From a purely chronological point of view the latest French Cabinet crisis has been an improvement on the penultimate one. Three weeks elapsed between the resignation of M....

Any one of three courses could have been taken by the meeting—actual expulsion, though in fact there could be no serious question of the expulsion of over fifty members; the...

If opinion in New Hampshire, population little over half a million, could be taken as representative of opinion throughout the United States, population 153 million, it would be...

presentation of the Army Estimates made a good impression on the House of Commons, and the country as a whole can find in their contents grounds for comfort if not for...

The new Russian Note on a peace treaty with Germany is in some respects a surprising document. It is surprising, in the first place, that when Russia has made so relatively...

Mr. Menzies, the Australian Prime Minister, said in the course of his announcement last Saturday of the drastic cuts in Australian imports that the decision had been made harder...

Life is not easy for Dr. Adenauer. He has to hold together a precarious coalition, repel the attacks of a frequently veno- mous opposition, settle a number of difficult problems...

0 NE of the troubles of the Labour Party is its large bump of superiority. Six years of power have gone to its head. It would claim, certainly not a divine right, but a superior...

The Poaching of Deer (Scotland) Bill was given a second reading by the House of Lords on Thursday—too late in the week for any comment on their Lordships' proceedings to...

The reaction of Londoners to the increased fares which they had to face on March 2nd was a formidable thing. It is most unlikely that it will be quickly forgotten, or that the...

Budget speech on a note of realism and ended it on a note of hope. The first measure of the success of his Budget was that it achieved a corresponding swing in the public's...

on a reference of some domestic interest. Dur- ing the constitutional crisis of 1910, Sir Frederick relates, King George V asked Mr. Asquith. then Prime Minister, " whether he...

much, and the British Cabinet will lose little, by the appointment of Lord Ismay as Secretary-General of the former. The reason for the latter conclusion is that he is to be...

said Mr. J. Scott Henderson, Q.C., on Monday in the course of an enquiry into the finance of an estate in Hampshire consisting of farm-lands and coverts; Mr. Henderson, it is...

the Church of England are served by the translation of the Bishop of Durham to Winchester. It is certainly not in the nature of promotion. Winchester actually ranks next after...

between the Archbishop of Canterbury and Mrs. John E. Hayes, President of the National Congress of Parents and Teachers in the United States, but Mrs. Hayes has fortuitously...

Discovery seems to he quite sound. The Dome was created for a particular purpose, it has served that purpose and no one, so far as I have seen, has been able to suggest any...

I AM not in favour of imputing motives, but motives are sometimes revealed unintentionally. I can't help thinking there was something of that in Mr. Aneurin Bevan's affirma-...

Canberra. 11 UST as Mr. Attlee has found in the alleged ambiguity of Mr. Churchill's statements on Formosa grounds upon which to criticise the Conservative handling of foreign...

By F. SHERWOOD TAYLOR* T HE exhibition in the Diploma Galleries of the Royal Academy, celebrating the five-hundredth anniversary of the birth of Leonardo da Vinci, gives an...

B. SIR EVELYN WRENCH I N the early years of this century some of the leaders of the American negroes, many of them with white blood in their veins, realised the validity,...

By SIR HENRY SELF, K.C.B. * D ISCUSSION of possible forms and limits for experimen- tal variations to be tried out in Church worship, if and when the Roport of the Church...

Consumed is the knuckle bud, the petals upturned like shells, The saw-edged, puckered leaf, and the fruit's gold. From the gnarled branch uncurls a frond of flame, Loose...

By IAN FINLAY A MILAN newspaper has warned the poets of the Scots Renaissance—under banner headlines—against using a dialect which gives them only a parochial appeal. No...

• • Inquisthon S HE came into the detachment office and stood there, rather drab and pathetic, with the look of one who expects the world to kick her and has never been...

By HAROLD NICOLSON I have been assured by men who have devoted much time to the study of Greek thought and religion that one of the clues to the ancient mystery is that strange...

all in favour of a Madariagan reading of the principal part, and this is what, in a remarkably workmanlike production—which suddenly faltered and collapsed right at the...

THE 'twenties, per se, are not so very amusing ; Mr. Coward, Mr. Scott Fitzgerald and Mr. Evelyn Waugh, per se, are. Mr. Michael MacOwan, in his present production of Mr....

THEATRE The Deep Blue Sea. By Terence Rattigan. (Duchess.) THE trouble with Hester Collyer is irresponsibility, aggravated by inexperience. Almost everything she does is...

ANY definition of the tangled web of romanticism that forms the English tradition in painting must be wide enough to embrace a passionate love for nature and the elements on the...

I Believe in You. (Odeon, Marble Arch.)—Robin Hood. (Leicester Square.)--Where the River Bends. (Gaumont.) I HAVE always thought that probation officers, like nurses,...

SPEAKING the other day at the annual luncheon at which the Critics' Circle entertains distinguished representatives of music, drama, ballet and cinema, Mr. Alan Rawsthorne...

IN his introduction to the catalogue of the National Book League's exhibition of British Birds and their Books " which he has organised—and which will remain open at 7...

A Mirror for Witches. (Covent Garden.) 4 Mirror for Witches, Covent Garden's new production, has revealed two facts—one, that Andree Howard is a choreographer of greater...

Set by Guy Kendall A prize of £5, which may be divided, is offered for not more titan fourteen lines of a poem called " The New Town;" in the manner and metre of Goldsmith's "...

Report by J. M. Cohen. A prize of £5 was offered for a translation of the anonymous song beginning " Vrai Dieu qui m'y confortera." The problems faced by the large field of...

S1R,—Mr. Harold Nicolson's timid denigrations of Norman Douglas should not go unanswered. Unfortunately Mr. Nicolson has himself supplied most of the phrases with which we...

Taxation in France Sta,—A note in the Spectator of February 29th included a brief but generally well-founded appreciation of the political situation in France just before the...

think my friend, the Principal of Jesus, will admit the justice of the replies made by Mr. Mahony and Mr. Fielden. May I express the hope that it is only through a lapsus calami...

S1R,—Why do the authorities make a practice of throwing temptation in the way of farmers ? As originally framed, the hill-cattle subsidy was given for animals kept exclusively...

SIR,—Ian Niall errs in his description of the black cock. This kind, properly known as the British black grouse, does not utter the call of Go back, Go back." This call is, in...

authority " mentioned in the Book of Common Prayer is the Bishop in personal?). It is stated in the preface to the book under the heading " Concerning the Service of the Church...

SIR.-1 recently received a small present from my son who is serving with the army in Singapore. On this I was called upon to pay 6s. 3d. Customs duty, 6s. 9d. purchase tax,...

SIR,—Poor Henry James ! He was jealously proud of his invented names, for houses as well as for families. "Summersoft " was a stately home, set in a lordly park, in his story...

SIR,—Mr. Ian Niall's reference to the cleverness of Labrador retrievers brings to mind an incident many years ago in Norfolk. We were driving partridges over a high belt, and...

SIR,—The Spectator of March 7th.contains some remarks on unemploy- ment that are almos,t alarming in their complacency. We are told that some redistribution of labour is...

down his daily consump- tion of cigarettes from fifty to five ? I cannot understand how he.can " breathe more freely." as he says he does, when he realises that the £120-odd...

IN France, the elections of the Legislative Body have been completed; a President appointed; and the 29th of March fixed for the meeting of that Assembly and the Senate. The....

If weather cond:tions are right, complete the planting of wallflowers. forget-me-nots and Canterbury bells. Although summer brings displays of perennials of all sorts, annuals...

They were threshing on the holding. Three men worked round the mill. The noise echoed up the valley, and chaff and straw blew in the wind, finding its way into hedges, strewing...

PASTEL shades are for the water-colour artist. The countryman vvh,t1 he paints favours red ochre. vivid blue, brilliant green. Farm imple- ments are given startling colour. It...

When I was some distance away, I took the object to be a white duck sitting in at the side of the bank, but as I drew near I saw it was a lamb. As far as I could tell it had...

the ponies our local carrier trots to a field farther up the road. They are shaggy mountain-ponies, none of them very old and just the sort of animal for a young boy or girl....

The Growth of a Queen THERE are few contrasts more remarkable than that between Victorianism and the epoch immediately preceding it. The age of family and respectability, of...

IN the past Miss Prescott has been novelist, historian, translator—and, in all three kinds, an artist in words. Now she has focused her gifts on the writing of the almost...

Donald Francis Tovey : a biography based on letters. By Mary Grierson. (Oxford University Press. 21s.) DONALD FRANCIS TOVEY was a remarkable figure and a remarkable enigma. Few...

Liberty or Equality : The Challenge of our Time. By Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn. (Hollis & Carter. 30s.) MR. ERIK VON KUEHNELT-LEDDIEN is a man of many talents and great...

Opportunity Knocks Once. By Sir Campbell Stuart. (Collins. 25s.) IN any autobiography attention must be concentrated on the author. But there are degrees of concentration ; the...

IF my best shoes are of standard length, and if my arithmetic is less dusty than my shoes, exactly 196 feet of shelving in the London Library are devoted to books about London....

" Boom are, to my mind, valueless," writes Arthur Waley in his preface to Dr. Conze's outline of Buddhism, " unless they express a point of view, and they must do this not by...

Life in Thin Slices. By Patrick Campbell. (Falcon. 9s. 6d.) AND how ! The supply seems to be endless. I am myself thinking of writing a slim volume entitled: " How to Read...

WOLFGANG BORCHERT, who was born in Hamburg in 1921, at the age of twenty took part in the German invasion of the U.S.S.R., an event which impressed him more with the sufferings...

Paradise Bay. By John Guthrie. (Werner Laurie. 12s. 6d.) The Moon and the Bonfire. By Cesare Pavese. (Lehmann. 10s. 6d.) The Double Door. By Theodora Keogh. (Peter Davies. 10s....

IA Book Token for one guinea will be awarded to the sender of the first correct solution opened after noon on Tuesday week. March 25th, addressed Crossword. 99 Gower Street,...

E A A A :LA R ACO N C En. tan )! Cli N la RO EtZTrPEEL '4 1- 1 -- AV t3 L t 2 11 BET Toi boy •E Alcg C il a - r 13 'I 0 U 0 i m 0 ,p, tilISIIIIMMIII o a R 0 0 ist E...

Books and Writers. A selection of essays by Robert Lynd. With a foreword by Richard Church. (Dent. I6s.) THE writings of Robert Lynd are a phenom- enon we are not likely to see...

and Spottiswoode. 21s.) DR. DE BEER'S latest book on Switzerland is a distinguished piece of work. In twenty separate essays, some of which have appeared in print before, he has...

the distinguishing characteristics of Mr. Butler's first budget. He has tackled the subsidies, given the dearer money screw another turn and made a brave attempt to restore...