A WEEK which has seen the American occupation of Iceland ti (with all that that implies in the Atlantic), the end of the campaigns in Abyssinia and—unless some eleventh-hour...

In his farewell message to India issued on his departure for Egypt General Auchinleck insisted that the best defence is attack ; and that if the enemy is attacked at a distance,...

General Dentz's formal application for an armistiCe in Syria, announced by the Prime Minister on Wednesday, seems likely to bring to a successful conclusion a campaign which it...

Mr. Oliver Lyttelton, Minister of State representing the War Cabinet in the Middle East, arrived in Cairo last Saturday and is already exploring the immense field of work which...

The Ministry of Information had the uncomfortable ex- perience of being once again the subject of a full-dress debate in the House of Commons last week, but on this occasion the...

The Government is to be congratulated on not shrinking from producing the Pharmacy and Medicines Bill in war-time. It was debated in the House of Commons last Tuesday. Few...

If there are any among our allies, or our enemies, or waverers looking both ways, who have any idea that this country would consider a compromise peace, Mr. Eden's emphatic...

The Government cannot be congratulated on its handling of the coal question. Last winter there was no lack of coal in the country, but there was much suffering from inadequate...

T HE potentialities of what Lord Cecil on Monday described as "the quadrilateral of liberty "—Britain, the United States, Russia and China—have been immensely enhanced by...

me striking. My informant wanted, for special reasons, to discover how far the Bible is read by ordinary people in this country. He is a man who, when he wants to make...

sustained by their pupils are always regrettable, except in the singularly rare cases where there has been flagrant negligence. The Court of Appeal last week, by the unanimous...

my paragraph on egg-control. The gist of a long, pertinent and reasonable letter is contained in a single para- graph: "As things are at present some people with hens of their...

resulted in a verdict so unanimously unfavourable to the Government as last week's discussion on the Ministry of Information. Sir John Anderson may have made the best of a bad...

W E are only just beginning to realise what the introduction of Russia into the war may mean in other fields than the military. But a good deal that is paradoxical is revealing...

fork and spoon at the Chinese Campaign Committee's dinner to Dr. Wellington Koo on Monday. But this rather repre- hensible discrimination stopped there. Everyone else had to...

RUSSIA AND GERMANY AT GRIPS By STRATEGICUS fp HERE were two main difficulties in the way of a satisfac- j tory estimate of the chances of Russia holding out against Germany...

By STEPHEN KING-HALL, M.P. T HE sad, sorry and sickly debate on that anaemic affair, the Ministry of Information, was an occasion on wtuich the Executive mocked Parliament....

By ROBERT MENGIN R DECENT statements by. Mr. Roosevelt, Mr. Eden and General de Gaulle have drawn a clear distinction between the French people and their nominal government....

By CINCINNATUS p UDDLETON MAGNA, as its name implies, is a large village. It is not far from the sea, and so enjoys the custom of visitors, which may account for some of its...

WILL you, sometime, who have sought so long and seek Still in the slowly darkening hunting ground, Catch sight some ordinary month or week Of that strange quarry you scarcely...

By GEOFFREY W. RUSSELL A BOOK whose publication must be regarded in all legal and all literary circles as a notable event has just appeared in the United States. It consists of...

"Blithe Spirit." By Noel Coward. At the Piccadilly. IT is not unfair to say that without Thorns Smith and the " Topper " films Mr. Coward's new play would never have been...

Pimpernel Smith." At the Odeon.— ,, East of the Rive At Warner's. IN producing and directing a film in which he is also the star, Leslie Howard takes us back to the days of the...

THE fields of France are filled with weeping, On shattered houses falls the rain ; And under stones the rats are reaping The sickly harvest of the slain. The skies are charged...

little advertisement of the group of nostalgic undergraduates of Cambridge which Mr. T. E. Utley writes under the title of "Young England." At a time like this when the whole...

last week, but profoundly disappointed after reading it. Its vagueness is typical of Tory policy for the past twenty years, and "Old England" could knock spots off some of the...

are called Four "Christian Social Principles" by the Archbishop of York in a broadcast address calls for some comment. Clearly, they crystallise the findings of a movement...

SCHOOLBOY-SLAVES sut,—Well within living memory an Act was passed prohibiting the employment of children of school-age. It was then believed that his schoolwork, even at the...

welcomed by all undergraduates who feel dissatisfied with existing political societies in the University. Whig Liberalism is a negative creed, and leads to that which is its own...

SIR,—A. K. Watson appears to justify Russia's aggression against Finland and elsewhere on the grounds that she was not really attacking Finland but Germany. This may have...

the German military communiqués are generally correct. This in reference to a previous statement by "Janus." Quite so. But I hope that Mr. Carter will realise that German...

am very grateful to Mr. Young for his courteous restatement of his question. He asks me if there is a "third form," neither verse nor prose, which can rightly be called poetry....

on "Selective Evacuation." The underlying idea was that neighbours should be sent to the same district, that they should know beforehand where they were going, that someone who...

poem is poetry or not it may help us in this controversy. Having been taught early (and I suspect erroneously) that prose-poetry is a horror, I have always regarded such...

The singles and the species were never such a joy. The little single Hugonis and the cherry Moyseii surpassed themselves. The Penzance briars seemed richer in tone and the old...

Village Shop All country dwellers, and I suppose most country visitors, know the village shop. Stocking everything from candles to calico, seeds to sardines, it was almost a...

SIR, —In the beginning of March I ordered two summer shirts before there was any suggestion of coupons for clothes. The delivery of material was held up at the factory and the...

Sta,—I should like to explain why I oppose Lord Fairfield's pro- posal, fair at first sight, to penalise pedestrians for not wearing white patches in the darkness. (Persuasion...

is free for all, and many people may have been surprised that honeycombs are now more than double their normal price. They are apt to forget that the honey season is short, and...

think it would be a good idea to bring to the notice of the councils the urgency for providing allotments with a source of water. We have rallied to the call of the Government...

" scan " is correct, if that word is interpreted rigidly. But, though the Hebrew poets were not bound by a tonal, accentual, and syllabic arrangement such as characterises,...

"Crazy as a coot" is an expression heard more perhaps in America than here, but it has a firm basis in fact. On a hot June evening I was startled by a great commotion in the...

A War-Artist on War-Photographs History Under Fire. By James Pope-Hennessy. Photos. by Cecil Beaton. (Botsford. 8s. 6d.) THE bombing of buildings in this country since last...

The Recovery of the West. By Michael Roberts. (Faber and Faber. I2S. 6d.) Tins is a fine and indeed a profound book—in many respects noble ; in many respects difficult ;...

The Reformation in England. By F. M. Powicke. (Oxford University Press. 6s.) . OF all present practitioners of the art of 'history in this country the Regius Professor at...

Towards the Morning. By J. L. Hodson. (Gollancz. 8s. 6d.) Towards the Morning has not as exciting and varied material as its predecessor, Through the Dark Night, and, in default...

Retrospective Adventures. By Forrest Reid. (Faber. I25. 6d.) "ADVENTURES of the soul amongst masterpieces" has always seemed to me a peculiarly inept, romanticised definition of...

Mongol Journeys. By Owen Lattimore. (Cape. I2S. 6d.) THE appearance of this book is opportune, for the moment is approaching—in my opinion quickly—when Mongolia is likely to be...

IN her latest novel Miss Delafield undertakes to show us that backwards is an effective way home. Though unpersuaded, and a little worried by some waste of skill and ingenuity,...

WALTER CITRINE'S great influence in the English Trade Union movement gives a special interest to his record of his journeys in the United States, which he visited as a...

Spottiswoode. 128. 6d.) As Rumania has been in our minds of late, Miss Burgoyne's pleasant life of her first queen, Elizabeth of Wied, makes an appropriate appearance. To the...

The Silence of the Sea and Other Essays. By Hilaire Belloc. (Cassell. 7s. 6d.) MR. BELLOC, as a practised essayist, excites curiosity by the title of his opening paper. He does...

UNITED SUA BETONG RUBBER ESTATES RECORD OUTPUT AND PROFITS RUBBER INDUSTRY AND THE WAR EFFORT SIR JOHN HAY'S REVIEW The thirty-second annual general meeting of the United Sua...

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING Tim fifty-sixth annual general meeting of Harland and Wolff, Limited, was held on Thursday, July 3rd, at the Grand Central Hotel, Royal Avenue, Belfast....

By CUSTOS MARKETS are selective, but they are remarkably good. As I have often emphasised in these notes, there are technical influences making for a rise independently and...

Token for one guinea will be given to the sender of the first correct solution of this week's crossword puzzle so be opened. Envelopes should be marked taith the words...

The winner of Crossword No. 120 is Mrs. Miller, 40, Hope Terrace, Edinburgh.