IN BRITAIN TODAY Controversy Over Investiture

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31922, 25 February 1969, Page 15

IN BRITAIN TODAY Controversy Over Investiture

(P.A.—Reuter Copyright Cable News Digest) The cost of the investiture of Prince Charles, who is 20, as Prince of Wales is causing a clash among Welshmen. Some, like the Mayor of Caernarvon (Mr Ifor Griffiths), where the investiture will take place on July 1, see the ceremony as “a wonderful bargain” which will bring permanent benefits to the principality. “The £200,000 cost of the investiture works out at less than a penny a head of the population in Britain,” Mr Griffiths says. “Compared with what is gambled on football pools and drink, that is infinitesmal. “I look at it this way: we in Caernarvon and Wales are getting a son-in-law, and you wouldn’t inrite a new son-in-law into a dirty house, would you?” But other Welshmen think the money being spent by the Government and the local authority might be “better used on other things.” The Duke erf Norfolk, who supervised the arrangements for the Coronation of the Prince’s mother, Queen Elizabeth, and the funeral of Sir Winston Churchill, has complained, on the other hand that Government economies have taken much of the colour out of the historic investiture in Caernarvon Castle. The Duke said he would have liked to use up to £lOO,OOO more than the £200,000 the Government has allocated to the “extrava- •

After the ceremony, the heir to the Throne will embark on a whirlwind, fourday tour by yacht, helicopter and car of his new principality, visiting more than 30 Welsh cities and towns in the hope of meeting as many people as possible. The Prince has made a special request that informality should be the keynote, and formal occasions be kept to a minimum. Prince Charles, incidentally, is to give another example of his acting ability—in the Trinity College revue, “Revolution,” at Cambridge next week. The last time the Prince appeared on the stage he played the part of a clergyman in Joe Orton’s "Erpingham Camp.” The producer of the revue, John Parry, a fellowundergraduate of the Prince, said: “I am not sure precisely what Charles will be doing in the revue. Like all revues, it is continually being re-written and we have not settled the programme.” Protest Plan The revolutionary British student, Mr Edward Davoren, says that 60,000 people will demonstrate outside the American Embassy in London when President Richard Nixon arrives there on Monday. Mr Davoren, who is secretary of the London Revolutionary Student Federation, says 50 organisations, including one calling itself the British - Vietnam Solidarity Front, will launch an intensive campaign by militant demonstrators during Mr Nixon’s visit.

“The American President will be hounded from place to place and from building to building,” he told reporters. Scotland Yard has been rei examining its contingency plans under the leadership of Commander John Lawlor, who was appointed as the Yard’s expert on demonstra- • tions after the violent protests against the Vietnam war : near the United States Embassy in Grosvenor Square last year. The President will be accompanied by bodyguards who have been given permission by the British authorities to carry revolvers. Air Project Britain, France and West Germany will hold a conference at ministerial level during the next few weeks to discuss their European airbus project. The three nations have cooperated in planning a 320seat airliner in a move to provide cut-price air travel. In London, a spokesman at the Ministry of Technology said that, pending the conference, Britain had “an openminded and fluid attitude,” towards the project And in Bonn, a West German Government spokesman said West Germany was prepared to continue the project as a bilateral arrangement with France if Britain lost interest. A joint statement at the end of a two-day meeting in London of British and French aircraft workers asked the Minister of Technology (Mr Anthony Wedgwood Benn) to announce Britain’s continued participation as a

matter of urgency. "The alternative would prejudice for all time any chance of building a truly European aircraft industry,” the statement declared. This was the first time that aircraft workers and technicians from the two countries had met to discuss the project. Three French trade union confederations were represented, involving workers at Sud Aviation, Messier, U.T.A. and the National Aerospace Research Office. British delegates came from four major unions with workers in four leading aircraft firms. Desert Bid A team of six Britons manning two small hovercraft will take on the sand oceans of the Egyptian and Sudanese deserts in a 3200 mile journey to the source of the Nile. Their land-sea vehicles will blow up dust storms as they skim along at 35 knots; they will travel along parts of the Nile banks where there are no roads or even tracks; and at one stage they will be protected from hostile tribesmen by a military escort The route lies through Egypt the Sudan and Uganda, and will commemorate the Nile explorations of the 1860 s. The team will have the support of two utility vehicles which will carry fuel to take the ho- ercraft over 500-mile stretches of the river where there are no-refuelling points.

Each craft is powered by three 250 c.c. engines. Averaging about 200 miles a day, the party expects to reach , the source of the Nile in Uganda by the end of March. The expedition is led by a British Army officer, Captain Sir Ranulph Twisleton-Wyke-ham-Fiennes, aged 24, whose family motto is “Look for a Brave Spirit.” He told reporters: “Large British hovercraft have already penetrated hitherto unnavigable stretches of the Amazon. We want to prove that these light hovercraft can do the same. Digit Trouble A new £lm computer dealing with Royal Air Force records has discharged an airman as pregnant and awarded a carpenter a flying badge. An Air Ministry spokesman said these mistakes were, however, the result of human errors in programming. "The machine, correctly read, is infallible,” he told reporters. The computer, at the R.A.F. Records and Pay Office at Innsworth, near Gloucester, now holds details of every member of the force. It contains information on 93,000 airmen on six spools of tape, and the RAF, claims that it is five years ahead of any computer in the United States. In one second it can add 250,000 10-digit figures. The spokesman said the computer’s first error had been to select a trumpeter when asked to proride a radar operator.

Air Needs Britain’s air strike force should be doubled to 1000 aircraft and including a nuclear element, according to an Air League document just published. The league, which has the Duke of Edinburgh as one of its patrons, was founded as an independent organisation 60 years ago. Its stated aim is to convince Britons that their future prosperity and security depends on mastery of the air, as it once did on the mastery of the sea. The league says the Royal Air Force’s proposed frontline combat strength of fewer than 500 aircraft by 1975 will be less than that now possessed by Poland (750), Sweden (650), Japan (570), and West Germany (600). It adds that Britain’s defence spending in 1967-68 was £2205m, of which about £s4sin was for the R.A.F. This compares with about £l6oom spent every year on alcohol and £l2lom a year on horse betting. “The emergence of the new Soviet maritime strategy calls for a fresh look at Britain's capability to keep open her trade routes,” the league says. “No longer is Russia a solely land • based military threat” Anthony Grey Angry members of Parliament have urged the Government to press harder for the release of the Reuters correspondent, Mr Anthony Grey, and other Britons detained in China.

Mr William Molloy (Labour) began a bombardment of questions in the House by asking the Foreign Secretary (Mr Michael Stewart) about the latest position of Mr Grey, who has been under house arrest in Peking for the last 19 months without any charges against him. Mr Molloy sought assurance that Britain was maintaining pressure on Peking “to see that this disgusting crime which the Chinese have perpetrated on this man is ended as quickly as possible.” Mr Stewart, who said Britain had not ceased to make strong representations about the matter, added: “I think the whole House agrees with the description you have given to the Chinese Government’s action.”

The Foreign Secretary (Mr Michael Stewart) assured the House that Britain was continuing her protests to China and pointed out that Britain was not the only country to have its citizens treated in this way. A Conservative Opposition M.P., Sir Arthur Harvey, had earlier referred to the seizure of 15 yachtsmen, including two Britons, by Chinese gunboats while on a cruise from Hong Kong to Macao.

“And so it goes on, daily,” he said. “What is the Government doing about it?” The Minister agreed with a former Conservative Prime Minister, Sir Alec DouglasHome, that Britain’s restraint should not be misunderstood overseas, and that it was necessary to show that what was being done was in Mr Grey’s best Interests.

Temptation The Greater London Council is tempting American collectors with a gigantic organ which would cost the equivalent of between 8NZ40.000 and SNZI4O,OOO to restore. It is the famous Willis organ at Alexandra Palace and, in its prime, contained more that) 2000 pieces, with 98 speaking stops and 39 couplers,! making a total of 137 registers. It had four manuals and a pedal board. The council is advertising the organ for sale in Britain and the United States, but hopes that any soicety in the world might become interested in its preservation or restoration. Its price will be negotiated. The organ lies dismantled and has been in store for 20 years at the palace. The cost of its restoration would depend on the amount of work done. Tax Evasion The rush by Britain’s show business personalities to exchange their highly-taxable earnings for shares in the firm of Constellation Investments is fast becoming an avalanche. The scriptwriter, Johnny Speight, is the latest to join the dash. He is reported to have signed an agreement to exchange bis exclusive earnings for the next 10 years for shares now worth more than £400,000.

By so doing, he joined about 40 other stage, screen and television personalities—-

among them, Cliff Richard, Susannah York, Benny Hill, Vanessa Redgrave, John Mills, Carol White and Frankie Vaughan—all of whom are stockholders in Constellation Investments. Between them, the stars expect to earn about £sm for the company in the next five years. The attraction of the scheme for them is the vast tax savings. Most of their earnings would be taxed up to 18s 6d in the pound. But in the hands of the company the tax drops nearer to 8s 6d. The money Constellation Investments collects from its shareholders is used to buy shares in other companies. As the value of these grows, so the Constellation share price rises. '

Drug Actions A London High Court judge has allowed the parents of deformed children to bring another 150 actions for damages against the manufacturers of the drug, thalidomide. The actions, against the Distillers Company (Blochemlcals), Ltd, British licensees of the German makers of the drug, allege that the children were born deformed . because the mothers took thalidomide when they were pregnant. This brings the total number of lawsuits pending in Britain against the firm on behalf of deformed children to 250. Writ Issued Mr Robert Maxwell, the millionaire publisher and Labour member of Parliament, has issued a writ against an insurance company in which he invested £200,000. His action in the High Court is against the Craven Insurance Company, which went into liquidation with an estimated deficiency of £812,894 last July, five months after Mr Maxwell had made his investment.

He is now claiming damages for breach of warranty and misrepresentation. Mr Maxwell was recently defeated by the Australian publisher, Mr Richard Murdoch, in his £34m bid for control of Britain’s masscirculation Sunday newspaper, the "News of the World.” Odd Escapade

A man galloped bareback on a white horse along part of the route taken by the highwayman. Dick Turpin, on his ride from London to York. And after the horseman, Ifor Williams, aged 41, came Police Constable Roger Wright, in a police car. The chase took place down the main street of Stilton, Huntingdonshire; and there was a sequel this week, when Williams was accused, under a law introduced in 1872, of being drunk in charge erf a horse.

Williams, astride a four-your-old stallion called Lincoln, was spotted by P.c. Wright, who told him he was in no fit condition to ride, and ordered him to dismount.

“He refused and made off,” P.c. Wright told the Court. “I gave chase in my car for about 100 yards, and eventually caught him and managed to grab the horse by its mane, but Williams spurred the animal on down the high street"

So, the constable said, he called for reinforcements. It took three policemen to pull Williams off the horse and put him into a police car. Williams, a horse dealer, who changed his plea of not guilty to one of guilty after hearing the evidence, was fined £6. Winter’s Grip

Butchers in Scotland are using their refrigerators to thaw meat in the intense cold now gripping Britain.

In Grantown - on . Spey, Morayshire, where 36 degrees of frost has been registered, one butcher, Mr Harold McIntosh, told reporters: “Everything is arriving frozen solid and completely unworkable. We have to put the meat in the refrigerators several hours before we can use it. It is warmer there than it is outside.”

Elsewhere in Scotland shop assistants have been issued with hot water bottles to wear next to the skin, while in North-East England coal rationing has been introduced because pithead stocks have been frozen solid. At some mines hot-air blowers are being used to free the coal, and braziers are lit under the waggons. Sport, and particularly racing, continues to be hard hit by the blizzard conditions that have lashed the country throughout the month. Of 19 days racing arranged in England in February, there have been three so far.