F AILING some last-minute change in the general situation or in the attitude of the authorities to this particular issue, The Spectator, in common with all other weekly...

The Palestine talks are to all appearance ending as they seemed bound to end, in the rejection by both Arabs and Jews of the final proposals framed by Mr. Bevin. Though the...

Of the situation prevailing at this moment in India it can be said that at least a breakdown has so far been avoided. Indeed, in one respect the prospects have considerably...

The treaties of peace between the victorious Allies and Italy, Bulgaria, Hungary, Rumania and Finland have now acquired their full complement of signatures and also a festoon of...

It would be unrealistic to deny that the collaboration of the French Communist Party in M. Ramadier's Government falls short of com- plete frankness. But it would be equally...

The recent increase in .the tempo of the negotiations leading to the full use of Polish labour in this country may possibly have owed something to the deterioration of the...

Sir Alexander Cadogan is guilty of no hyperbole in describing the progress of the United Nations Military Staff Committee as" lament- ably small." After a year of discussion on...

There will be universal sympathy with the efforts the Church of England is making to secure minimum stipends and minimum pen- sions for her clergy. What is aimed at is modest...

The statement this week by Lord Hacking, chairman of the British Travel Association, who has been on a good will tour in the U.S.A. and Canada, that tens of thousands of people...

REFERRED last week to the influence of week-end eventi on the time-table of Parliament. I was evidently prophet as well as recorder, because this week has given the most...

A MONG the first reactions to last Friday's announcement of the cutting of power supplies to most industries in South- East, Central' and North-West England was an unmistakable...

spite of the refusal of the Government to interfere with it. It is not at all enough to say that the Government cannot interfere with the moral habits of the people. Why are...

fires of sea-coal can r,ealise rather poignantly today—with up to a hundred vital coal-ships s . .orrn-bound in the Tyne—how essential is their dependence on sea-transport. For...

monthly, has been conducting an enquiry into American soldiers' reactions to conditions and habits in various European countries. The questions asked are interesting. I have...

T HE death of Ellen Wilkinson occurred just too late for mention in last week's Spectator. Now she has been buried, and the memorial service at St. Margaret's held. That is very...

are always interesting. This year, as usual, Eton and Manchester Grammar School are neck and neck near the head of the list—Eton being this time no higher than third with six...

Education? This first, that there is no more popular, or deservedly popular, 'Irian in the House of Commons than George Tomlinson. He is the Lancashire trade unionist, or any...

of a minor inaccuracy in a paragraph regarding the Tranby Croft baccarat case. The date of the action brought by Sir William Gordon-Cumming

By REINHOLD NIEBUHR T HERE is a general disposition in Britain, not wholly confined to the Labour Party, to regard America as a kind of wilder- ness of "free enterprise," of...

By WALTER FLETCHER, M.P. A T first the connection between two such widely divergent com- modities as rice and rubber would seem remote, but, with conditions as they are in the...

By D. N. CHESTER T HE one thing which seems to be clearly understood about the Town and Country Planning Bill is that it is difficult to under- stand. Something can be done to...

By DAVID MACE The contents of the report fall into three sections. The first and main part discusses reconciliation machinery—both before and after the parties come into touch...

By D. MacCLURE y STOOD on a green hill looking down on Bombay city. There I are too,000 Parsecs in the world, and 8o,000 of them were living and thriving in those houses below....

By HAROLD NiCOLSON F REQUENTLY in this column have I urged people to keep a diary. Few personal habits are easier to contract ; few forms of self-discipline are more rewarding....

THERE has been some excellent singing in London this last week, and that is not a common event. Obviously we can no longer plead our old excuse of the climate ; fog and damp...

THE THEATRE IT is immaterial, though extremely difficult to decide, whether the colour of Sir George Basingstoke's suit should properly be described as rust or tan or...

"Green for Danger " (Gaumont, Haymarket and Marble Arch Pavilion). —" School for Danger" (London Pavilion and Tivoli). " 42nd Street " (New London Film Society)....

MOST of us, I suppose, derive our own picture of the specifically national qualities of Spanish painting from one or two isolated figures of European stature. But though the...

As though to rebuke a recent complaint in these notes about the inadequate representation of science on the air, several of last week's programmes had a scientific background....

SIR,—Reading Mr. Harold Nicolson's Marginal Comment is so enjoyable that I have hesitated to criticise anything which he writes in your columns. Nevertheless I feel bound to...

BRITISH FOREIGN POLICY SIR, —Mr. Bullock has made a valiant attempt to apply "pure," that is absolutely unprejudiced, thought to British foreign policy. But as the late...

Sta,—Heartiest thanks for your article Tripod of Peace, for its clear vision of the whole world-situation and of the parts in due proportion. If only we could all keep aware of...

of the finest statements of our foreign-policy problems and their solution that I have read in the confused welter of views put abroad by the Press week in and out. I speak as a...

Sut,—Some ten years ago, in a little book called A Plan for a Plan (anonymous), I suggested that, so far as Public Schools were concerned, many difficulties would be solved if...

proposal of "a single school curriculum up to university standard in which the only options shouldbe within the main divisions of ancient, modern, scientific and humane studies"...

SIR,—It would give me great pleasure to see this question of "the way of life" among rural workers threshed out in public. What I mean by a way of life is that a man should find...

St,—While thoroughly enjoying Mr. Nicolson's second raid on collector- land from his guerrilla-fastness in the mountains of port and politics, I must insist that he has attacked...

Snt,—Your journal took -a very effective share in countering the activities in this country, some four years ago, of certain bodies calling themselves universities, the titles...

SIR,—Mr. Gollancz has done me the honour of commenting on my review of lai,s book. May I take up his points? I endeavoured to deal with facts, not sentiment, because on them...

Sts,—Arriving home from a somewhat perplexing "Agreed Syllabus" sub-committee, I found A. V. Murray's article, Syllabus Religion (in your issue of January 31st), awaiting me Had...

SIR,—Miss Hardwick does something of an injustice to the Army Medical Authorities when she stresses this single aspect of their attempt to reduce the high V.D. incidence rate. I...

Snt,—An effort is being made to establish in Cambridge a photographic record for use in illustrating the history and comparative study of religions. Any persons, especially...

craftsman, the happiest and the best of men. It seems that such a lament is heard even in new and thinly populated countries. A Southern Rhodesian (" the first life member of...

WHEN frost is heavy on the land it usually happens that "the ringing stations," centres where birds are officially ringed and recorded, receive an access of communications; for...

Gardens may provide much "unearned increment." For example, a gardener reports the presence of waxwings, those rare and lovely immi- grants, in his garden, thanks to the supply...

little book on the tree by Dr. Cornish (whose brother was once well known as a naturalist to readers of The Spectator); the question has arisen why yew trees were planted in...

Palestine in an unpolitical reference, I have long been interested in the scarlet anemones—probably the lilies of the Bible—which carpet so many acres. It was therefore...

Sirt,—My attention has been called to Mr. Cleland Scott's article, under the title Tsetse and Fauna, in your issue of January 31st last. With much of what Mr. Scott writes about...

Tuts autobiography has three parts. The first part is a recollection of childhood on a Yorkshire farm, and has previously been published under the title of The Innocent Eye. The...

Kingsley : A Provisional Verdict Charles Kingsley and his Ideas. By 'buy Kendall. (Hutchinson. 21S.) CHARLES KINGSLEY has not been greatly troubled by biographers. In spite of...

THOSE who go to Mr. Mackenzie for a full-dress biography of the type so much in vogue in the Victorian era and after will be dis- appointed; but they will find in these rather...

THIS essay in the psychology and xsthetic appeal of space will puzzle many readers. Taking isolated experiences and sensations from his own childhood, Mr. Adrian Stokes attempts...

English Church Monuments, 1510-1840. By Katharine A. Esdaile. (Batsford. 21s.) MRS. ARUNDELL ESDAILE has compiled a much-needed book. De- scribing her work as a sequel to Mr....

THERE is an old chestnut about a man who, on being asked what he would like to be if he wasn't English, replied "English." I have sometimes thought that I should reply...

Forlorn Sunset. By Michael Sadleir. (Constable. 12s. 6d.) NoemAtii , any one of the books under review this week would have claimed first place on the list. They are all good ;...

Spin a Silver Coin. By Alberta Hannum. (Michael Joseph. 12s. 6d.) IF the traditions and trappings of the days of the covered wagons are still remembered outside the confines of...

THE subject of this attractive essay is not, as its title might suggest, Rossetti's illustrations to Dante, but the influence of Dante on Rossetti as an illustrator. Mrs. Gray's...

book, wrapped in a quite exceptionally pretty dust-jacket, is a sincere attempt at popular biography, but the author's motives for writing about Heine are more arresting than...

MICHAEL JOSEPH are publishing early next month The Russian Outlook by Lt.-Gen. Sir Giffard le Q. Martel. General Martel's personal experience of the Russians dates back to 1936,...

The winner of Crossword No. 412 is C. J. WILES, 3, Divinity Road, Oxford.

ACROSS 1. Surely this bird is not this price! (10.) 6. Wordsworth said that England was one of these. (4.) 9. The little space between. (10.) 10. It is easy to see what...

By CUSTOS WITHOUT any foreknowledge of the staggering news from the fuel front, I wrote a week ago that there was little wisdom in being fully invested at this time. A fall of...