11 MARCH 1955

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ATTLEE TAKES THE PLUNGE

The Spectator

T HE one thing which will not be forgotten in the perilous week that lies ahead of the Labour Party is that the Shadow Cabinet's decision to recommend the with- drawal of the...

ESTABLISHED 1828 No. 6611 FRIDAY, MARCH 11, 1955 PRICE 7d.

The Spectator

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SNARLING OVER THE SAAR T HE perpetual muttering of France and

The Spectator

Germany round the rich morsel of the Saar rose to a snarl over the week- end. With the ratification debate on the Paris agreements due to take place in the Bundesrat on March...

EGYPT'S ANGER

The Spectator

F OR the past few years Israel has had to put up with continuous and offensive provocation. The Egyptians have reserved the right to treat the 'armistice' of 1949 as a one-sided...

Notes

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FORMOSA T T is no secret that there are differences of opinion between 'Britain and America on the scope and function of SEATO in relation to the threat of Communist Chinese...

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HANDSHAKE

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`Ct HAKING hands with him for the first time, my feeling was of suspicion and doubt that the man whose hand I seized would respect the constitution and fulfil agreements. We...

THE FUTURE OF MALTA

The Spectator

T HE victory of Mr. Mintoff's Labour Party in the Maltese general election confronts the British Government with a problem in colonial policy of an unusually flattering kind....

TREASON?

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T HE Attorney-General's remark in the Commons this week, that it should not be assumed that if Winnington and Shapiro, the two Daily Worker correspondents, returned to this...

ARMED POLICE

The Spectator

T HE cry 'Arm the police' is heard less frequently nowadays: but anybody who imagines that he would feel safer if they carried firearms would do well to read the report of a...

TWO WAYS OF FIGHTING COMMUNISM

The Spectator

T HE abdication of King Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia in favour of his father, Prince Suramit, follows close on the objections made by the International Armistice Commission in...

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Political Commentary

The Spectator

Anatomy of Bevanism By HENRY FAIRLIE B EVANISM is not, and never has been, a political move- ment with any coherent philosophy or policy. When Mr. Bevan and fifty-six other...

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The Hidden Hand

The Spectator

BY BRIAN INGLIS W HAT is the country's wage policy? To what aims does it subscribe? The striking merit of Barbara Wootton's new study* of the subject is that it com- pels us to...

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HUTTON'S SUCCESS in Australia must have settled the argu- ment

The Spectator

whether a professional should captain England. It still seems to me doubtful, however, if it is wise to make your best player captain. Particularly on tour the captain's...

A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK

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EVERY SCHOOLBOY knows that when Mary Tudor became queen she returned England to the Papal fold and burned a great many Protestants. This is a piece of knowledge of which Roman...

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THE CENSORSHIP PLOT

The Spectator

By JOYCE CARY L L your correspondents supporting the Censorship Bill are saying the same thing: 'Let us stop something that frightens us.' They use the immemorial arguments of...

ANYONE who has wondered uneasily how he would have behaved

The Spectator

under torture in Korean POW camps will have read with interest a recent letter on the subject in The Times. The writer suggests that for captives to stick to Geneva rules while...

THE ESTIMATE that the Beaverbrook Press has of the length

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of our memories is not flattering. The Sunday Express this week sympathised impressively with 'the unfortunates who panicked and sold on a falling market' because of false cries...

A WRITER in the New Statesman recently argued that since

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the private affairs of the Royal Family are paid for by the public, they are fair game for public curiosity. This seems to me an odd doctrine. To take some obvious examples, the...

Justice foiled again. PHAROS

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Party Politics in South Africa—n

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By PENRY WILLIAMS M ONO the issues dominating the political conflicts of the Nationalists and the United Party, two things stand out: memories of the past and the status of the...

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IDEAL HOMES In London

The Spectator

By SEPTIMA TAYLOR 0 LYMPIA seemed to be a trifle less crowded this year, but not enough to affect one's idea of the supreme popularity of this exhibition. As a puller-in of...

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City and Suburban

The Spectator

By JOHN BETJEMAN A GREAT gap yawns in the Cornmarket. Oxford, where once stood the friendly plaster front of the Clarendon Hotel. It was the last building in that street to...

In Paris By HONOR CROOME S HOULD one have deduced, from

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the mere title, that the Salon des Arts Menagers would be a rather different affair from the Ideal Homes Exhibition? The connota- tions certainly diverge; on the one hand, the...

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Urgent Tasks Among the urgent things to be done in

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the garden this month is the pruning of roses, which should be completed by the beginning of April but put off if there is a hard frost. General principles are to open up the...

Country Life

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By IAN NIALL BITING about old-fashioned cures, a doctor who lives in Yorkshire remarks : 'You may be a little interested to know that some ten years ago Leeds University Dental...

The Pet Lamb Raising an animal from a tender age

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often creates a strong bond between the foster-parent and his charge, and when the helpless creature happens to be a lamb, the attachment can become a bugbear, for a lamb...

High Water One good thing comes out of the snow,

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so far as salmon fishing goes. It seems very likely that there will be plenty of water in the rivers for some weeks to come. A good flow means that fish will be encouraged to...

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Strix

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RASPUTIN AND ADMIRAL BYNG T RAGEDY is a curiously perishable commodity It is not merely that the atrocious wounds which the human race inflicts on itself cease to hurt and...

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Queen of the Island

The Spectator

A MESSENGER was riding along when he saw a beauti- ful dome and at once knew it was the dome of the Cathedral of Juliana of Trelawne at Basileus, so he spurred his horse but...

SPECTATOR COMPETITION FOR SCHOOLS

The Spectator

Three prizes of eight guineas each were offered to boys and girls at school in the United Kingdom or Eire for (a) a story, (b) an essay, or (c) a sonnet H UNDREDS of entries,...

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Letters to the Editor

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Could Britain Fight? Capt. B. H. Liddell Hart Underpaid Professions B. H. Cummini North Scottish Bank Mancteer Employer, J. A. Hunsworth Death and Mrs. Dale P. N. L. Tottenham...

St,—'Top Hat and Mortarboard' provides so true a picture of

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the situation of bank managers and their stalls over the years that little can be added to the substance of the article unless, maybe, to point out that Scottish bank men have...

SIR,—Your contributor on February 25 sug- gested that a bank

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cashier, aged between forty- three and fifty, probably earns about £13 a week. This figure is too low. In the clearing banks today a clerk may expect to earn this amount by the...

UNDERPAID PROFESSIONS SIR,—The article by Mr. Anderson on the bank

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man and the feathers by which this 'bird' can be recognised is both interesting and true. By far the most important and most con- troversial aspect of the man is the unquestion-...

on the demands of bank employees for an increase in

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salaries which will ensure a clerk of thirty-nine drawing £950 per annum. 1. In my own bank, the tellers' cages are occupied by a young girl of twenty-three and a man of forty...

DEATH AND MRS. DALE

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SIR,—Strix, in his article 'Death and Mrs. Dale,' has revealed an ever-present and grow- ing problem As he rightly says, the cessation of Mrs. Dale's Diary would result in a...

99 Gower Street, London, W.C.1

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Euston 3221

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GERARD DE NERVAL

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SIR,-I was interested in the side-shot at the London Library in Pharos's paragraph (Feb- ruary 25) about Gerard de Nerval. Cataloguers, lexicographers and encyclopedists are all...

Contemporary Arts

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INTERVIEW WITH BRECHT BERTOLT BRECHT'S status in East Germany is not governed only by his singular gifts as a German dramatist; he is, indeed, the most brilliant of the group...

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THEATRE

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Volpone. By Ben Jonson. (Theatre Royal, How often is it that we sec a really good set on the London stage? And by a really good set I mean a piece of stage architecture and not...

TELEVISION AND RADIO

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TELEVISION this week—my last as a critical viewer—kept putting on the kind of pro- gramme it does best: the public event while it happened, sport, a magnificent sample of Aidan...

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CINEMA

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A Star is Born. (Warner.)—The Country Girl. (Plaza.) A Star is Born tells a story, as old as Holly- wood itself, of an actress on her way up and an actor on his way down, with...

Vie 6pettator

The Spectator

March 13, 1830 THE LUCKY LORD HERTFORD. — The Marquis of Hertford is, we understand, likely to come into possession of a very large property in a rather singular manner. Just...

GRAMOPHONE RECORDS

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(RECORDING COMPANIES: A, Argo; B. Bruns- wick; C, Capitol; Col, Columbia; D, Decca; DT, Ducretet-Thomson; F, Felsted; H, HMV; LI, London International; M, Monarch; S, Supraphon;...

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BOOKS

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A orld of Love By L. P. HARTLEY I T was my privilege, over thirty years ago, to review in these columns Miss Elizabeth Bowen's first book, the collection of short stories...

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Ajanta

The Spectator

Ajanta, Part IV. Edited by G. Yazdani. (0.U.P., £14 14s.) No visitor can forget Ajanta. A long jagged scar, pocked irregu- larly with cave-doorways and rising here and there to...

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1[952 Survey of International Affairs, 1952: By Peter Calvocoressi. (0.U.P.,

The Spectator

45s.) Documents on International Affairs, 1952. Edited by Denise Folliot (0.U.P., 55s.) THE production of the annual Survey and Documents is the most important service which...

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Blackwood's

The Spectator

The House of Blackwood: 1804-1954. By F. D. Tredrey. (William Blackwood, 25s.) THIS is, of course, a work of piety; a history of the firm, written by a member of the firm,...

A Celestial Baedeker

The Spectator

Tun planets are worlds not altogether unlike our own, and the members of the British Interplanetary Society entertain the hope that in the not-so-distant future we shall be able...

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New Novels

The Spectator

Homer's Daughter. By Robert Graves. (Cassell, 10s. 6d.) The Thaw. By Ilya Ehrenburg. (Harvill, 10s. 6d.) A Man in His Prime. By Gilbert Phelps. (Arthur Barker, 12s. 6d.)...

Recent Reprints

The Spectator

The Human Use of Human Beings, Norbert Weiner's study of 'cybernetics and society,' was originally published in 1950, and quickly became a work of almost scriptural influence in...

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Sixteenth-Century English Prose. Edited by Karl 3. Holzknecht. (Hamish Hamilton,

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48s.) THEsE volumes in Harper's English Literature series are intended as an introduction for students to the literature of the sixteenth century, and anyone reading them...

SHORTER NOTICES

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Robert Grosseteste. Edited by D. A. Callus (0.U.P., 42s.) THEOLOGIAN and preacher, translator and scientist, religious reformer and administrator, there were few aspects of...

The Dantelis—Artists and Travellers. By Thomas Sutton. (The Rodley Head,

The Spectator

£4 4s.) THREE members of the Daniell family were artists: an uncle, Thomas (1749-1840). and his two nephews, William (1769-1837) and Samuel (1775-1811). They are hest known for...

ALTHOUGH there are no major changes in the A bstract

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this year, its scope has been increased by the addition of some new tables on a variety of subjects—cinema takings, educa- tional building in Scotland, employment vacan- cies in...

Public Supplies. By E. J. Boswell King. (Allen and Unwin,

The Spectator

I5s.) NEVER before have public authorities of all kinds had so much of our income to spend. No doubt, bribery and corruption have been virtually eliminated, but a good deal of...

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COMPANY NOTES

The Spectator

By CUSTOS THE sharp recovery which carried the index of industrial shares to 186—two points • higher than before the shock of a 41 per cent. Bank rate—has not been maintained....

FINANCE AND INVESTMENT

The Spectator

By NICHOLAS DAVENPORT THE Chancellor's instruction to the Exchange Equalisation Account to inter- vene in the unofficial markets in 'transfer- able' sterling is causing much...

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The Boy Who Read Horror Comics

The Spectator

SPECTATOR COMPETITION No. 262 Report by A. M. 0. S. A prize of LS was oflered for a Cautionary Tale in the Belloc manner dealing with the sad fate of the boy who was...

SPECTATOR CROSSWORD No. 825

The Spectator

1;One swallow here doesn't make a I spring either! (6). 4,Might one take this out of Midas's 2 hook? (4, 4). 3 10 'And when this we - know, 5 hro' the world we safely go' 6...

SPECTATOR COMPETITION No. 265 Set by Allan 0. Waith

The Spectator

A London brewery is re-equipping one of its pubs as a Victorian gin - palace, complete with original etched mirrors, porcelain - handled beer - pulls, mahogany panelling and...