10 MARCH 1939

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Mr. Gandhi's Fast The potency of Mr. Gandhi's fasts is

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alarming. All, this time, has ended well ; not only did the Mahatma break his fast on the fourth day, but he did so as result of a letter from the Viceroy which had the effect...

NEWS OF THE WEEK T HE dramatic events of the last

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week in Spain have finally destroyed the essential basis of Republican resistance to General Franco—the Frente Popular coalition. On Sunday night, after a revolt in Cartagena...

The Palestine Conference The Palestine Conference has come to the

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point at which the initiative must lie entirely with the Government ; it has reached the deadlock which was foreseen when it opened, and in the next few days the Government must...

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Poland, Rumania and Hungary The results of Colonel Beck's recent

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diplomatic activity should be extremely welcome to the Western Powers. Count Ciano's visit to Poland has produced nothing more than a general promise of co-operation, and an...

Recovery in France On Monday M. Reynaud, the French Minister

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of Finance, gave an extremely encouraging report on the results of his financial measures. They had, he said, already achieved more in a shorter time than M. Poincares measures...

The Election in Belgium After M. Pierlot, the Prime Minister,

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had failed to form a new Government on the basis of a Catholic-Socialist coalition, the Belgian Parliament was dissolved on Monday ; no other solution has been found possible...

Pope Pius XII The rarity of the election of a

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Papal Secretary of State to the Papacy itself is a notable testimony to Cardinal Pacelli's personal qualities. He was, moreover, elected on the first day of voting, and on the...

The British Army's Contribution Mr. Hore-Belisha's speech on the Army

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estimates in the House of Commons on Wednesday deserved the eulogies his predecessor, Mr. Duff Cooper, accorded to it. What the War Minister was able to present was not merely a...

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The Happy Prisoner Talking of the new housing programme for

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prisons, in the House on Monday Sir Samuel Hoare said that on a site already secured two distinct institutions would be accom- modated—the women's prison to take the place of...

Sir Philip Sassoon was hunted on both days, because the

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Vienna Legation has been sold to the Nazi Flying Corps for what, to the House, seemed a bargain price. The First Commissioner of Works, from the days when he was at the Air...

A large House seemed strangely hostile to Mr. Hore- Belisha,

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when he began his speech on the Army Estimates on Wednesday. The first part, which dealt with high strategy, he took at too fast a pace for the House fully to comprehend. The...

The change of feeling in the House over Defence is

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remarkable. Sir Kingsley Wood comes in for the loudest praise. There is no doubt that Mr. Lloyd George's esti- mate of him as the Government's ablest administrator is justified....

The Week in Parliament Our Parliamentary correspondent writes: The present

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Government has been in power since 1931 and another ten years of office is by no means unlikely. What will be the character of Parliament in 1950? Members who were in the House...

A Plea for the Theatre In this time of grim

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preoccupations and commitments it is particularly gratifying to hear the Chancellor of the Ex- chequer express sympathy with those who are protesting against the effect of the...

Empire Shipping The emphasis that the President of the Board

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of Trade laid on the vital needs of Empire shipping was timely and might with profit be followed up. Strategy is one, and a very urgent consideration. It is true, as Mr. Stanley...

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WILL GERMANY UNDERSTAND?

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T HE British Ambassador in Berlin, addressing the Cologne branch of the Deutsch-Englische Gesell- schaft on Saturday, quoted, as embodying sentiments particularly deserving of...

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THE SHAME OF UNEMPLOYMENT

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T HE fall in the February unemployment figures has, in many quarters, been greeted with signs of pro- found relief ; The Times, for instance, says that the fall has removed" the...

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The new Master of Christ's seems to have absconded to

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America on the very day of his election—not solely, I imagine, to avoid the embarrassment of congratulations. Canon Raven might have had an academic or an ecclesiasti- cal...

"We shall soon lose a celebrated building," quoted Browning at

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the head of his poem on the Paris Morgue. Well, we have just lost one, it seems, in Vienna. Not so very celebrated, perhaps; only the British Legation in the Metter- nichgasse...

Clifford Allen's death leaves a strange blank in public life—strange,

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because he held a strange, almost a unique, position in the political field. Since the War his health, already precarious, having further deteriorated af the result of his three...

A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK

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T HE House of Commons, I regret to say, dislikes the Press. The question put on Monday by Mr. Morris, instigating the Prime Minister to "consider introducing legislation to...

Here, for what it is worth, is a sentence from

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a conver- sation with a well-informed, representative and non-political German—not an émigré. "Suppose," I asked him, "Mussolini levelled demands against France unsuccessfully,...

"NEW POPE ELECTED.

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Harlequin 1, Tough Guy 2, Steel Blade 3." Evening Standard, March 2nd. Those don't seem quite the names I saw in other papers, but perhaps they are pseudonyms, though on that...

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RUSSIA TODAY: II. THE FOREIGN OUTLOOK

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By WALTER DURANTY T HE paramount factor in determining Soviet foreign policy has, of course, been Munich and its conse- quences. I use the word Munich as a general term to...

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SCHOOLS AND " STAGGERED " HOLIDAYS

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By DR. TERRY THOMAS (Headmaster of Leeds Grammar School) O NE of the matters agitating the educational world is the question of school holidays—descriptively known as...

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ITALY AND THE SUDAN

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By GEORGE STEER T is the common view in this country, among the experts, that Ethiopia in its present disorder (admitted behind hands) will be a total loss to Italy in the...

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WE ME UNEMPLOYED

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By KENNETH NEEDHAM OME of you tell me I am worthless and don't want to work. Some of you imagine that I am an earnest young man, with face emaciated by strain and privation,...

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GERMANY AND BRITISH UNEMPLOYMENT

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By A BERLIN CORRESPONDENT 1 N Britain thousands of thinking people have long been shaking their heads over the unemployment problem ; abroad they have been doing the same, and...

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THE WHITE KNIGHT'S STAMP-CASE

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By BERNARD DARWIN " y WAS wondering what the mouse-trap was for," said Alice. "It isn't very likely there would be any mice on the horse's back." "Not very likely, perhaps,"...

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THE OLD POET

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By JEAN-JACQUES BERNARD The registrar's clerk, assuming a genial manner, looked at his clients. These, a father supported by his two witnesses, were delighted to relax....

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I learnt that "Laatste Niews " would be found on

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page thirteen. I turned over the pages hurriedly. There it was. Field-Marshal Goring was about to leave for Italy. " Goring's rustkuur," the paragraph was headed. I read the...

PEOPLE AND THINGS

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By HAROLD NICOLSON p OLITICIANS share with theatrical companies the fre- quent disadvantage of travelling on Sundays. Few experiences are more dispiriting. So potent is the...

I have learnt from experience not to criticise domestic politics

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in other countries. I replied that I knew nothing whatsoever about Monsieur Sudan, but that I hoped that the Belgian Ministerial crisis would be settled without an elec- tion....

He began by telling me that democracy was doomed. Commercially,

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he explained, no free economy could hope to resist the closed discipline of the totalitarians. The barter system, for instance: did I not regard the barter system as invincible?...

"But what sort of map?" I asked. "A map," he

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answered ; "which apportions the world between Germany, Italy and Japan." I had heard the same thing that morning from a more authoritative source. I looked at him with...

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Commonwealth and Foreign

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JUGOSLAVIA AND HER NEIGHBOURS By A DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENT ON February 4th, Milan Stoyadinovitch, Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Jugoslavia was compelled to resign....

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STAGE AND SCREEN

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THE THEATRE "The Antigone of Sophoetes." At the Arts Theatre, Cambridge. THE Antigone is a magnificent play and one of the few Greek plays in which the conflict is immediately...

THE CINEMA

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"The Son of Frankenstein." At the Leicester Square.—" Le Joueur d'Echecs." At the Berkeley. "Europe In Review." At the Tatler. Firms which set out to be frightening and...

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LE LECTEUR ARC-EN-CIEL

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ID'un correspondant parisieni IL s'est fonde recemment A Paris un Centre d'Etudes des Problems Humains. Ce titre indique un programme aussi vaste qu'il soil possible—et sans...

OPERA

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"Der Dreigroschenkavalier " No one can complain of a lack of boldness in the Sadler's Wells management when they offer their audience within the space of a few weeks...

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In the Garden Every year one flower or another stands

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out above th rest. Last year brought a miraculous spring for violets all colours. This year snowdrops have undoubtedly bee' finer than for some years past. Beginning late, they...

Hop Stringing Probably no other crop needs such elaborate assistance

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as the hop, and in March that assistance can be seen taking its first form in the astonishing straw-coloured pattern of new strings that shines out from behind the twenty-foot...

Flax Prospects Of flax, a crop now recognised to be

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of increasing im- portance, especially in defence schemes, we imported 50,000 tons last year. This represents something like 25,000 acres of growing flax and, at the 1939...

COUNTRY LIFE

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The Wild Nt. ;:reun Daphne Mezereum, reputed to love chalk but always seen at its best, to my mind, on the clay of the Midlands, has long been listed as a wild plant. Its...

Rabbits : An Experiment Of the rabbit I am almost

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tirea of talking. The deteriora- tion of pastures and damage to afforestation schemes are only two of the many troubles for which the rabbit is re- sponsible in this country....

The Pigeon Again It is a tiresome business to have

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to return, year after year, to the same subject, but it must now be three or four years since we were promised action against the rabbit pest, and two years since we were told...

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IN DEFENCE OF GERMANY [To the Editor of THE SI , E(. - IEVI

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OR 1 never doubted that my letter would lead to angry cries from your readers. Uninnunately, reasons of space forbid my answering every argument in the letters you pub- lished,...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

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[Correspondents are requested to keep their letters as brief as is reasonably possible. Signed letters are given a preference over those bearing a pseudonym, and the latter must...

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COMPULSORY NATIONAL SERVICE

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[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—Representatives of the various political parties in this country, including the Prime Minister, have recently ex- pressed their...

SICKNESS AND WAGES

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[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR, —The paragraph in your issue of Friday last seems hardly to appreciate the inconvenience, if not injustice, occa- sioned by the recent...

YOUTH WITHOUT WORK

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[To the Editor of TIM SPECTATOR] SIR,—TO us in this distressed area of South Wales, Mr. Oake- shott's article in your last week's issue, as well as the Prime Minister's recent...

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BRITISH AND GERMAN AIR-POWER

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[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] Sta,—Referring to my recent article, "British and German Air-Power," Mr. Hugh Ledward asserts that I am misinformed regarding the inferior...

"JOHNSON OVER JORDAN"

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[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] should be very sorry to think that Mr. Derek Verschoyle's unsympathetic review of Mr. Priestley's latest play represents the opinion of those...

REFUGEE CHILDREN

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[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—The following is an extract from an official letter issued by the Board of Education on December 30th, 1938: "I am directed to state that...

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THE NAVY FROM WITHIN"

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[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—I hope you will permit me to remark on certain state- ments in the review of The Navy From Within (The Spectator, February 24th). It...

CYNOMANIA

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[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—The Cynophiles have entirely failed to answer Mr. Vulliamy's letter urging the elimination of the domestic dog. There has been merely a...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] Sus,—Adolphine Teisner's letter surprises

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me. My own letter was intended as irony, and was surely so absurd that few could have interpreted it any other way. I sincerely hope so. I am much befriended by, as well as...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] Sut,—Dog equilibrium upset? Of

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all things and beings only a certain quantity is wanted. This applies to dogs as well as to human beings, whatever their race or quality. If one had to meet at every street...

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BOOKS OF THE DAY

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The Pre-War Lloyd George U. A. Spender) • 411 Meet the Prisoner (Col. G. D. Turner) ... ••• 4 1 4 Union Now (Wilson Harris) . . • 412 Poems from the Irish (Sean O'Faolain)...

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THE NEWEST UTOPIA Union Now. By Clarence K. Streit. (Cape.

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los. 6d.) IT is a strange thing that no one between Alexander Hamilton (1787) and Mr. Clarence Streit (1939) should have understood how the relations of States need to be...

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THE WASTE LAND

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The Lawless Roads. By Graham Greene. (Longmans. los. 6d.) I FIND it impossible to write of The Lawless Roads in any but personal terms, for I have been awaiting its publication...

IT WAS A FAMOUS VICTORY"

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munich and the Dictators. By R. W. Seton-Watson. (Methuen. 5s.) Jr is not agreeable to be reminded of the humiliations of last autumn, yet there is so much matter of first-rate...

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THE ENGLISH PRISON'

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Meet the Prisoner. By John A. F. Watson. (Cape. 8s. 6d.) EVEN such admirable articles on our prisons as have appeared in The Spectator do not dispel altogether the uneasiness...

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MR. FORSTER'S ALEXANDRIA

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Alexandria : a History and a Guide. By E. M. Forster. (Whitehead Morris. 7s. 6d.) IF our civilisation ever collapses, which seems most unlikely, and historians of the future...

POEMS FROM THE IRISH

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"INSTEAD of springing from a philosophy," says Mr. O'Connor, in his brief introduction to the poems in The Fountain of Magic, " this poetry springs from a situation; it is...

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FICTION

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By FORREST REID On The Night of the Fire. By F. L. Green. (Michael Joseph. 78. 6d.) Portrait of a Man. By F. W. Lister. (Muller. 7s. 6d.) St. Michael Puts His Foot Down. By...

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MOTORING

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A People's Car Very enviable publicity has been given to the German Vo_kswagen which Herr Hitler has ordered for his obedient followers. New models of old-established makes...

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FINANCE AND INVESTMENT

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THIS is Recovery with a capital R in the stock markets. A week ago I was just sufficiently impressed by the political signs and portents—and their economic implications—to give...

RICHARD THOMAS IMPROVEMENT

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Sir William Firth, the chairman of Richard Thomas an3 Company, the sheet steel and tinplate makers, seems to ha‘ done some really good business in Canada and the Unite.! States....

HOME RAILWAY PROSPECTS

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In the light of the gross traffic receipts to date it is ad- mittedly difficult to get very enthusiastic about home railway prospects. All four companies have already fallen...

MOTOR SHARE ATTRACTIONS

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Like home-railway stocks motor shares have moved up quite sharply during the past fortnight, but I would advise holders not to sell. Here again it is a case of recovery round...

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COMPANY MEETING

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UNITED KINGDOM PROVIDENT INSTITUTION Si V: ERNEST BENN O N THE N EWSPAPER MENACE THE 98th annual general meeting of the members of the United Kingdom Temperance and General...

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Venturers' Corner Within the next few weeks the accounts will

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be published of Allen West and Co., the switch-gear and electric-control gear manufacturers. For the year ended January 31st, 1938, this company's net profit rose sharply from...

FINANCIAL NOTES UNILEVER RETAIL GROUP

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Fntsr news of the fortunes of the great Lever Brothers and Unilever combine during 1938 comes from the group of retail provision companies which are linked to it through Allied...

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COMPANY MEETING

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LONDON BRICK COMPANY RECORD PRODUCTION BOARD'S POLICY OF NATIONAL DISTRIBUTION THE annual general meeting of the London Brick Company, Limited, was held on March 7th at the...

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REFUGE ASSURANCE COMPANY

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The Refuge Assurance Company is among those under- takings which specialise in both Industrial and Ordinary life assurance, and the chairman, Mr. J. Wilcock Holgate, re- ported...

Two NEW UNff TRUSTS Two new unit trusts are now

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making their appearance. National Gold Share Certificates is being launched by National Fixed Investment Trust. In its original form the unit which is divided into 4,800...

BRITANNIC ASSURANCE POLICY

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Hopes of sustained market recovery are based largely on the thesis that very substantial funds were withheld from in- vestment during the recession, and may be invested as con-...

SIR ERNEST BENN ON MANAGEMENT Sir Ernest Benn's speeches are

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not of the type which insph unanimity, but they do make people think. It is therefore pleasure each year, as the annual meeting of the United King- dom Provident Institution...

LONDON BRICK OUTLOOK After a year of record production and

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sales it was perhaps natural that Sir P. Malcolm Stewart, the chairman of the London Brick Company, should have warned stockholders not to pitch their hopes for 1939 too high....

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"THE SPECTATOR" CROSSWORD SECOND SERIES-No. 1

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[A prize of a Book Token for one guinea will be given to the sender of the first correct solution of this week's crossword puzzle to be opened. Envelopes should be marked...

SOLUTION TO CROSSWORD No. 336

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