A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK
BY a strange caprice of fate, Marquis Merry del Val, the classical Ambassador of the Spanish Monarchy in London during the last war, has died amidst the blessings of the wolf-like Falange Press of Madrid over bombings of towns—a strange caprice, for during the last war, Merry del Val was instrumental in engineering a similar
campaign, or, rather, in trying to. He was a sincere friend of this country, and, therefore, the more charitable assumption is that the noble Marquis was fooled into that intrigue by some pro-German villain who played on his staunch, loyal feelings towards King Alfonso. The Ambassador, through a Catalan journalist who was country, and, therefore, the more charitable assumption is that the noble Marquis was fooled into that intrigue by some pro-German villain who played on his staunch, loyal feelings towards King Alfonso. The Ambassador, through a Catalan journalist who was particularly pliable to his wishes, tried to induce the other Spanish journalists in London to send a collective telegram to King Alfonso asking him to propose to both parties the cessation of bombing. This, then as now, took place just when the Germans had begun to get the worst of bombing after a period of air suprematy. The journalists in question, it is satisfactory to add, met and unanimously decided 'that the proposal was to be rejected. But the fact that the proposal was made, under no one knows what instigation, was significant. * * * * The arrival of General Georges in North Africa is obviously an event of importance. One of the most distinguished of French soldiers—like General Giraud, he is a five-star General—he was in command of the French armies, under General Gamelin as supreme commander-in-chief, till the debficle of 194o, and there is little reason to visit responsibility for that on him. He is a personal friend of the Prime Minister, and his escape from France and association with General Giraud has been warmly welcomed in official quarters, military and diplomatic, in this country. * * The dust stirred up by the never quite animate University of Sulgrave has not subsided yet. In this case, indeed, so far from the evil that the concern has done living after it, and the good (if any) being interred with its bones, good seems to be shaping itself out of buried evil. Information received in London from the President of the University of Delaware shows that a Bill is now before the General Assembly of the State of Delaware (it was in that State that the University of Sulgrave was incorporated), de- signed to make impossible in the future the issue of college charters
to " unworthy applicants " for them. I judge that the measure has good prospects of success. Other steps are contemplated, but their practicability is a little doubtful. If American State legislatures generally would tighten up the regulations by which such affairs
are governed considerable benefit should result.
* * * * It is sad when an author dies too soon to see the reviews of his latest book, the more so when, as in the case of Dr. T. R. Glover's Cambridge Retrospect, commendation is (as far as I have seen) universal. It is very far from being Dr. Glover's first book. Some of his earlier ones, like Life and Letters in the Fourth Century and The Ancient World—this in particular--are Of enduring value, and Glover's scholarship, which the characteristics of his personality tended a little to overshadow, is likely to be increasingly recognised.
Forty years ago, when I knew him first, he was a good deal of a militant Nonconformist, a school that does not fit too easily into high tables and combination-rooms. But through the years he mellowed steadily, and latterly he has been one of the outstanding preachers in St. John's College Chapel—whose pulpit, like that of many Cambridge colleges, is now frequently occupied by Free Churchmen. Glover had both strong convictions and strong pre-
judices. He trod on a good many people's toes in his time, but most of the people were the better for it in the end. There was a touch of Carlyle in his hatred of empty conventions and artificiali- ties, and it made his influence a generatim ago altogether sahftary in a Cambridge where there were more of such things than there are in the Cambridge of today. A good many hundreds of men must be living more sensible lives than they might have.done because they read classics under Glover some time or other through the first
thirty years or so of this century. * * * *
The campaign, initiated by Commander King-Hall, for the popu- larisation of Hansard is, I understand, being organised and extended. There is a good deal to be said for it. In these days, when Parlia- ment is so inadequately reported by a Press working on less than 20 per cent. of the paper it consumed before the war, a wider circula- tion for the verbatim report of the proceedings of Parliament is very much .to be desired. But not everything that is to be desired is attained. Hansard is worth reading for the questions and answers which so valuably occupy the first three-quarters of an hour or so of the House of Commons' time daily, but much of the rest of it is deplorably dull stuff. Commander King-Hall, indeed, considerably flatters his fellow-members in assuming that the reports of their speeches make up a publication calculated to sell on its merits. On about one day out of four they might ; it is hard to feel very
optimistic about the other three.
* * * The death of no British film-actor could cause such universal sorrow as Leslie Howard's, for to a quite peculiar degree he had succeeded in getting an unusually engaging personality across to the audience. Everything about him gave Pleasure ; the good looks with which Nature had endowed him, the finished acting in such plays as Pygmalion, Pimpernel Smith and many others, the melodious voice which listeners to the Brains Trust as well as cinema audiences got to know well and, knowing, to appreciate. But perhaps the most attractive quality about Howard was his modesty. That came out particularly in the Brains Trust. His contributions were always relevant, intelligent and suggestive, and they were always expressed with a touch of diffidence and hesitation which does not invariably distinguish participants in that august disputation. * '* * * I•he salutation "Good morning to you if you have just joined us," on which I recently made some mild observations, has not been heard of late by listeners to the 8 a.m. news, and will not, I have reason to believe, be heard again. Meanwhile, my comments have encouraged various 'other critics to voice their views. One objects, with some vigour, to " the drivelling rubbish in sound that comes forth from the radio under the title of ' Rhythm on Record." Can anybody, he asks, with a spark of sanity or taste derive satisfaction froth such insane noises? Never having listened to this particular item, I am afraid I can express no view. * * * * Lord Cecil, I am glad to learn, though he has cracked three ribs, is not seriously incapacitated as the result of his fall from the plat- form at a Richmond cinema last Saturday. (To cover the orchestra with canvas extending from the platform sounds rather like Bannock- burn tactics.) He had some training in falls in his youth, when he dropped into a covered well, sustaining more serious injuries than he has this time at 78. There are not many men whose misfortunes would evoke more widespread sympathy, expressed or unexpressed. * * * * By an aberration I said last week that La France Libre consisted of articles in both French and English. It does not. They are all
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