On April 2nd Marshal Stalin's answer to the question whether he thought a meeting of the heads of the Great Powers would be useful was published. The answer was, "Possibly." On...

There is admittedly no precise parallel between the two situa- tions; the Cairo constitution was imposed (although the prin- ciple of a plebiscite was admitted later), while the...

The latest exchange of notes between the British and Persian Governments goes over old ground in the old way. It does not particularly matter at this stage whether the British...

M. Pinay has succeeded in doing what the two previous Premiers in the present French Assembly had failed to do. He has secured the passage of the Finance Bill. It does not sound...

The temporary political truce observed in South Africa during the tercentenary celebrations must not be allowed to obscure the gravity of the situation created by the Prime...

It cannot be denied that some disquiet has been caused in this country by the punitive measures taken on General Templer's orders against the village of Tanjong Maim. The...

The litigation about the Observer Trust is a complicated affair, as the necessity under which Mr. Justice Roxburgh found himself to reserve judgement shows, but what was...

M R. BUTLER may not be an iron Chancellor, but there is much strength in this pale, contemplative man with the rather casual air. He was in no enviable position at the end of...

The public at large has generally found it difficult to be patient with the behaviour of certain coal miners first towards the very suggestion that Italians should be brought in...

The information given to the House of Lords last week by the Secretary of State for Air, Lord De L'Isle and Dudley, if anything deepened the anxiety created by the statement of...

I T has been demonstrated very quickly that the term "textile crisis" covers a great deal more than a recession in the fortunes of the British textile industries: There was a...

be as famous in history as such other quadrupeds as the Duke of Wellington's Copenhagen or Isaac Newton's Diamond. I cannot find that Mr. Churchill mentions him in his Second...

reigns ? That harsh device to compel a horse to hold its head in a certain position is almost, and surely should be quite obsolete. I cannot believe for a moment that the Queen...

in Malaya, particularly precautions against the entry into the territory of anyone with Communist tendencies. The worst of it is that no One seems to have the auitiority, or the...

A LETTER from a young German to an English friend, which has just come into my hands, raises a not unimportant question that deserves some consider- ation. After referring with...

for other things than news: or perhaps that characteristic is confined to my friend H. B. and his Press Gallery colleagues. It was stated in the House of Commons on Monday by...

year is the appearance of the Michelin Guide for motorists in France. The 1952 issue has just reached me, and I am left wondering once again why neither the A.A. nor the R.A.C....

By MONTGOMERY HYDE, M.P. D URING my recent visit to Korea I saw President Syngman Rhee at his headquarters in Pusan, which is the temporary seat of the South Korean Govern-...

New England in the seven- teenth century, and today much is written of a similar hysteria in twentieth-century America. To an Englishman spending a year in the States there is...

By JOHN HILLS (Headmaster of Bradfield) I N most pictures of the Last Supper only one of the twelve Apostles can be easily and instantly identified. Judas alone has no halo....

A translation by C. G. Mark breiter Day of wrath, of wrath appalling, Psalms and oracles recalling Of a world in ashes falling. Day of dreadful trepidation, Day of stern...

And the long long night of the village listens. Anthony Crow and wife hold hands, As still as frost in the hedgerow glistens. Anthony, Anthony, time you come home, Each...

By PROFESSOR ANTHONY BLUNT O F the generation that grew up after the First World War Roger Fry exercised an influence which was only com- parable in the field of art with that...

By J. D. U. WARD 0 NCE again there has been a sharp controversy about what should be done with the over-mature trees of a famous avenue. This time three avenues were in fact...

The Long Way Home By LESLIEHALLIWELL (St. Cather.ne's College, Cambridge.) T HE bus departed from the town-hall square of a bustling cotton community just west of the...

By HAROLD N1COLSON H AVING just finished a book on which I have been engaged for a considerable time, I ought, I suppose, to be experiencing some at least of the emotions...

I RECALL, with delight, a play. Its opening scene was laid in a French provincial homestead. A doctor's wife, wringing her hands, awaits her husband's late return. Haggard, he...

The Dark Page. (New Gallery.) As the Spectator goes to press earlier this week, I can only review this one film, half a double-feature programme at the New Gallery, the second...

THEATRE Winter Journey. By Clifford Odets. (St. James's.) "Qum unimportant," said one of my colleagues of this play ; and I am sick at heart that no one has thus far ambushed...

Bonne-Bouche. (Covent Garden.) NnvETTE DE VALOIS'S idea of commissioning two choreographers from the Sadler's Wells Theatre company to compose ballets for Covent Garden has met...

A wreck more terrible in its circumstances, and even more fatal in its results, - than that of the Orion on the coast of Scotland, has happened in our colonial seas, off the...

ON Sunday evening the London Symphony Orchestra, under Hugo Rignold, played at the Festival Hall a programme such as all concert- giving societies, agencies and the like are for...

The stock of logs we bought before winter is sadly reduced.. They have helped a great deal, and we have used them generously. Next to the smell of burning peat there is nothing...

think of cauliflower and cabbage for autumn, as well as second-crop peas and the sowing of such things as turnips and beet. If cauliflowers are forgotten, they often do not...

the fact that his dog had taken a fancy to eggs, robbing nests when he could find them. Eggs are much too valuable to be exposed to such danger, but R.'s poultry live in a sort...

of wild flowers are out. The days get a little warmer, and more and more of them are met along the lanes and across the fields. The snowdrop season has passed. The gatherers of...

ON the country-bus everyone knows everyone else, and when it is crowded friends converse over the heads of other passengers. At times things become involved. I sat in the bus...

Report by R. Kennard Davis In Caliban's Guide to Letters Mr. Hilaire Belloc, giving a specimen review of an imaginary poet, quotes" Great unaffected vampires and the moon" as...

Set by D. R. Peddy Dr. Mont Follick, M.P., recently managed to transform a debate on the Naval Estimates into one on spelling reform. Members unsuccessful in the ballot might...

Sus,—The article on this subject in your issue of April 4th fails to do justice to the British authorities in the Reserve. Confronted with all the d;fficulties arising from the...

SIR,—It seems doubly a pity that Mr. Nicolson is not the father of daughters: he would have made them a delightful father, and he would have made the acquaintance of little...

The National Anthem SIR—As Janus has shown such keen interest in the possible improve- ment of the words of the National Anthem, he may like to know that criticism of the...

SIR,—Mr. Peter Fleming's article, Bows and Arrows, must have stirred happy memories amongst countless survivors of the Home Guard, whose memories are rich in recollections of...

which must be faced, however painful they may be to us. In debarring Seretse Khama from the leadership of his tribe, which is now fully prepared to accept him, we are depriving...

SIR, —The first two of fifty houses which fifty workers from Fort Dunlop are building in their spare time are now occupied. Eight others are nearly finished; and licences have...

was interested in Mr. Norman Mackinon's reminiscences and observations on the distressing political situation in South Africa. How true it is that the political divines are...

Professor Gilbert Ryle's letter in your issue of March 28th form a serious misrepresentation of this society's aims and functions. Surely, the learned Editor of Mind should,...

Spaniards and Incas The Florida of the Inca. By Garcilaso de la Vega. Translated from the Spanish and edited by John Varner and Jeannette Varner. (Nelson. 30s.) This charming...

ONE could as well prove Sycorax and Caliban excellent civil admini- strators as convincingly fulfil the task Mr. Maclear Bate has voluntarily assumed. After forty days on...

THIS is rather a Beta-Plus collection, with good but not outstandin2 books from many hands, old and new. By any canons Agatha Christie deserves precedence, and Mrs. McGinty's...

Tins book will certainly be of very great value to students and general readers of philosophy : it is a successful anthology of the essential texts of British empiricism,...

Secular Lyrics of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries. Edited by Rossell Hope Robbins. (Clarendon Press. 18s.) THE present collection acts as a secular counterpart to the...

Time and Chance. By John Connell. (Constable. 15s.) IT is a queer and perhaps suspicious thing, but since I started reviewing fiction I have never come across a novel that I...

A Woman at Scotland Yard. By Lilian Wyles. (Faber. 18s.) IN the witness-box at Bow Street Police Court a short time ago a young policewoman described an arrest she had made the...

By C LISTOS ALTHOUGH markets are still inactive and understandably cautious they have suc- ceeded at least in staging a moderate recovery. The lead has come, as one expected,...

The winner of Crossword No. 671 is: P. NICHOLS, Esq., 48, Church Way, Whetstone, London, N.2.0.

guinea will be awarded to the sender of the first correct solution opened after noon on Tuesday week, April 22nd, addressed Crossword. 99 Gower Street, London, W.C.1. Envelopes...