13 OCTOBER 1939

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NEWS OF THE WEEK W HILE the past week has shown

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no substantial change in either the military or the diplomatic situation what developments there have been are uniformly to Germany's disadvantage. By any reckoning Herr...

War in the Air Sir Kingsley Wood's review of the

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work of the Air Force serves to remind us of the incessant activity which is the all- important background to such occasional feats as the raid on Wilhelmshaven or the flight...

M. Daladier's " No "

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The decision that Herr Hitler should get his first answer from M. Daladier rather than from Mr. Chamberlain was well-advised. The whole of German propaganda has been directed...

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Warships versus Aeroplanes The Air Force has to work here

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with the Army, there with the Navy, and sometimes independently. It has tasks to perform which have scarcely been put to the test before this war. In one sphere in particular...

Russia and the Baltic

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Germany to her cost has taught Russia the way to win " bloodless victories." Poland as a separate country having disappeared, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have fallen easy...

The Indian Congress's Demands

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The conversations which the Viceroy has been having with the leaders of the different parties and communities in British India serve as reminder that the Indian National...

Changes in the Balkans

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The whole position in the Balkans has been changing rapidly in swift reaction to the changing balance of power in the East. The relations between the Balkan States had been...

The Demands on Finland

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The result of the negotiations between Finland and M. Stalin are not known as we go to press, but they will evidently not run as smooth a course as the discussions with, or the...

Britain's Land Forces

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It was proper that little should be said about the British Expeditionary Force to France until the operation of trans- porting our first contingents was completed. Mr. Hore-...

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Dispossessed Schools

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So much has evidently been thought out in the utmost detail about official measures which were to be taken on the outbreak of war that we are compelled to ask, to what extent...

[The Editor of THE SPECTATOR is always glad to consider

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articles that may be submitted for publication, but cannot undertake to return them unless a stamped addressed envelope is enclosed.]

Doctors and the War

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No one will complain that the emergency measures which were taken for the hospitals and the medical profession in vulnerable areas have not been put to the test by enemy action...

Neutrality Bill Progress

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The debate on the Neutrality Bill in the American Senate proceeds, but Senator Key Pittman's prediction that it would be finished by October 14th is unlikely to be fulfilled....

Tobacco for the Troops

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In the last War the Over-Seas League found an admirable means of showing the troops that people at home and throughout the Empire were not forgetful of the small per- sonal...

Official Encroachments

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The beginning of the war led to the creation of local emergency A.R.P. committees which have been entrusted with wide powers and have been assuming more rather than less...

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PEACE IF

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H ERR HITLER'S Reichstag speech was meant for men with short memories or none. To anyone whose mind can range back as little as four years the utterance is irretrievably damned....

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WANTED - A BRAINS DEPARTMENT T HE Prime Minister's statement on Monday

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about economic planning is disconcerting evidence that the Government has not yet fully realised the magnitude of the new social, industrial, commercial and financial tasks...

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A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK

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THIS astonishing war that refuses to begin (in spite of the Athenia ' and ' Courageous ' disasters, and others like them) may well be on the point of beginning, now that Herr...

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THE WAR SURVEYED : ACHTUNG, PANZER

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By STRATEGICUS T HE title of a German book, written some time ago, seems remarkably apt as an expression of the mind of the moment. The writer discussed Germany's need of a...

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THE CASE FOR IMPERIALISM

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By LORD LUGARD I the last decade of the Nineteenth Century, or perhaps 1 a little earlier, the term " Little Englander " was coined to describe the views of those who supported...

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HITLER'S TECHNIQUE FAILS

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By M. J. BONN* "No German wants to believe that there will be serious hostilities in the West, the Germans having grown accus- tomed to Hitler's pulling off his successes...

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FILMS AND THE WAR

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By BASIL WRIGHT I T would be exceedingly unwise to neglect the potentiali- ties in wartime of a medium which has become, for masses throughout the world, their main form of...

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THE BALTIC STATES UNDER ORDERS

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By THE DEAN OF CHICHESTER (The Very Rev. A. S. Duncan-Jones) E NGLISHMEN who know anything of the Baltic countries have been reading the accounts of the progress in Russia's...

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WHY GREEK AND LATIN ?

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By M. L. JACKS [Mr. lacks, late Headmaster of Mill Hill, is Director of the Department of Education at Oxford] T HE publication of the Board of Education's recent Suggestions...

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PEACE OF MIND

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By OUR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT I times of national as well as of domestic stress the man or woman with the inner serenity, best described perhaps as peace of mind, is an...

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THE VISITATION

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By HELEN SIMPSON M Y dear, there you are! How are you? How heavenly you look! I like the gas-mask so absolutely matching. Come and have something fattening, it's good for our...

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I admit to having some sympathy with the unfortunate officials

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whose duty it is to draft these leaflets in such a form as will be understood by those unaccustomed to read explicit instructions. I remember that many years ago I tried to...

A third section of Mr. Tom Harrisson's notes deals with

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rumours. His observers have supplied him with 30o dif- ferent rumours, with details of the words used, as of the time, place and person. From an analysis of these 300 rumours he...

Everybody remembers, or has heard of, the great Russian rumour

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of September, 1914. What was so curious about this rumour was the passionate intensity with which it was defended by the faithful. It arose, apparently, from the passage through...

Mr. Harrisson informs me also that the usual endemic dis-

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satisfaction with the B.B.C. has since September 3rd assumed epidemic form. The masses have derived the wholly in- correct impression that the B.B.C. have in some manner been...

PEOPLE AND THINGS

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By HAROLD NICOLgON SEE that I have fallen into disgrace with Mr. Tom I Harrisson and his fellow experimenters in Mass Observa- tion for having stated recently (on insufficient...

A similar discovery made by the Mass Observers was that

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the working classes do not really understand the B.B.C. News Bulletins. Here again my sympathy goes out to the officials whose duty it is to draft these bulletins in the...

I headed my amended draft with the words " What

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you have to do to complete this form correctly." I then crossed out the word " complete " (which appeared to me to be sententious) and inserted the two words " fill in." I then...

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STAGE AND SCREEN

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MUSIC The Revival THE Muse, bludgeoned, stunned and, I regret to name it, stricken with panic, shows signs of revival. Let it be added that the panic was not started by the...

THE CINEMA

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" Ignace." At the Berkeley THERE are people, I gather from other reviews, who do not like Femandel. They must on no account go to this film, for there is very little else in...

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COUNTRY LIFE

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A Woman's Rules That admirable paper Home and Country quotes four rules for the use of ordinary people in war-time. They are put into the mouth of an old Oxford lady. They...

Both Admirals

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One can never generalise about anything in this varied isle of ours. Neighbouring parishes may differ in their livestock as in their weather. While it has been my experience and...

Chat and Tortoiseshell

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Autumnal weather has been such that a number of birds of different species have been tempted to nest late in the year and much beyond their usual date. The most mteresting of...

Partridge Research

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In the region of sport one of the institutions that has been brought to an end is the very interesting research station into the ways of the partridge. The target was of course...

In the Garden

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Two things worth preserving with some technical care are autumn leaves and onions. The first keep longest, especially if they are beechen. If the boughs are dipped for a while...

Sportsmen's Contributions

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The habitual, traditional feud between sportsmen and poultry-keepers has been " liquidated " thanks to the war, if that abominable jargon of the moment may be so used. The...

Late Broods

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Two other late broods of which I have cognisance are both of swallows—one in Berkshire, the other, yet later, in a mill (famous for its record in the Domesday Book) in a...

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WARFARE BY LEAFLET

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SIR, —Your article on " Warfare by Leaflet " is a welcome attempt, after a month of war, to estimate the effectiveness of British propaganda. Since Germans are unable to read...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

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[Correspondents are requested to keep their letters as brief as is reasonably possible. Signed letters are given a preference over those bearing a pseudonym, and the latter must...

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WAR AIMS

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SIR,—I always read with more than ordinary interest any- thing written by my friend, Mr. J. C. Hardwick. His comment on the slogan "Destroy Hitlerism," in your issue of...

REJECTED VOLUNTEERS

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SIR, —Mr. James Kinross' letter is indicative of the absurd attitude which is being adopted by Recruiting Authorities. My experience of the Joint Recruiting Boards at the...

AFTER HITLERISM

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SIR,—Canon Roger Lloyd in his article last week points to Germany as a menace because she has fought four wars in less than a hundred years. We have got a much more imposing...

" MY FUHRER'S AIM "

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SIR,-It is astonishing to read the assertion of your corre- spondent " Diplomaticus " that Hitler's lust for world power for Germany is in fundamental contrast to the aim of all...

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THE ARTIST IN WAR

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SIR,—I very much welcomed Mr. Samuel Heald's letter, " The Artist in War," in your issue of September 22nd, though I fear greatly that the complaint of the creative artist is...

PROFESSOR FREUD

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SIR,—It seems a pity that so devoted a Freudian as Doctor Ernest Jones should have pronounced the funeral oration in The Spectator over the late Professor Freud. No one would...

PUTTING THE CLOCK BACK

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was present at a conversation the other day at which parents were lamenting the probable impossibility of going to see their children at half-term. I ventured, as a grand-...

TIMBERYARD FIRES

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SIR,—It is surely a sinister thing that quite lately three—I am told four—of the finest timberyards in the West of England have been burnt out. I saw one of them last...

THE ADMIRALTY'S ENGLISH

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Sna,—At a time when so much graver matters occupy our minds, it may seem absurd to bother whether a Government communiqué is in good or bad English. Yet it does seem to me...

THE ONLY GERMANY

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SIR, —Mr. H. C. Haycraft cites the position of Poland in 1772, and points out—quite truly—that East Prussia was in origin a Prussian colony. But surely no one will suggest...

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" PROPOSALS TO RESTORE SANITY " SIR, —In a world intellectually

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bewildered and morally adrift, with crooked diplomacy for the time being triumphant, any constructive proposals to restore sanity in the international situation may at least be...

BERIC THE BRITON SIR,—I have not read Mrs. Mitchison's book,

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but your reviewer has ignored a parallel which may be as revealing as The Sign of the Cross. I refer to G. A. Henty's Beric the Briton, also (if my memory does not betray me...

RUSSIA'S ACTION SIR,—I am a refugee from Czecho-Slovakia, where I

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lived for five years since I had left Berlin, my native town, in 1934. I came over to this country in November, 5938. I belong to the Thomas Mann Group, and to the Refugee...

THE BLUE LAMP

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SIR, —In these times of stress and strain, whed our minds are filled with.thoughts of our very gallant Army, Navy and Air Force, perhaps the readers of The Spectator would...

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BELGIUM 1914 - POLAND 1939

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Lord, how long shall the wicked triumph? Yet they say, The Lord doth not see. He that planted the ear, shall he not hear ! He that formed the eye, shall 1w not see ! (Ps....

MOSCOW TODAY

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Strt,—I have read with great interest Sir Evelyn Wrench's two articles about Moscow today, having myself been in that city immediately prior to the outbreak of war, which...

SCIENCE MARCHES ON "

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SIR,—In Dr. Sherwood Taylor's notice of my book, Science Marches On, which appeared in your columns on September z5th, he complains that I am mistaken in identifying modern...

IN order to economise paper, the quantity of news- papers

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and other journals supplied to newsagents on the usual sale-or-return basis has now to be seriously restricted. Readers of The Spectator are therefore urged to place a regular...

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Books of the Day CARROLL AND DODGSON, Evelyn Waugh

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511 S TALIN, john Hallett 512 LORD RUTHERFORD, C. P. Snow ... 512 AFTER THE DELUGE, R. C. K. Ensor 5 , 4 LOVE FOR A COUNTRY, Ronald Gartland, M.P. ... 5 , 4 FOUR WAYS OF...

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Lord Rutherford

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Rutherford. By A. S. Eve. (Cambridge University Press. ars.) THE official biography of Rutherford does all that one could reasonably ask of it. It is written unportentously,...

The Bolshevik Dictator

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THE original of this biography of Stalin by a French writer, an ex-Russian and an ei-Communist, first appeared in French in 1935—a fact of which its present publishers do not...

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Communal Psychology

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After the Deluge : A Study of Communal Psychology. By Leonard Woolf. Vol. II. (Hogarth Press. r5s.) THE first volume of this ambitious work was published eight years ago, and...

Spiritual Leadership

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Love for a Country. By Rom Landau. (Nicholson and Watson. I2S. 6d.) Mx. LANDAU is a Pole who for some years past has made his home in this country. Now in a book of three...

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A Studio with a View

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More Portraits of a Lifetime : 1918-1938. By Jacques-Emile Blanche. (Dent. r8s.) ONE of the effects of the outbreak of war is to have formed. as it were, an enclave of the...

Patterns of Thought

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Four Ways of Philosophy. By Irwin Edman. (Constable. 12s.) PROFESSOR EDMAN, who recently delighted us with his Philosopher's Holiday, now shows us what he can do when on duty....

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" The Sisterhood "

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The Daughters of George III. By Dorothy Margaret Stuart. (Macmillan. iss.) Our of the incredibly overworked material relating to the courts of George III and IV it is still...

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St. Hilary Plays

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THOUSANDS of people must know of St. Hilary and its famous parson: that remote little church upon Mount's Bay in Cornwall, its thirteenth-century spire among the trees on the...

New Verse

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New Verse made its bow in January, 1933, dedicated to " stratospherically high " aims in a " poisonous and steaming Gran Chaco of vulgarity, sciolism and literary...

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Mr. Huxley on Longevity

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After Many a Summer. By Aldous Huxley. (Chatto and Windus. 7s. 6d.) After Many a Summer is in certain ways a reversion to Mr. Huxley's earliest habit as a novelist. Its setting...

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Iehabod

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How Green Was My Valley. By Richard Llewellyn. (Michael Joseph. 8s. 6d.) How Green Was My Valley. By Richard Llewellyn. (Michael Joseph. 8s. 6d.) HERE is a first - rate novel in...

Safety Area

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The Flying Goat. By H. E. Bates. (Cape. 75. 6d.) IN an earlier volume of Mr. Bates's stories, I find a sentence which seems to crystallise both his purpose and his mood: the...

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• * * * BUILDING SOCIETY OUTLOOK

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As the dust settles after the first flurry to adapt ourselves to war-time conditions it is possible dimly to discern the new shapes of some of the largest figures on the...

FINANCE AND INVESTMENT

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GENTLY but surely the gilt-edged market is thawing. This is the most significant fact in Throgmorton Street. It means that after the groundswell which followed the storm the...

DIVIDEND AND TAX PROBLEMS

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The 3,000,000 shareholders and depositors who make up the other side of the picture have an equally complex problem to settle. A fairly substantial volume of money was withdrawn...

INSURANCE SHARE PROSPECTS

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So far, insurance shares have proved disappointing to those who bought them as a good holding for peace or war. Since September 4th there have been some very sharp falls, partly...

TRANSPORT " C " POSITION

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This is a sad blow for the " C " stockholders of the London Transport Board. No final dividend despite the raising of the fares and no light on the prospects now that the Board...

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THE SPECTATOR COMPETITIONS No.

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PRIZES of book tokens for LI is. and los. 6d. are offered for the two best lists of six rules to g uide the conduct of ordinary people in war-time. Specimens of the kind of su...

SOLUTION TO CROSSWORD No 31.

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SOLUTION NEXT WEEK The winner of Crossword No. 31 is W. Aldersey Lewis, 3 2 Lee Park, Blackheath, S.E. 3.

" THE SPECTATOR " CROSSWORD SECOND SERIES-No. 32 [A prize

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of a Book Token for one guinea will be given to the sender of the first cone. t solution of this week's crossword puzzle to be opened. Envelopes should be market "Crossword...