The name of puppet is rightly assigned to the new Government. None the less it is definitely a government of a kind, and its existence will have certain effects. Whether its...

M. Much, who, at the time of writing, is titular Prime Minister of France, although he still has to prove that a working majority in the Assembly is prepared to back him, is...

How many private tragedies have been caused by the past week's wave of arrests in Czechoslovakia can only be guessed at. The Czech authorities alone know the full number of...

There are as yet no signs, either in Washington or London, of how the awkward problem jointly posed by Mao Tse-tung and Stalin is going to be solved. On the question of...

The Association of Independents which, under the leadership of Herr Kraus, has won sixteen seats in the Austrian General Election, has had the Nazi label attached to it. There...

Evidence of considerable interest continues to be given before the Royal Commission on Capital Punishment, all of it so far against the proposal to abolish the capital penalty....

Two years ago the American Army, Navy and Air Force were united under a single Ministry of Defence. So far from producing, as it was hoped, harmonious co-operation between the...

There is no doubt of the value of the work Wilton Park is doing. During the war, as is generally known, this fine estate near Beacons- field, with the buildings old and new on...

That the Ministry of Education should be under the necessity of cutting drastically the estimates for the building of new schools is deplorable, but in the existing...

HE Conservative Party opened its pre-election conferenw in the Empress Hall, Earl's Court, on Wednesday, and the proceedings of the first day must surely have set the tone for...

I T was inevitable that the imminence of a General Election— whether the polling turns out to be months or only weeks ahead—should dominate the Conservative Conference at Earl's...

go down with his constituents at Lewisham, but I doubt whether his strictures on the British Press in connection with the European Assembly at Strasbourg will much impress wider...

of public conveniences, and to add other information in its place." A mistake. What topographical information could be more valuable ? The enterprising and efficient...

even more charming as a correspondent. My own memory of him goes back a long way, for I first knew him when he was assistant to R. A. Scott- James, then Literary -Editor of the...

I have no idea what is being decided—what may have been decided by the time these words are read. I feel fairly certain that in fact nothing has been decided, for everything is...

and other writers elsewhere, should recall the fact that it is just fifty years since the Hoer War broke out. To what a now forgotten England it be- longed. This country had...

By W. H. EDWARDS* N OW that after a profusion of threats and a torrent of abuse directed against the already well-established German Federal Government at Bonn, the People's...

By the Right Reverend J. J. WILLIS* • 0 UTSIDE the West door of the Anglican cathedral in Kampala, Uganda, there stands a roughly-hewn stone cross ; and on it is inscribed a...

By MARTIN COOPER I N November, 1941, the Dartington Hall Trustees set up an Arts Enquiry to investigate the position in England of the visual arts, the factual film, music and...

By MARGHANITA LASKI (To beread with cultured boyishness.) G OOD evening. Now our title for this evening's poetry- reading is "The Urban Influence in Eighteenth-Century Verse,"...

Wave at my window, my green friends, Sweet summer leaves till night descends. Refresh my eyes, release my thought, That moils here like an insect caught. For you can dance and...

By REGINALD COLBY T wo days before the new Eastern German republic was set up the Soviet News Agency announced, very discreetly, that Major-General Tulpanov had left Berlin for...

By CANON ROGER LLOYD LTHOUGH we have probably not heard the last . of it, the grievance of the railway footplate men over lodging turns is not very important in itself. Its...

THE THEATRE THE appearance of Mr. Macready on Monday last, at the Haymarket, as the commencement of a series of performances that with some interrupJ tion will continue a good...

The Amateur Journalist's Trials and Triumphs By TREVOR PHILPOTT (Fitzwilliam House, Cambridge) / N the small hours of Saturday morning a small group of bleary- eyed...

THE SPECTATOR readers are urged in place a firm order with their newsagent or 10 take out a subscription. Newsagents cannot afford to take the risk of carrying stock, as unsold...

By HAROLD NICOISON M ANY charming changes have, since the drab days of my youth, come to enliven our English life. One of the most welcome of these discoveries is an entirely...

THE THEATRE IS' Buoyant Billions." By Bernard Shaw. (Princes.) MR. SHAW calls his latest play (noticed on this page when it first appeared at Malvern) "a comedy of no manners,"...

THE visit of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra ended on October 6th, when Bruno Walter conducted a magnificent perform- ance of Schubert's seventh symphony. The night before,...

Pursuit." (Academy.)—“ Tokyo Joe." (Leicester Square.)— .. The Red Pony." (Plaza.) Pursuit is an Italian film, the winner of first prizes at the festivals in Venice and Cannes...

to the Light Programme's Drama Week I do a little handsome word-eating about their production of The Hopkins Manuscript. It brillianfly caught the suspense and excitement of Mr....

The Family Hour will purge itself and work up to better things. (But would it not have been a good idea to do all the experimenting before production, and not in full public...

the new programme The Family Hour, which was opened with some fanfare lait Monday. Now, as this was produced by Messrs. Harry S. Pepper and Ronnie Waldman, and as Mr. Waldman...

? ") of dramatising a street incident of reality and asking listeners to recognise themselves— with a prize if they can prove that they were the parties involved. It seems to be...

and these occasions—which is really rather odd—are very often in the matter of light entertainment. I agree that it is much harder 10 be frivolous than to be weighty ; the art...

7ustice in Othcr Lands. In the first place the producers have ready-made dramas in famous cases, such as the Landru trial in France or the Shark-arm mystery of Australia. These...

Masters of British Watercolour. (Burlington House.) LOAN exhibitions and books on English watercolour painting fre- quently show examples provided by J. Leslie Wright, and now,...

Munich in Retrospect Sin,—Sir Charles Webster, in his review of Documents of British Foreign Policy, 1919-19 . 39, contained in the Spectator of September 30th, remarks that...

that both Sir Eric Phipps and Lord Perth "seem to have been as defeatist as their Berlin colleague." So far as Sir Eric Phipps is concerned, either the alit:aide " defeatist "...

Sia,—I am much intrigued by the career of a "statistic" which Janus quoted last week, to the effect that "Only one applicant out of twelve for entry to the university can be...

Sta,—I am glad to find Janus on the side of those who think the easy sale of contraceptives to young people regrettable. I doubt, however, whether the sale of these through...

SIR, —In his article, Specialist Refugees, in the Spectator of September 30th, Mr. Edwards attributes a great deal of credit to I.R.O. which belongs elsewhere. It is only since...

SIR, —The prose of Mr. Harold Nicolson is always attractive, and sonic of his phrases are memorable. In his Oct. 7th article he pertinently uses quotation marks, but in the...

of the sale of contraceptives from automatic machines, and of what he rightly calls " the slimily hypocritical legend," by which justification for such sale is sought. If the...

SIR —My friend, Mr. Worth, is a first-rate farmer, and he lives in 3 district justly famous for its progressive attitude and high output. It is, therefore, not surprising that...

one all-important fact ; since 1922 the Dublin Governments have given Protestants a very fair chance, and sometimes even more, to increase and prosper. The discrimination...

am surprised that, in the Spectator of October 7th, your reviewer Maurice Cranston, writing of Mr. Priestley's book, Delight, and men- tioning the latter's "own ideal community"...

It is a standing query why the vineyard has disappeared from England, and we do not often see the vine over the cottage porch which impressed itself on poets as late as Keats....

We think of most of our herbaceous plants in the rough borders as quite hardy ; but they do not completely justify the reputation. It is wise to give cover to those we are...

answer to Mr. Findlay's letter is simple. Science is concerned with facts ; the humanities with values. To be an "educated man" in the fullest sense, an understanding of...

SIR,—I am entirely in agreement with Janus that the 1951 Exhibition project had better be dropped in our hard-up circumstances. It would mean an immediate and tangible economy...

Sus,—After living in the west country for over four years, one cannot help wondering how it is that farmers and trappers make no secret of the fact that their traps are set just...

of the Trees, so called, on reaching their silver jubilee, which is suitably celebrated in the issue of Trees and the New Earth, from Abbotsbury, Dorset. The starvation of the...

My own experience this autumn has been that butterflies were as scarce as wasps were many ; but a correspondent from Scotland writes of the quite exceptional number of Red...

WHIcn season of the year have we been enjoying, spring or autumn ? That we "scatter the good seed on the land" is a true version of the activity of the date ; and the seed...

Mixed Feelings on Poe IT is tantalisingly difficult to make up one's mind about Poe ; his work is such an odd combination of crudity, sometimes almost of vulgarity, and...

English Art, 1307-1461. By Joan Evans. (Oxford University Press. 30s.) THE appearance of the first volume of the Oxford English Art is 3 notable event. No comprehensive account...

THERE has not been in any country a parallel to the creation and advance of the British Labour Party. And, indeed, how could there be ? Under a parliamentary system national...

William Morris. Prophet of England's New Order. By Lloyd Eric Grey. (Cassell. 15s.) LET me admit it at once: this biography has all the characteristics I most dislike. I am...

time that we should look back over the history of our educational institutions. The rapid changes and the spectacular expansions of our own time are lesi likely to bewilder us...

Roy F. Nichols. (Cambrid g e University Press. Is. 6d.) IN world politics today what is the most immediate, the most vital, political issue ? The answer to this question reveals...

This Was a Man. By Esme Win g field-Stratford. ( Robert Hale. 15s.) ON the score of achievement the Rev. and Hon. Edward Vesey Bligh, the subject of this memoir and the author...

IMPLICATED in a forthcoming symposium to enquire: "Where arl our novelists ?," I shall put forward confidently the name of Mr. Robert Kee. The Impossible Shore shows him to be...

IA Book token for one guinea will be awarded to the sender of the first correct m,stion of this week's crossword to be opened after noon on Tuesday week, October 25th....

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A Quest of Ladles: The Story of a Warwickshire School. By Phyllis D. Hicks. (8s.) THIS book (obtainable from Messrs. Frank Juckes, 8-9, St. Mary's Row, Birmingham) traces the...

By CUSTOS AT last the possibility of an early election has begun to cast its shadow across the stock markets. Gilt-edged have fallen sharply, industrial Ordinary shares have...

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