Keep off the brink !sx .sx WHAT exactly are the Americans up to ?sx Have they actually calculated all the consequences of what they are doing with their tanks and planes in Berlin ?sx If so , what is the point of it all ?sx Will these American moves really strike the world as a sign of strength- or as a gesture of weakness and frustration ?sx It is true that there is cause for frustration .sx With their nuclear tests the Russians are behaving like lunatic children .sx But that is no reason for the West to try being even more lunatic and childish .sx It is no reason for a policy of daring brinkmanship .sx 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 .sx The British Government's urgent task is to stop the border generals being bold and brave at mankind's expense .sx Call it off !sx .sx CAN the Government possibly persist in its plans for the royal tour of Ghana after the bomb explosions which have shaken Accra ?sx For weeks journalists and M.P.s have brought reports from Ghana about possible violence during the Queen's visit .sx But our Ministers have explained smugly that the facts provided by their own experts show no cause for concern .sx Well , what do they say now ?sx Are bombs not facts ?sx Is an explosion on the very spot where the Queen is due to stand this week not a cause for concern ?sx Did the Government's experts not warn that such things might happen ?sx If they did , it is a terrible reflection on the Cabinet , which concealed the warnings .sx If they did not , it is a sad reflection on their experts .sx Our Royal Family has always been ready to take risks for a good purpose .sx But for what purpose are risks to be taken in Ghana ?sx Merely to bolster up a petty , tottering dictator .sx It would be little short of criminal if any life were risked in such a cause .sx The brave servant .sx THERE can be nothing but the highest admiration for the Queen's conduct in Ghana .sx She knew the risk she was running in going there .sx She was aware of the bombs and violence in that country recently .sx 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 .sx And yet she has insisted on keeping her promise to the ordinary people of Ghana .sx She has gone ahead with her tour .sx Nothing could have been easier for her than to cancel this venture .sx She merely had to tell her misgivings , in confidence , to the Prime Minister .sx No one would have been surprised if the visit had been cancelled .sx Everyone would have understood .sx The Queen has shown many times before that she is a dedicated and sincere servant of her people throughout the world .sx Now she has displayed , as well , the highest form of courage in grave physical danger .sx Wipe off his smile .sx IN Essen tomorrow Herr Alfried Krupp will be celebrating the 150th anniversary of the foundation of his mighty industrial empire .sx Who can blame him if he mixes homage to his ancestors with a little sardonic amusement at the expense of the Allied Governments ?sx For if he had obeyed their instructions the Krupp empire would have been broken up long ago .sx There would have been nothing to celebrate .sx 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 .sx By one cunning dodge after another he has kept this one-time power centre of German militarism intact .sx It is a scandalous story .sx 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 ?sx Answer this today .sx COMMONWEALTH Governments are at last to see in full a speech which Mr. Edward Heath made more than a month ago .sx And why are they going to see it ?sx Not because it was on a question which vitally affects their whole future- although it does .sx Not because they are members of an association the first and most precious principle of which is mutual trust .sx Not because most of them , like the members of the United Kingdom Cabinet , are loyal Ministers of the same Queen .sx 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 .sx But there is something even more shameful .sx 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 .sx Can this really be true ?sx The nation demands an immediate answer from Mr. Harold Macmillan .sx Lesson for a critic .sx THE final curtain comes down on the tragic farce of O'Brien in Africa .sx Look at it again act by act .sx Five months ago Dr. Conor Cruise O'Brien came bouncing into the Congo as a United Nations chief .sx By UNO standards his qualifications were excellent .sx He was known as an enemy of colonialism .sx He had even coined a phrase for the colonialists whom he scorned most .sx He called us " the Brits .sx " He was typical of all those who believe that the representatives of UNO must inevitably be more enlightened , decent , and efficient .sx Well , how has he done in Africa himself ?sx With his UNO team he has been responsible for more bloodshed , intolerance and racial hatred than almost any other man in recent African history .sx 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 .sx Repeal it .sx WATCH the workings of the deplorable Homicide Act of 1957 .sx Last week Edwin David Sims was found guilty of the horrible killing of two Gravesend teenagers .sx But under the new law this was not murder- because of his " diminished " .sx His crime- which everyone would unhesitatingly call murder- will go down in the records as manslaughter .sx It will help the experts to claim that the rise in the murder-rate since the Homicide Act is not really serious .sx And that is not all .sx By the time this psychopath is in his early forties he will probably be a free man .sx Free to roam the countryside once again .sx Is it not a scandal that a law which allows this to happen should remain on the Statute-book ?sx Losers .sx WHO would lose most if Britain decided not to join the Common Market and so brought our trade with Europe largely to a standstill ?sx The answer is :sx not the British .sx If you want evidence of that look at the wrangle now going on in Brussels over the Common Market tariffs .sx The French say they must sell more wine in Germany .sx But the Germans retort that wine must not flow only in one direction .sx If Germany is to buy more , then France must take more from Germany .sx 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 .sx And that is Britain .sx What is true of wine is equally true of one industry after another .sx If our leaders only had the courage we could trade with Europe on our own terms .sx For the " Six " have a much greater need of our market than we have of theirs .sx Purpose .sx FASHION is turning against the Christmas card .sx It is argued that there is no purpose in posting a flood of cards often to people you hardly know .sx Yes , but not all the cards in that flood are without purpose .sx To the old and the lonely a card is a wonderful reminder that they are not forgotten .sx And to the relation or neighbour you have quarrelled with it is the most tactful peace offering of all .sx Finger on the trigger .sx WHOSE finger is on the trigger ?sx Off to the United Nations forces in the Congo goes a load of 1,000lb .sx bombs sent with the compliments of the British taxpayer .sx They go , the Government piously points out , on special terms only .sx On each bomb there is virtually a label saying :sx " Not to be used except against 'pirate' planes and air-strips .sx " But can that really keep the Government's conscience clean ?sx Does it have any control over the Indian airmen who are going to drop the bombs ?sx Is there the slightest evidence that they either know or care about our terms ?sx 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 .sx For all we know these British bombs may soon be crashing down on hospitals and British missionaries .sx No wonder the Tory rebels are in uproar .sx 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 .sx Prigs .sx 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 .sx Could anything be more priggish than that ?sx Do they seriously suppose that the rest of us are indifferent to the risk of a nuclear war ?sx The truth is that their fellow-countrymen have not got less conscience .sx Just more sense .sx For suppose that these exhibitionists had got their way last year .sx Suppose that both East and West had given up their nuclear stocks .sx Is it not certain that we would already be in the midst of the most terrible conventional war in history over Berlin ?sx Thrift .sx THE Treasury is right to save money by clamping down on embassy parties for the Queen's official birthday .sx But the saving is only +100,000 a year .sx Why stop there ?sx There is , for example , the +18,000,000 in cash aid that we are giving to Tanganyika .sx There is the Congo which , through our backing for UNO , is costing us around +4,000,000 a year .sx There is Mr. Nehru , who wants to squeeze about +70,000,000 out of us over the next two years .sx And , of course , there is the Army on the Rhine .sx It is costing us at least +70,000,000 this year .sx And next year the bill may be near +100,000,000 .sx These fantastic sums are being squandered by vainglorious men anxious for Britain to play a leading world role .sx But they should remember this :sx true authority comes from strength , not from pouring money down the drain .sx Wrong .sx DO you remember the debtors prisons in the novels of Charles Dickens ?sx Probably you associate them with the workhouse and with child labour in the mines .sx All the more amazing , then , that a century later our prisons should still be crowded with debtors .sx The cells should be reserved for criminals alone .sx 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 .sx Death for no reason .sx AS the week-end began two British journalists were sending this despatch while UNO bombers roared over Katanga :sx - " A moment ago , in the foyer of the Leopold =2 Hotel , where we are writing , they carried in a four-year-old girl .sx She was dead .sx " In the moments it has taken to type this they have brought in yet another child's body .sx The face is gone , the body shredded by shell splinters .sx " If you have seen broken dolls , you have some idea of the picture .sx " Read those words again and ask yourself :sx Why were these little children killed ?sx What was their crime ?sx Was it because- as with Nazi Germany- their country was making war on the world ?sx No .sx All it wanted was to be left alone .sx Was it because their country was employing white officers ?sx No .sx Every other African State has whites in top positions .sx Even the Indian airmen who killed them were white-trained .sx