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At his Hyde Park Gate home in London, Sir Winston Churchill, physically feeble and mentally overwhelming, turned 82, presided over a small family party that included an assault on a spectacular cake topped off with 82 candles shaped in Sir Winston's "V" for victory trademark. When photographers outside clamored for him, Churchill came to a window with wife Clementine and gap-toothed grandchild Arabella. 7, daughter of Randolph. After posing indoors for other lensmen, Churchill heard a game try at felicitation from one. "Sir Winston," called the photographer, "I hope to take your picture on your hundredth birthday!" The old man turned and regarded the well-wisher with a scorching glare leavened with a trace of a smile. "I see no reason why you shouldn't, young man," rumbled he. "You look hale and hearty enough!"
Free to speak frankly over Congress' perennial failure to cough up adequate funds for Foreign Service personnel, retiring U.S. Ambassador to Italy Clare Boothe Luce told a Manhattan audience that such legislative parsimony is "folly to the point of national suicide." Said Mrs. Luce: "When you think of the billions that we have spent abroad to prevent our own atomic annihilation, it seems folly to deny a comparatively small sum to the very service which is working hardest to prevent it."
Away from it all for three weeks at a seaside bungalow called "Goldeneye" on Jamaica's north coast, Britain's crisis-weary Prime Minister Sir Anthony Eden tried to forget all about the Suez Canal and environs by listening to the personalized serenade of a local calypso band. Sample of the topical lyrics sung to him:
No more Nasser's crimes, But ever beautiful Jamaica rhymes. Jamaicans hope you'll be contented, and Taking that infidel for granted, Now we hope you'll enjoy your stay Down in Oracabessa Bay.
Meanwhile, in London, the Laborite Daily Mirror announced an essay contest on the question of what course Britain should now take in the Suez area. Irreverent prize promised the winning essayist: three weeks in Jamaica.