T HE resignation of Mr. Byrnes, who has been United States Secretary of State since 1945, though it came as a surprise to th public, has actually been looming for some time. As...

Until M. Moutet, the Minister for Overseas Territories, returns to Paris to report it is probable that in Viet-Nam political considera- tions for the future will come a poor...

There must be many Frenchmen today who wish that M. Blum were twenty years younger. He has succeeded, at the head of a party holding less than one-sixth of the seats in the...

The directive issued by the Cabinet to the various Ministries to prepare reports on their staffing position is a response to recent criticisms of the swollen size of the Civil...

Recent happenings on the British railways have brought out in relief the seriousness of a problem which cannot await the passing of the Transport Nationalisation Bill. There is...

The visit of the Chief of the Imperial General Staff to Moscow has let loose such a flood of speculation about the motives of the British and Soviet Governments that it has...

It is rumoured that one of the subjects discussed at the meeting of the National Joint Advisory Council on Wednesday was a new White Paper on manpower and production to be...

T HE great virtue of the Town and Country Planning Bill, the text of which was published on Wednesday, is that it repre- sents a practical attempt to do a job which is...

T HE unkind remarks I made the other day about Disability Pensions for ex-Service men moved the Minister of Pensions to send the Editor a copy of some " Notes on War Pensions."...

week after a fortnight's holiday, sat down to open his mail. The first envelope contained a harsh and exigent communication from the Commissioners of Inland Revenue ; the second...

put it, the blizzard which hit—London early this week brought out once more the Englishman's staunch refusal to equip himself against his climate's extremes' moods. Those...

completely you are disabled the nearer you come to getting a square deal. If your injuries are such that you cannot compete at all in the struggle for existence, the authorities...

hosts to visit the Red Army Museum in Moscow I expect he will find the exhibits both more various and more impressive than they were when I looked in there in the early '30's....

By BRIGADIER J. G. FRERE T HE announcement recently made by Nokrashy Pasha in the Egyptian Parliament that he had demanded from Great Britain a statement of her policy as...

By RICHARD CHANCELLOR T HE pace is quickening in Moscow, and the return of Stalin to the ancient capital of the Tsars has coincided with a further not unimportant rearrangement...

By MAJOR E. W. SHEPI'ARI) T HE United States Strategic Boinbing Survey, whose report on the results of Allied air attacks on Germany was analysed in The Spectator a few weeks...

By J. L. STEWART C ATTLE plague, better known by its German name of rinder- pest, devastated the Gold Coast herds until the late 'twenties when a veterinary laboratory was set...

By R. 0. FAULKNER P OSSIBLE changes in Anglo-Egyptian relations as a result of the present negotiations are of considerable interest, and may be of considerable moment to the...

• When the root of joy is gone And the lover left alone What, then. is there left to do? All the tended senses dead, Colour, touch and music taken ; The very sunrise turned to...

By D. MacCLURE T HE most dishonest kleptomaniac on earth is the Colombo crow. Theft is his sole purpose in life from the moment he leaves the untidy nest of his parents in the...

By HAROLD NICOLSON T HE London Survey Committee celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of its foundation in 1944: three years after that event it has published a jubilee volume...

THE concert given by Toti Dal Monte and Augusto Beuf at the Central Hall on January 2nd was in the pure prima-donna tradition, and might have taken place 40 or so years ago...

THE CIRCUS "Bertram Mills Circus." (Olympia.) IN the sideshows the prizes are for the most part shoddy; gazing at the pyramids of revolting chinaware, the austerity dolls, the...

Cross My Heart." (Cariton.)—" Temptation " and " The March of Time." (Leicester Square.) THE Hollywood boys are the only film-makers who can be genuinely funny, and even...

The Blue Cross, first of the series of Father Brown stories to be broadcast, was one of the more modest but at the same time most successful of the week's programmes. The mild,...

THE most interesting event of the week has probably been the account by Mr. Alan Houghton Brodrick in The Observer of the paleolithic drawings in the Lascaux caves near...

SIR, —Having recently spent some days in a Nazi youth re-education camp, and talked with many prisoners, I can confirm much of what your corre- spondents say about the...

SIR,—As Mr. Godfrey Nicholson points out in your issue of January 3rd, it is high time that people in this country faced up to the realities of the Indian situation. In the...

THE DECISIONS AT BASLE StR,—Mr. Harold Nicolson is perfectly right when he testifies that Lord Balfour's support for Zionism was untinged by cynicism. In my biography of him I...

3rd must have struck a deep chord of sympathy among many readers ; not least among those like myself who, if fate had worked differently, might now be in German prison camps,...

Sit,—Mr. Richard Capell's letter on Greece in your issue of December 27th is inaccurate in more than one respect. He says that the present Greek Parliament represents about 7o...

Snt,—Readers of your challenging article, No Room at the Inn, may be interested to know that in Liverpool a piece of the "creative work" for which Michael Gedge is longing is...

sm,—It is common knowledge that many of the wildest and most beauti- ful parts of the English countryside are about to be despoiled and closed to the public on a scale far...

Sit,—Twice this century Britain, with all in the world more or less depending on her, has been saved by the Committee of Imperial Defence. It is a pity that the public has not...

Sut,—Will you allow me a word in reference to your paragraph on Parliament and Church, in your issue of December 27th ? Most of us would be found to share your regret that there...

Instances abound of the homing instinct of various animals, of dogs, cats and even horses. As a boy I rode a pony that would always take me straight home if the hunt left me...

MOST country people have felt satiric on the subject of imported eggs —much bragged about—and the starving of home-bred poultry ; but the worst of the matter has hardly been...

Sia,—The red light as it affects us nationally is in all conscience suffi- ciently depressing ; when seen internationally it may well be alarming. The less our coal, the greater...

Sia,—It would appear that the answer given to the question in your general knowledge test, concerning the " defenestration " of Prague is misleading in one respect. Although the...

upon this matter in your issue of December zoth may mislead the unwary, I venture to point out that while, as decided by the House of Lords, the owner of the horse in question...

great regret that I have to take you to task for having murdered the two ministers whose defenestration opened the tragedy of the Thirty Years War. In fact the two gentlemen,...

How faithful year after year are certain birds to certain places ! Last week a very earnest observer of birds called on me and said that he had been watching a small group of...

SIR, —It is a pity that Janus, before condemning so severely the deci- sion of Bristol City Council to appoint a Public Relations Officer, did not turn up the files—for there he...

Many of those who grow strawberries for pleasure or profit will, I think, agree with a farmer correspondent of mine—he is incidentally ninety years old and so of some...

SEVERAL good books on Parliament have appeared lately—an indica- tion possibly of increased public interest in that venerable institution —and this is one of them. In addition...

Abbey Theatre Echoes Lady Gregory's Journals, 1916-1930. Edited by Lennox Robinson. (Putnam.. 18s.) Tuts is a large book, but we are warned that three times as much remains...

The Wealth of England from 1496 to 1760. By G. N. Clark. (Oxford University Press. 3s. 6d.) THE Home University Library has launched in its time a notable fleet of pocket...

The Rebirth of the German Church. By Stewart Herman, with an • introduction by Martin Niemoller. (S.C.M. 1Qs. 6d.) 1` This is not a Poor Germany Book . . . written either to...

Thoughts on Feeding. By L. J. Picton. (Faber and Faber. 12s. 6d.) WILL this century of ours be known to posterity as the " Age of Knowledge"? When we think of all the...

The Future of Governments. By Herman Finer. (Methuen. 10s. 6d.) Tins book is mainly devoted to a survey of the problems that con- fronted the Governments of France, Germany,...

Contemporary Italy : Its Intellectual and Moral Origins. By Count Carlo Sforza. (Frederick Muller. 15s.) CouHr SFORZA does justice neither to Italy nor to himself by con- fusing...

War Memorials. By Arnold Whittick. (Country Life. 30s.) WHAT do you think about war memorials ? An informal, and doubt- less inefficient, little public-opinion survey amongst...

Water Transport. By James Hornell. (Cambridge University Press. 30s.) PEOPLE are divided between those who like small boats and those who do not—with, perhaps, a third category...

6d.) The Sixth Heaven is the second volume of Mr. Hartley's trilogy on the life of Eustace Cherrington, the first, The Shrimp and the Anemone, being published in 1944. The third...

than a planned and proportioned autobiography, and, as the latter, it suffers a little in consequence. But if it is somewhat disconnected, the author's method—or lack of...

Lyon (Cape. 2s. 6d.) THE sixteen poems (one French) in this small book were written during years of war and almost continuous pain. This may partly account for their quality of...

IN his preface Mr. Cleaver draws attention to the growing interest in dramatic performances as part of the scheme of education ; on his last page he expresses his belief that "...

The Dartmoor Scene. By Kenneth F. Day. (Muller. 7s. 6d.) A bock on Dartmoor could hardly choose a better time for its appearance than this, when the whole future of the moor is...

ALLEN AND UNWIN have in hand an important work, Rediscovery of justice, by F. R. Bienenfeld, an international jurist who is ;t present legal head of the World Jewish Congress....

for one guinea will be awarded to the sender of the first correct solution of this week's crossword to be opened after noon, on Tuesday week, yanuary 2551. Envelopes must be...

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By CUSTOS IN Throgmorton Street 'the year has started, as one felt it must, on a note of cautious optimism. The volume of business is, perhaps, somewhat smaller than many...