REFUSAL OF DEGREE

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29900, 14 August 1962, Page 15

REFUSAL OF DEGREE

Thai Minister’s Criticism

(N.Z.P. A.-Reuter—Copyright) BANGKOK, August 13

The Thai Foreign Minister (Mr Thanat Khoman) said last night the Australian National University's publicised refusal to grant the King of Thailand an honorary degree was a “cowardly attack” because the King could not reply. The university, according to Australian press reports, rejected Government suggestions that it should grant the King a degree on grounds that he was not academically qualified. The King is scheduled to visit the National University during his Australian tour. Mr Thanat told reporters it was the worst piece of news he had received since he became Foreign Minister. Most Thai newspapers did not publish the report about the university's refusal to confer a degree on the King, who is sacred to the Thais. The “Bangkok World” today published a statement by the Australian Ambassador (Mr Malcolm Booker) saying he was “completely unable to understand” the university’s reported action.

Wrong Pew (N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) LONDON. August 12. An English housewife sat in a pew in the cathedral at Ravello. southern Italy, today, and was promptly hauled out of it bodily by two American Secret Service men. The housewife, Mrs Lala Charteris. unknowingly sat next to Mrs Jacqueline Kennedy. the wife of the American President, who is also on holiday, the “Daily Express” reported. Mrs Charteris had arrived late for morning mass and the front-row seat next to Mrs Kennedy was the only one she saw free in the cathedral crowded with police and villagers. The Secret Service men put their hands under Mrs Charteris’s arms and took her to another pew. Mrs Charteris said later: “1 was very startled. I did not even know that Mrs Kennedy was in the church.” ‘The Way To Compete 9 (N.Z.PA.-Reuter —Copyright) MANILA, Aug. 13. Competition between the United States and the Soviet Union in space exploration is welcome to the rest of the world, says the “Manila Times” today. The newspaper, in an editorial on the Soviet launching of two astronauts, sa : d: "If the Soviets have to prove their scientific edge over the Americans, this is where they should do it, not in the endless succession of nuclear bomb tests that pollute the atmosphere with every explosion.”