British diplomat and journalist kicked out of Soviet Union for spying charges
On this week in 1983, Britain rejected Soviet charges that a British diplomat and the Moscow correspondent of the Financial Times had been engaged in espionage.
The assistant Air Attache at the Moscow Embassy, Squadron-Leader David Williams, and Mr Anthony Robinson of the Financial Times, were expelled from the Soviet Union in retaliation for the expulsion from Britain of two Soviet diplomats and a Soviet journalist. Sqdn-Ldr Williams (33) had been in Moscow for nearly a year. Mr Robinson arrived back in Moscow from a brief holiday in England only to be told that his visa had been withdrawn.
Though retaliation had been expected for the expulsion from Britain, the Foreign Office earlier this week warned the Soviet Foreign Ministry that if any tit-for-tat actions were taken they could lead to more Soviet citizens being sent home from Britain.
Over in South Africa, Sir Richard Attenborough, director of the Oscar-winning film Gandhi, hinted that he had decided not to attend the controversial South African premiere of the film to be given before a whitesonly segregated audience.
He said that he would go to South Africa to try to get all screenings shown before racially integrated audiences, and he added that if he attended any premiere at all it would be the one next Wednesday in the township of Lenasia, just outside Johannesburg, which was to benefit an Indian charity. Sir Richard said also that he intended to donate any money he made from the film being shown in South Africa to charities devoted to the furtherance of Gandhian principles.
And finally, on this week in 1983, Japan was about to witness the power of the mouse as Disney opened its first Disneyland theme park outside the United States in Japan at Urayasu, Chiba Prefecture, near Tokyo. The 115 acre park is now one of the most visited theme parks in the world.