fears of the Europeans among them . 
Thus — and this in the long run is the really important gain — there is once again some hope that the Central African Federation can remain in existence instead of being torn apart either by the Southern Rhodesian Government 's determination to go its own way or by African suspicions . 
Federation is essential if this area of Africa is to develop the economic means to sustain political advance . 
Racial and political divisions still threaten it , but today there is new hope where only a week ago there was little but despondency and suspicion . 
PICCADILLY CIRCUS 
AT first glance Sir William Holford 's design for the new Piccadilly Circus is extremely disappointing . 
Indeed , it is more than that . 
It is alarming . 
Many people will ask , " Is this really what is to become of Piccadilly Circus , " and will shrink from the thought . 
Architectural models are liable to be misleading because they are viewed from an above-the-rooftops position . 
In practice no one will ever stop to contemplate the Circus from such a level — from this angle it would be a fleeting view with swiftly-changing vistas seen from a helicopter . 
Looked at from above , the model of the Holford scheme leaves an impression of congestion , jumble , confusion and meanness . 
To imagine a pedestrian 's view from somewhere near the foot of Eros does not contradict such impressions but reinforces them . 
Congestion because the surface area of the Circus seems to have been substantially reduced from what it is today . 
Jumble because no discernible formal relationship between the surrounding buildings and pedestrian platforms is apparent , and confusion for the same reason , made worse by the compression of traffic into narrow canyons and tunnels between and under the buildings and pedestrian decks . 
Meanness because of the impression of a meagre square shut in by immense buildings on all sides — and meanness because plainly one of the main thoughts has been to make the maximum use of the available area for new building . 
The publicity with which the scheme has been launched has made much of the " gaiety " of the new Circus . 
But gaiety is an expansive mood , and the effect of the model is restrictive and oppressive . 
There is something to be said for the intimacy of college quadrangle , and the enclosed treatment adopted in the Holford design might be attractive from an Oxford standpoint for this reason — but not when an area about as big as a largish quadrangle is flanked with buildings 10 to 15 storeys high . 
When the Government intervened to stop the building of the Jack Cotton monster on the Monico site it seemed that , after all , Piccadilly Circus might be redeveloped in a way which would take up the opportunities of its situation . 
The Holford proposal fails on almost every score to do this . 
A much better solution exists in the scheme drawn up by the London County Council 's architects . 
It may not be perfect , but at least it has some of the qualities of spaciousness , harmony and style that one looks for in a modern city centre . 
There would be considerable advantages in going back to this design , even if it means , as it does , going back to the beginning in this controversy . 
A newspaper and its readers 
THE success of the Oxford Mail , which publishes its 10,000th number today , has been due to the support of its readers , who , we hope , will share our pleasure in reaching a round number large enough to warrant a minor celebration . 
They do us the compliment of buying the paper , which suggests a measure of success in providing them with what they want . 
Not that a paper 's relations with its readers can ever be quite as simple as that , or if they are , the paper is probably on the wrong track . 
The hunt after circulation at any price has brought disaster to some papers , and has done the profession of journalism a good deal of damage in recent years , and it is not a policy to be pursued by papers in a monopoly position . 
Like most provincial evening papers , the Oxford Mail has a monopoly as a daily in the field of local news ( though we welcome the stimulus of some competition from the London evening papers ) . 
This imposes obligations . 
A paper in such a position should do more than merely please its readers . 
It has to try to cover the whole field of news in its area accurately and without bias . 
Points of view which the paper may not share must be reported . 
Minority interests must be given their claim on space . 
This is not necessarily a recipe for maximum popularity . 
But popularity by itself is not a good test of the performance of a paper . 
A paper must be prepared to be unpopular when necessary — especially a local one which is sometimes exposed to pressures at close quarters to soft pedal or even suppress when its job is to be open and provocative . 
So far as the official editorial opinion of the paper is concerned , it can be argued that a monopoly paper should not take a strong line of its own . 
We have never taken that view . 
We recall an editor who once proclaimed , " I have nailed my colours to the fence " as a wit rather than as a paragon . 
And in any event it has been the policy of the Oxford Mail and Times Ltd. , to encourage differences of view in the evening and weekly papers which are under separate editorship . 
When boiled down to essentials the functions of a newspaper are remarkably simple — though not easy to achieve . 
They are in essence to get the facts and get them right , and to provide a fair balance of argument about matters of controversy . 
There is no need for a paper to be stuffy in observing such principles . 
It is an exciting world we live in , and Oxford shares in most of the things our world gets up to . 
If the Oxford Mail succeeds in reporting what goes on , and in shedding useful illumination upon it , it will , we believe , be recognised by our readers as a job worth doing . 
The Congo after Lumumba 
WHAT next in the Congo ? 
As the situation deteriorates it becomes clear that the United Nations representation there can not remain as it is . 
To be present but ineffective is worse in some respects than not to be there at all . 
It does nothing for the Congo , it does nothing for the authority of the UN , and it is unfair to the troops and administrators involved who have to face increasing risks without being able to achieve anything . 
Govern or get out , the classic phrase of politics , is a choice that the United Nations must now face realistically . 
Indeed unless it is faced there is a danger that the UN representation itself will disintegrate as individual countries decide to withdraw their men . 
But UN can not govern in the Congo without a new decision on policy and that decision can not be taken unless the countries of the Security Council agree upon it . 
That means in practice that Russia and the United States must find some common ground on which to approach the Congo question . 
This is where the slightly improved atmosphere between Moscow and Washington might prove to be of value . 
There is no reason to suppose that the Russians will act from any other motive than self interest , but it is just conceivable that if they can be convinced that the United States has no desire to exploit the Congo chaos they will themselves recognise the need to end it . 
HOW RED IS AFRICA ? 
By JOHN BAKER-WHITE 
JUST how red is Africa ? 
To what extent has the Soviet propaganda machine succeeded in influencing the upsurge of African nationalism ? 
Has Moscow yet got a firm foothold , political or economic , in the great African continent ? 
And were the disorders in the Congo and Rhodesia the work of Red Agents ? 
The answers to these questions press not only on politicians , strategists and intelligence experts , but on all of us . 
For the future pattern of rule in the states of Africa must inevitably shape the pattern of the world . 
In probing for the answers to these questions I shall start by listing the states where Communism has little or no influence . 
One of them is the Kingdom of Morocco , another Tunisia , a third Libya . 
Students red trained 
It is true that a few students from these countries are studying the techniques of revolution in Moscow and Prague , and a handful of trade union leaders are in Communist training schools , but the governments are anti-Communist and the people disinterested in Red doctrines . 
In the Sudan the Communist Party is illegal , the political intelligence system alert , and to date efforts by the World Federation of Trade Unions to capture the unions have failed . 
It may surprise some people to know that Communism , at the moment , has no hold in Ghana . 
President Nkrumah is building a Socialist state , aided by a small number of hand-picked young Socialist intellectuals , but he has no illusions about Communist methods . 
He studied them closely when , as a young man , he lived in London . 
When Ghana got its independence Moscow thought the new state was a " sitting bird " and the Soviet economic experts arrived with attractive offers for the cocoa crop . 
" Communists our rivals " 
They discovered that the President is prepared to do business with the Soviet bloc — but only on his own terms . 
Anxious to become head of a federation of African states , including the Congo , he seeks to harness the forces of nationalism . 
Communism he regards not so much as an ally but as a competitor . 
In Guinea the picture is very different . 
Just over a year ago I warned that the Soviet Union was planning to establish in this new state a fresh bridgehead into Africa . 
Now she has got it . 
A dedicated Marxist and graduate of Prague University , President Sekou Toure is what the cynical planners in the Kremlin call " in the net . " 
He is bound to the Soviet bloc by loans and trade agreements . 
He has accepted technicians in large numbers from Russia , East Germany and Poland . 
The Czechs are reshaping and equipping Guinea 's army and police . 
Chinese technicians have taken charge of the rice growing plan . 
Red-made 
In Conakry , the capital , shops are full of Czech matches , cigarettes and watches , Chinese rice , East German typewriters and Russian textiles . 
Czech cement is building the new docks , German machinery equipping the new factories . 
A Conakry-Prague air service is opening up , a Communist-controlled school for African trade union leaders is open already . 
Since the beginning of the year five international Communist organisations have held conferences at Conakry . 
One of them was the Afro-Asian Solidarity Council , based in Cairo , and , for the past three years , Moscow 's main propaganda weapon in Africa . 
I predict that within the next six months the Council will move permanently to Conakry , for Guinea — not Cairo — is now the most important Red bridgehead in Africa . 
The violent revolt against Belgium , the tribal conflicts and other disorders in the Congo were neither Moscow-planned nor directed . 
There is evidence that the Russians were just as surprised as anyone else at the suddenness and violence of them , but it is , of course , a situation ideal for exploitation . 
Communist army head 
At least two of Mr. Lumumba 's entourage have had some training in Moscow , and the officer in charge of the Guinea contingent of the U N forces in the Congo is a fully indoctrined Communist . 
Three Czech " advisers " accompanied the contingent , and now a thirty-strong Soviet " technical mission " has arrived in Leopoldville . 
It may be pure coincidence that they are all tall , well-built men in their middle-thirties , but they look uncommonly like Red Army officers in plain clothes . 
Communism had little or nothing to do with the riots in South Africa or the more recent disorders in Rhodesia . 
In fact , former leaders of the Communist Party in the Union have left the country . 
Some are now in the Rhodesian copper belt and at least one of them is in London . 
In contrast , Moscow has embarked upon a special operation in Ruanda-Urundi , which borders on the Belgian Congo . 
This state of some 21,000 square miles and a population of 4,630,000 has been a United Nations trust territory under the administration of Belgium , but a few days ago she announced that she was giving up the trusteeship . 
In the early part of August a Soviet agent named Nikolay Khokhlov arrived in the capital Usumbura , and made contact with the vice-president of the United Movement Party , Paul Kabandrouka . 
Through Khokhlov he sent a message to Moscow . 
" Let the U S S R know that Ruanda-Urundi demands independence , demands it urgently and without delay . " 
I smell trouble here . 
The conditions exist for it and trouble would suit Moscow 's purpose admirably . 
It joins the frontiers not only of the Congo but also of Tanganyika and Uganda , a British trusteeship and protectorate moving towards self-government . 
Ruanda-Urundi is a place to watch . 
Secret police ruthless 
Colonel Nasser and the United Arab Republic have economic ties with the Soviet bloc and the Soviet mission has underground contact with the leaders of the rebel National Liberation Front at their headquarters in the Street of the Blue Mosque in Cairo . 
On the other hand , the secret police has been known to deal ruthlessly with Communist agitators . 
While he was living in London the Communists made a number of approaches to Dr. Hastings Banda , the Nyasaland nationalist leader , but there is evidence that , like President Nkrumah , he has few illusions about how Moscow uses African nationalism to achieve its own purposes . 
Among the states in the French Community that the Soviet propagandists are paying particular attention to are Madagascar and the Cameroun , facts to which the French are alive . 
While Moscow continues to step up the radio barrage on the ears of African listeners , the most significant developments in the propaganda offensive in the coming months will come from Peking . 
China radio propaganda 
The China-Africa Friendship Association has been formed , { 6inter alia , " to support the joint struggle of the African peoples in opposing imperialism and colonialism . " 
Radio Peking 's output to Africa is now 550 hours a week , and includes special broadcasts in Cantonese to overseas Chinese in South Africa , Madagascar and Mauritius . 
A recent check on a book-store on Conakry showed that there were 14 Chinese publications on sale , compared with three Russian and one Czech . 
One of the latest Peking publications is a training manual for African trade unionists . 
The 23-man Chinese delegation which attended the Solidarity Council meeting in Conakry was the largest of all , and the official propaganda agency , the New China News Agency , has opened up offices in Rabat , Accra and Conakry . 
Africa has been described as a seething cauldron . 
Both Moscow and Peking can be expected to take every opportunity of adding fuel to the fire under it . 
BY ELECTIONS — a new warning to Tories by RADAR 
CONSERVATIVE Party fortunes are far from their peak at the present time . 
And so are those of Harold Macmillan . 
They have slumped as a result of the build-up of a variety of what the Prime Minister probably prefers to view as little local difficulties . 
Voters , as the recent by-election results showed , are in increasing numbers losing their faith in the magic of the Tory administration . 
This is not to say that the discontented are running to the Socialists as their saviours . 
There is no new spectacular devotion for Jo Grimond 's struggling Liberal Party , though the Liberal leaders have good reason to be satisfied with the overall results . 
As is usual at by-elections , the disgruntled and disillusioned are staying away from the polling stations , not committing themselves for the time being . 
Meanwhile , millions more people who voted for the Conservatives in October , 1959 , and who have not recently had the chance to vote for a parliamentary candidate , are talking among themselves . 
It is nothing unusual these days to pop into the saloon bar of a public house and hear the Government coming under fire from those with the accent of the reasonably well-off . 
There is a widespread belief that the ruling Tories are becoming more reactionary , trying to please their Right Wing more than their Left or centre supporters . 
No single act by the Government has done more to foster this impression than the increase in the Health Service charges . 
On the other hand , everyone but the Right-wing Conservatives applauded the Prime Minister 's " wind of change " attitude towards dealing with the problem of Africa and the coloured people . 
In the event , the wind has dropped to no more than a gentle breeze . 
It has been damped down by those who would like to see hardly any movement at all . 
Harold Macmillan himself has had a difficult time . 
So far as general affairs have been concerned he has deliberately attempted to lie low , let his colleagues build up their own images . 
Last year he put everything he had into trying to bring about a successful Summit meeting between the leaders of the U.S.A. , Russia , France and the United Kingdom . 
It was not his fault that the attempt failed . 
But it was heartbreaking , none the less . 
As leader of the Commonwealth 's principal nation he could not have found it pleasant to preside over the dramatic branding of Dr. Verwoerd 's apartheid doctrines . 
It is doubtful whether the man who happened to be Britain 's Prime Minister at the time when South Africa decided to end her 50-year association with this country will be proclaimed a national hero on that particular score . 
The fact is , Harold Macmillan has lost a lot of ground in the popularity stakes , needs a new major personal success to restore his own fortunes , and those of the Party . 
There is still one glittering prize to be grasped . 
The man who captures it will go down in history as one of the greatest of mortals . 
What the great masses of ordinary people in the world desire most of all is the certain prospect of peace for as long ahead as possible . 
No one can blame Harold Macmillan for trying to reach the elusive goal . 
And few would be so uncharitable as to say that he would like to do it just for his own sake . 
The Prime Minister realises that he has as good a chance of bringing about the hoped-for miracle as any man alive . 
His unique position as leader of the British Commonwealth of Nations gives him a better chance than most . 
Once more , he believes , he must try to be the intermediary between the two great opposing Communist and non-Communist world blocs . 
If nothing else , the Americans have to be convinced that the Government of Red China must be given full recognition , admitted to the United Nations , and treated as what it is — one of the leading governments in the world . 
Half the world 's crooks are never caught reveals JOHN REED 
DURING this week in the cities of Rome , Paris , and New York , it is safe to predict that a total of at least 70 people will be murdered . 
In addition , there will be at least two major bank robberies , several hundred cases of rape , and thousands of burglaries and frauds . 
In New York alone a serious offence is committed every two minutes . 
THESE ARE SHOCKING FIGURES , BUT EVEN MORE SHOCKING IS THE FACT THAT AT LEAST HALF THE PEOPLE BEHIND THESE CRIMES WILL GO UNDETECTED . 
Experts who attended a recent conference on crime in London admitted that all over the world crime is not only increasing , but in many cases the criminal is becoming more elusive . 
THOMAS DENHAM , Evening News Diplomatic Correspondent , continues his series on HUNGARY TODAY , five years after the uprising Catching up with the Western Joneses 
HUNGARY is not only a Communist country , but in a sense a new country , trying for the first time to exploit its resources and " catch up with the West . " 
Everywhere there are new factories , new housing estates , new farm buildings . 
Clothes and many window displays may sometimes remind you of the post-war years of " utility " in Britain . 
Much is obviously being sacrificed for the future , but people have money to spend on what is available , particularly on entertainment and food , both of which are cheap . 
On the bright days which follow one another in summer the pavements of Budapest 's main streets are thronged . 
At the week-end the many fine swimming pools , fed by hot-springs , are so packed it is hardly possible to see the water , and the resorts down the Danube and on Lake Balaton are full of couples and families enjoying themselves , which they can do for a very modest outlay . 
The night clubs are full , and whether you eat in a restaurant or a private home you soon discover the Hungarians are traditionally the biggest eaters in Europe , and take a pride in it — to the distress of their doctors . 
Lively people 
They are enthusiastic cinema-goers — Hungary must be one of the few European countries where cinema attendances have steadily increased in recent years . 
Television is comparatively new and limited , and with about 150,000 sets in the country has hardly yet made an impact . 
The standard , of course , is very different from the hard , expensive glitter of West Germany . 
But it is equally far removed from the dismal greyness of East Berlin . 
The Hungarians are a lively people , with a sense of humour very much like ours . 
If they have their troubles and sorrows , in the towns , at any rate , they seem to carry them lightly . 
Earlier in the year , I was told , the riddle was being asked : " What is it that is 30 yards long and eats potatoes ? " 
The answer " A meat queue . " 
More recently it was what is 30 yards long and eats meat , with the answer " a potato queue . " 
I saw nothing to suggest an overall shortage of food — on the contrary . 
The official explanation of the meat queues was that they were only for pork . 
There was plenty of beef and other meat , but conservative housewives preferred to queue for their favourite pork . 
Pork shortage 
The shortage of pork could have been satisfied by cutting exports , but the authorities preferred to disappoint customers at home to losing customers abroad by not meeting export orders . 
Comparisons of standards of living are difficult to make because of traditional differences in the way of life and pursuit of happiness , differences in our social system and the wide range of incomes . 
For instance , rents in Hungary are extremely low , running from 15s. to £2 a month . 
Public transport is so cheap that its cost could virtually be ignored , and , indeed , it must literally be so by many in Budapest , for the trams are usually so packed that it would be impossible to collect the fares even if the customers were anxious to pay . 
A really cheap midday meal is widely available by law , and the quantity and quality and service is much above what one would expect in Britain , although this probably has much more to do with tradition and a feeling that food is more important than the social revolution . 
Deductions for pensions and trade union funds may amount to 4 per cent. , but income tax is not something that has to be worried about . 
" Norm " of work 
These are facts that have to be borne in mind when comparing wages , which , at a realistic rate of exchange , average less than £25 a month , with a range of , say £14 a month for an office cleaner to £50 plus a month for a coal miner . 
As is usual in a " socialist " country , wages depend on achieving a " norm " of work . 
The underground coal miner 's " plus , " for instance , is in the form of an annual bonus based on " loyalty , " i.e. , years of service and good timekeeping . 
At a pit I went down , the list of bonuses paid to every miner was pinned up . 
The largest amounted to two months ' wages — over £100 — and they ranged down to two weeks ' wages . 
This makes the miners comparatively wealthy and I was interested to learn they spend their " surplus " money on much the same things as here , if they can get them — furniture , television , refrigerators and cars . 
The Mayor of Komlo , which has 10,000 miners , told me he knew several who had refurnished their homes twice in seven years ( the whole city is less than 10 years old ) , and that there was over £3 million in the local savings bank . 
But the standard of good attendance is stiff — one day 's " unnecessary " absenteeism loses half the annual bonus , two days and the lot is lost . 
Holiday rewards 
Among the rewards of good work and conformity with enthusiasm are holidays at excellent resorts so cheap that the wage-earner can make a "profit " on his stay . 
My guide in one town told me she had been awarded a fortnight 's holiday on the Black Sea for her good work . 
These holiday homes are owned by the trade unions , which spend 73 per cent . 
of their annual income of £6 million plus on social welfare , culture and sports . 
But , except through these " official " channels , the possibilities for holidays away from home must be limited . 
Although more Hungarians travelled to western countries last year than ever before , holidays abroad in non-Communist countries are limited because currency is not made available . 
There are many things in the new Hungary it is easy to like and perhaps from which we could learn . 
There is , for instance , the appetite for education , including self-education , and for " culture " and the facilities provided for satisfying it . 
There is the lack of class-consciousness , at least in the towns , where you will find obvious manual workers sitting with smartly-dressed men and women in restaurants and night clubs . 
There is self-criticism and a great desire to do better . 
Dull papers 
A high official in one ministry surprised me by his blunt criticism of Hungarian papers as " deadly dull . " 
He said he would like to see some as bright as the British ones , although , of course , their contents would be different . 
They can laugh at their own weaknesses , like the belief that it is impossible to eat in a restaurant without gipsy music , although the gipsies have disappeared long since . 
What I found depressing was the insistence that all the many good things in the country were due only to " socialism " and the Party and would not otherwise exist , together with fantastic ignorance of the western world or refusal to believe what did not suit the theory . 
To give a couple of instances that stuck in my mind . 
A woman journalist insisted that unemployment was our major difficulty in Britain . 
She simply smiled disbelievingly at the statement that , in fact , there were more situations vacant than people looking for jobs . 
A charming and highly-intelligent medical director said : " But , of course , our system of medicine is different as our doctors aim to keep people well , while it pays western doctors to keep them sick . " 
Hardly able to believe my ears , I asked him if he really believed that . 
The answer was : " It must be so , otherwise how could they make a profit in a capitalist country ? " 
Rigidity of mind 
One can be full of admiration for the things being done — the new factories , the housing estates , the new towns , the large-scale agriculture . 
What is almost frightening is the rigidity of mind which seems to make it impossible to accept that many of these things are also being done , and perhaps even more so and better , in "capitalist " countries ; an apparent assumption that everything from free libraries to large-scale farming and co-operatives to health services are new and unique in " socialist " countries . 
Of course , these closed minds are not all on one side of the Iron Curtain . 
I read not long ago in an English paper a description of Budapest in the early evening suggesting it was a dark and depressing city . 
I can testify that , seen from the surrounding heights , it is a fairy-land of lights , that many shops are open and the windows of the others lit up . 
There , as in other Hungarian cities , it is possible and very cheap to dance until 4 a.m. if you are so minded . 
From our Diplomatic Correspondent THOMAS DENHAM 
BRITISH and American tanks stand ready for action with their guns pointed at East Berlin , where Russian tanks have been seen for the first time since the 1953 uprising . 
Since last Sunday , when East Berlin sector guards stopped U.S. soldiers and officials and refused to let them pass when they would not show their identity papers , the situation has built up into the tensest in the history of post-war Berlin . 
The foray of U.S. soldiers into East Berlin to secure the release of the Deputy Chief of the U.S. mission was the first occasion American soldiers had entered the Soviet sector since the city was divided . 
What is it all about ? 
Superficially , it might seem that the dispute is about how members of the U.S. mission should establish their identity when they cross the sector border . 
In fact , the dispute has arisen out of a bold attempt by the East German Government to get recognition for itself by the West , and the determination of the West to continue to demonstrate that East Berlin is not the capital of a sovereign nation , but part of Berlin which is under four-power occupation . 
Was clearly shown 
If East Berlin were part of a sovereign nation , no foreign troops and , indeed no foreigners would be allowed to enter it without permission of its Government . 
Every time Western soldiers or members of the military government enter East Berlin they demonstrate it is not part of another nation . 
This situation has existed and worked well — since the defeat of the Berlin blockade . 
What the East Germans are trying to establish was clearly shown during one of the hold-ups when one of their radio reporters , doing a running commentary , told his listeners : " Now the Americans are negotiating with our officials . " 
This was , of course , untrue , the "negotiation " was a flat demand for a Soviet officer to be brought to whom they would talk and with whom they would , no doubt , establish their identity . 
What is at stake , in fact , is whether the West recognises Herr Ulbricht or Mr Kruschev as responsible for East Berlin . 
The West has no intention of recognising Herr Ulbricht , as it has made very clear to the Russians in public and private conversations . 
The full story behind this dangerous confrontation shows there have been miscalculations on both sides . 
Were too cautious 
Herr Ulbricht , the toughest and most adventurous of the Communist leaders , long believed that the Russians were too cautious about Berlin and that , given a free hand , he could get away with a bit-by-bit encroachment on Western rights which would result in West Berlin falling into his hands . 
He had been pressing to be allowed to build his "wall " and close all but a handful of crossings for a long time before he persuaded the Russians that any danger of a Western counter-action could be discounted . 
In the event he proved right . 
There was no Western counter-action . 
This was not because the West was taken by surprise . 
Its intelligence had learned it was coming . 
But it wrongly believed the wall would be directed only at controlling Germans and that plenty of crossings would be made available through negotiations , if necessary , with the Russians . 
When the error of this view became apparent , there was determination to resist , by force if necessary , the next attempt to take another slice from the West Berlin sausage . 
COMMENTARY FROM City and County by THE GOSSIPER 
LOCAL booksellers are anticipating a heavy demand for copies of the new version of the Holy Bible . 
Published today , this mid-20th century edition of the World 's Best Seller is already certain of living up to its long reputation . 
A representative of one of Lincoln 's leading firms of booksellers told me yesterday : " We have had such a demand for the new Bible that we have today put in an order for additional supplies . 
Many of the advance orders , of course , have come from clergymen , but we have had more from lay people " . 
But he added this warning " We , in the trade , feel that many people think that this is a new version of the whole Bible . 
It is , of course , only the New Testament : it will be many years before the Old Testament , and the Apocrypha are available . " 
HIS BRIEF APPEARANCE 
THE man who holds the record for length of service as Lincoln 's Member of Parliament — since the city 's representation was reduced from two to one 80 years ago — made his briefest ever public appearance , on B.B.C. television . 
Sir Walter Liddall , elected M P for Lincoln in 1931 , became a member of the Palace of Westminster Home Guard when it was formed in 1940 . 
And we saw him , for a fleeting two or three seconds , on parade , in the latest episode in the film series " The Valiant Years " , based on Sir Winston Churchill 's war memoirs . 
It was a hot summer 's day when the film was shot , in the palace yard , and Sir Walter , nearest the camera , was on parade in shirt sleeves . 
Many Lincoln people recognised him . 
And many also noticed the awful bloomer the producers of the film made in showing a 1914-18 war poster to aid recruiting in 1940 ! 
NEW RECORD COMING ? 
Sir Walter Liddall was elected Member of Parliament for Lincoln on October 27 , 1931 and served continuously until July 26 , 1945 — although some might argue that he ceased to be M.P . 
three weeks earlier ! 
The General Election of 1945 took place on July 5 but , because of the large number of Services votes from distant lands that had to come in , the count was delayed until the 26th of the month . 
Sir Walter — he had been knighted in the dissolution honours — lost his seat , after a period of service of 13 years and eight months . 
The present Member , Mr. Geoffrey de Freitas will pass that record if this parliament runs its normal course . 
The last General Election was in October 1959 and it is likely that the next will be in the early part of 1964 . 
Mr. de Freitas became M.P . 
for Lincoln in February 1950 and his term will have extended to 13 years and eight months by October 1963 . 
" HONEST — BUT UNREASONING " 
To return to Sir Walter Liddall : it was in July 1944 that he set up his Parliamentary record by beating the term of office of Mr. Charles Roberts , who was Liberal M.P . 
for Lincoln from 1906 to 1918 . 
But the all-time record is one of 20 years , held by Colonel Charles Sibthorp , an early Victorian Member , and one of a number of gentlemen of that family who at one time or another represented Lincoln in the Commons . 
Charles was first elected in 1826 but was unseated in 1832 . 
However , he was re-elected in January 1835 and retained the seat — it was one of two , in those days of course — until his death in December 1855 . 
That was the Colonel Sibthorp who achieved notoriety for his outspokenness in debate , and of whom "The Times " said " His name has long been a household word , as the very embodiment of honest , but unreasoning Tory prejudice . " 
Frequently , Colonel Sibthorp had to be called to order by The Speaker for his unparliamentary language , but he did on one occasion save the country £20,000 a year — which was a lot of money in those days ! 
When it was announced that Queen Victoria was to marry Prince Albert , Lord Melbourne , the Prime Minister , proposed that the nation should settle on His Royal Highness an allowance of £50,000 a year . 
Colonel Sibthorp 's violent opposition won the day and the allocation was reduced to £30,000 . 
W.E.A 'S JUBILEE 
THE " golden jubilee " meeting of Lincoln W.E.A. branch forged a new and interesting link in its history . 
The branch has survived two world wars , and battled its way successfully through the Great Depression . 
Now it has gone full circle for , after the austerities of the first war , the grim despondency of the Depression , and the rationed utilities of the second war it has met to consider "The Affluent Society . " 
But , possibly even more interesting than this , was the fact that the speaker was Mrs. Mary Stocks , well-known as a member of the B.B.C. Brains Trust and radio programme "Any Questions ? " 
Though she had paid only brief " passing through " visits to the city in the past , Lincoln is not entirely unknown to Mrs. Stocks , for she is the sister-in-law of Miss Helen Stocks who was the first resident tutor of the branch . 
Miss Stocks , who took a history tripos at Lady Margaret College , Oxford , ( she did not obtain a degree , because at that time women could not take degrees ) was also a member of the Oxford Tutorial Classes Committee . 
Her appointment as resident tutor for the Lincoln branch followed a visit to the city in connection with the branch 's formation , by Mr. E. S. Cartwright , secretary of the committee . 
She remained in Lincoln from 1911 until 1919 when she moved owing to the illness of her father , one time Archdeacon of Leicester , and later Canon of Peterborough , and settled in Kettering . 
During the meeting Mrs. Stocks told me " I always used to hear a lot about Lincoln . 
My sister-in-law grew very fond of the city , and never lost her affection for it . " 
COMMENTARY FROM City and County by THE GOSSIPER 
MY story of the man who had been stopped on Burton-road by an elderly woman who asked him for her bus fare to enable her to collect her pension has revealed that this was far from being a solitary experience . 
Telephone calls from a man at Sobraon Barracks and from a woman living in Broadway , and a letter from a resident of Yarborough-crescent , indicate that this begging has been going on on what seems to be quite a large scale . 
The caller from the barracks said the woman asked him the time and when he replied , she said : " You do n't happen to have a few coppers for a bus fare , do you ? " 
He added that he had known her stop at least seven people in one day , and collect a few coppers from each . 
The woman who telephoned from Broadway told me she was " touched " as she was leaving the Cathedral . 
They happened to be passing through the doorway at the same moment and the woman told my correspondent she was very tired , her feet hurt , she had no money and could not go to the Post Office to collect her pension . 
" I asked her where she lived and she countered by asking me where I lived . 
It was obvious to me , then , that she was simply begging . " 
There is a slight variation in the tale as told by a reader living on Yarborough-crescent . 
The woman asked for her bus fare to St. John 's Hospital . 
" I gave her sixpence , she told me it was not enough , so I gave her another sixpence . " 
"GOOD LUCK " LETTERS 
ACCORDING to a letter I have received , I have been due for a stroke of good luck today , but so far — and the day is far advanced , as I write — Dame Fortune has failed to smile on me to any unusual extent . 
The letter , I was told , was " a prayer " which originated in The Netherlands . 
" You are to have good luck four days after receiving this ; it is not a joke , " it said , and went on , "It must leave your hands before 97 hours after receiving it . 
Just send this letter and 20 others to some people you wish to have some good luck . 
Write it all out 20 times ! " 
It would take me nearly 97 hours to do it , unless I did carbon copies , and they might not " work . " 
This letter is about as nonsensical as other chain letters which appear periodically ; the only difference is that there is no money involved here . 
Just the arduous labour of writing out a ridiculous letter 20 times . 
I am afraid it left my hands before the 97 hours were up — cast into the waste paper basket . 
BUS TICKET " SEVENS " 
EQUALLY silly is a story I have just heard about a craze for collecting bus tickets , the serial number of which ends with the figure " 7 . " 
A colleague who travels regularly on Lincoln Corporation buses tells me he has been asked by someone , acting as spokesman for a third party , to save any tickets he receives from the conductor , the number of which ends in " 7 . " 
When , naturally , he asked why , he was told that they were saved and then handed in at the Corporation Transport Department when , in some way which was not specified by his informant , some worthy cause benefited . 
Mention of this to the Corporation Transport General Manager , Mr. Herbert Jones , produced the expected comment , " Never heard of such nonsense . " 
So please do n't start unloading bundles of old bus tickets at his office ! 
NOT VENUS , HE SAYS ! 
MY reference to the fire which , in February , 1922 , destroyed some business premises in Silver-street , Lincoln , has reminded one reader of something — and provided me with an illustration of what long memories some people have for trivialities ! 
I had had occasion , some considerable time ago , to mention that fire , in connection with something else , and having turned up the files in the office library , I had quoted a quite picturesque description which had been given to the Echo at the time by a lady living in James-street , near the Cathedral . 
In the course of this , she had said the planet Venus could be seen shining through the glow in the sky from the flames . 
Now an anonymous reader writes to tell me she could n't have seen Venus that night because it was n't shining ! 
He has , it seems , looked through some astronomical records and informs me that the sun set at about 5.34 on the day of the fire and Venus very shortly afterwards , at about 5.50 ! 
The fire was discovered at about half past seven — by someone rejoicing in the name of " Cocky Yates " according to my anonymous correspondent — so it could not have been Venus that Miss Bicknell saw from her house in James-street . 
Any other astronomically minded reader who would like to venture what bright star it could have been that , for almost 40 years now , we 've been thinking was Venus ? 
We really ought to get this thing straight ! 
COMMENTARY FROM City and County by THE GOSSIPER 
WHAT is the objection to utilising the old burial ground in Beaumont-fee , Lincoln , as a car park ? 
It is untidy and , apart from what grass there is being trimmed now and then , it is not particularly well looked after . 
Gravestones are broken and almost wholly indecipherable . 
Only a few years ago , the old burial ground in Saltergate was turned into a " garden of rest " — for the living , not the dead — and the gravestones were taken up , some of them being used for the footpaths . 
And going further back , the south side of St. Benedict-square was widened by taking a slice from the old burial ground . 
The plot in Beaumont-fee , only a few yards from the city centre , would provide an ideal parking place for quite a number of cars which today are partly blocking the roads by being parked at the kerbside . 
A WOMAN 'S MEMORIES 
A LETTER from an 83-years-old lady living near Sleaford indicates that Lincoln Corporation had been more reticent than I thought in releasing news about the typhoid epidemic which killed more than 120 people in 1905 . 
LETTERS to the EDITOR DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISM 
MICHAEL McCARTHY and Frank Platt in their open letter to Labour Party members refer to Socialism and the new defence policy without at any time defining Socialism , except in vague platitudes and general sentiments with which no-one would disagree . 
And they do n't write a word on defence , which only in the slightest degree differs from the Tory Government 's present policy . 
For example , the Tory Party and Mr. Gaitskell insist that the main plank in our defence policy must be that we stay as junior partners to the Americans , who have consistently opposed any disarmament , despite the Russian 's offer to accept any Western proposals on control , provided we agree to disarm . 
This has led to the position of Mr. Gaitskell and his supporters , which I presume includes Mr. McCarthy and Mr. Platt , who say give up the British H-bomb and rely on the American H-bomb , and provide the Americans with bases from which nuclear weapons can be used . 
This conflicts completely with the official policy of the Labour Party , which flows from the obvious assumption that there can be no defence against H-bombs , particularly for our small island , and that therefore a defence policy for British people must be designed to bring about a reduction of world tension and an atmosphere conducive to negotiations for effective world disarmament , which can not be achieved if we accede continually to the demands for military bases from the main opponents of disarmament , the Americans and the Germans . 
Your correspondents suggest that the doctrinaires are in a minority in the party , and refer to local M.P.s , who support the official policy , but rather peculiarly do not mention the Oldham Labour Party or Mr. Leslie Hale , who are both on record in support of the Labour Party Conference decisions . 
Why is this ? 
Could it be that our two friends hesitate to suggest that Mr. Hales would be a party to any policy which is not designed to maintain both peace and British independence ? 
Mr. McCarthy and Mr. Platt also suggest that the Campaign for Democratic Socialism came into being because moderates have lacked an organised voice . 
Must we presume that they have n't noticed that 95 per cent of the Press support the Moderates ? 
What policy differences have our Democratic Socialists with the Tories and Liberals ? 
None ! 
Just vague platitudes ! 
They say that " the benefits of the affluent society should be used to assist the less fortunate , and that stress should be given to public as against private interests . " 
What , precisely , have they in mind ? 
Increases in taxation of the rich , to increase old-age pensions ? 
What would that other Democratic Socialist , Woodrow Wyatt , MP ( who a few days ago advocated relief for surtax payers ) say about such class legislation ? 
How can you guarantee that industry will operate in the public interest while it is privately owned ? 
Our two Democratic Socialists " regard the public ownership of industries or services as a useful technique to be justified on its merits . " 
No Liberal or Tory would disagree with such a vague platitude . 
Socialists advocate public ownership as the only means of ensuring that we have n't two classes in society , one that produces the wealth of the nation but does not receive the fruits of their labour , and the other class who own industry , but do not play any part directly or indirectly in the production or distribution of the nation 's wealth . 
Our Democratic Socialists make a clarion call to all members of the Labour Party to make themselves heard . 
For what purpose ? 
To influence the policy of the Party ? 
How can this be done when our Democratic Socialists deny the right of members of the Party to determine policy , when they insist " that no-one has the power to dictate to the Parliamentary Labour Party . " 
Which must mean that the Parliamentary Labour Party has the right to dictate policy to Labour Party members . 
Clearly our two Democratic Socialists are suggesting that the Labour Party should give up its heritage as a democratic party of the people and adopt not only the essentials of Tory and Liberal policy , plus a few harmless platitudes , but also Tory organisational principles , who do not make any pretence of allowing Tory rank and file members any part in deciding policy . 
R. SEDDON . 
P O EARLY CLOSING 
IS it not time that the ancient custom of sub-post offices closing on Tuesday afternoons was abolished and replaced by closing on Saturday afternoons ? 
We find the present arrangement under which parcels and air mails have to be sent specially to Oldham General Post Office on Tuesdays very inconvenient , and there must be many firms in Oldham who are inconvenienced in the same way . 
Business firms must be among the largest users of the Post Office , and their requirements on Saturdays are usually small . 
J. BAGGS , 
Managing Director , 
John Baggs Electric Ltd . 
O H G S PLACES 
I WONDER if the Town Council are prepared to state why the places to the Hulme Grammar Schools have been so drastically reduced . 
I suppose the excuse is economy ; if so , why not a similar reduction in the Manchester places , as with fare and dinner grants the cost for each child must be greater than any other . 
Why pick out one school from four to reduce ? 
Why not a fairer scheme of a few places from each ? 
I shall be interested to see their reasons if they will give them . 
RATEPAYER . 
IMPLICATIONS OF THE NEW HOUSING BILL 
MR . 
FRANK PLATT 'S recent patronising offering in your columns on the subject of the Government 's new Housing Bill , was a pathetic attempt to divert your readers ' attention from the main contention of my recent letter — namely , that the number of local authorities who have managed to resist pressure from Socialist councillors against the introduction of a differential rent scheme is still alarmingly small . 
Surely Mr. Platt 's ingenuity extends a little further than such phrases as " There is much to be said both for and against differential rents " and " Local Conservatives who can not take time off from screaming emotional slogans about wealthy council house tenants , " when attempting to defend the complete lack of any test of a tenant 's means before allocating ratepayers ' money to the relief of rent . 
Or does Mr. Platt realise already that there can be no defence against such indiscriminate and amoral use of public money ? 
Certainly his compatriots in the Labour Party would do well to grasp the fact that the onus is now very definitely on local authorities to consider all sections of the community of ratepayers when formulating their rent policies , instead of merely where political advantage may be gained or lost . 
Mr. Platt seems terribly confused in his analysis of the new Housing Bill , though he is certainly right in the drawing attention to the apparent inconsistency of redistributing the additional £3 million by which the housing subsidies ' bill rises every year , i.e. to cover new building , and failing to redistribute the existing £61 million . 
One suspects that the Government was wary of the immense administrative difficulties involved in tinkering with subsidies which local authorities , after all , have already taken into account when arriving at a rent for existing property , i.e. £22 1s. for slum clearance , £10 for one-bedroomed houses suitable for old people , and £32 for overspill building . 
The annual increment of £3 million will now be distributed in the form of a general grant of £24 , or £8 for all new houses , instead of a grant for specific purposes as previously , and this apparently Mr. Platt has not fully understood . 
Seen in this context , his assertion that " this £3 million is entirely taken up by slum clearance , etc. , " is somewhat inaccurate . 
The net results of this redistribution of housing subsidies will be , first , that the existing arrangements which unduly favour the larger towns with a relatively high number of pre-war houses compared with rural authorities who have done most their building in the post-war years , will be severely modified . 
Thus the anomalous position whereby rents of council houses are higher in rural areas than in the big towns , though the incomes of tenants are almost certainly lower , will be swept away . 
Secondly , those authorities which are unable to pass the financial needs test proposed in the Bill ( i.e. , where rent income calculated on the basis of twice the 1956 gross value of all the particular local authority 's houses exceeds annual expenditure and receive the lower subsidy ) will be induced to utilise all possible rent resources to balance their housing revenue accounts . 
It is surely justifiable for the Bill to assume that a local authority is adopting a reasonable rents policy , and collecting in rents an income which is equal to twice the 1956 gross rateable value of their property , while pursuing an adequate scheme of rent rebate for the benefit of their more needy tenants , financed by a rate-subsidy which would be smaller than hitherto . 
Finally , I can not agree with Mr. Platt 's contention that the yard-stick proposed will lead to unnecessary Exchequer spending . 
Even allowing for the unlikely contingency of building costs continuing to rise at a precipitous rate , and local authorities suddenly finding that their rent income falls short of housing expenditure to the extent of their qualifying for the higher Exchequer subsidy , there is provision in the Bill for a yearly review of the situation to take account of the effect of further building by each authority . 
Mr. Platt significantly fails to suggest any alternative to the 1956 gross rateable value test , however arbitrary this figure admittedly is . 
All candidates in impending municipal elections would do well to prepare themselves for such questions as , " Is the rate subsidy we are paying being used for the purposes for which it is intended ? , " and " Is the Exchequer subsidy distributed to those who need it , or alternatively , is it merely utilised to bring about a general reduction in rents , regardless of the income of tenants ? " 
For these are the type of questions to which every ratepayer might justifiably expect a favourable answer . 
Councillor KEITH W. TAYLOR . 
A WORD FOR WATERLOO 
AS a former head girl prefect of Waterloo School I think someone should put a stop to all this idle gossip about the pupils . 
At any school you will find the odd one or two bad ones who spoil it for the rest , and in this case all the pupils are getting blamed for things unruly children have done . 
This can not always be blamed only on staff but on the slackness of the parents , too . 
Teachers have heard so much gossip about Waterloo that they are frightened away . 
I can not blame the fourth-formers for wanting to spend the last month of their school life at their own school . 
Nothing can be gained by this protest because they can not help it if teachers will not stay at Waterloo , but my point is that all Waterloo pupils are getting blamed . 
No wonder there are fights at their new schools if people are looking down on them because they had to leave Waterloo . 
All this gossip is due to one or two disobedient children which you will find at any school . 
You 're not telling me that all schools are perfect except Waterloo , because I know better than that . 
EX-PREFECT . 
WHY STAY ? 
WHEN " Elector " and " Southerner " have finished pulling us to pieces , I would like to ask them what 's keeping them here . 
If they so heartily disapprove of filthy Oldham , why do n't they go back down south , where children always have a handkerchief and go to school well scrubbed with the soap that we have never heard of . 
Who do they think they are kidding ? 
DOROTHY MOSS . 
I FEEL I must answer " Southerner 's " statement that " Oldham must be the filthiest town in Britain . " 
I was born in London , so I am also a Southerner , although I have lived in Oldham for more than 30 years . 
Has "Southerner " ever arrived in the early hours at one of the London stations ? 
I doubt if he would be able to walk out of the station without falling over bottles and litter . 
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Subways Preferred to Baths 
Sir , — Your correspondent S. Armitage quotes a figure of nearly 5,000 people drowned in and around Britain in 1960 . 
I know nothing of the accuracy of these figures , although Saturday 's " Echo " mentions a figure of 4,000 every year . 
The point I wish to make is that all these casualties did not occur among the non-swimming members of our population . 
In fact , I venture to suggest it is probable that the greater proportion of these unfortunate people could swim and in fact might not have been drowned had they been non-swimmers . 
It is so often the swimmer that ventures out , gets into difficulties and is rescued , if there is time . 
Non-swimmers are content to paddle , sun-bathe and splash about generally at the seaside and very rarely I think enter rivers . 
I do not believe that a sufficiency of baths throughout Britain would make the slightest difference to the numbers that flock to our rivers and coasts during the summer months . 
It would be an excellent thing if everyone could swim it is true , but not everyone has either the desire or inclination to do so . 
Then again so many people much prefer the sea or river to the baths . 
Having learned to swim in the sea , I am one of the latter , much preferring the fresh sea breeze to the heavy chlorinated odour of the municipal swimming bath . 
If the Council wish to spend our money and gain the thanks of everyone , by benefiting everyone as they should , then let them set about providing the town with the much-needed safe road crossings we so urgently require : these could be subways and so would allow a smooth flow of traffic on our main thoroughfares . 
One in the Prom . 
would be sufficient to solve that immediate problem , and I would suggest two for the High-street . 
This would be of real benefit to motorist and pedestrian , and not least for the elderly . 
It is astonishing that we should have one subway already at Pittville Park — how much more useful it would be under the High-street ! 
But no doubt it has saved some child 's life being where it is . 
In the interim period let us have pedestrian crossings with automatic light signals giving " cross now " instruction . 
D. C. WRIDE . 
Prestbury-road , 
Cheltenham . 
Spurs and the " Double " 
Sir , — With only a few weeks of the present soccer season left chief interest in sporting circles is , can Tottenham Hotspurs , undoubtedly the best team in Great Britain today , pull off the League and Cup " Double , " last performed in 1897 by those famous Cup fighters Aston Villa , and eight years previously in 1889 by Preston North End ? 
With regard to the League title the 'Spurs appear to be in an almost unassailable position ; in fact it will be the surprise of the century , if they fail to finish on top . 
The only possible danger comes from Sheffield Wednesday . 
Regarding the Cup , there must be great excitement going on at Roker Park where next Saturday Tottenham and Sunderland will fight it out in the semi-final . 
'Spurs have an extremely tough task here . 
In conclusion , it is interesting to note that Sheffield Utd. and Sunderland , both Second Division , also have possible " Double " chances . 
BERT WILLIAMS , 
5 , Albany-road , 
Tivoli , 
Cheltenham . 
Chain Letter Hoax 
Sir , — It has been brought to my attention yet again that there are numerous chain letters in circulation in Cheltenham purporting to have the support of the National Savings Movement and a well-known national bank . 
I would like to inform your readers , through your columns , that these chain letters are illegal and are , in fact , a complete hoax . 
They do not have the backing of either the National Savings Movement or the national bank which is purported to be trustee for the funds . 
I suggest that the best way of breaking the chain is simply to destroy the letter when it is received . 
J. C. NICHOLLS , 
Hon. Secretary , 
Local National Savings Committee , 
Manager , Trustee Savings Bank . 
Tribute to the Late J. W. O. Pope 
Sir , — As a writer of tributes to departed good people of this town , I think our Press has paid a great and moving tribute to this " tireless citizen . " 
All I can say is that Norwich lost a great man of Socialist principles in the name of Keir-Hardie ; Glasgow in the name of Jimmy Maxton ; and now Cheltenham has lost a good man with these same principles . 
F. G. SHORT 
( late Secretary I.L . 
Party ) , 
27 , Bath-parade , 
Cheltenham . 
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR People Want What Is Reasonable 
Sir , — As a member of the "spoon-fed generation " who regularly reads your letters , I have often been tempted to write in reply to some of the ridiculous complaints that are voiced in your columns . 
After reading "Free Trader 's " latest example , I could refrain no longer . 
If one follows his argument that only swimmers should pay for a new swimming bath , surely only readers should pay for a library , only walkers for a park , and only music-lovers for a Town Hall . 
What the swimmers are asking for is not a free service , as they are quite prepared to meet its annual cost by paying a reasonable entrance fee , but somewhere where they have good facilities for enjoying themselves and for teaching their children to swim ( as , despite " Free Trader 's " statement that " only swimmers and learners " drown , children have been known to fall in the water ) . 
Even if he is wealthy enough not to require any public forms of entertainment or amusement , surely he can not begrudge them to people less fortunate than himself . 
Surely we have only a little while to wait before he suggests that old people should save enough to retire on without needing pensions , and Mrs. O'Gorman decides it would be better to do away with the Council altogether and let her run Cheltenham . 
SPOON-FED . 
Deterring Rates 
Sir , — The statement that 5,000 deaths ( since amended to 4,000 ) in and around Britain in 1960 were due to drowning rather fails as an argument for a new super swimming bath when it is estimated that more than half of these people could already swim . 
No one wanting to learn to swim in Cheltenham is prevented . 
I hear that there are ten swimming baths in the town , the two municipally-owned ones losing money in the running . 
Other towns seem to manage to build baths reasonably , e.g. Worcester £30,000 , Norwich £130,000 . 
Why does Cheltenham need £230,000 , when there is no hope of running it , except at heavy loss ? 
With the heavy expenditure on new rating , plus a new street costing £1,000,000 , the cost of the Pump Room , new Municipal Offices , and so on , the eventual rates are likely to deter people from coming to live in the town , as they would probably be influenced more by excessively high rates than by the fact that there was a luxury swimming bath for use in winter . 
Alderman Lipson observed that the Council is apt to recommend new projects without counting the cost . 
We are entitled to doubt the assertion that it is not practicable to cover and heat the Sandford Bath . 
Has this really been investigated by impartial experts ? 
RATEPAYER . 
Fox 's Instinct 
Sir , — I can tell Mrs. Shill why the fox " flees the hounds " when it does not " fear the kill " . 
The answer lies in instinct . 
A fox is cunning , whether hunting or being hunted , but when pushed out into the open , being a wild animal it naturally seeks refuge in flight . 
A fox is only afraid when death seems imminent . 
The English foxhound has made , and still is making , its mark in all five continents , while beagling becomes increasingly popular , especially in the U.S.A. 
NATURE-LOVER . 
Mondays for Shop Workers 
Sir , — It is all very well for " Canuck " to suggest that there is no need for closing days at all for shops . 
Apart from the inconvenience of haphazard half-days , has he considered the extra staff required to work this system and maintain efficient service , the small trader being the worst affected ? 
Saturday afternoon or all day Wednesday closing has been suggested . 
This is not the complete answer . 
Saturdays for industrial workers and civil servants . 
Why not Mondays for shop-workers ? 
FLATFEET . 
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Land-workers Want Fair Deal 
Sir , — Landworkers ' wages and conditions should be better , especially the minimum wage , which should be in the £10 10s. region . 
Quite a lot of the workers get about the minimum wage , which is £8 9s. a week , with no overtime allowed . 
This does not leave much to live on after insurance , tax , rent and so on have been paid . 
There are no canteen facilities , no free or helped-by-cash transport , and the landworker is out in all winds and weathers . 
Why should the landworker be the Cinderella of jobs ? 
Conditions for factory workers and other trades have greatly improved , so why not for the landworker ? 
Let us see the landworkers ' minimum wage and that of all low paid workers more in the region of £10 10s. , bringing them more in line with industrial wages . 
Why should not £10 10s. go tax-free and have 1s. prescriptions , and the same for widows and pensioners ? 
I have heard it said by younger men who have left the land that if the landworker 's wage was £10 10s. a week they would return to the land . 
So let us see them get a fair and square deal . 
They deserve it . 
LANDWORKER 'S WIFE . 
Glos . 
Montpellier Caryatides 
Sir , — I have lived practically all my life in Cheltenham , but not until recently did I discover that the Caryatides of Montpellier-walk — the " Armless Walk " — were not all cast in the same mould ! 
Most , indeed , are identical , but several have a marked essential difference from the rest ; I wonder if other readers are aware of the nature of this discrepancy ? 
I may add that my attention was drawn to the above by a friend who hoped to make an easy shilling by offering to bet on it ; he was quite right . 
COEUR DE LION . 
Devotion to Patients 
Sir , — My wife was recently admitted to St. Paul 's Hospital , for an operation of a serious nature , which was carried out with confidence and extreme skill , to a successful conclusion , and ultimate discharge . 
In the painstaking care , attention , and devotion to their patients , the sisters and nurses were truly wonderful , and did much to relieve any fears and also assist in every way possible to speed complete recovery . 
During visits to my wife , I was able to note the human and personal relationship between nurses and patient ; and this , developing into a close understanding , materially assists the ailing and sick along the road to recovery . 
It is a pity these kindly people , with their quiet , unassuming understanding and professional experience , are not more appreciated , for without these qualities we are indeed lost . 
May the surgeons ever be directed by divine skill in their operations , and the sisters and nurses retain their refreshing charm and efficiency under the continual strain and shortage of these splendid people . 
C. N. BROOKS , 
76 MILTON-ROAD , 
ST . 
MARK 'S . 
" Policy of Masterly Inactivity " 
Sir , — Might I respectfully suggest to the Town Council that , irrespective of the outcome of the public inquiry now proceeding on the Development Plan , unless they can come up with some scheme to relieve the appalling traffic congestion , they should adopt a policy of masterly inactivity . 
In other words , they should carry on as they have been doing for the last 10 years until some bright spark among them ( we hope ) can think up something useful . 
Otherwise there can be no possible excuse for further spending of ratepayers ' hard-earned money . 
J. A. WHITAKER . 
Alveston House , 
St. Annes-road , 
Cheltenham . 
N.H. Festival Record Likely 
Sir , — As the National Hunt Festival meeting approaches , it is only natural that the sporting public hope that there will be no change in the unusual mild weather . 
It is hoped that any late sudden snap will stay away sufficiently long enough for the three-day popular Festival . 
If the spring-like weather continues a new record is likely to be set up for attendances . 
Commentary Insoluble housing problem 
THE trouble with long standing problems is that most people get used to them . 
The housing problem has been with us as a serious social difficulty for 16 years — since the close of World War 2 . 
In the immediate post war years it led to a public outcry . 
The political parties vied with each other in their claims as to how many houses could be built under their own programmes . 
In a way the problem was simpler then . 
The need was gigantic . 
The task was solely to see how speedily it could be met with the materials and labour available . 
In 1961 the public sympathy is still with those who need housing , but attention is often focussed more on the young home-seekers , the newly-married couples wishing to set up a home , but faced with mortgages . 
There is a tendency for some of us to overlook the still urgent need for adequate housing for established families . 
Chislehurst-Sidcup Council have a housing list of more than 1,300 . 
With the exception of the North Cray Place Estate , they have built all the major estates they can . 
There is little land left in the urban district , with its Green Belt setting , for either Council or private developer . 
In what straits those 1,300 live only the Council 's Housing Committee and its officers know . 
Their work is confidential , as it should be . 
What we do know is that the newcomers on the list outstrip the Council 's ability to provide accommodation . 
At least , that is what is happening at the present time . 
We also know that even in this pleasant district , some families are still living in overcrowded conditions . 
The view has been expressed in Council that the housing problem will be with us for many years to come . 
The word " always " has been used . 
If that is to be the case , then we need some shrewd thinking on what to do about it . 
What hope is there for the 1,300 and the hundreds more who will no doubt go to the Council offices in the years to come ? 
The Council are urged to concentrate on slum clearance — there are a few slums in Chislehurst-Sidcup — and at the same time they are reminded to provide dwellings specially suitable for the elderly . 
How can they fulfil all their commitments ? 
The decision to sell the houses at North Cray to tenants on special terms has its merits . 
It is generally recognised to be good for people to own their own houses . 
By this means the Council should encourage people who would never have envisaged buying their own homes to take on that responsibility . 
At the same time , it will check the trend for the Council to become the landlords of an ever-increasing number of tenants . 
But it can have only a minor effect on this resurgent housing problem as a whole . 
Must that remain with us as a social cancer until the day that the talk of a move of population away from the London octopus turns into action , forced on us by sheer desperate necessity ? 
Commentary Is our education worth the price ? 
LAST week marked the end of the school year . 
It means relaxation after a long period of intense activity , which , for many children , has indicated prospects for the future . 
Some have said farewell to schools that have guided and encouraged them , and next month they will be going on to one of the forms of secondary education now bestowed . 
Others have left school to make their way in a highly competitive technical and scientific world . 
How well they fare will depend on how much they have assimilated in the years before and after the 11-plus — that mystic phrase that has brought quite unnecessary worry to parents and children . 
As one head master said recently , there is no such thing as failing the 11-plus . 
It merely provides a means of deciding the best form of education for each child , and from what we have seen it certainly works in the vast majority of cases . 
During the last two or three weeks of the summer term Kentish Times reporters visited school open days and spoke to head teachers and members of their staffs . 
They have visited classrooms and have seen how modern trends in education are helping to prepare the children for the years ahead . 
They have been impressed by light , airy schools , equipped with the most modern aids . 
The facilities are provided , and it is up to the children to make the best use of them . 
They have only themselves to blame if they do not . 
Those about to start work will continue to learn and they will be given every assistance to pursue their studies , not only by the education authorities , but also by the firms who will employ them . 
Vast sums are spent on education every year ; in fact the Kent bill accounts for the majority of county spending . 
It has risen over the years and will continue to rise . 
The poor ratepayer has to pay , and it is therefore right that he should ask , " Is it worth it ? " 
Indeed is it ? 
The future of the country is with the children at present being taught in our schools . 
We must see they have every chance of playing their part . 
There are black sheep in every fold , but the great majority fulfil our hopes . 
The price is high , but so is the objective . 
Consider all aspects of the question before giving a verdict . 
That done , there can be only one answer — it is worth it ! 
Commentary Thefts from cars 
DURING this year so far there appears to have been a marked decline in the incidence of crime from last autumn 's peak , which led Sidcup and District Chamber of Commerce to appeal for more police protection and to seek information as to how best their trader members could protect their property . 
The traders and public at large can , in the main , thank the Sidcup police for that improvement . 
They have shown a remarkable vigilance and alertness in past months . 
But there is one form of petty theft which has not abated but appears rather to be on the increase — the theft of property from cars . 
Every week there are instances of car spares and accessories , and quite frequently transistor radio sets , being stolen from parked cars , according to police reports . 
In most cases the thefts occur in the unattended public car parks in the urban district , easy and rich hunting grounds for the prowling car thief at night . 
The high incidence of these thefts has caused the Sidcup police to issue yet another warning to the public this week . 
It is simply to ask car owners to make sure their cars are properly locked before they are left , with no property of value left visibly enticing on the back seat . 
A locked door is at least a deterrent — a thief will move on to easier prey . 
Bank holiday tragedy 
IN the last year or so road safety officials have acclaimed Chislehurst-Sidcup as an area free of accidents during the Bank Holiday weekends . 
Technically , the record has not really been broken . 
The only major accident of the week-end occurred a few yards outside the urban district boundaries , but the victim was a Chislehurst boy , and the horror of it touches us all . 
The cause of that disaster may be revealed at the adjourned inquest . 
It took place on a part of the A20 that has a dual carriageway — which the people of Sidcup are still hoping will be extended into this urban district — so the need for a road improvement of that nature can not be argued in this case . 
What is alarming is not only that this sort of accident can still happen with dual carriageways , but that there could so easily have been other fatal accidents within the urban district over the week-end . 
A number of brushes between traffic was reported to the police , several of them causing minor injury . 
The people concerned were lucky . 
The truth of the matter is that unless there is marked improvement in driving standards on our over-congested roads other drivers may find themselves less lucky in the days ahead . 
Commentary Vandalism 
LESS than a year ago we drew attention in this column to the price being paid by the ratepayers of Chislehurst-Sidcup for the acts of vandalism committed by small gangs of hooligans . 
It is lamentable that we should so soon have to record our disgust and dismay at the amount of damage still being caused to public and private property , not only in this district , but also in neighbouring areas . 
Wanton damage caused to a pavilion at Mottingham has cost Chislehurst-Sidcup and Orpington Divisional Education Committee more than £400 . 
We record this week that a cricket pitch at Penhill was badly damaged on Friday night by hooligans , who uprooted the stakes protecting the square and ripped the turf . 
Time , money and energy has thus been wasted because of the anti-social behaviour of a group of irresponsible youths . 
Quite often Scout huts are the targets of those bent on wrecking . 
Unoccupied buildings have been damaged and fittings have been removed from parked cars . 
Farmers at North Cray have for a long time been the victims of vandals and considerable damage has been caused to buildings , equipment and crops . 
Those responsible obviously have too much time on their hands , but we can not accept as valid the excuse now put forward that " there is nothing to do . " 
There are many outlets for those who wish to lead constructive lives — and the majority do . 
Many young people belong to organisations which provide interesting pastimes and hobbies ; and many engage in pursuits that will bring them benefits in the future . 
We do not pretend that everything in the garden is rosy . 
There is always room for more and improved facilities for young people to make the best use of their leisure time . 
It is often said that more is being done for youth to-day than at any other time . 
That may be true , but we must deal with the situation as it exists to-day . 
There is the problem of this minority of young people who seem unable to fit themselves into the modern scheme of things . 
We must help them , but we must also take a firm line . 
Their actions may be the result of frustration , but there can be no more frustrated people than those who have suffered at their hands . 
Hooliganism in any shape or form must be stamped out , and the public can help by reporting anything suspicious to the police . 
Commentary Forty years of achievement 
IT is now 40 years since four ex-Service organisations amalgamated to form the British Legion to call with one voice for justice for the men and women who had served their country and , being demobilised , were in distress and need . 
In those 40 years the Legion has achieved much and deserves the salute and congratulations of the rest of the country . 
Financed by the money collected on Poppy Day , the Legion 's only general appeal to the public , it has given immediate and long term aid to hundreds of thousands of ex-Service men and women , their families and dependents . 
It maintains four convalescent and four country homes , the latter giving permanent homes to 230 elderly or permanently incapacitated ex-Service men . 
It provides employment for war disabled in its factories and industries and , through the Disabled Men 's Industries , to home-bound disabled . 
It also provides work and homes for tubercular ex-Service men at Preston Hall , near Maidstone , where the Legion pioneered the treatment , training and rehabilitation of these men . 
The Legion has contributed largely to the solution of an urgent post World War 2 problem with its house purchase scheme . 
In 13 years it has helped 19,000 families to buy their own homes . 
Through the 5,000 services committees throughout the country temporary and immediate relief is given ; aid in sickness and in finding jobs ; old and lonely people visited and holidays arranged for severely disabled . 
LEFT , RIGHT & CENTRE Split over Africa — Welcome news — Non-racialism 
The deep split in the Conservative Party over Africa gives me no joy . 
Much too much is at stake for that . 
Make no mistake about it , the divisions are very serious and the revolt against the Government is grave . 
Lord Salisbury is a power in the Conservative Party and he has used intemperate language — much more vigorous than at the time of his resignation over Munich . 
Ninety Conservatives , despite all sorts of pressure , have kept their names to a motion on the Order Paper in the House of Commons that is critical of Mr. Macleod , the Colonial Secretary . 
Lord Hailsham would never have counter-attacked Lord Salisbury with such bitterness , unless this was a split that worries the Government . 
To accuse the most respected Tory of them all of hitting below the belt is going very far . 
DO NOT YIELD 
Labour will defend the Government against these high-born and influential rebels . 
This does not mean that we wholly agree with the Government 's policy nor with the way they have handled things . 
The Prime Minister in particular has given the impression to the Europeans in Rhodesia that he has hoodwinked and deceived them . 
But it is essential that the Government should stand firm . 
If they yield an inch , Britain may well have an Algeria on its hands . 
That 's why we will not exploit this deep split , but back the Government against the rebellion in its ranks . 
GAG 
The Government has decided to curtail and guillotine debate on the Health Service charges . 
A Government must of course in proper circumstances use the means necessary to get its business through . 
But are the present circumstances proper ? 
If a Government introduces highly controversial legislation , it must expect to lose parliamentary time . 
Especially when it has no parliamentary mandate . 
The Bill is a short one . 
It is also a tax-measure that ought to be fully discussed . 
The Government has used the guillotine out of fear . 
It did not like the publicity that Labour 's vigorous opposition drew to the health charges . 
But , never fear , we will find plenty of ways of making our bitter opposition effective . 
Patrick Gordon Walker 
ITEMS of news from the motor industry give the impression that trade is improving and that the employment position is better than it was a few weeks ago . 
This kind of news will be welcome not only in the car-building towns here in the Midlands but also in the places where so many of the component parts are manufactured . 
The Minister of Labour is reported to be taking a new initiative to improve industrial relations , for example , by bringing together both sides of the motor industry . 
It is to be hoped that both management and workers will be able to put forward constructive ideas which will help to push further into the background the dreaded threat of unemployment . 
HOUSING PROGRESS 
There are some interesting items from other directions as well as industry , particularly one about housing . 
By the end of this year one person in every four will be living in a post-war house . 
Also , nearly a million people have been re-housed from slums since the Government 's drive started in 1956 . 
Housing for old people is being increased and now accounts for nearly a third of all local government building . 
In the educational sphere , there is good progress . 
Never before has there been such a big programme of school building . 
At the same time training college places are being doubled to get the extra teachers needed to do away with the evil of oversize classes . 
A good example of the advance in education is that there are now twice as many university students as in 1938 , and it is anticipated that by 1970 the number will have more than trebled . 
Another angle of education , not always so well known , is that there are at present over 40,000 overseas students in the United Kingdom , many of them from Commonwealth countries recently granted independence . 
Charles Dickens 
" WHAT we want is a society where the individual matters , and not the colour of his skin or the shape of his nose . " 
So wrote Mr. Julius Nyerere , the Chief Minister of Tanganyika , in last Sunday 's Observer , and he echoes a basic Liberal belief . 
Like Mr. Nyerere , Liberals want a non-racial Commonwealth and a non-racial Britain . 
By the time you read this , we will know whether South Africa is or is not to remain in the Commonwealth . 
Liberals support those Commonwealth statesmen who have demanded her expulsion . 
There can be no room for Dr. Verwoerd 's Fascist police-state in the Commonwealth . 
If South Africa is allowed to remain , Britain 's prestige in Africa and Asia will dwindle as it did after the Suez escapade . 
Further , Dr. Verwoerd will be regarded in South Africa as having won a great victory . 
This is surely something we want to prevent . 
IMMIGRATION 
Some four-hundred years ago , Europeans — including Englishmen — carried off many of the people of West Africa into slavery , to work the plantations of the West Indies . 
Now , the descendants of those slaves have multiplied , and those tiny islands are bursting at the seams . 
Jamaica has 20 per cent . 
unemployment , and it is not surprising that many of her people are coming to Britain . 
The welfare of these people is our responsibility . 
I suggest the following comprehensive plan to deal with the so-called " immigration problem " — to a large extent simply a housing problem . 
( 1 . ) 
It should be illegal to enforce a colour-bar in Britain in public places . 
( 2 . ) 
The Government should attempt to persuade Canada and Australia to open their doors to West Indian immigrants — and thus relieve the pressure on living space in Britain and in the West Indies . 
( 3 . ) 
There should be a medical check on all immigrants ; criminals should not be admitted ; and all immigrants should obtain a reasonable place to live in before landing . 
The help of voluntary associations , such as the British-Caribbean Association , should be enlisted to find accommodation for immigrants . 
( 4 . ) 
Could not Smethwick Council follow the example of Willesden by establishing an International Friendship Council to fight racialism ? — 
Michael Watts LEFT , RIGHT & CENTRE Withdrawing the Whip — Local issues — Liberal advance 
THE Parliamentary Labour Party took the grave step last week of withdrawing the Whip from five of its members . 
What does " withdrawing the Whip " mean ? 
It is not , as is often thought , expulsion from the party . 
Those five members remain members of the Labour Party and of course , Members of Parliament . 
But they are no longer recognised as belonging to the Parliamentary Labour Party : they do not come to its meetings , nor are they informed of its decisions . 
When the Whip is withdrawn , this fact is reported to the national executive committee . 
This is in order that the local parties of the members concerned can be officially informed . 
WHY ? 
The fundamental reason for this action was that these five members deliberately defied a decision taken and three times reaffirmed by the Parliamentary Labour Party as a whole . 
There is much liberty in the Parliamentary Labour Party — much more than in the ordinary Labour group on a council . 
Members can ask what questions they like , speak as they wish and they can always abstain from voting . 
This should be liberty enough for the most tender conscience . 
The line is only drawn at voting against a clear decision of the Party meeting . 
Without this rule , there would be no discipline at all ; the Party would be a mob . 
Every Labour group recognises this . 
MPs who can not accept this degree of discipline are really independent MPs . 
Withdrawal of the Whip makes them this in form as well as in fact . 
AGAINST ESTIMATES 
The five can not justly claim that they were voting in accord with conference decisions . 
This was done by the whole party when it voted solidly against the Defence white paper . 
The five voted against the defence estimates . 
It has long been clear party policy that this should not be done . 
It would be open to public misunderstanding . 
The five did not vote against the Tories . 
What they voted against was the whole Army and the whole Air Force . 
No conference decision ever justified such action . 
The Labour Party is fundamentally more united than before . 
It is not the withdrawal of the Whip that causes new disunity : but the deliberate defiance by five members of decisions by the party . 
Patrick Gordon Walker 
AMONG those who like talking politics , and who have been mainly concerned with African problems these last few weeks , interest will soon be turning to local issues as the time draws near for the election of councillors at the several levels of local government . 
This year there will be county council , urban district , rural district and parish council elections as well as those for the county boroughs — like Smethwick — and the non-county municipal boroughs . 
Interest should also be increased this year as the ordinary elections will be followed by the elections by councillors of their aldermen . 
The Prime Minister , speaking at a recent rally in London , said on the subject of local government : " We put first and foremost the idea of a working partnership between central and local government in which each side does its proper part " . 
CO-OPERATION 
To carry out properly and effectively many of the aims of the Government depends upon such a real working arrangement at national and local levels . 
The development of the social services is a good example of the need for close co-operation ; whilst the Government can bring forward legislation at Parliamentary level , the work of ensuring that such services are put into operation depends to a great extent on the local authority . 
To strengthen local government and equip it better to fulfil its growing responsibilities , the Government introduced the general grant , with no strings attached . 
This improvement in the way of dealing with financial grants has freed local councils from much detailed control from Whitehall . 
Consequently , the councils have more responsibility and should have a greater incentive to spend wisely the money they receive from the local people in the form of rates , and from the taxpayers in the form of Government grants . 
The general grant takes account of the cost of local services and has been substantially increased each year since its introduction . 
It will be £25 million higher in 1961-62 than this year in England and Wales . 
Charles Dickens 
LIBERALS made another spectacular advance in last week 's by-elections . 
In all four contests the Liberal vote rose , while both Tory and Socialist votes slumped badly . 
If we compare the figures in these by-elections with those of the last three-cornered fights , we find that the total Liberal vote was up by 13,601 . 
The total Conservative vote was down by 15,633 , and the total Labour vote was down by 22,972 . 
The swing to the Liberals was seven per cent . 
in Colchester , nine per cent . 
at Cambridgeshire , 10 per cent . 
at High Peak , and over 20 per cent . 
at Worcester . 
ACHIEVEMENT 
The Liberal achievement is all the more remarkable when one remembers the disadvantages under which the Liberal candidates worked . 
They were backed only by voluntary subscriptions , and could not , like the Tory and Labour parties , draw on subsidies from big business or the big trade unions . 
Moreover , these Liberal candidates had no mass circulation newspapers to support them . 
In the by-election period the mass circulation papers enforced a censorship on all Liberal views and speeches . 
When Jo Grimond spoke to a rally of over 2,000 Liberals in London , only The Guardian reported the meeting . 
After the death of the News Chronicle all the anti-Liberal papers suffered from an epidemic of fair-mindedness in an effort to win new readers . 
The Daily Herald announced itself to be " fair and free " and even The Daily Express printed an article by Jo Grimond . 
Those days are now over . 
The Tory papers have returned to their usual practice of reporting only Tory views , and the Labour papers print only Labour views . 
It is left to independent papers like The Guardian and local papers like the Telephone to preserve the freedom of the Press . 
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR THE " OPEN " ROAD 
SIR , — Could not Nuclear Disarmers consult with the police to arrange " sit-downs " at teatime on Sundays during Autumn ? 
No doubt legislation could fix a suitable scale of fines to help finance National Defence and provision could be made for the passage of ambulances , etc. — " BOTHWAYS . " 
CAR RALLIES 
SIR , — In your last issue there was a letter in praise of courteous and considerate local drivers . 
Indeed , ever-increasing noise is one of the problems of our time and it seems to me that quite unnecessary uproar is created by those drivers from afar who take part in car rallies during the night . 
There was one through Fishpond during the early hours of Sunday , 10th September , with a check point a few yards from my home . 
All the cars stopped there and then roared up over the hill opposite ( Coney Castle ) in low gear . 
The noise was shattering and I could even smell the exhaust fumes . 
This went on for more than two hours , but those who manned the check point arrived with a flourish well in advance . 
I have ascertained that it was a Reading car club , so a good many people on the route must have had their night 's rest destroyed . 
It all seems so unnecessary . 
Rally promoters favour this route . 
We get several each year and no doubt other places get their share . 
— SHEILA REDMOND ( Mrs. ) , Peters Gore , Fishpond , Charmouth . 
PADDLE STEAMERS 
SIR , — In this age of rapid change in the forms of public transport , it is heartening to read from time to time of small but determined groups of historically-minded citizens who are striving to preserve representative specimens of older types of vehicle , such as veteran motor-cars , early buses and trams , notable examples of the railway engine , and so on , in order that the solid achievements of the past may not be entirely forgotten . 
Two years ago the Paddle Steamer Preservation Society was formed to preserve in running order an example of that once so familiar , but now rapidly disappearing feature of our seaside towns , the faithful old paddle-steamer . 
A meeting of the Paddle Steamer Preservation Society will be held at the Lansdowne Hotel , the Lansdowne , Bournemouth , at 6 p.m. , on 30th September , to form a Wessex branch and all supporters of paddle steamers will be most welcome . 
Although the society has been active on the South Coast since its formation , the Central Committee feel that a local branch would serve more closely the interests of the members . 
— J. D. BONSALL , Provisional Secretary , Wessex Branch , P.S.P.S. , Loughrigg , 31 , Cowper Road , Moordown , Bournemouth . 
SQUIRRELS 
SIR , — In your columns a Wiltshire farmer complained because he had seen people at Southbourne feeding squirrels . 
Last week "A Resident of Mere " was moaning because a squirrel had dared to eat nuts from a tree in her garden . 
Both correspondents called the squirrels pests . 
I wonder . 
I suppose Man , with his H-bombs , is n't . 
Did the Wiltshire farmer expect the money used for purchasing nuts for squirrels to be handed instead to a fund for distressed farmers ? 
Did the Wiltshire resident from Mere expect the squirrel to go off nuts , its natural food , and try eggs and bacon instead ? 
Again I wonder . 
I have already asked in these columns how many of the grey squirrels ' sins are real and how many are purely imaginary . 
Apparently nobody knows the answer . 
Do n't be in a hurry to point out damaged trees in Grovely woods and scream " Look ! 
Grey squirrels did that . " 
The lordly pheasant can do more damage to a tree on a long winter 's night than a dozen squirrels can in six months . 
— ORLANDO GLYN , Heneford Cottage , Chetnole , Sherborne , Dorset . 
SIR , — I have read with much interest Mrs. Moule 's letter about squirrels in the Sherborne area . 
I have many times in the past seen squirrels in the woods across the railway , but they have always been grey . 
This summer , however , there has been a red squirrel frequenting the Slopes , and I have seen him several times in the trees by the New Road . 
Once I surprised him in the litter basket , but he was not at all disconcerted . 
He jumped up , perched on the lip of the basket , and we regarded one another on more or less equal terms for some time at a distance of about two feet . 
On occasions , however , when I had my camera with me he must have been investigating Mrs. Moule 's garden . 
— H. MARTYN CUNDY , The Beeches , Sherborne . 
HOW TO MAKE FRIENDS 
SIR , — As a recently-retired member of H.M. Overseas Civil Service , my wife and I have recently settled in Dorset . 
I feel that our experience may be helpful to the many people who are settling , on retirement , from other parts of Britain as well as from overseas , in the Bournemouth , Poole and Dorset area . 
Shortly after our arrival we were told of the lecture course , run under the auspices of the Workers ' Educational Association and the Joint Committee for Adult Education for Dorset . 
We found to our great pleasure that the lectures were conducted in a very friendly and almost informal atmosphere , and we have , in fact , made a number of very good friends . 
As these interesting and instructive lecture courses are about to start all over the country in the next two weeks , I would urge those newcomers to the area to find out the nearest course and to enrol . 
They will find immense interest in the lectures and will also make friends with people who have the same interests and outlook as themselves . 
These evening courses are held in all the main centres , and in a great many of the smaller towns and villages . 
I do hope that our happy experience may be of some help to reduce the inevitable loneliness which follows on a move to a new area . 
— P. H. HAMILTON BAYLY , Masanki Cottage , 25 , Tanyard Lane , Shaftesbury , Dorset . 
TEACHERS ' SALARIES 
SIR , — There seems to be some commotion — ballyhoo is the modern word — about " Teachers and their pay . " 
It is not desired that teachers should be pledged to poverty . 
Nor are they expected to do their work so whole-heartedly as to look for only a meagre material reward . 
But the fault of this affluent age is covetousness , and I hope that teachers are not unmindful that at the heart of the Christian religion is a cross which means the letter I with a line through it , and this means sinking self for the common cause . 
It would appear that teachers today are not really badly paid : far better than I was as a parish priest . 
Only in my last year was it possible to make both ends meet on the income of the benefice , and this did not allow for a three months ' holiday . 
But the clergy did not rebel by going on strike . 
To talk of a clerical Trades Union as was recently done by a more or less junior cleric , seemed offensively mercenary minded . 
As one who has spent many hours teaching in elementary schools I am jealous for the honour of teachers , and Church day school teachers , in particular . 
Let them not be afraid to endure hardness , if such exists , and show a good example . 
Education as a profession , like other professions , has fluctuated and there was a time when teachers were shockingly underpaid . 
But it can not fairly be said that this is the case now . 
The Fisher Act of 1918 decisively raised their status and pay , and this has gone on , for the Fisher Act was not a standstill reform . 
In 1944 came the Butler Act . 
Let teachers continue to show diligent devotion to their work , and they will retain public respect . 
A dutiful teacher puts his back into his work and is apt to be hard and unbending . 
The diligent teacher puts his heart into his work because he loves it , and this is how I like to think of teachers today doing their work . 
In the course of more than 50 years ' experience I could give not a few signal instances of the same . 
— W. H. WILLIAMS , Barton St , David , Somerset . 
SIR , — I note with annoyance the sentence in a letter in your last issue , " Increasingly , arts graduates are being taken on as teachers without having any training . " 
Most people realize that a graduate has , { 6ipso facto , had the best training that a teacher can have . 
Graduates who intend to get on in the State system have , in their own interests , to conform and take the additional one-year course that is provided for them . 
It is to this course that your correspondent refers , presumably ; but in the minds of those graduates I know who have taken it , there is little doubt that for teaching purposes this type of additional " training " is a complete waste of time . 
If a prospective teacher wants to know something about e.g. child psychology or the history of education , good luck to him . 
He can read a couple of books on each in the three months he has between going down from university in June and taking up his first post in September . 
But it seems fatuous that a teacher who is keen to start should be forced to spend a whole year on such unhelpful matters . 
The assumption that teaching is a job which requires post-graduate training in the university is one which should be combated at every turn . 
The key to good teaching lies in knowledge of one 's subject , experience , and certain personal qualities which this " training " does nothing to develop . 
Most , if not all , the one-year courses — it is the only useful thing about them — provide an opportunity for practice teaching : why should the new graduate not spend the whole year articled to good teachers in the schools ? — R. G. PENMAN , Silversmiths , Sherborne . 
CIVIL DEFENCE 
SIR , — You describe Civil Defence as a means of mitigating the frightful effects of a nuclear disaster , while at the same time you speak of the actions of the " Nuclear Disarmers " as an " embarrassment . " 
What a cosy thought ! 
Perhaps your readers may have forgotten these statements : ( 1 ) A very few megaton bombs would obliterate the major population centres of this country ; ( 2 ) The whole country would be subject to " fall-out " radiation of high intensity ; ( 3 ) Radiation sickness is a most unpleasant way of dying ; ( 4 ) The long-term effects of radiation are extensive and unavoidable ; ( 5 ) As a result of the current Russian tests it is estimated that next spring the radiation level will be at least 100 times that of natural background radiation , if no further bombs are exploded . 
May I commend to your readers a short article on the effects of the 100-megaton bomb , which appears in the current " New Scientist . " 
Civil Defence has its purpose . 
It creates a sense of security , and , after all , the worst might never happen . 
But in my view we should be better employed in embarrassing the Government in this matter . 
Given four minutes ' warning from Fylingdales , which of your readers would be prepared to press the button which would send 100 million innocent people to their deaths ? 
What is our trouble ? 
Either we have lost all moral sense , or we have developed a technique of double-think worthy of 1984 , or we just do n't understand the issues . 
— F. HODGSON , Brendon , Common Mead Lane , Gillingham , Dorset . 
" IT 'S YOUR MONEY " 
SIR , — To reply point by point to Mrs. Dungworth 's letter would take too much space , so I offer some comments which may be helpful . 
Some newspapers print quite lengthy reports of proceedings in Parliament and documents issued by the Stationery Office give further details . 
So far as local councils are concerned a ratepayer can inspect a record of the proceedings on demand . 
Many people prefer to ignore the facilities available and then grumble that they were not told . 
Professor Parkinson and others ignore one rather important factor in the present situation . 
During and after the war much work on capital projects ( roads , hospitals , houses , sewers , etc. ) had to be severely curtailed with the consequence that there is much leeway to be made up now .