IN BRITAIN TODAY Economy Measures Assessed

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31753, 9 August 1968, Page 15

IN BRITAIN TODAY Economy Measures Assessed

(N.ZPA-Reut er—Copyright) fCable Newt Dtgett; A team of experts from the International Monetary Fund returned to the United States this week after spending seven days in London studying Britain’s economy. The team will now make a confidential report to the Fund’s executive board on changes in the economic situation since stand-by credits worth SNZI2SOm were granted to Britain at the time of devaluation last November. No official statement is being issued by the Government or the I.M.F. about the scope of the inquiry, but official circles emphasise that the three-man team was not specially sent to London because of any startling development in Britain's economic situation.

When the standby credits were provided, the British Government voluntarily gave the IMF. an indication of the programme it intended to follow to solve its economic difficulties, and it agreed to the Fund’s officials making periodical visits to London to study progress. The mission will return again about November. The Government's programme included measures to improve the balance of payments, leading to a surplus in the second half of this year; steps to check infiation; and the implementation of a prices-and-incomes policy to ensure that Britain lives within its means.

One recent development in which the team is belived to have shown particular interest is the Government’s plan to trim public expenditure by shelving some of the pet development schemes thought up by departmental ministers.

There is no indication of what saving this will involve, but the plan has not been wholeheartedly welcomed by some elements of the Labour Party, who feel that shelving of development plans will accelerate the increasing rate of unemployment Special Breed Britons are rallying to the tune of 10,000 letters a day to save the 280-year-old Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders regiment from disbandment The regiment, members of which were in the Crimean War, the Indian Mutiny and more, recently, Aden, faces the axe in Government defence cuts.

The colonel of the regiment (Sir Gordon Macmillan) received 50,000 signatures within hours of launching an appeal for a million-signature petition to keep the Argylls going. “We are not just doing this for sentimental reasons,” he said. “We have links with seven counties in Scotland and we are a bighly-efficient fighting force. Ours are a very special breed of men.” When the Argylls have collected a million signatures they will present them to the Prime Minister (Mr Harold Wilson).

The regiment formed by the Duke of Argyll in 1689, made the most recent addition to its long war record last year in Aden, before Southern Yemen gained independence, when its commander, Lieutenant-Colonel Colin (“Mad Mitch”) Mitchell led his men into the rebeloccupied crater district to the sound of bagpipes.

The Argylls’ planned disbandment is part of a scheme given Paliamentary approval last month to do away with several British Army Units by 1972. Campaign Over The “I’m Backing Britain" campaign has ended, according to Mr Robert Maxwell, Labour M.P. for Buckingham, and manager of the “Sell British” campaign. But the Industrial Society, still receiving up to 15 letters a day on the subject, will not close its campaign headquarters until the end of September. The five typists who began it all last December in the offices of a Surbiton, Surrey, firm, now arrive at work early only when there is a special job to be done. Mr Maxwell is quoted as saying: “At the outset I announced a short, sharp campaign to last six months, and that is what we have had. Now we are closing. “We have pushed the knockers of Britain off the front pages of the newspapers, and we have made it less fashionable to knock Britain. “We have also shown ordinary men and women to whom import and export figures seem a bit nebulous that there is something that they can do personally.” Ban Opposed A world conference of nearly 500 Anglican Church bishops has passed a resolution opposing Pope Paul’s ban on Roman Catholics using methods of artificial contraception. The bishops’ resolution, at the Lambeth Conference, disagreed with the Pope’s conclusion “that all methods of conception control other titan abstinence of sexual intercourse ... are contrary to the order established by God.” It also reaffirmed a resolution passed at the last Lambeth Conference, in 1958, which stressed that family planning was a responsibility laid by God upon parents, who should choose their own methods. Archbishops and bishops from all over the world are representing 40 million Anglicans and Episcopalians at the month-long conference. Sleep Inducer A machine which puts people to sleep is proving one of the attractions of a Soviet exhibition which opened in London this week. The machine, which is the size of a large transistor radio and costs about £lOO, induces sleep by electromagnetic waves. Pads are placed over the eyes, and the waves act on the bran cells. Russian officials say the machine can put its users to sleep in five to seven minutes. No Assault

A bad haircut does pot constitute an assault, a magistrate in Leeds has ruled. The case arose when a mentally handicapped child, Julie Bell, aged 12, returned from the hairdressers with, in the words of her mother, “her hair hacked off, with bald patches at the front and back, and around an ear.” The magistrate ruled that a case of assault eould not be upheld because there was no evidence to show the haircut had been designed

deliberately tb ridicule the child.

T.V. Suggestion

The Church of England has been urged to open its own commercial television station. Mr Donald McLaughlan, a former editor of the “Sunday Telegraph,” said at a conference in Cambridge that this would guarantee that the Church was never out of the news.

“There is no reason at all why the Church should not take advertising into its programme, no reason why it should not make money,” he said.

Under British law, the Church would have to compete with companies for a licence to run such a station. Cat And Mouse British scientists are using cats and electronic mice in an effort to learn how the brain and the nervous system Identify what is seen, and react to It. The answer apparently lies in the way in which nerve cells in the brain respond to changing patterns of light falling on the eyes. It is estimated that there are about 10,000 million of these cells in the human brain. In their effort to learn more about the process, scientists at the National Institute for medical Research at Mill Hill, London, have begun experiments with cats and electronic mice—cats because the basic nerve cell activity is the same in a cat’s brain as in a human brain, and mice because they are sure cats will react to mice moving into their vision.

A cat is anaesthetised and delicate measuring devices inserted into its brain. Then a pair of magnifying lenses are placed in front of its eyes and focused on a television screen.

The devices in the brain study the activity of the in-

dividual nerve cells as a bar of light, simulating the movement of a mouse, moves acress the cat’s visual field. The scientists plan to use mouse shapes in later experiments to determine if there is any change in the cell activity. Professor B. Burns, the Canadian neurologist heading the research team, says the results of the experiment should be of particular value in ophthalmology, especially in connection with the treatment of squint in children. Mink At Large

The enthusiasm shown by women for mink is not reflected in the attitude of the Ministry of Agriculture towards the thousands of mink now running wild in Britain. Under the beading, “Watch Out For Mink," the Ministry has appealed to Britain’s farmers for their co-operation in catching and killing “this vicious predator.” The Ministry says mink have been breeding in the wild for at least 12 years. Those at large are believed to be the descendants of animals which escaped from fur farmers before strict regulations about penning them in were introduced.

“They belong to the stoat and weasel family and are vicious predators, raiding poultry houses, pheasantries, fish ponds and rivers for their food," says the Ministry. “During the last three years more than 2000 mink have been caught and destroyed, but complete eradication of the species is now thought impracticable. “Constant vigilance will be needed to keep the pest under control. So far wild mink have not caused severe damage, but without control there is a grave danger of an upsurge in the wild mink population which could present a threat to poultry, inland fisheries, game birds and wild life.”