D ANZIG still remains the danger-centre of Europe, and it appears to be the intention of Herr Hitler to keep it so, in the hope that either Poland's nerves will crack or Britain...

A drastic censorship is in force in Spain, and it is difficult to get reliable information regarding either the country's political evolution or its attitude towards the...

There is no sign of any material improvement in the situation in the Far East, nor indeed any very definite sign of any kind, except the intensification of anti-British activity...

Few countries in Europe are in a more uncertain or less enviable position than Hungary. Linked vaguely with the Axis Powers, she knows well that in Germany's eyes she exists...

It is difficult to resist the conclusion that the Cabinet is acting rather shabbily in the matter of financial support for Czech refugees. Immediately after Munich the Govern-...

It was a little odd last Tuesday evening to hear the B.B.C. announcer, in relation to the coming black-out, humbly en- treating householders to curtain their windows and conceal...

The decision of Imperial Airways to suspend bookings on Imperial air routes is in its way a national humiliation. It is obvious that of the five grounds pleaded by the company...

Dr. Benes's address at Cambridge struck a lofty and dis- passionate note, when almost without explicit reference to the events of last autumn he appraised the strong and weak...

The reinforcement of Singapore by troops from India may direct some attention to our defence problem in the Far East. Singapore itself, if properly garrisoned, is probably...

Controversy tends to centre on Munich, but in fact Munich was a logical step on the path of appeasement as a peace-policy. March r5th is the crucial date. When Hitler marched...

But the Prime Minister is his own worst enemy. He seems incapable of the generous gesture. His treatment of the Opposition, of Mr. Churchill and Mr. Eden is a real...

Chamberlain was made aware of it. Two days later he made a speech in Birmingham of quite different tone and temper and in tune with popular feeling. The satisfaction with Munich...

Our Parliamentary correspondent writes: A very few days will suffice to finish the outstanding work of the session, and an election is not unlikely immediately prior to the...

The appearance of the latest annual report of the Miners' Welfare Fund draws attention to steady progress in the humanisation of industry in a field in which it is much needed....

The Reserve Fleet of 130 vessels, which the King reviewed in Weymouth Bay, was in itself a formidable navy, com- prising good fighting examples of nearly all the main surface...

T the Liberal Summer School at Cambridge on Saturday Sir Arthur Salter re-emphasised and rephrased the conviction he has frequently expressed, notably in his recent book...

the present moment to be racing against time and straining every nerve to build up aerial, naval, military, and civil defences against a threatened war. She is not alone in...

and various deductions have been drawn from the fact. Most of them have rather slender foundation. Mr. Strang has obviously been called home because he cannot stay in Moscow for...

risk of compromising anyone when I say (on authority which I cannot but accept) that one of the 8o,000,000—not an emigri and not an anti-Nazi—was the author of the suggestion...

have been writing to The Times, is a baffling business. How is the litter scandal to be stopped? How, for instance. are you to deal with people who throw paper and old tins into...

W E are now in the crisis-period, and the issue lies with one abnormal man. The fact that by Aug. 15th—next Tuesday—mobilisation in Germany, and in more than one other country,...

to Commander King-Hall (who had not, by the way, written to the Minister of Enlightenment, but to a number of other German citizens individually) I ought to do my share in...

By D. R. GILLIE Park. August 7th, 1939. /11HE French have entered on the holiday season of the second year of the bloodless war after bearing with r emarkable equanimity the...

By LORD LU.GARD p ROPAGANDA which stoops to purely fictitious 1 allegations of the ruthless manner by which Britain has acquired her Colonial Empire is rightly felt by English-...

By THE BISHOP OF BATH AND WELLS 11 HE controversy between the scientists and the humanists 1 (using that word, not in any historical or technical sense) goes merrily on though...

By GODFREY LIAS T HE claim made from time to time in exalted quarters to the effect that British prestige in the Balkans has never stood higher than today springs from the lips...

By W. V. EMANUEL T HE Soviet Union occupies such a vast portion of the earth's surface that her fleets, like her aircraft, can operate against all three Axis Powers...

By SYLVA NORMAN I N the half-clouded evening sunshine three of us stood on the hillside confronting a couple of hard-boiled Amazons, weathered and glowing after a " grand "...

- By ARTURO BAREA y HAD never seen people playing darts but I wanted to I join in. It was my second visit to the inn ; in fact, it was my second visit to any English inn ; and...

1D'un correspondant parisienj DANS son ensemble la saison theatrale 1938-39 n'aura pas ete mauvaise. Nous l'envisageons evidemment du point de vue du public, car les directeurs...

final tragedy, which depicts Gordon descending the stair- way. He gazed at it for a Ion time with the puzzled scrutiny of a man unaccustomed to deciphering pictures. Suddenly...

who had spent many years of his life in the Sudan. I tried to convey to him my impression of fear and tragedy. "Yes," he answered, "it is a vast and silent land ; peopled by...

of the manner in which Gordon met his death. One story was that he was shot dead by a sniper when walking on the roof. Another story was that he was speared while fighting in...

I was able in a Cornish harbour to enjoy The Four Feathers of Messrs. Mason and Korda. Of all the changes and transi- tions which I have witnessed in half a century perhaps the...

story. Long before I visited the Sudan, long before I met Slatin or Kitchener, I had read those angry and wrong- headed diaries and pictured to myself the agony of that...

not, I found, regard the film with the same appreciation as I did myself. They were critical, for instance, of the role played by the doctor who, while pretending to be the...

By HAROLD NICOLSON 0 NE of the agreeable things about sailing is that it pro- vides such frequent visits to the cinema. I am fond of films, but when in London I find myself...

FROM A SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT "WHEN I have made a decision, and frequently I may make a decision contrary to your views, that decision is final and unalterable. You must...

THE THEATRE 1% hat Say They ? " By James Bridie.—" The Professor From Peking." By S. I. Hsiung. At the Malvern Festival. THE Malvern Festival is a kind of testing-time for...

"Beau Geste." At the Plaza.—" Un de la Legion." At the Curzon. THIRTEEN years have passed since the first Beau Geste was produced with Ronald Colman, William Powell, Noah...

1839-1939 THIS is a fascinating exhibition in spite of its failure to present contemporary photographic achievement. The Science Museum and the Royal Photographic Society have...

Popular Edition TO-MORROW evening Sir Henry Wood will open his forty- fifth season of Promenade Concerts at Queen's Hall, and during the coming eight weeks it will be possible...

THE " weapon-still-stand " is over; the guns travel to the , rth ; and the grouse, roused from the heather, will stream , .:r the butts. Many good sportsmen feel that the birds...

Interest in the partridge is not yet seasonable, except to those who find the partridge family the most amusing of all broods to watch. The parents are almost proverbially...

Harvest would be general if the sun would shine. It optned more than three weeks ago ; but for myself I do not remember to have seen the ripening process more completely...

Quite a large number of young women have made applica- tion for work on the land, including the driving of tractors, should war demand such service. The Minister of Agriculture...

There is a little garden, formed by an expert who modelled the whole in plasticene before constructing it, which contains more than its share of treasures ; but at the moment...

What of the grouse themselves this year? It is almost traditional among keepers to indulge in gloomy prognostica- tions. The worse the conditions have been, the greater honour...

Srn,—With the announcement of the latest drop in the total of the registered unemployed, it is interesting to read the comments in the National Press. The Daily Telegraph, for...

[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...

prolonging discussion on this subject, I must crave your indulgence to contest an astonishing state- ment made by Mr. Edinger in support of his reply to Mr. Wise in your issue...

I am sorry that Mr. Hugh Ross Williamson should consider our leaders' attitude towards foreign policy "war-mongering." If he had been led to believe this whilst the Government...

interesting article to The Spectator. He summarises the views of the German opposition, which desires "to co-operate with the rest of Europe." I hope he is right in his estimate...

most authority on the newspaper aspect of Press censorship during 1914-18 were the chief sub-editors in charge of the war rooms of our great daily newspapers and news agencies....

daily ebb and flow of war is a nightmare, as a non-pacifist pleading for peace, as an opponent of the Government most anxious to appeal for support of one of the Government's...

a letter under the heading "Receipt Stamps," written by a Barrister-at-Law. Although I am not in any way connected with the legal profession, I must, with apologies, heartily...

book, Light Out of Darkness, Honor Croome raises a point of fundamental importance upon which I should like to comment briefly. Dealing with my contention that the...

SIR,—Lest it should be thought that Commander Stephen King-Hall's letters to Germans, referred to by " Janus " in his Notebook, are universally well received in Germany, the...

Stn,—Regarding the Great Pyramid of Gizeh, it is interest- ing to note that Sir Flinders Petrie, in his Pyramids and Temples, gives the measurement of the low passage leading to...

SIR, — Your reviewer of Organised Labour in Four Continents says that in my own chapter of that book I state that the U.A.B. scales of allowance issued in 1934 "involved...

Sia,—The reason given by " Janus " in The Spectator of August 4th for the Socialist gain of the Brecon and Radnor by-election is hardly the correct one. The Liberal and...

Stn,—When travelling in Hungary recently I got into con- versation with a young Rumanian, partner in a large blanket- manufacturing firm. I was examining one of the um. elling...

GERMANY'S WAR CHANCES, Major B. T. Reynolds ASPECTS OF UNCERTAINTY, Anthony Powell THE GOLDEN LOTUS, William Plomer FINANCIAL ANNALS, Honor Croorne A POET IN PARLIAMENT, Ronald...

'I i , e Child in the Crystal. By Lady Sybil Lubbock. (Cape. los. 6d.) 111c. , e Poor Hands : a Miner's Autobiography. By B. L. Coombes. (Gollancz. 7s. 6d.) THESE four books...

The Golden Lotus. Translated by Clement Egerton. Four vols. (Routledge. 4 5 .) THE author's identity is uncertain: he wrote in the sixteenth century of life in the twelfth. The...

World Finance, 1938-9. By Paul Einzig. (Kegan Paul. 125. 6d.) IT is tempting to say that no one who writes so often, so much and so dogmatically on a complex subject as does...

A Poet in Parliament ; W. M. Praed. By Derek Hudson. (Murray. ns. 6c1.) OUR present discontents are frequently attributed to the decimation, in the War, of the generation that...

Stoughton. zos. 6d.) HERE are five books, three good and two bad, about the polar regions. Number one is a short monograph written to ex- plain the underlying principles that...

Best-Sellers. Are They Born or Made ? By George Stevens and Stanley Unwin. With a chapter by Frank Swinnerton. (Allen and Unwin. 5s.) THIS is a book whose primary appeal will...

THE idea behind The World of Man is both admirable and ambitious. Roughly, it is to do for the puzzled and curious fourteen-year-old, comprehensively and at an appropriate...

By FORREST REID Mister Johnson. By Joyce Cary. (Gollancz. 78. 6d.) Nothing is Past. By Kay Agutter. (Heinemann. 7s. 6d.) READERS who, like myself, feel that they never again...

I see no reason why shareholders in A. C. Cossor, Ltd., the radio and television-set makers, should not approve the deal in 1,000,000 of the ordinary 5s. shares now disclosed by...

WITH holiday influences now added to politics as a restraint on stock-market activity price-movements are dictated by such an exiguous volume of dealings as to be rather...

Mr. John Maxwell's review at the meeting of the Associated British Picture Cor- poration. As I pointed out last week, this undertaking has achieved a new record level of...

Up to a point I agree with this line of reasoning and in any event it merely reinforces a view I have often expressed in these notes, namely, that the investor who is not...

SHAREHOLDERS of Burma Corporation are pleased but not surprised to find that their dividends are on the up-grade again. The final dividend declared last week is raised from 4...

Shareholders in Richard Thomas & Co. cannot complain of any lack of excitement. Just over a year ago they were brought face to face with a drastic scheme of reconstruction under...

ASSOCIATED BRITISH PICTURE CORPORATION ANOTHER SUCCESSFUL YEAR THE twelfth ordinary general meeting of the Associated British Picture Corporation, Limited, was held on August...

Arthur Guinness, Son and Company, the Dublin brewers, sprang a surprise on the market last week by reducing their bonus from 5 per cent. to 2 per cent. The usual final ordinary...

Following the announcement of 'these changes Richard Thomas issues have been steady but firm, which I think is an appropriate reaction. Apart from general market conditions,...

Industrial Services, has earned a substantially increased profit, thus maintaining its unbroken record of progress over four years. Profits for the year ended June 30 were...

An unexpected burst of activity has overtaken the metal markets, and has carried copper up to over £44 per ton. Lead has als6 been heavily bought, and spelter has risen in...

[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 NEXT The winner of Crossword No. 22 is Mrs. D. M. Holland, Yellow Sands, The Towans, Hayle, Cornwall. WEEK