17 SEPTEMBER 1954, Page 6

Fourteen Years Ago

I was prompted by the imminence of the RAF fly-past over London to look at A Spectator's Notebook ' of fourteen years ago. In the Spectator of September 13, 1940, Janus recorded, with admirable composure, some of the difficulties of the time. On one night that week the editor had been obliged by the proximity of unexploded bombs to evacuate his fiat, the assistant editor's house had been half wrecked and another member of the staff had been prevented from reaching the office owing to the precautions taken in his neighbourhood against time-bombs. I feel now that I might have spoken in more temperate terms to the man who ran into my back mudguard on the way to Gower Street.