The Guardian from London, Greater London, England • 18

18 THE GUARDIAN. Tuesday March 15 1988 Union sequels to workers courts Lena itu From cUtch to elitch AEU executive to consider the fines Sir Elwyn tells Mr Hogg, Withdraw' New move to end ban on turbans for city busmen BY OUR OWN REPORTER The Campaign Against Racial Discrimination is trying to break the ban against Sikhs, wearing turbans, who want to work on the buses in Manchester. The Rev. Roy Allison, convener of the Manchester branch of CARD, said yesterday that after an approach By PETER JENKINS Sir William Carron, president of AEU, has called a special meeting of the union's executive council for this morning to consider the cases of fines meted out to members at the BMC depot at Cowley and the Pressed Steel Plan to make factory at Theale. In the Theale case the AEU's executive was informed fine members for not taking A doctor patches through a one-way window as a child undergoes a test at the Nuffield Audiology Unit opened yesterday at Cranage Haft Hospital Rescue of a 'bird-witted' child THESE ARE DAYS unaccountably, I find myMlf remembering a phrase of Erifio Bevhi's When he was tihe Foreign Office slmultaneoMkly with my brief employment, there.

He was not favourite politician and This spell at (he Foreign Office fs in my view the most disastrous period of an otherwise useful life. "This will not once said, rejecting a draft speech which -had been "pee- pared for him. It Just goes on from clitch. to elitch." Elections are cliche-prone periods in our national life. The circumstances of propaganda impose a pattern of brevity, a sort-of Procustes bed of precis.

It' is noi omy tne tauit oi eamii-dates. advertisement-Sodden environment i habit of the catch' phrase; washes whiter." Drink's." pints a day." "Ttomt forget the mum" HoHnh' comprehension tends to dwarf its boundaries of. expression, shrink the area of argument There was, for instance, ln another newspaper the other day. a leading artiele, much reproduced, much commented upon. It was.

this string unsupported assertions which in fact, started off my recollection of Bevin. Except' tbtf 1he cliches reminded one 'of Cripps. The candidate who begins serious doorstep discussion! about the state. of the nation or the prospects of Mr Heath's un-Welfare State may easily, find himself answered by catch-phrase. "Send them all home, I say" or the trouble." The whole' dialogue becomes unsubtle.

Perhaps this is are the rough and tumble times, the yesno, the blackwhite moments 'of simple. decision. We can only put cross by a name. We cannot, add qualifications in brackets, without being disqualified as, a "spoilt paper." One of the troubles it nobody has really an effective work-result qudfl-'' ent of electioneering the most- productrve'useof time Is it the knock on Uie door (sorry, they 've' mbvedKor a gaudy election Does anybody read the elecV" Hon addresses Or do people like meetings, thetfean at least ask questions and-hear-the sound of their own How do you And the' balance between people who don'f like the intrusion, of strangers knocking at their doors In Ihe dark and others who write crossly because "nobody has been by nor Unacceptable AS A VETERAN doctor's moll 1 am appalled at the new scheme of the General Practitioners' Association to start a semi-private medical care service. In -exchange for payment patients will get "private service attention.

And what will happen to Ihose who do not join the scheme What sort or sick-poor relegation win they suffer? I could not believe my eyes when I saw a newspaper heading "Half- crown surgery plan." Thisis where I came in. Where. my husband, a family doctor in.the East End, told the sickly wives of unemployed dockers to pUt their grudging 65ri5 back In their I this scheme dies before Wjtt born. It can only w-fering standards of care between one palKana another. And tnls.ls humanly unacceptable.

A spokesman for the new soh'ems has said that by contributing to it patients will enable doctors to provide the highest standards. So those who' can't pay don't get the highest standards This Is not back to Lloyd This is Disraeli's two nations and there must be no more oi it' Ina civilised society. there musf-be a permanent divorce between sickness and course doctors nave i'Jthetr proper grievances, of whlch-my many broken nights have Heft me in full But none of the fundamental; problems of general practice Jr this country are goto? to be-iolted by collecting half-crowntrftom patients. Perhaps we wiuhye to pay doctors as -much as judges before they have confidence In society's love-relationship with them. 'But I am certainly defeated nyVthe proposal to take a bit more money from somebody lit'order to give a bit better atteMtioh.

What is the ethics dtAls proposition Tea and empathy, THINK OF ALL those envelopes. In a constituency of people with two candldalesthe faithful will be addressing between them envelopes. Why don't we nave a gentleman's agreement and do 25.000 each and put'1 two addresses In every envelope? Or should the Returning Officer send out the election addresses as he does the poll card Uut there will be no new thoughts of machinery at this election. It will be the routine of tea and empathy for The ideal of any candidstemust be to assert his or her individual influence. I am very mddeit about this and therefore T-'can-not understand corrcsponfleints who say they will now not rote Labour because I said 'no decent person could vote Conservative, Can a 'pasting sentence from a stranger really make -any difference roots of political conviction must be frail Indeed lf-adccl-sion hangs on such a sentence.

One would have hoped that the argument lay deeper. But we shall sec. Thr htei Mf coJnmm'iM txprtst llfi'r virwj, net Ihi "GMnftn'." They mrt tkoum im orefr fa ft't rtritty of poinlt view. trom air uyam s. aagar, the Sikh Manchester Corpo-ation rejected three years ago, he wrote to the chairman of the Transport Committee, Alderman C.

Blackwell, and the chairman of the Manchester section of the Transport and General Workers' Union, Alderman R. E. Thomas, asking them to think again. "Manchester recently set up an integration committee, and the present Lord Mayor has called for more racial harmony," Mr Allison said. We are hoping that the atmosphere has changed and we can appeal to the spirit, rather than the letter, of the law." Changed their minds Mr Sagar said yesterday that Birmingham Corporation and London Transport had both changed their minds after earlier refusals on the same issue, and Bristol, Glasgow, HuddersfieM, and Newcastle upon Tyne Corporations as well as British Railways, the Post Office, the Army, and many private firms employed Sikhs.

The Lord Mayor, Alderman B. S. Langton, and the Indian High uommissioner, ur Jivraj Mcnta, who was in Manchester yesterday have advised the Sikhs to make a further formal application to the Transport Committee. Alderman Langton, a member of the new Race Relations Board, said Unfortunately discrimination in employment and housing, where, I believe, most cases take place, does not come within our province, but we want to hear about any cases. They could lead us to suggest an extension of the present Race Relations Act." Regulations Alderman Thomas said there was no question of his union's discriminating, since West Indians and Pakistanis were employed on the buses.

The refusal of Sikhs with turbans was only because of the regulations on uniforms. Alderman Black-well said the Transport Committee would be bound to re-examine a new application from the Sikhs. The question of allowing Sikhs with turbans to work on the buses has come up three times in the last seven years. The last time, in 1963, the city council divided equally, 42 for and 42 against, on the decision to refer back the Transport Committee's rejection of the Sikhs. The Sikhs had agreed to wear blue turbans with the corporation badge pinned on the front Minister invites Communists A Chester Methodist minister has invited Communists to criticise his sermon.

Each Sunday the Rev. David Bridge, of Stocks Lane, asks his congregation to stay behind to say what they really think about his preaching. And now the minister, who introduced the scheme because he thought the clergy were too reluctant to accept criticism, has invited Commurwsts ant members of all other denominations to attend. "We are always willmg to try out new ideas and I think this is one which is certainly going to work." said Mr Bridge last night THE WEATHER Dry and rather warm It will be dry over most of Britain with sunny Intervals, but showers are likely in N. and W.

Scotland. Temperatures everywhere wilt be rather above normal. FncUad. N. W'tle, Uke tlUtrirt.

Ireland: Diy, rather a few Wif nanny iniervais nw i.ffn: rimer warm maximum temperature 11C (MF.i London. SF, SW and Cnt N. Kntland. Anglti, MidlantK Channel liUttdi. Hairs M4inntiiLhblrr, Cm N.

tnrlind: Dry sunny intervals wEnd NW Itrht: rather wirm maxlumum iemp raluns 12C. IMF) t. and L. LncUnd, Rvritis. Fdinhureta, 1, SLottand, AlKrdftn, Cent.

Hlihluidt. yUns Firih Drj. sunny iniervali. wind NW Unlit, vraitn. maximum tempera lurts IOC I50F CalllmrM.

Amll, W. SHiland. Orkney. (Shetland: Cloudy. UoUted Ilfht shower' wind W.

mwtrrmte' miliar warm, maximum tfmptji-tur ioc fSOK i UBttook' Uttte chant. ski rssc.rs North Sr, Mralt of l)nr, Irish Srt; Si hl InelMi Cbanntl (F). St Octree's Channel; Smooth CHESTER AlIirOKT STT10 Ktadi-vg fur 2tltra 9pm GMT Tvtpiiurw Maximum. 49F ft 4C: nimum 4F 5 3Ci Rainfall Sjanine 0 ifin SUN GMT GMT Rjm tMinchevter) 25 ajn. Sets 12 pa.

alOON GMT GMT RUej IMaochtiter) 02 a 5ts 10 32 a to. NYw 77 a A A A A Cola front The Attorney-General, Sir F. Elwyn Jones, last, night called oq Mr Quintln Hogg to withdraw "at the earliest opportunity" remarks made in a newspaper article about the "kangaroo court" incident at Cowley. Speaking at Bexley, Sir Elwyn said until the police investigations were complete, it would be improper" to make any comment But there is one ispect of the matter about which I should speak. "In an article in one of yesterday's newspapers, Mr Quintin Hogg, who is a Queen's Counsel and must be presumed to know about the proprieties of the matter, commented on the case, despite the fact that he knew that a police investigation was in trin.r' Passage quoted Sir Elwyn quoted a passage In the article which said "Let us hope that the Attorney-General has the courage to stand up to thn political pressure which may be put on him to sweep the -matter under the carpet until after polling day." and added: Who, I ask, does Mr Hogg suggest may put on this political pressure Who Is Mr Hogg trying to smear 7 It is, of course, a wicked and unwarranted suggestion.

"And if such pressure were ever attempted, does Mr Hogg think that or, in fairness to my predecessors In office, any other Attorney-General I have known, would tolerate or submit to any political pressure to withhold prosecution or for party political reasons delay prosecution In any given case 7 At Ipswich, the Solicitor-General, Sir Dingle Foot, said Mr Hogg "should have known better," added The Tory Party have sought to make this a major election issue. They have not waited. for the facts to be confirmed. 'Disclose evidence' "Mr Heath states that the Cowley episode is just the tip of the iceberg. The suggestion, therefore, is that this kind of thing is a frequent occurrence.

If Mr Heath has any evidence he should disclose it He should also explain why. If his allegation is true, the Tory Party, during 13 years of office, took no action to reform the law." Sir Elwyn has told Mr Peter Emery, who will be Conservative candidate for Reading, that if he has any evidence of a criminal offence in connection with events at Pressed Steel's Theale factory, where IS union members have been he should submit it for investigation. Seven 'forced to pay weekly levy Seven nightshirt workers at a Lincoln forge were forced by workmates to pay a weekly levy of 1 to maintain men on an unofficial overtime ban, one of the seven said yesterday. The dispute was at the 'Smith- uiayton forge some months ago. ine management rejected a request for more monev bv 80 workers there; and members of ine Amalgamated Engineering Union and the General and Municipal Workers' Union decided not to work overtime on ntgnts.

Mr John Edward of Wellington Street Lincoln, a nightshift worker at the forge, said: "The unions tried to nor. suade the men to allow night workers to do their normal 40-hour week, but they would not hear of it Twelve nightshift men agreed to the ban and so nut themselves deliberately out of wonc. "We stood out as long as we could, but things were made so unpleasant we bad to give in. was no -court' But we were told if we did not pay we would be likely to find ourselves out of work." The levy was paid for two weeks. Then the men returned to normal working after mey reaissea mat tne management were not going to allow the ciaim.

In search of the elusive kangaroo By DAN O'NEILL IN a matter of days the phrases "kangaroo court" or "kangaroo justice" have become as much a part of the political language as "wildcat strike." Yet few of the politicians who will inevitably use them will be able to explain their origins, which are obscure. On Wednesday Sir Keith Joseph referred to the BMC workers' trials as "kangaroo Justice," but where did he hear the phrase? Not In an American prison, wjiere such courts, etymological textbook; assure us, were frequently hell One source claims that kangaroo courts began, when prisoners tried a fellow-felon for breaking a behind-bars law. As tobacco was the main form of currency, and as kangaroo twist the railways pay Continued from page 1 conurbations London and the South-east, Manchester, Liven pool. Glasgow, Birmingham, Tynesirte and Teeside, West Yorkshire, and Cardiff and studies were being made in these areas "to determine the sensible link between public and private transport and how the public transport facilities should be provided and remunerated." It was now generally accepted throughout the world that suburban services of this kind could not operate profitably on a commercial basis, Mr Raymond went on: "The great transport issue today is not the old one of road v. rail, but the new one of public transport v.

private transport and what is the level of public transport which the nation requires and is prepared to pay for. A balance must soon bo struck and decisions made as to the future size and shape of the railway system so as to give a degree of stability to the industry and allow railway management to concentrate more on their prime task of running trains and providing a service." It would be in the best Interests of the nation to eliminate the remaining doubtful services so that the board could devote itself to making the substantial system that remained efficient and a national asset. The system would still have the capacity to provide standby transport for the users of "rivate transport when it suited their convenience. But this standby transport would have to be paid for. Mr Raymond also called for an early decision by the Government on the Channel tunnel.

This was a matter of considerable concern to British Railways, which could not put off much longer decisions on its cross-Channel shipping services. Other features of the type of railwav system which can be expected in the 1970s which Mr Raymond outlined included more extensive electrification, longer coaches (which could save one complete coach in a nine or 10 coach train), sliding doors, better sound, insulation, lounge cars, more comfort for commuters, a national signalling plan with one electronic signal box replacing 40 to SO manually operated boxes, and the carrying of the ureal bulk of cencral merchandise In containers. Belter sereices next month, pane 21 More rates rise A rate of 15s 2d in the pound, an increase of lid, was adopted by Llandudno Urban Conncil last night Warrington Rural Conncil yesterday fixed a general rate of lis 4d, an Increase of lid, DuMnfield's new rate is 12s an increase of Is. Bredbury and Komiley Urban Council's rate is also up Is. A figure of lis was approved last night Other people's weather Lunch-timi reports Tempi rmps 1457 Amitcrtfam COS -11 Athens M5 59 Barcelona S13 55 Btlfett CI 0 50 Beirut SI8M Berlin COO 32 Btrmmxh'm 08 46 Burtitx C1Q5Q London A roort 0 50 Luxembourg S03 37 Of II i I I 3 Majorca 57 Malta 57 Manchester 09 48 Miami 25 77 Mcntitai SOS 4 1 Bristot 10 50 C04 39 COS 41 10 50 C09 48 Moscow C04 39 S-1 30 II 52 S24 76 SOS 43 13 55 9 56 C-4 25 COS 43 07 45 Brussels Budapest Card if I Chicaco Munich Napfos Nassau New York Cologne Nice Copenhagen 00 i2 Nicosia Oslo Ottawa Paris OubTin cits? Edinburgh Florence Funehal Gcnevj el link! Inmbrueta 10 50 C09 48 1966 FOS 41 C-621 Rome 12 54 Ronaldiwat 10 50 Stockholm S-8 IS COO 32 15 S9 C09 48 Tel Aviv S21 70 Istanbul Toronto S0948 $09 48 SOI 34 COO 32 F02 36 fair; Fr lersey Venice Vienna Us PjIrTm 21 7D Usbon SI5 59 London Weather Centr CI0 50 Warsaw Zurich cloudy Dr drizzle roe hail mist rain 5 sunny Sh showers SI sleet So mow Th thunders re rm Snow reports Oft P'ace Wthr US OS Ptsl fssie AdMtnon Fine 10 Good Pwdr CViril-ia Fine 10 3 Good Ilt M-rrlt Altuei Flu 5S 110 GOcd Hoavj 4 Anion Flue 5 Hi Good Pwdr Mortu Ctoud 11 52 Good Pwdr Vefrid Fine 12 Cwd Pwdr Scairkre Fine 38 Icy Kevry VlHn Fine IS ICO Good Hc Wnjfn Fine 0 Good Heavj Thfje reports are supplied by ot the SW Club of Great Britain, Alpe d'Huei Iff) I Lev deux 100 160 Mestve 138 rtiararout 75 Monine 200 Courrtterfl 116 I VaJ d'lrere 120 tttht in loctit (or itocxe.

LJGIITIMI'IT TtMrS Uverpool 6 44 pm to 5 A7 am, ManrtitMtr to 5 54 a A Aa Occluded lion) lioban Noon forth )V last year -the intention to "And now, I wiih someone would tell Heath to dry up about the unions" Two other unions hold inquiries By our Oxford Correspondent One member of the TGWU's inquiry into the "workers' court" at BMC Service, Cowley, will be Mr David Buckle, the Oxford district secretary. One of those giving evidence will be his colleague Mi Cliff Craw-lev. rh union' district organiser. Mr Arthur Gillians. chairman of the Oxford busmen's branch of the union and vice-chairman of the Midland regional executive, will also be a member of the inquiry.

Mr Harry Urwin. the unions regional surrptarv. will head the team, whose other member is Mr Arthur Davis, regional chairman and chairman Of the works committee, at Hawker Siddeley, Coventry. Mr Urwln said: "I expect that some part of our report at least will be made public It will be my job to sort out the facta from the press ballyhoo. I don't intend to throw into the political I shall do what- is necessary in- the good name of trade unionism." inquiry will be held in a conference room at Cowley made available to the union by Morris Motors.

Another union, the Municipal and General Workers', Is to told its own Inquiry into the court" Three of the 6even men fined at the "erurt" are still off work. Pressed Steel back The joint shop stewards' committee at Pressed Steel's factory at Theale, decided yesterday to repay the fines levied by the "workers' court" last November. Mr A. R. Calow, shop steward convenor and member of the AEU national executive, refused to issue a statement after the lunchtime meeting of 14 AEU and two TGWU shop stewards.

He said the matter was in the hands of the district committee and national executive. But immediately afterwards two of the 15 fined workers, Mr L. May and Mrs G. King, said they had been given their fines back. The "kangaroo court" has become the most hotly pursued political gambit in the marginal seat of Reading, where both the Conservative and the Labour candidates yesterday called on Mr 'Pat Farrelly, district secretary of the AEU, and were given separate assurances that there would be no victimisation of the lo.

Whatever the political cries, union, representatives, though uwrUn to anything officially, state that they have done nothing worthy of self- or pigtail tobacco was the firmest currency, the fines were the form of kangaroo." Thus, where kangaroo lines were levied was a kangaroo court Mencken, In his survey of American language, ignores the phrase. The "Concise Dictionary of American Language" suggests it might have evolved from the habits of the kangaroo To arrive quickly at a place ra a series of leaps and bounds." The governor of Strangeways Prison, who has been in the business 38 years and has "read everything about it." has never heard of kangaroo twist Ironically, only Australians believe that kangaroo court might have something to do with ffteir country. Kangaroo courts were held in Australia during the gold-rush days, said a spokesman for the Australian High Commissioner. If. for example, a prospector took the equipment of another prospector, he would be hauled in front of a court composed of other prospectors.

The phrase travelled to America with prospectors on their way to the California gold-fields and became the name given to a trial in a frontier district or in prison. part in a strike action. It informed its district committee that it disapproved of the intended action, and quoted to them the union's rule on the subject. The letter from headquarters was officially received by the district -committee, and AEU national leaders therefore considered themselves entitled to assume that no further proceedings were being taken against the offending members. The first they heard to the contrary was through newspaper reports.

In the Cowley case the AEU leaders knew nothing whatsoever about it until, thev opened their "Daily Mirror" last week. Since then a report has been received which does not take the matter much further. It sets out the details of the negotiations which led up to the dispute, but neither confirms nor denies the published accounts of the manner in which "justice" was to the men who declined to take part in the one-day unofficial protest strike. Elaborate machinery In both cases the AEU executive could decide to take disciplinary action, but if it did so it would have to go through all the hoops which rule requires "'f any disciplinary case whether at local or national level. In spite of the two cases which have recently offended public opinion, it is a fact that most trade unions lay elaborate machinery which has to be observed in disciolinarv cases and which provides for the right of appearance, the hearing of witnesses, and ultimate appeal to a democratically-elected body.

On paper the system provides for a more elaborate justice than is offered by the British legal system. 4,000 factories In practice, however, trade unions have only a sketchy idea of what goes on at the grass roots. Unless they are told, they have no means of knowing what their members are up to. In the engineering industry alone there are more than 4,000 different factories, and union leaders protest that under whatever system the; could not possibly be expected to know of cases where laid down -procedures are being wilfully ignored. Union leaders, nevertheless, and not only in the uriions con-earned in the recent cases, are desperately concerned at what has happened and at the treatment these occurrences have received in the press.

stewards pay fines reproach. They insist that any mmnarUnn nHtfc --r- wunilJ nilUJjr misleading. What happened last November after 12 men had been suspended by the management was a "lockout" and union action was therefore official. The 15 workers who failed to support the union were disciplined through normal union procedure. The fines were levied nearly three weeks, after the strike, and after district committee had authorised the shop stewards at the factory to use the delegated authority of the union.

Still not clear What still remains unclear Is whether the AEU district committee authorised the levying of fines or whether it merely left the means of discipline to the shop stewards. Mr Farrelly refused to make any comment yesterday. Pressed Steel's management, while making no comment on yesterday's decision to repay the fines, still regards the strike last November as unofficial. Its position is that because negotiations were still in progress with the union, the strike was a breach of an agreement It showed the shop stewards 1 that this was hnw It rnoarfuft iho strike by refusing to allow them to hold the court on company property. It was eventually held in a small railway hut near the factory One of the fined workers, Mrs Betty Hayward, aged 46, said at her home in Reading last night I have not asked for my money back yet I don't know how far the union can go.

I don't want to lose my job, I want my money back without victimisation." She said she had received an anonymous telegram from Birmingham saying Well done." Labour holds county council seat Voting in a Lancashire County Council byelection at Haydock night was Robert Finney 2.394; Arthur Storer (Ratepayer), 1,417. The seat had previously been held by Labour. Inquest adjourned The West Cumberland coroner yesterday adjourned the inquest on Mr Frank Christopher Potts, of West Kirby, the pilot, and Dr Cyril Leonard Levene, a registrar at Whiston Hospital, Preston, who died when their two-seat plane crashed in Cumberland on April 8. NEWS IN BRIEF Languages on business footing Thirty businessmen began a three-week intensive course in French or German yesterday at a language laboratory which has been set up at Castle Irwell by the British Institute of Directors. Already about 1,300 businessmen in the South and Midlands have taken the course, which costs 45 -guineas.

End of ban sought Sale and Lynun divisional education committee is to ask Cheshire education committee to lift its ban on children aged 11 and under travelling by air on school trips. Bungalow rents up Warrington RDC is to increase, from April 1, the rents of its one-bedroomed bungalows by 2s 5d a week, and the rents of its two-bedroomed bungalows by Is 5d. Mr N. A. Mathcson Mr Norman A.

Mathcson, engineer in chief to the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board since 1960, has died in hospital at Wallasey. He was 58. Rhodesia an election issue Continued from page 1 allow the local authorities to build schools that could only be secondary modern or selective grammar schools. Mr Heath wanted to extend the eleven-plus to new areas." Mr Callaghan, who had been challenged to estimate (with Treasury help) the real cost of the Conservative programme, said that it would come to 800 to 850 millions if the loss of revenue were included. It could not be carried out, he said, without excessive increases in taxation.

Although the gross figure could be reduced by 150 millions by reducing the cost of agricultural support this would raise the cost of food to the consumer. "Sixpence on the income tax," Mr Callaghan said, raises about 180 millions you can see what we are letting ourselves in for on the basis of this programme." Mr Joseph Godber, a former Minister of Labour, made the most outspoken Conservative comment yesterday on the "kangaroo courts" situation. He said the Labour Party must blame itself because the Trades Disputes Act had encouraged shop stewards to feel that they could hold such courts with impunity. The Postmaster-General, Mr Benn, urged the Conservatives to desist "The recent reports on intimidation in industry are a matter for police investigation and the courts, which exist to protect all citizens, It is a dis- i an election issue to make them an excuse for his -strident and irresponsible attacks of the trade union movement generally." Mr Heath, he said, was a paper dragon "breathing fake fire and synthetic slaughter against the unions In a desperate effort to pick up votes STOP PRESS TEST MATCH New Zealand all out 129 in second innings on' last dav of third Test against England at Auckland. England, set to make 2M runs in 273 minutes, were 49 for one.

The Guardian Telephones rtucfeutr: KLAOdna-s aatt Te'ti 6X. CUaatAcd AdvmUlDt BLA Irtidcn: TERm'mut 7011. Tefcx TGSBt 4dtmidBt: TSKmlaui T011. A research scientist now in an important Government post was medically described as bird-witted and severely mentally retarded at the of 4. But the only thing wrong with the child, who spent almost the rest of his life in a mental home, was that he was deaf, Sir Alexander Ewing, professor of audiolbgy at Manchester University, said yesterday.

Sir Alexander was opening a 20,000 audiology unit, the first of its kind in the United Kingdom, at Cranage Hall Hospital, Cheshire. He tolJ mere than 100 loading medical experts and welfare officials: "A child can be completely withdrawn and emotionally disturbed because of either mental subnormality or deafness. 1 found through using audiology which specialised in the treatment of completely withdrawn children that this patient could be cured. He later took an honours degree in science and became a doctor of philosophy." The new unit was provided by the Nuffield Provincial Hospital Trust in recognition of several years' close collaboration between the hospital, which has 600 mentally subnormal patients, and Manchester University's department of audiology. 'Coronation cast meet Mr Wilson Three of the cast -in Independent Television's serial "Coronation Street," spent an hour with the Prime Minister and Mrs Wilson at 10 Downing Street yesterday.

Arthur Leslie (Jack Walker), Doris Speed (Annie Walker), and Pat Phoenix (Elsie Tanner) had sherry with Mr and Mrs Wilson and Mr Callaghan. Chancellor of the Exchequer. Mr Wilson said This was to give our friends a send-off on their Australian tour, to wish them all the luck." Yesterday at the resorts Reports Tor the 24 hours ended 6 p.m. yesterday in- mm. XVEhT CO A 51 aliln Ft I (TOP rr in.

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