A chartered British Skyways York, just in from Moscow, overshot the London airport runway and nosed over. From the crushed cabin, Britain's Secretary for Overseas Trade J. Harold Wilson emerged and said casually: "Now I have got to see a doctor as my ribs hurt me." Next day he went to tell his chief, Sir Stafford Cripps, that Britain's trade mission to Moscow had also crashed. It was unlikely that the mission would return to Russia.
Britons had pinned high hopes on a successful trade deal with Moscow. To help ease the drain on Britain's U.S. dollar credits, they wanted grain and...
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