12 DECEMBER 1947

Page 1

Franco-Russian Courtesies

The Spectator

The reciprocal arrangement for the repatriation of displaced persons concluded between France and the Soviet Union in June, 1945, has worked about as well, or as badly, as most...

France Past the Crisis ?

The Spectator

Officially the French strikes are finished. "The battle has been fought, and the battle, I am able to tell you, has been won," said France's Foreign Minister, speaking at a...

NEWS OF THE WEEK

The Spectator

T HE conversations between the four Foreign Ministers continue to oscillate between apparent deadlock and a few steps of jolting progress, enlivened at intervals by propaganda...

Page 2

Chorus Prosperity

The Spectator

For a month now the news about production has been almost uniformly good. Coal leads the way, steel and cotton textiles follow, exports remain buoyant, a succession of week-ends...

India and Pakistan

The Spectator

Anxious though the situation in India must long continue to be, the sky has in some respects lightened in the last few days as a result of the talks between the Indian and...

Canadian Crisis

The Spectator

In normal times Canada imports heavily from the United States. A good proportion of the dollars required to pay for these imports was formerly acquired indirectly through sales...

Palestine Overture

The Spectator

The forces which, for better or for worse, are going to shape the future of Palestine are coming into play one by one. The anger and disgust of the Arabs at the decision on...

Page 3

1851-1951

The Spectator

The decision that the centenary of the Great Exhibition of 1851 shall not go unnoticed will be generally welcomed, and it remains now to see to it that the celebration is worthy...

Food News

The Spectator

Food is permanently in the news. After the skirmish on potato- rationing, with the Government energetically defending its position, further announcements indicate that at least...

AT WESTMINSTER

The Spectator

I HAVE referred before to the capacity of Parliament for spring- ." ing surprises. Some of these surprises are none too pleasant ; but Monday's was right in the Santa Claus...

Page 4

LESSONS OF THE POLLS

The Spectator

E PSOM has added its voice to the chorus of by-election verdicts (each, wherever a Liberal stood, with its melancholy tale of forfeited deposit) and Mr. Churchill has...

Page 5

A sentence that caught my eye in Sir Harold Butler's

The Spectator

new book Peace or Power casts, as single sentences often do, a flood of light on one aspect of international relationships. "The first Russian university," he writes, "was not...

* * * *

The Spectator

Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler was an institution, both in his own country and in all Anglo-American circles here. He was the public man par excellence. President of Columbia...

A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK

The Spectator

C AMBRIDGE in one week has won the rugger match, won the soccer match and decided to admit women to full membership of degrees. All of which leaves the balance heavily weighted...

The statement made by the Duke of Gloucester on Tuesday

The Spectator

regarding the future of King Edward's Hospital Fund will reassure a number of people who have been wondering what scope there will be for voluntary effort under the new National...

These are days, I gather, when it is difficult to

The Spectator

be an honest doctor. Every medical man is beset by patients seeking, and confidently ex- pecting, a certificate for priority milk, or to buttress a claim for supplementary ....

Page 6

CAPITAL CUTS

The Spectator

By ROY HARROD W E now have a partial picture of what the Government is intending for the redress of our balance of trade, and it is urgently necessary to consider what more has...

Page 7

HINDSIGHT ON INDIA

The Spectator

By BRIGADIER DESMOND YOUNG J OBBING backwards, the exercise of what the Americans call "hindsight," is not often a profitable occupation. But since many people in Britain have...

Page 8

DOES ADVERTISING PAY?

The Spectator

By BERNARD HOLLOWOOD T HE recent rumpus over Mr. Dalton's proposal for a tax on advertising (subsequently dropped by Sir Stafford Cripps) showed afresh how little is know.n...

Page 9

THE RAILWAY IN TEN YEARS

The Spectator

By CANON ROGER LLOYD T HE title is deliberate—the railway, not the railways, for of co,urse there will only be one. The public debates on this change have concentrated on such...

Page 10

THE MARXIST BROTHERS

The Spectator

By NORMAN KIRBY A BARE two months have passed since the Comintern, immolated on the funeral pyre of Stalingrad, rose as the Cominform phoenix from the ashes of Warsaw. There...

Page 11

ROMAN LONDON

The Spectator

By RUFUS BUXTON N OTHING is more intriguing to the imagination than the work being carried out by the London Roman and Mediaeval Excava- tion Council—the work of bringing to...

Page 12

MARGINAL COMMENT

The Spectator

By HAROLD NICOLSON F IFTEEN years ago I wrote a novel in which I sought to prove that the atomic bomb would introduce an era of universal peace. The book was written at a time...

Page 13

THE CINEMA

The Spectator

"It Always Rains on Sunday." (Odeon)—" Saigon." (Plaza.) ALTHOUGH it is true that it does nearly always rain on a Sunday, it is equally true that Mondays are often quite fine,...

MUSIC

The Spectator

NORMAN DEL Max and the Central London Orchestra chose a very ambitious and excellently original programme for their concert at the Chelsea Town Hall on December znd. Chabrier's...

CONTEMPORARY ARTS

The Spectator

THE THEATRE "Saint Joan." By Bernard Shaw. (New.) Tins moving performance of the finest play of our greatest living dramatist should most certainly be seen. Mr. Shaw claims...

"The Blind Goddess." By Patrick Hastings. (Apollo.)

The Spectator

STATELY, noiseless, unswerving and obsolete, like a paddle-steamer with her engines stopped, the venerable butler glides into Sir John Dering's study, carrying a tray and...

Page 14

THE MESSAGE

The Spectator

Greek messenger, striding Sun, Rise in my heart, whose morning Knows what the night has done In spite of your western warning Deliver your lines as if You were truly short of...

ART

The Spectator

GIMPEL Fus are showing sculpture by Robert Adams and drawings by Ern Brooks, both strangers to London. Mr. Brooks's pen draw- ings are some of them clever and all of them...

Page 15

THE TEACHER'S HIRE

The Spectator

Si,—Mr. Hurlstone-Jones's article and Mr. Gill's letter on the shortage of teachers are complementary. Mr. Hurlstone-Jones points out that 1,340 men left the staffs of some 700...

WAR MEDALS

The Spectator

Snt,—It may interest your readers to know, in connection with Mr. Walker- Smith's comment on the Adjournment debate on December 1st, that the British Legion (of which Sir Ian...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

The Spectator

BRITISH INFORMATION IN BERLIN Sta,—In your issue of November 21st you publish a letter from a German schoolboy, named Werner Fielits, under the heading, Tell Germany. In this...

TRIBUTE TO MR. COURTAULD

The Spectator

Ste,—The celebrated masterpieces of nineteenth-century French painting which Mr. Samuel Courtauld presented to the nation place one in his permanent debt as a member of the...

A ROYAL ADMIRAL

The Spectator

Sta,—In your issue of November 27th, in connection with a site for the statue of James II, you mention his merits as a Lord High Admiral. May one add that he was not only a...

Page 16

A WORLD CONFERENCE OF CHRISTIANS SIR, —Your correspondent regrets that more

The Spectator

interest is not being shown in the suggestion for a world conference of Christians. As a matter of fact the rank and file of the Church of England appear to look upon the...

Urban Hawks The other day . an observer saw a kestrel

The Spectator

hovering over Covent Garden —an event that should go down in the records. At the same time the hawk tribe in general, though not the kestrel in particular, is attracted to urban...

SIKH AND HINDU

The Spectator

Sm,—In your issue of December 5th you say, on recent troubles in India, that "if the prime offenders were the Sikhs, then a reasonable under- standing between Muslims and Hindus...

COUNTRY LIFE

The Spectator

It is a general theory .throughout rural England that hard weather in November portends an open winter, and it is embalmed, as I am reminded, in a doggerel couplet of wide...

Protective Railings

The Spectator

A good many urban spaces have been improved to the general gaze by the removal of the iron railings during the war ; and most of them are not to be replaced. Nevertheless, they...

Raids by Mice

The Spectator

The acquisitive habits of some of the winterers has been quaintly emphasised in a country house in Oxfordshire. A store of broad beans kept for seed was raided by mice, which...

Postage on this issue: Inland, lid.; Overseas, ld.

The Spectator

INDIAN ART

The Spectator

Sm,—Mr. Douglas Barrett is, of course, entitled to say that Gandhara sculpture makes no appeal to him. But "dreary echoes of the work of the Roman provincial mason," and 'dull...

In My Garden Acknowledged experts in gardening are receiving more

The Spectator

and more requests for advice in turning private gardens into semi-commercial ventures. One friend of mine, who drew considerable profit from his very lovely garden, made most of...

Page 17

BOOKS OF THE DAY

The Spectator

Two Biographies : American IT may be supposed that we read biographies for two reasons ; i one reason s that we want to enjoy a good book, the other is that we want to "know...

Sudanese People

The Spectator

THE Nuba Mountains occupy roughly the south-east quarter of the present administrative province of Kordofan in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. The block of country in which Nuba hills...

Page 18

Jeans on the Physical Sciences

The Spectator

POPULAR histories of science are few in number, and the news that the late Sir James Jeans had left the corrected proofs of such a work raised hopes that a valuable addition to...

Page 20

The Anthology Age

The Spectator

Poems of Sleep. Chosen by Carol Stewart. (Muller. 10s. 6d.) An Anthology of the Home Counties. By John D. Mortimer, with and Spottiswoode. 16s.) To read anthologies—especially...

Romanticism and Music

The Spectator

Music in the Romantic Era. By Alfred Einstein. (Dent. 30s.) Ti-us is a volume in the American Norton History of Music, but it will not strike the reader as a history so much as...

Page 22

Shorter Notice

The Spectator

The Legend of the Master. Edited by Simon Nowell-Smith. (Constable. 12s. 6d.) Tilts is the most intimate of the recent books about James, for the subject is his character and...

Fiction

The Spectator

Jenny Villiers. By J. B. Priestley. (Heinemann. Ws. 6d.) A House in the Uplands. By Erskine Caldwell. (Falcon Press. 8s. 6d.) DECEMBER being upon us, up rise the tried and...

Page 23

is THE SPECTATOR" CROSSWORD No. 455

The Spectator

[A Book 'Token for one guinea will be awarded to the sender of the first correct solution of this week's crossword to be opened after noon on Tuesday week December 23rd....

SOLUTION TO CROSSWORD No. 453

The Spectator

A A .4 fl Ala L MICR= L I R GI 110 'orttb!ul C 71111111b a A MI E R R1 - 7, 1 c l i -c ti. 0 P . r le E 0 E iIso o P O rd U N NUMICEI I AN LigerniE l a A II. 1.1 ,0 N 1M A...

Page 24

FINANCE AND INVESTMENT

The Spectator

By CUSTOS Two developments, neither of great significance in relation to the underlying trend, but both of interest to large groups of investors, have pulled markets out of the...