France continues to live, politically, from hand to mouth. M. Schuman has succeeded in passing through the Assembly his Govern- ment's special levy—or, rather, in assuring that...

The debate on Palestine in the House of Commons on Wednesday' revealed unbroken agreement on the one vital issue, the surrender, by Great Britain of the mandate for that...

T HERE could be no grimmer or more tragic comment on the situation in Czechoslovakia than the suicide of Jan Masaryk supplies. The reference to insomnia in the official...

The Finns are off to Moscow along a road as full of foreboding as that which, before and during the war, led to Berchtesgarten. They had little choice but to go ; will they have...

The debate on the Naval Estimates on Monday served one useful purpose. It should dissipate the idea, which inept methods of publicity have most unfortunately discouraged, that...

No doubt any Communist sympathisers there are in the Gold Coast have exploited as far as they can the disturbances which have recently taken place in Accra and other large...

The potential wealth of Southern Rhodesia is immense, but it will take extensive capital expenditure to make it available to the world. This has long been known, but the first...

M ONDAY'S Question Time looked like followin g its traditional course, with rather more q uestions answered and rather fewer be Memrs in their places than later in the week. Sir...

in Washin g ton by the representatives of thirty-six nations of the International Wheat Council is the first successful attempt to stabilise wheat prices by international a g...

It would be a mistake to exa gg erate the importance of a resolution which appears on the a g enda of the Labour Party's Whitsuntide Conference demandin g that when Labour is in...

T HE Economic Survey for 1948 makes one conclusion unmis- takably plain. With Marshall aid we shall get through 1948 on roughly the same conditions as at present—certainly with...

done on that occasion to ease, rather than aggravate the situa- tion ? One suggestion I have heard, and it seems to me an extremely good one, is that the B.M.A. should have the...

brought him under criticism much less as a heretic than as a back- number in the matter of Biblical scholarship and archaeological dis- covery. I take the following from a...

decision of the Party to discourage its members from all association with the United Europe Congress to be held at The Hague in May the more impossible it becomes to resist the...

J MASARYK has written the condemnation of Clement Gott- wald wald in history for all time. In the long run his death may achieve for his country results that he would have...

under a double handicap which is likely to give overseas visitors a pretty poor opinion of them. About the effect of the basic petrol ban on most country and seaside hotels I...

By W. J. BROWN, M.P. T HE sudden destruction of Czechoslovakian democracy from within, and the absorption of that country into the Russian bloc, gives added interest and...

By HONOR CROOME For wages and profits are not on an equal and comparable footing as slices of the national cake. Wages are a cost of production ; profits a margin between total...

By GUNTHER STEIN T HESE are exciting times in the United States. Never, it seems to the conscientious American who tries to keep up with events, have so many important and...

By L. P. KIRWAN P RESENT Argentinian and Chilean claims in the British sector of the Antarctic first defined in 19o8 as the Falkland Islands Dependencies make the history of...

By CLELAND SCOTT Nairobi A NYONE who has been on safari will readily understand many of the basic problems facing the ground-nuts scheme, while those who have hunted elephant...

By H. D. WALSTON A GRICULTURAL co-operatives have never been popular in this country. It is usually non-farmers who bring the idea forward as a solution to many agricultural...

By HAROLD NICOLSON C IRCUMSTANCES have obliged me during the last three weeks to spend my nights in a suburban hotel. There, upon the hills which form the southern rim of...

THE THEATRE " I Remember Mama." By John van Druten. (Aldwych.) Tins adroit little play about a Norwegian family in San Francisco may have moved Americans to fellow-feeling ;...

"The Lady from Shanghai." (Gaumont and Marble Arch Pavilion.) —" Corridor of Mirrors." (Odeon.) WHATEVER faults lie in Mr. Orson Welles' work they are the faults of a brilliant...

since 1913. They are always good in Elizabethan comedy and in this production at their best. David Raeburn, who directs, has got the feeling of the play and a grip of his cast;....

AFTER reading with great interest Sir Patrick Abercrombie's letter on The Mastersingers in last week's issue, I have been hoping for a sequel which will describe the reactions...

gouging out the architect's pleasing and ingenious patterns for the friezes has a sur- prising finale. They used to be vagrom or nomad, moving to any place, generally a great...

Commenting the other day on the early emergence of the hive bees, a highly scientific critic averred that the bees avoided the garden flowers, preferring weeds because they...

SOME sort of aesthetic controversy seems to have arisen around the oak panels, friezes and pendants that are to adorn the newly repaired House of Commons. After spending a...

scenery." No one ever suggests that it is also a coneyised scenery. Rabbits have completely prevented natural reafforestation, at any rate by ash and holly. What a pity it is,...

Price is. 6d. By Post Is. 7d.—Send remittance to THE SPECTATOR, 99 Gower Street,

Forest, yesterday in Norfolk, I see fields gleaming with cloches. They are perhaps (as the French maraichers have always realised, as also the Dutch) most useful about this...

Sts,—May I draw your attention to one of the most urgent problems in Germany ? I do not intend to discuss our food situation, though it is as bad as possible. Nor will I speak...

scrupulous exploitation " by Russian propagandists of the Americans' failure to go to the aid of the Czech insurgents in Prague in May, 1945, I might be permitted, perhaps, to...

THE CZECH REVOLUTION SIR, —In your excellent article in last week's issue, in which you described the recent tragic events - in Prague, you go on to state that " no one could...

Sig,—In your article The Challenge of Prague you mentioned the doctrine, " From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs," as being considered by many to be...

Sut,—In your issue of February 27th Mr. Raleigh Trevelyan, commenting on my article, Rome Efisaildered, points out that there is " nothing much wrong with the open-air selling...

20th Mr. Godwin says he dined one night with an Italian professor, a famous and distinguished civil engineer, who had survived Mussolini's regime solely because of his...

Sig,—Few people in this country are aware to what extent irreplaceable capital values are being destroyed in German forests. 150,000 tons of timber per month are being taken as...

much of the valuable letter on this subject from your contributor, Mr. D. H. Bennison, that it is perhaps worth while clarifying one point which may lead to confusion of...

by Mr. Thomas Lodge's letter. Some of us, in spite of having no ration for the reasons given by Mr. Lodge, have struggled during and since the war to breed and fatten pigs in...

SUBSCRIPTION RA FES :— 52 weeks. 26 week s. d. £ s. d Great Britain and Overseas by ordinary mail I 10 0 15 0 Air Mail to Members of the Forces in any part of the...

SIR,—In my article in your issue of March 5th appear the words " Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, with his political record, can scarcely con- tinue repression as a method of settling...

SIR,—Since Mr. D. K. Griffith appears to agree that officials should not be permitted to act illegally and oppressively in the execution of policy (good or bad), and since my...

in mind of a time when the economics of pig-rearing in America were apparently not so simple as he imagines them to be. On August 18th, 1934, the following letter appeared in...

. - SIR,—I am fortunate enough to have a copy of The SpectatOr sent to me every week, and since " absence makes the heart grow fonder," I am careful to read it from cover to...

SIR,— Your note Doctors and the Salary, and other articles on this subject in recent issues, seem to exhibit a lack of understanding as to why doctors are so adamant on this...

Sta,—Though Janus needs no help from me in defending himself, may I be allowed to clear up one or two misconceptions arising from Mr. Inwood's letter ? Mr. Inwood ciaims that...

Russia, Red or White. By M. Philips Price. (Sampson Low. 7s. 6d.) MR. PHILIPS PRICE is one of the few men living who can claim to have worked in Russia as a journalist before...

Malaya and Burma The Chinese in Malaya. By Victor Purcell. Issued under the joint auspices of the Royal Institute of International Affairs and the Institute of Pacific...

with enthusiasm another book on experiences in war captivity, and conditions in Japanese prison camps especially gained too wide a publicity when they were first made known for...

Fashionable Brighton, 1820 to 1860. By Anthony Dale. (Country Life. 2 gns.) THE period of years covered by Mr. Dale's substantial volume on the " fashionable " but, in the...

A GOOD man, an excellent priest, the Abbe Carre was also a spy. Ostensibly his mission was to carry a secret letter concerning the war against Holland from Louis XIV to General...

Tempestuous Petticoat. By Claire Leighton. (Gollancz. 12s. 6d.) WRITERS of popular romances are not as a general rule notable for personal fascination, but Marie Connor Leighton...

Spearhead. 10 Years Experimental Writing in America. A New Direc- tions Book. (The Falcon Press. 21s.) EVERYTHING that happens in the United States is of such imme- diate...

The Unforgiven. By Howard Clewes. (John Lane. 8s. 6d.) IF the First World War produced a good many writers who still managed to sing with their heads above the storm, the...

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IA Book Token for one guinea will be a-.rarded to the sender of the first correct solution of this week's crossword to be opened after noon on Tuesday week March 23rd. Envelopes...

By CUSTOS THERE was no good reason why markets should take fright at the contents of the Economic Survey, and reactions in Throgmorton Street have, in fact, been rational....