C Spectator" Competitions RULES AND CONDITIONS Entries must be typed

or very clearly written on one side of the paper only. The name and address, or pseudonym, of the competitor must be on each entry and not on a separate sheet. When a word limit is set words must be counted and tho number given. No entries can be returned. Prizes may be divided at the -discretion of the judge, or withheld if no entry re the required standard. The judge -reserves the

right to. print or quote ' ry from any entry. Tho judge's decision is final, and no correspondence can be entered into on the subject of the award. Entries must be addressed to :-The Editor, the Spectator, 99 Gower Street, London, W.C. 1, and bo marked on the envelope Competition No. (-).

Competition No. 29 (SET BY " CARD.")

A PRIZE of £3 '3S. is offered for the best list of play and hook title§ suggestive of any five of the various parties in the General Election. Choice is restricted to works written in the English language : not more than one title for a party may be included in any one list ; and for purposes of the competition it will be assumed that there are the following nine parties : (1) Conservative, (2) Labour (Mr. Henderson), (3) National Labour (Mr. MacDonald), (4) Communist, (5) Liberal, (6) National Liberal, (7) Mr. Lloyd George's, (8) New, (9) Independent.

Entries must be received not later than Monday, November 2nd, 1931. The result of this competition will appear in our issue of November 14th.

Competition No. 3o (Set by " Ducm.") It is assumed that a reader of the Spectator and his wife, who live in London, had planned a fortnight's holiday abroad this winter, and were to have taken with them their two schoolboy sons and their daughter aged twenty one. They write to ask your advice as to how they should spend the same holiday in the British Isles.

A prize of 5:3 3s. is offered for a letter written in reply, which must not exceed 350 words.

. Entries must be received not later than Monday, November 9th, 1931. The result of this competition will appear in our issue of November 21st.

The result of Competitiow No. 28 will appear in our next issue.

- Report of Competition No. 27

[REPORT AND AWARD BY " DUGLI."1

IT has been suggested that we should have a better-governed country if an Intelligence Test had to be passed by'every elector before he or she is allowed to record a vote.

' A prize of £3 8s. was offered for a list of not more than nix or less than three questions that might be put to all would-be electors at the polling booth, and that would have to be answered satisfactorily before they cast their votes. questions were to be short and simple and to call for short and simple answers.

Spectator competitors, being themselves a highly intelligent body of people, seem to have imagined an equally high standard of intelligence among would-be voters. The result Of reading a great many lists of proposed questions to electors has made the setter of this competition feel wholly unworthy to vote. In order to enter the polling booth we should be able to state " the essential difference " or the difference in general outlook and tendency " between all the contending parties ; to 'outline in a few words the advantages and dis- advantages of Free Trade and Protection ; to define the Gold Standard, or " to explain what we know about the British Constitution."

Practically every competitor has assumed that the questions must be -political ones. A great many lists are designed to test, not the would-be voter's intelligence, but his or her political opinions, moral character or views on such subjects as birth control, world disarmament or the League of Nations.

If the right to vote were reserved to those who could say " -what is the difference between and what the relation, if any, between Autocracy, Oligarchy and Democracy, and which historically has proved the longest lived,' some elections might have no voters at all. (This in a list of five equally penetrating questions.)

The fact seems to be that competitors, in their zeal to suggest a way of producing a wiser electorate, have forgotten that an intelligence test is not an examination paper, and that the questions were to be asked and answered at the polling station. Such questions as " Do you believe in the realization of ideals ? " " What should be the aim of educa- tion " " Is it the people or the rulers of the country that make it great ? " might result in many volumes of valuable

essays, but in a good deal of congestion round the -be boxes. To be faced, when you rush in to vote on your way to the office, with this eateehism-" What -national' charac- teristics are desirable to conserve ? Have you reasonable social sympathies? What is your international outlook ? might quench the enthusiasm of the most ardent politician: While the question, "Have you been in prison?" might arouse feelings of a different kind.

Perhaps the most optimistic of all the competitors- is the one who, as the sixth of -a list of questions that..would test the knowledge and intelligence of a Lord Chancellors asks : " Would you, in your earnest desire to uplift your country, to make it a shining example of progress to the world, be in. favour of a daily paper called, for instance, The Nation's Bulletin, printed at Westminster, owned by no particular body, except the people • of Great Britain, that gave a daily report on the work and activities of all men there, irrespective of party, a paper that would teach all thinking men and women to sort out the Wheat from the chaff, and be • educative and show us just how we 'stand ? As it is we cannot rely on 'our Press to do anything but boom, the par: ticular party they wish. What do you think of the Five Year Plan ? '

A good many of the less alarming lists asked for the difference between rates and taxes, for the naffies of the Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer, or asked why the ballot is secret.

The prize of £3 3s. is awarded to S. Barrington `McClean, 21 Greenknowe Road, Newlands, Glasgow, S. 3, for three -plain and intelligible questions. The following are honourably mentioned : Miss D. N. Dalgleish, Hilda T. Cooper, Ronald S. Russell, "-Snips," and R. C. Lucas.

Tax PRIZE-WINNING LIST OF QUESTIONS.

1. Can you read and write ?

2. Why have you come to vote ?

3. If your vote were to cost you 5s., what would you do ? RfautDRITON MCCLEAN".

A SELECTION Or OTHER ENTRIES.

1. Which point of tho compass does your house face I 2. What is the difference between rates and taxes-i.e., to whom are each paid and what are they spent on I' 3. What is the highest amount payable by postal order ?

4. How many people does (a) a tramcar, (b) a motor 'bus (both local standard) hold ?

5. What has caused this election ?

(Miss) D. N. DALGLEISIL

1. If you put anything more than a cross on your voting paper it will be disqualified. Why is this ?

2. Give at least four reasons for reading a daily paper. 3. If you had to choose constables for tho police force, what qualities would you expect them to possess ? 4. Why are most things dearer. now than they were twenty years ago ?

5. Why does the Stock Exchange in Now York open and close some hours later than the Stock Exchange in London ? 6. Why is education compulsory ?

" SNIPS."

1. Can you read and write ? (If not blind.) 2. Do you support the King and the Constitution ?

3. Why do you want to vote ?• (Ans. : Because I believe in the Cons. policy, Socialism, Free Trade, &c.)

4. Name the leaders of the principal parties.

RONALD S. RUSSELL.

. .

I. , Who was Prime Minister in the last two Governments ?

2. What is meant by the term " Chancellor of the-Eschaquer ? :1. In what city does Parliament assemble ?

4. How many Houses of Parliament are there ?

5. Who were the prominent members of the Labour. Government who put country before party and entered the Cabinet of th... National Government ?

6. Name the capital towns of (a) Scotland,. (b) England. HILDA- T. CeorER.

1. Read aloud the following names : Jones, Robinson, Smith. 2. What is the name of the last Member of Parliament for yotir • constituency ? 3. What party did he represent-Communist, Gonservativ■:, • Labour or Liberal ?

4. Write down your full Christian names and surname.

5. When you are asked to put a X against the name of the can- didate for whom you vote, what do you have to put agaimct the names of the others ?

6. If the candidate for whom you vote secures a majority, what building will ho sit and vote to represent your view-