Last week's impassioned outburst by the President of the International Red Cross, and the spontaneous wave of revulsion it engendered against the idea of allowing a second...

Margarine is nicer AUBERON WAUGH Eels are a familiar delicacy in Sweden. They drift slowly along the Gulf Stream often taking three years to reach Europe from their spawning...

France's great leap forward CRABRO It is always pleasing to the layman when the experts fall flat on their faces. When the experts are economists, who confidently assert...

All fall down P. FILO DELLA TORRE Paolo Fib o della Torre is London corres- pondent of '24 Ore', The despair of the politicians at the col- lapse of the Italian Government...

Mr Nixon chooses sides MURRAY KEMPTON New York—Mr Nixon has commenced rather to leak in the past three weeks, al- though it would be hasty to say that the spillage has been...

From the 'Spectator', 10 July 1869—Of all the trash provided nowadays for the amusement of the public, we hope there is not much so irre- deemable as that in the book before us...

Oxford has begun to speculate busily about who will be the new Dean of Christ Church, the richest, largest and arguably the grandest of all the Oxford colleges, in place of Dr...

Where the rainbow ends CHRISTOPHER BOOKER Are men less happy today than they were? It is a common human reaction in times of stress and disorder to dwell on visions of a...

Comment and contempt R. A. CLINE Lord Justice Salmon's Home Office Com- mittee has just performed a skilful minor operation on the law of contempt. The eminently readable...

Abortion city JOHN ROWAN WILSON If I had a dau g hter who in an un g uarded moment g ot herself pre g nant by a Portu- g uese seaman who had a wife and six children in...

C old collation BILL GRUNDY Taking it all in all, I think it is very un- likely that I will be asked to stand as a Tory candidate at the next election. For one thing, I don't...

Lost horizons STUART HOOD That applications for the award of 1TA pro- gramme contracts should be made public seems obvious on the grounds that the public interest is involved....

High Midsummer pomps DENIS BROGAN During the 'Era of Beautiful Nonsense', the once famous portrayer of the young American girl, John Held, Jr., of pre-Luce Life, ran, not...

CHRISTOPHER HOLLIS 'Yet young people like this are not in the least typical of the present younger genera- tion'—A. E. Dyson on `The yahoo effect' (SPECTATOR, 5 July). What is...

Lament for the makers MARTIN SEYMOUR-SMITH The verse-receptive audience now covers a remarkably wide spectrum. The Times has w ritten 'the situation now for modern poetry is...

STUART HOOD Murderous Angels Conor Cruise O'Brien (Hutchinson 30s) We Bombed in New Haven Joseph Heller (Cape 35s) Conor Cruise O'Brien has chosen as his play's theme one of...

ROBERT BLAKE Isaac D'Israeli James Ogden (ouP 35s) Isaac D'Israeli, a celebrity in his day, is now remembered less in his own right than as the father of a famous son. This...

ELIZABETH WISKEMANN Gomulka: his Poland and his Communism Nicholas Bethell (Longmans 50s) Lord Bethell's book sets out to analyse the phenomenon of Wladyslaw Gomulka, the man...

J. 0. URMSON Speech Acts J. R. Searle (cue 45s) In the 'thirties and 'forties philosophers were talking a great deal about language. Wittgenstein was telling us that...

PETER VANSITTART Etchings of a Whaling Cruise J. Ross Browne (Harvard/our 95s) Men and Ships Around Cape Horn 1616 - 1939 Jean Randier (Barker 70s) Emigrating to America at...

Fun with guns PETER PARLEY Blind Man with a Pistol Chester limes (Hodder and Stoughton 30s) Message Ends David Craig (Cape 21s) Spies of Good Intent Gabriel Veraldi (Deutsch...

HILARY SPURLING Thomas Middleton's Women Beware Women, directed by Terry Hands at Strat- ford, is dazzling to look at. Ruched cloaks, sleeves slashed and puffed, silk sashes,...

In her prime ROBERT CUSHMAN A Star is Born (Warner, 'A') Silence and Cry (Academy One, 'A') Carry on Camping (Metropole, 'A') Though one accepted that it was only a matter of...

Hands off MICHAEL NYMAN Milton Babbitt's name and music are likely to remain unknown in this country. He is an ex-jazz pianist, expert on pre-1950 pop music, father of...

Mini don JOHN HIGGINS Speculation on how much more effective certain performances would be if heard in a small house has become a pretty routine pastime. Usually any...

PIIILIDOR E. E. Westbury (1st Prize, The Puzzler, 1934) White to play and mate in two moves; solution next week. Solution to no. 446 (Ahues): Q x P, threat R-Kt3.1...R-Q4;2Q-K...

WILLIAM JANE WAY Living with crisis has become such second nature to Americans that when a qualitative change in the nature of our troubles hits, it all too easily gets passed...

Savings battle JOHN BULL Last week I had a look at unit trust per E formances in a bear market. This time r propose to examine the relative attractions of fixed interest...

Sir Denys Lowson on improved results STEADY GROWTH The Annual General Meeting of The Austra- lian Estates Company Limited will be held on July 14, at Estates House, Gresham...

From Mrs Mary Whitehouse, E. S. James, M. 0. Ajaro, A. T. Doel, G. J. Hand, Sir Graham Sutton, R. G. W. Rickcord, the Rev Michael E. Bennett, Charles Arnold- Baker, Brian...

Sir: Your correspondent, June Gibson of the Commonwealth News Agency (Letters, 21 June) states an important truth when she says that the agitation for the division into more...

Sir: Any ministerial interference with the due processes of the law gives cause for grave concern, and the Government's reported intention of trading the Krogers for the...

Sir: In the days of the Roman Empire it was common practice to expose unwanted babies. As the world became less barbaric, this practice stopped. One may well wonder whether the...

Sir: I believe that the Maud Commission's proposals on local councils have been widely misunderstood. It is true that the responsibility for all the specific services (i.e....

Sir: Mr Basil Davidson says I defame him (Letters. 5 July). On page 158 of The Liber- ation of Guitu 5 , after quoting a spokesman for the African National Congress at length....

Sir: Despite their Celtic kinship the Irish and Welsh are not always notable for mutual affection; I hope Mr lob Davies (Letters, 5 July) will forgive me for suggest- ing that...

Sir: I refer to Monty Woodhouse's article entitled 'The truth about the generals' (28 June). Mr Woodhouse seems to be saying: ( I ) The wrong military group took over in...

Sir: Carola Oman (5 July) is wrong about both the grandfathers of Sir William Hamil- ton. His mother was the daughter of the Earl not Duke of Abercorn (the dukedom was only...

Go ape JOHN WELLS At this momentous moment in Time, writes our Space Correspondent, Zero Hamburger, as Man gropes gropingly out into Space, poised seemingly on the verge of...

Across 1 Grant me universal certificate, or, in other words, it's open to debate (8) 5 A certain spirited charm (6) 9 'But the privilege and pleasure That we — beyond measure...

No. 561: Moon struck 'He shoots higher that threatens the moon than he that aims at a tree' (George Her- bert). Next week's attempt to send men to the moon deserves poetic...