T HE widespread criticism of the Prime Minister reached a climax last week with the attack of that faithful party war-horse, the Daily Telegraph, and the extraordinary denial...

ESTABLISHED 1828 No. 6655 FRIDAY, JANUARY 13, 1956 PRICE 7d.

By OLIVER STEWART N less than ten years the Ministry of Supply has broken the I back of British aviation. It is now on the way to breaking its heart. When it was amalgamated...

T HE announcement that British troops-in the Middle East are to be reinforced to the extent of two paratroop bat- talions is in itself a confession of the failure of Sir Anthony...

N EWSPAPERS were very ready to desctibe the introduction of short-time working in some motor-car factories as the first big success of the credit squeeze, But this is...

the • tvt,o,l, . East are to be reinforced to the extent of two parachute battalions comes at the end of a perfect week in Jordan. There was serious rioting in Jerusalem and...

By Our German Correspondent ' Bonn D R. KONRAD ADENAUER and President Wilhelm Pieck joined the ranks of the distinguished octogenarians last week. Sir Winston Churchill, the...

last week, the English political genius is a genius for conflict, a genius for preserving the dialectic and then extracting a synthesis from it. For this reason it is vitally...

Church of England Dr. Ramsey's appointment will be welcome.' Manchester Guardian. 'A MODERATE high churchman.' The Times. 'HE HAS in recent years devoted much energy to the...

upon his head as he passed through one of the lower rooms; after which, grain and missiles of every kind that came to hand were freely bestowed upon him. The men next struck his...

not yet over. Breaking free from the crowd he ran franti- cally along Bankside as far as the George public house, the doors of which were wide open. 'He rushed in and proceeded...

of London are no less lovers of liberty and loathers of oppression than ever they were. But it is as well for the bearded Marshal Bulganin, who is coming to visit us this year...

in a letter published in our correspondence columns, is something that the Spectator's readers can hardly expect. I don't see why he should think that criticism of his paper,...

men from abroad are thought to be more respectable than the native breed. I noticed one or two are critics dealing solemnly, in their reviews of the American exhibition at the...

according to The Times's political correspondent on Monday, by the denial from Downing Street. No doubt this is so if the word 'scotched' is taken in its correct sense (vide...

sheer twaddle with sheerer self-assurance. But an interview given by M. Poujade is in a class by itself. 'In a long passage,' I read, 'M. Poujade developed his view that...

BY ROBERT BLAKE I T is no doubt in general a good rule that authors should not reply to reviewers even when the latter display palpable ignorance and tendentiousness. If,...

BY HENRY FAIRLIE HE gods do not always smile favourably on Lord Beaverbrook's chosen children, and it is unfortunate for Mr. Robert Blake that, in the very week in which he...

By a Correspondent recently in the Middle Last T HE Nizam once styled himself 'The Faithful Ally of the British Government.' The late King Abdullah of Jordan might have laid...

Year Party BY DR. ALOYS1US C. PEPPER M Y old friend Baddeley took me to Mr. Catterpill's New Year • party. As a sceptical observer of the political scene I was curious to see...

It is enjoyable to comment on those niceties of the Church's ritual which do not affect our immortal souls. They always arouse the hottest controversy, This matter of the...

By JOHN BETJEMAN I F you like something, these are the tactics which you may expect to tind employed to destroy or demolish it : (1) If the land or the building is privately...

E VEN the most stolid of us is sometimes glad of an excuse for not grumbling about the winter. Here is a novel.one: 'Suicides are commonest in the early summer. . . . It has...

the embargo upon the pub- lication of the Honours List seem to be a compound of mis-statement and ignorance. You are in error in stating that the Press Association sent out the...

Many-headed Hydra Rev. D. W. A. Stride George Richards Breaking an Embargo Sir Linton Andrews Stuart Campbell The Mystery of a Diary Adm. Sir W. M. James William A. Cadbury...

SIR,—Pharos said on January 6 that the People was encouraged in its brashness over the Honours List by the absence of any murmur out of any other newspaper after it did them all...

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his 'tendency to believe that Parliamentary issues are political issues.' Mr. Fairlie himself has a weakness which he shares with every other political commentator I know,...

that my short account of the Casement affair would have such strong repercussions. I had no personal knowledge of the affair as I was wholly occu- pied with the machinery for...

SIR.---This must be one of many letters to Protest against an obnoxious piece of con- descension by Mr. Charles Curran in his article on 'The Woman Voter.' He writes : She [the...

conclude his very just article on Frank Harris by quoting Bernard Shaw's epitaph of him. When Harris died Shaw wrote: 'Here lies a man of letters, who hated cruelty and...

the process known as 'sides to middles' (non-U) he would have no difficulty with his bed-making. I will gladly exchange four pairs of my sheets for one pair of his,—Yours...

is, at any rate, only partly right. The working-class woman voter is not quite the half-wit he so politely supposes. My warrant for these remarks is a much-worn book, wherein...

,sheets, every soldier knows that Army sheets have three lines running down the middle. Even if the War Office cannot emulate the generosity of the blanket manufacturers, it...

few in this country still living) I welcome your action in bringing to light 'The Mystery of a Diary,' and I support the state- ment of your correspondent, Mr. Robert Kee, that...

aim of any passenger transport undertaking should be to provide services in the right place at the right time is surely a truism and is a policy adopted by bus operators...

IMMEDIATELY after the war some critics prophesied the growth in this country of a school of romantic, landscape under the leadership of Graham Sutherland, but in fact this was...

Serial Music THE, music section of the ICA was late in getting under way with its concerts this season, but now that it has done so they are coming thick and fast. The two most...

Slit, — Unbiased students of the restrictive practices controversy—if there are any—are likely to agree with Professor John Jewkes, referred to in your 'Notebook' (December 30),...

JANUARY 15, 1831 Tim poor-laws of England are a premium on wretchedness everywhere : their effects are had here, but they are not less mischievous in the other parts of the...

I WANT to go back over the viewer-research ground, well-trampled though it has recently been, because there are still two prevalent mis- conceptions: one, that research figures,...

SUMMER MANCEUVRES. (Academy.)---THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM. (Odeon.)--- THE DESPERATE Hoots. (Plaza.) How lovely it is that the years have courte- ously neglected to lay their...

John Evelyn BY J. H. PLUMB T HE timing of these two books,* doubtless accidental, is excellent—one displays Evelyn as he wished to be known to his descendants, the other...

CAFE ROYAL. By •Guy Deghy and Keith Waterhouse. (Hutchin- son, 21s.) 'I REMEMBER Romano's, just as it- used to be'—this was a line, often repeated, in a song sung at a revue a...

This book will surely rank henceforth as the standard History of Christian mediaeval philosophy. Every movement and every individual theory is expounded, briefly sometimes, but...

SONG AT THE YEAR'S TURNING. By R, S. Thomas. (Hart-Davis, 12s. 6d.) WHEN so much criticism of modern verse takes the form of the erection or sapping of generalisation and...

THOMAS HARDY'S NOTEBOOKS: And Some Letters from Julia Augusta Martin. Edited with notes by Evelyn Hardy. (Hogarth Press, Ws. 6d.) OTHER people's notebooks, like other people's...

"HERE we are again!" With a screech of laughter, the Clown jumps through the painted wall of time, turns a somersault head- first into the present, and comes down upon our stage...

ALL IN DUE TIME: The Essays and Broadcasts of Humphry House. (Hart-Davis, 15s.) HUMPHRY HOUSE was that literary rarity, a scholar who fused fact and judgement, a critic who...

STORM. By FitzGerald O'Connor. (Collins, 8s. 6d.) AFTER The Bridge of San Luis Rey there came such a spate of novels in which five or six very disparate characters found them-...

At some time in the summer—perhaps when it was riesting or exploring the reed-fringed pond—an accident befell the dabchick. A pike may have risen to it and the bird may have...

is nothing junior about this domestic addition to an admirable series. From Adoles- c ence (a common phenomenon) to Yellow ever (happily more rare), the homely scene is closely...

BY IAN NIALL WHILE visiting a friend who lives in a wooded valley where firewood is not hard to find, our conversation turned to the ash logs on the fire. It was a frosty night...

Volume I, The Voyage of the Endeavour, 1768-1771. (C.U.P., for the Hakluyt Society, 80s.) With a Portfolio of Charts and Views. THE publication of this edition of Cook's...

(Heinemann, 30s.) IT would be a pity if the recent spate of books on Samuel Johnson should ward off potential readers from this fine biography by the Pro- fessor of English at...

Broad beans and peas are frequently at- tacked as soon as they shoot. It generally pays to make a cover from strips of wire'netting bent into an arch and laid along the rows....

By PHILIDOR No. 32. C. MANSFIELD BLACK (10 men) WHITE to play and mate in two moves: solution next week. Solution to last week's problem by O'Keefe and Smith: R-K B 2!,...

In a further letter about Australian bird life, Mr. Max Henry, of Chatswood, writes : 'Throughout this area the tendency of house- holders to display flowering shrubs in place...

By CUSTOS MANY millions of pounds have been knocked off share values this weelc, The in- dustrial share index fell sharply by 4 per cent. or more in a few days. The Stock...

By NICHOLAS DAVENPORT Tt•IE new slump on the Stock Exchange is readily explained. Technically, both Wall Street and Throgmorton Street, as I argued last week, were due for a...

ACROSS 1 Transposition for the most superior of field-marshals, evidently (10). 6 I twice got the bird! (4) 10 They sheltered Swinburne and inspired Respighi (5). 11 Bled at...

MARTIN, 1 6 Ravelston Park, Edinburgh .4, and the Rev. H. C. J. SIDNCLI, 8 2 Mulch& Road, Sheffield 6.

'Order coal. Make dental apptmt. See about shelf. Write Aunt B. re meeting?'), and are inVited to submit for the usual prize such lists (of five items each) as might have been...

A prize of 45 was offered for prayers (on the model of Sir Jacob Astley's before Edgehill) for great personages of history before great occasions. THOUGH it is certainly...