T HE resistance of Madrid to General Franco's attack exceeds expectations, and it is clear that, whatever the immediate future may have in store, the first assault has...

on Tuesday on the report of the Royal Commission on Arms Manufacture and Arms Traffic was conspicuous for its almost complete avoidance of the motion on the Paper. The House was...

political armies " in the Home Secretary's Public Order Bill will meet with general approval ; that section of the measure will give rise to fewer difficulties than the clauses...

Committee of Imperial Defence on the vulnerability of the battleship to air attack is a somewhat inconclusive and disturbing document. Its answer to the main question is unequi-...

the Palestine Mandate, a particularly competent body, reached Jerusalem on Wednesday, to be .greeted with the news that the Arabs had decided to boycott the Commission...

to Europe is happening in the south-east of the continent. While Count Ciano, the Italian Foreign Secretary, is meeting Austrian and Hungarian representatives at Vienna the...

at Buenos Aires, may prove of considerable importance not only in uniting the States of the American continent, but in defining the relations between that continent and the rest...

the Lord Mayor's Banquet on Monday was a sound, firm and, so far as the depressing circumstances permitted, a hopeful review of the world situation, though the Three-Power...

which will be debated on Monday, are the main preoccupation of Members. I believe the measure may receive a second reading without a division, but that does not mean that...

particular by Lord Winterton, that " our whole defence programme is vastly behindhand." The House was not in the least reassured by .Sir Samuel Hoare's statement with regard to...

marked contrast to the atmosphere of boredom and lassitude that characterised the two days' discussion of the Socialist amendment. The debate lacked any sort of reality. Labour...

fitness in the House of Lords on Tuesday was marked by notable speeches from the two eminent physicians who sit in that Chamber, Lord Dawson and Lord Horder. A wide ground was...

show that in October unemployment was lower than for six years and employment higher than it has ever Leen. Since Sep- tember it has increased by 21,000, and since October,...

on Euthanasia, which Lord Ponsonby is introducing in the House of Lords, will pass into law, but it will give an excellent opportunity for a valuable discussion. The Bill, which...

Government has been in rough water on the defence debate inaugurated on the Liberal amendment to the Address. The discussion began with a sincere and well phrased if somewhat...

just relinquished the post of Commissioner for the Special Areas which he has held for the last two years. He has written the last of those reports which have constituted such...

what has by common consent been a notable series appears in our columns today. The subject has been approached from many angles. Dr. Inge and Father D'Arcy have denounced...

T HE Prime Minister dealt rather airily with the case of General Gough in the House of Commons on Tuesday. It is all very well to say that it should be ample reward for Sir...

By H. POWYS GREENWOOD [Mr. Greenwood, who is the author of " Employment and the Depressed -treas.' . is snaking a special investigation of the situation in South. Woks at the...

By ALDOUS HUXLEY C ONSIDER the propagandist activities of the periodical Press. Rich men and politicians have a fixed belief that if they can control the Press they will be...

By SIR ARNOLD WILSON, M.P. T j AST month saw the publication of Sir Arthur Newsholme's latest book The Last Thirty Years in Public Health (Allen and Unwin. 15s.) and The...

Christianity and Communism By CANON F. R. BARRY " R ELIGION is the opium of the people." But the phrase was invented not by Karl Marx but by an anglican parson, Charles...

By L. HADEN GUEST Moscow. I T is not easy to estimate standards of life in any country—even one's own—by any method, even the most exactly statistical. And it is no easier...

By RANJEE G. SHAHANI T HE two women had met at last. Together they had entered the house, taking no notice of one another. They took their places in opposite corners of the...

By ROSE MACAULAY What odd things other people do ! Why, I wonder, should the sender of this pamphlet think it likely that I, who dislike atrocity literature, should spend my...

Commonwealth and Foreign By LORD MELCHETT THE visit to London of the Polish Foreign Minister is of great significance to the present European situation, in view of the anxious...

the London Pavilion THERE are moods when one almost believes, remembering the great Westerns, from The rirginian to The Texas Rangers, and the classical Russian films, from...

play now shares with Encore Les Dames and All-In Marriage the blessing of the Lord Chamberlain. And about time, too ; it would have been a sad business for the English theatre...

"The Wild Duck." By Henrik Ibsen. At the Westminster The Wild Duck will never date, for its theme will never lose its relevance—there will never come a time when unpractical,...

Von einem deutschen Kortespondenten I Von fiinfzig Jahren lief der erste deutsche Fischdampfer " Sagitta " von Wesermfinde in die Nordsee aus. Schon each fiinf Jahren befuhren...

LAST week we had a Straus's Festival, Unofficial but fairly complete. Two of his operas and four of his major orchestral works were played, and the septuagenarian composer, to...

A Bumper Harvest This autumn brings to an end a success , of the English climate greater than any in the records. For the third successive year the crop of apples has been "...

that there is no cruelty so devilish as that of the black-coated doctrinaire. But I could not have believed that any decent - man could have expressed " a more than sympathetic...

your issue of October 30th. It is true—and of capital importance—that Hebraic. religion (and Christianity which was based upon Hebraic religion) was distinguished from the...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR [Correspondents are requested to keep their letters as brief as is reasonably possible. The most suitable length is that of one of our " News of the Week...

Keith Toms, accuse the Catholic Church of a " sympathy, if not a co-operation," with Fascism as such, will find some of the facts difficult to interpret. it would be interesting...

As regards ritual, I think this question had better be discussed in private between us, as it may bore your readers, though I must warn him I am an indolent and ill-tempered...

SIR,—Dr. Inge asks. " What have your Roman Catholic correspondents to say to the horrible account " of " appalling treatment meted out by Franco's followers to Protestant...

interesting letters published in your issue of November 0th, on Communism and Socialism, and the difference between them. may I add a graphic description which I heard years ago...

Inge in your last issue is an effective comment upon a part of Mr. Arnold Lunn's long letter of the week before. There is no evidence to show that there will be any future in a...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—The recent pronouncement of Mr. de Valera regarding the constitution of the Irish Free State seems to open up the possibility of...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—This won't do at all. Professor Namier writes English history, and he evidently quite misunderstands both British officers and Arabs....

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Mr. J. A. Spender, in his sympathetic review of my Biography of Lord Balfour (Vol. II), declares himself unable to follow the train of...

a story, in which the Arabs act with a magnificent " spirit of chivalry towards an opponent," an (unnamed) British officer behaves with a callous disregard of the human'...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Mr. Lloyd George's account of the work done by Pro- fessor Stapledon for the Welsh sheep pastures, and his tren- chant plea for a new...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] Sin,—The plea which has been lately advanced by the Presbyterian Church, and also by the Salvation Army, in favour of affording a...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] S1R,—With reference to the last paragraph of Dr. Kircher's article in your issue of November 6th, a query seems to me pertinent. Is the "...

article of Dr. Kircher, the editor of the Frankfurter. Zeitung, I was led to wonder what is his view of English informedness and intelligence. He should know that access to...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—We are one of the prisons in this country where Young Prisoners between the ages of 17 and 21 serve their sentences.- • - • • A...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—In a leading article in your last week's issue on the subject of President Roosevelt's re-election, you state your opinion that in his...

[To Ike Editor of THE SPECTATOR.' SIR,—I noticed in the Health Supplement to your issue of October 30th an article by Professor J. C. Drummond entitled `' The CommOn Sense of...

To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] Sin,—Nearly three years ago I enlisted in the British Regular Army as a private soldier. Like the author of the paragraph dealing with the...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Mr. Empson seems to think the theory that primitive tribes cannot understand pictures is exploded. But I have repeatedly found natives...

By J. A. SPENDER SIR AUSTEN'S " Epistolary "Chronicle 1906-1914 " fascinates me, but I wonder a little what sort of impression it will make on young people who " knew not...

The King and the Imperial Crown. By A. Borriodalo Keith. (Longmans. 21s.) PROFESSOR KEITH'S latest book will undoubtedly add to his eminent reputation. Some of those who have...

IF Christians hold to the reality of God they are likely to lose the sense of responsibility for the world ; if they are concerned with the world they tend to regard Him as a...

THREE volumes are too voluminous for a biography of Lord Carson, but if the work had to be pitched on this scale the third volume is by no means the least interesting. By an...

Ma. WHEELER - BENNETT has written the most authoritative and the most satisfying life of Hindenburg Mid has appeared. It is true that the first sixty-seven years of the story...

Waugh in Abyssinia. By Evelyn Waugh. (Longmans. 10s. 6d.) Pi rrn•ro aside the merits of puns as puns, it is a pity that Mr. Waugh should have chosen one so misleading as the...

Far East in Ferment. By Gunther Stein. (Methuen. 10s. 6d.) The reader, on opening a book of this kind written by a first- hand observer in Tokyo, will turn over its pages to...

G. K. C. DURING the last thirty-five years I have read all G. K. Chesterton's books, and I am 'really inclined to think that this is the best I have ever read. The style is...

(Peter Davies. . 9s.) Tuts entirely fascinating autobiography describes the evolution of a burglar. Mark Benney's birth was one. of those accidents which are the chief liability...

Air Mail. By F. V. Monk and H. T. Winter. (Percy Press. 3s. 6d.) Flight to Hell. By Hans Bertram. (Hamish Hamilton. 10s. 6d.) Sky Gipsy. By Claudia Cranston. (Harrap. 10s. (id.)...

BESIDES Mr. Andrew Gow's Sketch of. Housman's life, one of two fragments of biographical material have recently been given to the public by those who knew the poet. "'A...

'By PETER BURRA Bread and Wine. By Ignazio SiIone. Translated by Cwenda David and Eric Mosbacher. (Methuen. 7s. 8d.) Henry Airbubble. By W. J. Turner. (Dent. 7s. 8d.) The Clown...

Field Musewn in Chicago decided that anthropology should be made popular. They com- missioned Miss Malvina Hoffman, the sculptor, to make life-size sculptures or busts of all...

The object of this book (Rider, 12s. 6d.) is to expound so-called ` Occult Science ' " — what an undertaking ! Fortunately the author contents him- self with a few aspects of...

Current Literature THE CHRISTIAN FAITH Edited by W. R. Matthews, D.D. Twelve theologians, Anglican and Free-church, have contributed to this book (Eyre and Spottiswoode, 8s....

be the son of a genius has its good points and its drawbacks. The son of - Sir Hiram Maxim, one of the most brilliant inventors of his day, was fully aware of that ; and in this...

Finance ALTHOUGH. many reasons might be offered for the continued activity and strength of public securities, undoubtedly the paramount influence at the present time is the...

MARKET ACTIVITY. IN view of the favourable conditions of Home trade, it is not altogether surprising that the activity in the Stock Markets should be maintained, and although...

BY ZENo [A prize of one guinea will be given to the sender of the first correct solution of this week's crossword pn-nle to be opened. Envelopes should be marked " Crossword...

The winner of Crossword No. 215 is F. Deaton, 28 Westward Road, South Chingford, E. 4.