THERE are two questions of interest about the speech I Herr Hitler delivered on Tuesday—what he said and why he said it. To the latter no answer is available. If there was any...

Last week the United States Government agreed to advance to China (the real China, of General Chiang Kai-shek's Government) roo,000,000 dollars, half for the stabilisation of...

I TALY continues to receive heavy blows in all quarters. The capture of Sidi Barrani, with a large number of prisoners in addition to the 6,000 already reported, and an...

The inner meaning of recent Bulgarian overtures to Turkey is obscure, and Turkey has not been greatly impressed. What would Bulgaria be in a position to offer if Turkey should...

Foreign opinion has been impressed, as Mr. Attlee antici- pated, by a debate in the House of Commons in which mem- bers were allowed to argue the case for calling a conference...

Mr. Matsuoka, the Japanese Foreign Minister, made several statements at a conference with foreign Press correspondents last Monday, which, though guarded, were not reassuring....

There will be the greatest sympathy in this country with the humanitarian desire of the American "National Com- mittee for the Five Small Democracies," presided over by Mr....

Radicals and Independents, was not called. It asked for a closer definition of war-aims. Mr. Silverman was called in the general debate. A careful reading of the Division record...

problem of aliens and refugees, devoted a few hours on Tues- day and Wednesday to the now famous Regulation i8B of the Defence (General) Regulations, 1939. Not only aliens...

question of Captain Ramsay, was challenged by Sir Irving Albery, Mr. Maxton, Mr. Craik Henderson and others on a variety of grounds. Mr. Denman, who on these matters combines a...

issues of freedom and peace terms are settled, the House might well return to the critical issues raised by bombings and sinkings, rationing and man-power. Stronger and more...

The Government's long-awaited War Damage Insurance Bill has at last been published, and in its main provisions is in accordance with the forecast. It is based upon a com-...

The fact that this week's statistics of sinkings of merchant vessels show that the total was less than the weekly average for the whole period of the war would be more...

Postage on this issue: Inland lid., Foreign and Imperial id., Canada Id.

Our Parliamentary correspondent writes: The Debate on the Address concluded with the Division on the I.L.P. amend- ment. Apparently Mr. McGovern and Mr Maxton wanted a statement...

" y TALY knew she had difficult moments in store when -I- she entered the present war." Such was the under- statement with which reverses were admitted in a special communiqué...

Sir Robert Vansittart's Empire broadcasts on Germany seem to me unjustified. It is satisfactory in any case that scope is being found somewhere for the undeniably great...

W E are unconsciously doing Herr Adolf Hitler too much honour these days by taking him—naturally and con- vincingly—as the personification of all Germany. He is a great deal,...

days. Here is a case I have had carefully authenticated. A business concern, deciding that removal of its head offices from London was desirable, began negotiations for a par-...

to Canada, and internment there, of Mr. F. G. Friedlander, Fellow of Trinity, I must pursue it to the end— if an end ever comes. The mystery of why, when the Home Secretary...

instance apparently of Colonel Knox, the Secretary of the Navy—inevitably recalls similar missions by Colonel House in the last war. But there is one substantial difference....

The Government, I thought, had definitely declared not. I Argo sections of workers, however, with or without the agreement of their employers, have declared otherwise. There...

By STRATEGICUS T HE operations on the western front of Egypt have been so long expected, and the first news is so encouraging, that we are tempted to interpret their design and...

By ERWIN O F course, the United States has still not plunged into the war preparation effort with enough intensity, despite everything that is being done. There is still too...

By KENNETH LINDSAY, M.P. O N September 3rd, 1939, Britain became formally at war, but no one can pretend that the previous years were anything but an armed or disarmed truce....

By AMABEL WILLIAMS-ELLIS ISS ELLEN WILKINSON is trying to bring the big LVI public shelters, in which about a million Londoners spend their nights, up to the hygienic standard...

By OUR AIR CORRESPONDENT D ESPITE concentrated night-raids of great intensity against Great Britain, and despite the continued lack of a satisfactory defence against the...

By A. MOLNIKOFF y WATCHED her across the chess-board. She was deeply I engrossed in the game. She supported her sallow face with both hands as she gazed steadily upon the...

How many miles to Mylor By frost and candle-light : How long before I arrive there, This dark December night? As I mounted the hill to Mylor Through the thick woods of Carclew,...

The Great Dictator."—At the Prince of Wales, the Gaumont, and Marble Arch Pavilion. IT is a far cry to the days when Chaplin two-reel comedies flowed in a fantastic spate from...

Drawings by Augustus John OVER a hundred drawings by Augustus John are at the moment on view at the National Gallery. Impressive; and a good reflection of his achievement....

Editorial Notes that you believed that a grand-scale military offensive on the Continent of Europe against Germany would be a profound mistake and that our proper policy was to...

in your article "After Victory" must indeed be shared by many others. Lord Cecil is and always has been an exponent of idealism and wish- ful thinking. I can recall his visit to...

[In view of the paper shortage it is essential that letters on these pages should be brief. We are anxious not to reduce the number of letters, but unless they are shorter they...

Six,—Those who are familiar with Carlyle's Hero Worship may remember that in the last chapter, devoted to "The Hero as King," there is striking evidence that the enemy's...

Snt,—I note the Editor of The Spectator says, with regard to our campaign in the Middle East, that "it is to be hoped that everything possible is being done to encourage revolt...

Sm,—I cannot find a single word of praise in the reference by " Janus " to Lord Craigavon—only its antithesis. Instead of saying! "He would fight to the death for partition and...

SIR,—The caption of an article on India in your issue of Novem- ber a9th, "What India Wants," was very unfortunate. After reading it I suggest a truer title would be "What the...

SIR,—Whatever hesitation we in this country may feel about planning for a future Europe, two of our Allies have given proof of their confidence in that future by their signature...

is fortunate that the mobility and flexibility of motor trans- port enables diversions to be made when any road is damaged by enemy action. Diversions, however, inevitably mean...

Sm,—Your leading article on the reform of party politics raises the practical issue of electoral reform. The extent to which this can be effected must depend tiPon the degree of...

SIR,—In the Christmas Literary Number of The Spectator your reviewer cites without demur the statement that Sir Walter Scott never mentions the Napoleonic War in his novels. In...

S1R,—I must take strong exception to Miss Barbara Ward's assertion that I regret that Mr. Churchill was made Prime Minister. I wrote nothing of the sort. She had evidently...

SIR,—In "schoolroom days," long ago, we frequently found the red cup fungus in the narrow valleys of that part of the Cotswolds situated between Gloucester and Bristol. Growing...

S1R,—In reply to Mr. D. E. Auty's letter on the Price of Milk published in your issue of December 6th, I would say at once that his figures are not in accordance with the...

SIR,—" Down the ringing grooves of change." This phrase, often quoted, has bothered me at intervals for over fifty years. I have been a busy man with little time for browsing,...

billeted at an outlying farm or mansion in the heart of the country, should turn to poaching. But there are several sorts of poaching, and poaching with a fully loaded service...

It is possible that the demand for an increase in home-grown food will set many parish councils wondering if they can make a contribution by ploughing and cropping the village...

rural salvage overlook certain important points. Because I set down certain facts does not mean that I am responsible for them ; nor, I think, does criticism mean a lack of...

Peziza Coccinea If the Provost of Worcester, who writes to know "whether a thing so beautiful and so conspicuous has ever been noticed by any writer about the English...

The Vision of Greatness AN autobiography, provided the subject of it is an interesting man, has a charm which the external biography can seldom attain; just as it has a...

Book 01 Hartland, by R. Pearse Chope (Devon Press, Torquay), was

IT is possible that it would be inexact to describe this volume as the last of a tetralogy based on the author's adventures and ex- periences in and around the Aegean. So far as...

The Long Week-End : A Social History of Great Britain, 1918- 1939. By Robert Graves and Alan Hodge. (Faber. 12S. 6d.) Tins is a slap-dash, irritating, interesting, useful,...

Postscripts. By J. B. Priestley. (Heinemann. 2s. 6d.) THERE were many of us who, before war made such disagree- ments seem trivial, regarded Mr. Priestley with some venom. We...

Confessions of an Individualist. By William Henry Chamberlin. (Duckworth. 15s.) Mn. CHAMBERLIN was for many years a distinguished American correspondent in Russia, Germany and...

Sacred and Profane Love. By Sacheverell Sitwell. (Faber. 155.) MR. SITWELL'S new volume is of the same order as his Dance of the Quick and the Dead, which I reviewed for these...

ACCORDING to a recent observation of the Archbishop of York, when men ask: why does not the Church do something? they usually mean : why do not the Bishops say something? In the...

A Bibliography of the Works of Edward Gibbon. By Norton. (Oxford University Press. 215.) EVEN Montaigne complained that there were "more books abo books than about anything...

Jules Verne. By Kenneth Mott. (Cresset Press. Iss.) a ANYONE who has worked for publishers will know how absorbed they are in the manufacture of biography—thinking out subjects...

Alabaster Tombs of the Pre-Reformation Period In England By Arthur Gardner. (Cambridge University Press. 21s.) A FEw weeks ago it was my privilege to refer in these columns to...

THE traditional English styles of arranging flowers have their good qualities, though they are seldom praised and are none the less excellent for not being reduced to a code of...

Cousin Honore. By Storm Jameson. (Cassell. 8s.) September to September. By Jacobine Menzies-Wilson. (Oxford University Press. 8s. 6d.) Heart of a Child. By Phyllis Bottome....

Cue for Treason. By Geoffrey Trease. (Blackwell. 5s.) Mutiny in the Caribbean. By G. W. Keeton. (Bell. 68.) The House in the Mountains. By Averil Demuth. (Hamish Hamilton....

of the gro- tesque and the mysterious than Mr. Pe.ake. His imagination is akin to Mr. De la Mare's, only more robust. The child with salamander hair peering from his dark tower...

THE distinguished author of High Wind in Jamaica found him- self when war came host to seven small evacuated children from Birkenhead. "After a few months, one by one they all...

Four to Fourteen. A Catalogue of Books for Boys and Girls. (National Book Council. 9d.) Four to Fourteen. A Catalogue of Books for Boys and Girls. (National Book Council. 9d.)...

ordering "The Spectator" regularly, since newsagents can no longer be supplied on sale-or -return terms.

By CUSTOS MARKETS were looking for a lead, and the offensive in Egypt has provided it. The first effects, as one might expect, have been a resumption of the rise in gilt-edged...

THE annual general meeting of the Consolidated Gold Fields of South Africa, Limited, was held on December 5th at the Chartered Insurance Institute, Alderrnanbury, London, E.C....

GUY MOTORS LIMITED FURTHER PROGRESS EFFICIENCY OF GUY VEHICLES THE twenty-fifth annual meeting of Guy Motors, Limited, was held on Thursday, December 5th, at the Victoria...

The winner of Crossword No. 90 is R. Corbett, Ynys, Towyn, N. Wales.

IA prize of a Book Token for one guinea will be given to the sender of the first correct solution of this week's crossword puzzle to be opened. Envelopes should be marked with...