T HE Moscow Conference has opened much as might have been expected, but rather better. The common routine of such gatherings is three weeks of frustration, followed by a sparse...

The repercussions of Mr. Truman's address to Congress on aid to Greece and Turkey have yet to be revealed. The sum involved, £roo,000,000, is considerable, but that is...

Empire preference is at least likely to survive in the form of a tendency of the members of the Commonwealth to get together- and talk before any changes are made in the trading...

The action of the British and American Governments in address- ing Notes of protest to Russia regarding alleged Russian interference in the internal affairs of Hungary is of...

The statement on Egypt made by the Prime Minister in the House of Commons on Tuesday shows on how narrow a margin of dis- agreement the Egyptian Government has determined to put...

No one will or can dissent from the view expressed by the Churches' Committee on Gambling in a report issued this week that the employment of 300,000 to 400,000 people in the...

If the demonstrated facts and clear possibilities of atomic energy will not stir the imagination, then it is hard to see what will. Con- sequently when the B.B.C., after the...

T HE debate on the Economic White Paper has made a notable' week, though most Back-Benchers were thrust into the role of non-participating spectators. They did not, however,...

In an exchange of letters published in Bolshevik, the leading journal of the Russian Communist Party, M. Stalin attacked the military doctrine of Clausewitz and Moltke, which,...

British public cannot . 1 afford today, but the luxury which it can afford least of all is despair. The shock of the coal crisis threatened at first to have a depressing rather...

thirty years, should be heard with respect in anything he says about the appointment of J.P.s. One thing he has just said is that they ought not to be appointed under the age of...

T HE question of a memorial to President Roosevelt in Westminster Abbey is, I gather, still unsettled. Though I have a far greater admiration for that great man than many of his...

My well-known admiration for academic distinction has led to my acquisition of a letter whose heading I find very impressive. It runs PROFESSOR A. FREEMAN LL.D., Litt.D.,...

be apparent, but it exists all right. The link is degrees—Professor Freeman's and Mr. A. M. Low's. I see that Mr. Low, A.C.G.I.(Lond.), M.I.A.E., F.C.S., F.R.G.S.,...

Sir Alan Herbert has elicited the fact that the payment of £23,000 to the inventor of Basic English covers the copyright of "the Basic English Standardised Word List and...

in the House of Commons on Monday it emerges that James II, who is in store in some locality undisclosed wel be re-erected in some locality yet to be determined (his old...

Paris, from an unknown critic. It is addressed to the writer of a review in the Spectator (in its Daily Mail phase) of Mr. W. C. Bullitt's recent book on Russia. "You ought," it...

By D. N. CHESTER I N 1944 259 tons of coal were produced by each worker in the mining industry. This national average concealed a wide range of conditions. A sixth of the...

By D. W. BROGAN It was not true of all or perhaps of many things in tighteenth-century England ; it is certainly not true of many things today. But it is true, dreadfully,...

By DR. SOMERVILLE HASTINGS, M.P. T HERE can be no question as to the seriousness of the nursing shortage of today. Cases of infectious disePse that would be much better treated...

By FRANK SYKES A N' opportunity to visit East Africa to advise a firm on agricul- tural matters was not to be missed. In the cold dawn of a January day I stepped into a "York,"...

By JOHN A. STEVENSON Ottawa C ANADA has now entered upon her eightieth year as a confedera- tion, and in the period elapsed since the pact of 1867 she has grown gradually to the...

By R. C. ROBERTSON-GLASGOW A FRIEND of mine who fancies himself as a student of affairs remarked the other day, with that air of fatality beloved of the self-appointed...

By HAROLD NICOLSON r h E Times Literary Supplement on resuming its normal shape, as decorated its leading article with a reproduction of a recent cartoon by Low. This cartoon...

THE THEATRE MR. WILLIAM DOUGLAS-HOME, with the courage of his conviction, has written an admirable play about an English prison. In a series of very short scenes, and short...

"The Best Years of Our Lives." (Leicester Square.) THREE hours is a long time to spend watching a film. The pro- cession of images, the never-quiet sound track, gradually...

GmErrE NEVEU has provided the high lights of the last week. Her performance of the Sibelius violin concerto on March 5th, with the B.B.C. Symphony Orchestra, was followed on the...

MR. MICHAEL AYRTON'S new exhibition at the Redfern enable; us to do some stocktaking. The Germanic fantasy, and in particular the wracked contortions of Griinewald, from which...

LAST week's series of talks on atomic energy was well-timed and well- planned. The talks covered practically every aspect of the subject ; they were admirably objective in tone...

UPROOTED HUMANITY SIR,—In your issue of March 7th, both Mr. Frank Beswick and Sir Angus Watson, writing respectively of the million Allied Christian refugees and of the 100,000...

casual note, that the suppression of the weekly Press by a piece of ministerial bluff "calls for the strongest protest." In the circumstances, the protest does not seem to have...

SIR,—Mr. Churchill's suggestion that it might beccme necessary to transfer our responsibility for India to the United Nations Organisation is deserving of more attention than it...

Slit,—The suspension of the periodicals and the manner in which it was effected raise considerations whose importance has not, I submit, been fully appreciated. Two explanations...

SIR, —Surely your correspondent writes under a misapprehension. He says, "If the more efficient worker is to receive a bonus above the basic wage, either this will increase the...

Sta,—Mr. Harold Nicolson draws attention,to the Royal Commission's Report on the investigation into the Gouzenko affair in Ottawa. It is a document not only of great interest—an...

Sta,—Please be realistic atout Russia. If I were to shout at you for months, threatening to subdue you as I had already subdued your neigh- bours, would you say you were raising...

Sra,—If I have misrepresented Mr. Orwin's little book, which is both thoughtful and charming, I most humbly apologise, and indeed rejoice to be told that my inferences are not...

Sta,—We recently launched an appeal on behalf of the Friends Relief Service, the Aid to Austria Appeals Committee and the Ecumenical Refugee Commission, for the purchase of...

Sta,—Mr. Smart's rather dogmatic statements can only be proved by an expert investigation into the effect of mechanisation, ageing population and mines, wear and tear, and many...

and good conditions in the mining industry have led to the miners' lack of effort." It would be most interesting to know what pits and mining villages he has investigated?—Yours...

Sra,—It has been pointed otit to me that my reference to the Governor- General of the Sudan in the article in your issue of January 10th on Middle Eastern Drift reflects...

the bird-tables- that the kind Ministry of Agriculture has urged us to furnish with such foods as are permitted by the Ministry of Food. There are authentic instances of the...

were beginning to speak favourably of thatch, and was taken to task for preferring sentiment TO comfort ; but the point was that the architects held the thatch to be both warm...

fear, not without reason, that one clause in the new Act gives permanent and official licence for the use of the steel-toothed trap in the open. This trap is a devilish...

Sut,—I . should be grateful for an opportunity, through your columns, of expressing to Dr. Malcolm Sargent the gratitude of the British Committee of International Student...

SIR, — If the Assistant P.M.G. is correctly reported as admitting in Par- liament recently a surplus in 1945-46 of,.no less than £36,000,000, what justification is there for...

birds in dines of frost the most original and perhaps successful conies • from Cornwall. Expeditions were made for the hunting of snails in . the crevices of stone walls, and...

been palpably shown in this long frost, though some bush flowers, such as the naked flowered jasmin, have been scotched. Ground flowers, including the bumble lungwort, have kept...

Sui,—" All," says Mr. Nicolson in his delightful article on keeping a diary, "that is required is a typewriter." In the same manner Mrs. Becton used to write, "Take a dozen...

Sta,—I am sorry that an unfortunate fault in transmission has re- sulted in a misprint at the bottom of page 233 of you March 7 issue. General Bulganin, while "Little known," is...

Godfather to a Nation Tom Paine : America's Godfather. By W. E. Woodward. (Seeker and Warburg. 18s.) THIS makes very enjoyable reading. If a life full of incident provides...

On Trust for the Nation. By Clough Williams-Ellis. (Paul Elek. 25s. SINCE the foundation of the National Trust we have had fifty years of rapid social change and physical...

Tins is in a special sense a bird's-eye view of America, for, with great sagacity, Mr. Pope-Heanessy has taken as his exemplar Audubon, the ornithologist whose evocation of the...

Democracy and the Arts. A Hitherto Unpublished Essay. By Rupert Brooke. (Rupert Hart-Davis. 6s.) THE legend of Rupert Brooke—the fascinating, beautiful poet of genius dying...

Sweet Confusion. By Norman Denny. (John Lane. 9s. 6d.) A Pin's Fee. By Peter de Polnay. (Hutchinson. 9s. .6d.) Mn. GomaNcz does well to reprint The Place of the Lion, first...

Irr periods of stress it is natural to turn to rural things, since they give a feeling of permanence and safety. This may explain the • almost simultaneous appearance of three...

BATSFORD are publishing on behalf of the Council for Visual Educa- tion a series of pamphlets with the object of furthering an appre- ciation of design in all its...

The Penguin Music Magazine.—I. Edited by Ralph Hill. (1s.) The Penguin Music Magazine is one of a series of projected maga- zines dealing with the lively arts. It is primarily...

A N'S t NOS L. I EMIT m,E 'N , r:H!o:L - frizt.;( o'NIGIEIE1111 A ' ULS1El5I P PLC C IMAIMEME i . 1 . 1Ft:SITerlI01 1,410 9 1- T u LII LY SOLUTION ON MARCH 28th The...

guinea will be awarded to the sender of the first correct solution of this week's crossword to be opened after noon on Tuesday week, March 25th. Envelopes must be received not...

By CUSTOS MR. DALTON is discovering at last that the pursuit of cheaper and cheaper money is subject in the end to the same risks as riding a tiger. From his latest...