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Virginia Maher

From the pages of the South China Morning Post this week in 1955

Soviet Premier Marshal Nikolai Bulganin,  in an open slap at Portugal, said Portuguese colonies on the Indian subcontinent were 'a shame for civilised people'.

There was no justification by which any foreign country still had territory in India, he said.

Marshal Bulganin was speaking in Madras about the enclaves of Goa, Damao and Diu.

There had long been agitation in India for Portuguese withdrawal from the enclaves, which the Indian prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, termed 'pimples' on the face of India.

Portugal stood fast and declared the territories to be a part of Portugal itself.

The Soviet visitor to India said the Soviet people were on the side of Asian peoples fighting against colonial powers.

'Certain European states up to now cannot understand that there is no return to the former status of colonialism,' he pronounced.

The Portuguese Foreign Minister, Dr Paulo Cunha,  was quick to denounce Russian objections to Portuguese colonies in India as an unwarranted interference in his country's affairs.

He told reporters in New York that he did not have to tell them about the plight of the territories under the tyranny of Russia.

Some problems linger ... 51 years ago, Egypt's foreign minister intimated that Cairo would be prepared to accept mediation in the Palestinian dispute by a third party negotiating separately with the Arabs and Israel.

He said Egypt was interested in securing an honourable peace on the basis of a solution of the main issues.

'We are seeking peace,' he said, 'and I would like to emphasise that we are seeking it from whatever quarter it comes.'

Sir Anthony Eden,  the British prime minister, had recently suggested a compromise between the Israeli and Arab positions and offered Britain's good offices.

The Italian foreign minister said his country was 'ready to do her best' to help bring the trouble-packed Middle East situation to a resolution.

He said Italy was prepared to answer Egypt's request to act as a go-between with the west and help Egypt gain understanding in the west to avoid something happening in the troubled Mediterranean area that would upset world peace.

Israel for its part protested to the United Nations Security Council against 'incessant acts of aggression' by Egypt and Jordan and charged they were directed by Egyptian military authorities as the prelude to full-scale military operations against Israel.

Israel's deputy permanent representative to the world body detailed charges against Egypt and Jordan in a three-page letter to the council and asked for the letter to be circulated to all members.

President Dwight Eisenhower sent a gold medallion and a special letter of greeting to Sir Winston Churchill on his 81st birthday.

The solid gold medallion was three inches in diameter and bore a representation of Sir Winston's head and shoulders.

The likeness was taken by the head sculptor and engraver of the United States mint from Eisenhower's own portrait of the British leader.

On the reverse was a design of clasped hands flanked by the British and US shields and an inscription.

A new bride who refused to go home with her husband after a customary post-nuptial stay with her parents was among four people killed in a village battle in Gauhati, India.

Supporters of the offended husband and those of the bride clashed when the husband went to collect his wife by force.

The husband and another person were injured.

In Naples, an altar server pledged that he would marry his girlfriend when he reached the age of 100.

The girlfriend, 80-year-old Maria Morolla, decided to wait.

The altar server, Giovanni Ruocco, was 99 when he made his vow.



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