TRANSAMERICA Corp. finally won its bitter monopoly fight with the Federal Reserve Board. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to review a lower-court ruling that FRB had not proved Transamerica's 47-bank chain in five Western states to be a combination in restraint of trade. With that, FRB dropped its charges.

REPUBLICANS have been putting pressure on Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay to replace Bonneville Power Administrator Paul Raver, first appointed by Harold Ickes in 1939. But McKay, well aware of Raver's popularity in the Northwest, will not ask for his resignation, even though the job is not a civil service position. Raver, however, has been talking with Seattle's city-run light company about a job as manager, and may leave anyway.

CHILEAN copper, held off the world market for five months, will soon be coming back again, at competitive prices. Chile has given its American-owned mining companies permission to start selling their 30,000-ton monthly production, and the new supplies may cut prices as much as 10-c- a lb., almost down to the pre-Korea level of about 19-c- a lb.

TOURISTS will find another reminder of home when they go abroad next summer. Chicago's Hertz Rent-A-Car System, which has three offices abroad, plans to open up seven more in Ireland, Scotland, France, Switzerland, Italy and Germany.

LIQUOR-BY-WIRE will soon be a reality. Taking a cue from the florists, Manhattan's Beverage-By-Wire Inc. has made arrangements with dealers in 18 wet states to deliver gift liquor ordered by telegram.

AUSTRALIA, which imports 7,000,000 bbls. of crude oil yearly, mostly from the Middle East and Indonesia, may soon have its own oilfield. West Australian Petroleum Proprietary Ltd., which is 80% owned by Caltex (jointly owned by the Texas Co. and Standard Oil of California) and 20% by the Australian firm Ampol, has just brought in the continent's first producing well 700 miles north of Perth. The news sent stock in Ampol's subsidiary, Ampol Exploration, soaring from $2.02 to $15.12 on the Melbourne exchange.

MYSTERIOUS sales of Russian gold, which caused a flurry in Europe's banking houses (TIME, Nov. 16), have finally come into the open. Shipments of 15 tons of gold worth $17 million arrived in London from Czechoslovakia. The buyer: the Bank of England. More gold is reported on the way so that Russia can buy more goods abroad as part of her program to increase consumer goods.

TEXAS tidelands may soon be the scene of huge oil operations. In the first important tidelands sale since Congress gave control to the states, 62 oil companies and individuals paid out a total of $31 million for leases on 400,000 acres, the biggest mineral-rights sale in Texas history.

BRIGGS Manufacturing Co. will distribute about $62,000,000 (approximately $32 a share) of its assets to stockholders as a result of selling eleven auto-body plants to Chrysler Corp. (TIME, Nov. 2). The company will hang on to $18,439,705 in assets, keep on running its four-plant "Beautyware" plumbing business.

GAMMA globulin for polio, currently rationed by the Government according to state needs, will be available for far wider civilian use next year. Production plans for G.G. (largest processors: Squibb, Armour & Co., Cutter Labs and Sharp & Dohme) call for a boost from 9,000,000 to some 18 million cc. in 1954.

U.S. Steel will get the first shipment of iron ore next month from its enormous new mining operation (TIME, June 1) at Cerro Bolivar, Venezuela. Production next year is expected to be 2,000,000 tons, with an eventual capacity of 10,000,000 tons, most of it earmarked for the Fairless Steel works at Morrisville, Pa.

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