the sud- den death in Tashkent of the Indian Prime Minis- ter, Mr. Shastri—within hours of signing the de- claration in which he agreed to restore peaceful relations with...

trimmings of the British winter—voltage cuts, a nuclear power station out of action, and a pre- dictable statement by Mr. Fred Lee, Power Minis- ter, that the electricity...

there was also a blaze at the Wig and Pen Club—the only building in the Strand to survive the Great Fire of London. Traditionalists who de- plored the age of automation winced...

O N Monday, in spite of Mr. Brown's most impassioned remonstrances, the price of Hovis bread goes up by a penny a loaf: an appropriately symbolic event to mark the final...

Friday January 14 1966

India: Tragedy at Tashkent From DEV MURARKA TASHKENT K OSYGIN called it 'a beautiful life: President Ayub Khan simply said 'he died for peace.' This is literally true. I...

By D. W. BROGAN y—IONIES the blind fury with the abhorred shears.' Mr. Shastri's death was symbolic of the passing of the Raj in more ways than one. For the Prime Minister of...

Mr. Crosland's Warning Shot: A Headmaster Replies Addison's Spectator . H. PLUMB One year's subscription to the 'Spectator': £3 15s. (including postage) in the United...

Green Mayor's Nest From MURRAY KEMPTON NEW YORK N EW York welcomed Mayor John Lindsay by collapsing at his feet. Ten minutes after be assumed command, the Transportation...

Castle to Move By MAURICE GENT I T was a common cry on the left before the last general election. Those of us who have to listen to hundreds if not thousands of speeches a...

The Perils of Comment By CHARLES CURRAN riLIFFORD SHARP was the first editor of the k_,1Vetv Statesman. He got the paper into trouble, and lost his job. In doing that, he made...

January 13, 1866 The treaty with Bootan appears to be break- ing down. Sir W. Mansfield. the Commander-in- Chief, has arranged that if the two guns taken at Dewangiri arc not...

the drought in Rhodesia seems first to have appeared in the New York Times on Wednesday, January 5. Lawrence Fellows, the paper's man in Salisbury, began his report like this:...

From \I ARK TYLOR LAGOS TT would be pleasant to record that Lagos had 'enjoy ed its finest hour this week, that it was bursting with pride at the honour of being the first...

Oh. Melbourne's banks are bonnie As tall as any towers, And it's there that Willy Lawry Bats on for twenty hours, Bats on for twenty hours With never a stroke to see. And at...

An Early Warning to George By ALAN WATKINS C OME months ago, in the course of a little- noticed speech at Weston-super-Mare, Mr. Enoch Powell criticised the Conservative...

Conservative party broke with precedent and sought a method of electing a future leader, I did my best to per- suade those concerned to adopt the system first described by the...

T HE first outcome of the French Presidential election, the Cabinet reshuffle that opens the General's second septennat, represents not so much an opening to the left as a...

It is almost as difficult to find a good doctor as it is to find a satisfactory mechanic for one's car. Not that we all mean the same thing by a 'good' doctor anyway. My own...

but amidst all the justified rejoicing over England's first victory in Australia by an innings since before the war, it is as well to remember that the two teams are still much...

Anglo-Irish Free Trade Area negotiations; of how Mr. Wilson, 'having nothing to do,' casually wandered into Lancaster House around midnight to find the talks hopelessly bogged...

By ANGUS MAUDE, MP I T is obvious that the Conservative party has completely lost effective political initiative. Its ia%‘n supporters in the country are divided and deeply...

SIR,—Please allow me a few lines in your journal to congratulate Mr. Angus Maude on his courageous letter (January 7) pointing out the fallacies of his Shadow Cabinet colleague...

1965. Mr. Arnold Beichman, in his article entitled 'The South West Time Bomb,' makes the amazing statement (or rather misstatement) that 'South West Africa has been curtained...

SIR.—May I comment on Mr. Alfred Sherman's riposte? I am against all double standards, whether from the left or the right. I am aware that I am not immune. However, I belong to...

SIR, —Mr, Wilson's problem over Rhodesia is ex- ceedingly complex. Public discussion and Whitehall studies must turn to formulating a realistic way of dealing with this...

From : David Hawley, George Edinger, J. W. Roche, Dr. B. Thalityasingam. N. E. Griggs, D. R. Forsdyke, R. Leather, Rev. Kenneth MacKenzie, Alan Spence, A. D. Mac Dou gall. Open...

two such dangers appeared in a single issue as my leader Mr. Grimond and my model Strix have dropped in last week's SPECTATOR (January 7, 1966). When Mr. Grimond advocates a...

SIR.—Charles Curran's article of December 31 on advertising and the press begins with four short staccato sentences. 'Britain enjoys a cut-price press. Its readers pay about...

Snt,—I have just seen your issue of December 3, 1965, in which 'Spectator's Notebook' criticises Mr. Fraser for attempting to impose a speed limit of 70 m.p.h. even on express...

SIR,—The fact that one man buying one house makes major front-page news is the fault of your colleagues on the press. not of the building societies. During 1965 the societies...

Sus,—Congratulations to Simon Raven on his Second Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment (December 31), However, Latin is hardly an answer to the problem (Wells and...

THEATRE John Bull and Naked Passion By HILARY SPURLING ' I T is French all over, that is to say , dramatically speaking—pompous, frigid and ranting.' Leigh Hunt's view of...

Amazing Depths N or so long ago Rediffusion—London's Television—had an unpretentious pro- gramme called Three After Six, in which, at its best, Dee Wells, Alan Brien and Benny...

Just William? TNI the Tube on my way to the Freischiitz 'revival at Sadler's Wells I reread William Mann's article on the future of opera in the first issue of Sadler's Wells...

Top People Are Forever Life at the Top. (Odeon, Leicester Square, 'X' certificate.)—The Joker. (Jacey, Marble Arch, 'A' certificate.) T EN fictional and eight actual years...

Club Before Country T lIE trouble about most of us analysers is that we tend to stop thinking at a common emotional barrier; so nobody notices anything amiss. The resulting...

By MARTIN TURNELL N ovEusTs like Francois Mauriac, Graham Greene and Jean Cayrol are fond of assert- ing that they Are Catholics who write novels and not Catholic novelists, or...

The Letters of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 1835- 1870. Edited by Oswald Doughty and J. R. Wahl. Two volumes. (0.U.P., £8 8s.) Rossurres letters reveal a richer and more varied...

By ANTHONY BURGESS rr S. EtioT (the first anniversary of whose death has just fallen—we have to remind ourselves of this, for he is still so very much alive) said that Dr....

KINGSLEY MARTIN, at sixty-eight, can look back on one of the most successful journalistic careers of this century. As editor of the New Statesman for over thirty years, he made...

HISTORIANS and students of contemporary and recent politics in Britain have long felt the need for a British journal of contemporary history. Since 1953, Germany has had the...

Over the sears of ice We fly. Slabs with jagged edees, piled here forever, They lie upended. flung against each other, In the white fields of air and circling birds, Of snow,...

With Shuddering Fall. By Joyce Carol Oates. (Cape, 21s.) The Ice Age. By Tamas Aczel. (Seeker and Warburg, 25s.) The Long Vengeance. By Max Hart. (Allen and Unwin, 18s.) The...

[ C - 7 lL Wages in Cuckoo Land By NICHOLAS DAVENPORT G ENI 1201. - S1.1' voicing the feelings of all his Conservative opponents, Mr. Ray Gunter, the Minister of Labour,...

At Bertram's lintel, by Agatha Christie (Collins, 16s.). The patrons of Claridge's might well hold up their hands in horror, murmuring 'this could never happen here.' And the...

By CUSTOS A NEW three-week account has opened on the Stock Exchange with a mixed showing, but with government stocks barely holding their re- cent recovery. The market seemed...

Bank shares have been among my most con- stant recommendations and the results published in the last few days well exceed market expecta- tions. As everyone knows, banks arc not...

By LOTHBURY T HE report for the year ended October 2, 1965, from South Durham Steel and Iron is mildly encouraging, as work on the steel pipe side of the business should stay...

There is, in fact, a case for switching, selec- tively, from bank shares to the discount houses. The booming bank profits have been due a) the excessively high interest rates...

By PHILIDOR No. 265. G. N. CHENEY (Brooklyn Standard, i86o) BLACK (6 men) WHITE (8 men) wHITE to play and mate in three moves; solution next week. Solution to No. 264 (Wamey):...

Crumblethorpe General By JOHN ROWAN WILSON TIIE average British hos- pital in this, the eighteenth year of the National Health Service, does not rest on Kildare or Ben Casey...

CONSUMING INTEREST With Charity For All By LESLIE ADRIAN The recent report of the Charity Commis- sioners, mainly noticed because of the revela- tion that several million...

By ALAN BRIEN MY dossier on New York waiters, probably the surliest and stroppiest in the Western world, con- tinues to swell towards bursting. But I think they are better...

1. Knocked aboat in the fish and chip shop? (8) 5. Having fallen ti cm the apex (6) 23. Applaud a quick exit? What nonsense (8) 24. Do they get taken in as a result of an...

tion. 10 Valve. 11 Gilpin. 12 Venerate. 13 Dramas, 15 Bedouins. 18 Pot-metal. 19 Apogee. 21 Sisterly. 23 Reship. 26 Erica. 27 Thousands. 28 Merry-go- round. DOWN.-1 Avenged. 2...