killing some people and wrecking many planes. Meanwhile the military government had ex-, pressed willingness to make way for a civilian administration set up by a general...

THE SCILLY SEASON again for Britain's Prime Minister, and a fretful time for the Govern- ment: oil 'pirates' threatened to refuel Rhodesia, Africans anxious to prod Mr Wilson...

last weekend Britain has made it more difficult, but by no means impossible, for oil to arrive in Rhodesia, and that is prob- ably the best that could be done. If pirate tankers...

Friday April 15 1966

An Apology for Politicians By ALAN WATKINS A FEw years ago, when I was working on another paper, I shared a room with a gifted sports writer. One of the things that im-...

And now it seems they both agree In bawling out the BBC. Next thing tolappen—whe can tell?— They'll fix up UDI as well, Or will they have to wait until Ifs sorted out by...

Dr Verwoerd's High Stakes From STANLEY UYS CAPE TOWN rrtit: British government, surely, does not be- I lieve that it can persuade Dr Verwoerd to curtail the supplies of...

By= BRYAN WILSON gr educational paradox of our times is the owth in popular regard at all social and political levels for university education, accom- panied by a new...

April 14, 1866 Mr. Johnson has vetoed the Civil Rights' BM. in a message which . . . denies that coloured persons are entitled to any rights at all. and openly announces that...

A Time for Stoicism From DAVID WATT WASHINGTON A tERICANS do not normally take gracefully to adversity—which is perhaps one reason why they so often win:--but there's no...

A Shortage of Hawks ' From MURRAY KEMPTON NEW YORK T HERE had been the sense all winter that the United States could not withdraw from Vietnam because neither of its...

By D. C. WATT His enforced retirement has not, however, diminished noticeably the activity of this most remarkable member of the generation of vieillards who ruled Europe...

M R Enoch Powell very properly wishes to influence Conservative party policy in a number of specific and often radical directions. More often than not these directions are the...

change the Prime Minister. But there are two factors that make Wilson's behaviour worse than it would otherwise be. The first is the almost total absence of i agreed ground...

have now had the customary Prime Ministerial dementi, in the shape of a letter to The Times from the general secretary of the Labour party maintaining that the hullabaloo was...

thirty years ago; his last piece (an apprecia- tion of Alfred Duggan) appeared in July 1964. During the greater part of the intervening years this paper was, I'm glad to record,...

needed to create as big a smokescreen as possible to conceal the fact that he had deliberately held over until after the election the publication of the February figures for...

The Comedy of Ultimate Truths By ANTHONY BURGESS T HE late Pope John said that any day was a good day to die. He might, nevertheless, have conceded that some days are better...

By ALAN BRIEN ERHAPS this is the wrong time to be telling r this story, but if I don't fix it on paper now it will go on growing and changing in my mind until no one can spot...

Black Mischief By JOHN WELLS T HE idea, as The Times observed in a leader last week, 'of drama at sea, with a whiff of international intrigue and a tang of engine oil, is...

D. L - 7 From: Anthony Judge, W. Thomas, John Barnes, Peter J. Smith, A. Earley, C. G. Elliott, Pendennis, Jocelyn Davey, A. E. Joll, Coles Brandreth, D. H. Close. The...

Sta,—In an otherwise admirable article about past elections, Robert Blake refers to Baldwin's 'incom- prehensible folly which is still mysterious' in dissolving Parliament in...

with a 'scientific' solution to the problem of why Labour won the general election (SPECTATOR, April I). Un- fortunately (or fortunately for the Conservatives), you have not...

the question as to 'why the Tories lost so decisively' or 'why Ted Heath did not click.' Well, when the Tories were in power. Mr Heath was a fervent fighter and crusader for...

SIR,-- Mr Wheatley says that 'the mentally ill should never be subject to criminal action by the courts,' yet in the next paragraph he condemns, among others. 'the rapists' and...

SIR,—Alan Brien's biased article has increased my sympathy with the Anti-Tipping Campaign. I am quite ready to express sincere gratitude for voluntary kindness, without thinking...

Stk.—The four-and-a-half-minute review of the British press broadcast in the BBC's French Language Service at 7.25 a.m. on Tuesday, March 29, men- tioned in the letter from Mr...

SIR.—John Wells is wrong. Nora Beloff had no part in writing the Back Page of the Observer on April 3. Why didn't he bother to ask? PENDENNIS The 'Observer.' 160 Queen...

Sut,—Whether or not Mr Beichman's thesis about the wrongheadedness and ineffectiveness of the American intellectual has any validity, it is certainly a red herring in relation...

R. 7 1 wonder if John Rowan Wilson realises that, behind his question 'Is general practice outmoded?' there lies a long, sad, sorry story. That the GP would be outmoded has,...

SIR,—The benefit and harmlessness which John Rowan Wilson claims for fluoride, at one part per million in water, in reducing dental decay are hotly contested by competent...

Angry Middle Age By HILARY SPURLING 'Clutuce, down with them, cut the villains' athroatsIl Ah, whoreson caterpillars, bacon- fed knaves, they hate us youth!' Ten years ago...

Passion Beats All I N music as in so many other matters we struggle against our lower natures but usually see they don't get the worst of it. On Good Friday I went to a packed...

Homo Bureaucraticus T HE chairmen of British Petroleum and Laing's, the contractors, recently joined in mutual congratulation on top of BP's new thirty- five-storey skyscraper...

Draught M and B Theatre, certificate.)—The Silencers. (Odeon, Leicester Square, 'A' certificate.) El ROM Moreau and Bardot to Laurel and Hardy 1 -1 it has been a week for...

Trilling's Journey By C. B. COX 'Mile road of excess leads to the palace of I wisdom.' Recently Blake's words appear to have been taken as a motto by an increasing number of...

Monsieur Nicholas, or The Human Heart Laid Bare. By Restif de la Bretonne. Translated, edited and with an introduction by Robert Baldick. (Barrie and Rockliff, 42s.) RESTIF DE...

WE all want to like Browning, but we find it very hard. On the surface, be seems to have every- thing in his favour—impetuous lover who rescued Ba from the dragon (read...

der and Stoughton, 25s.) Time Out of Mind and Other Stories. By Pierre Boulle. (Seeker and Warburg, 25s.) PSYCHOLOGICAL mystery stories are often twice- told tales, because, in...

SUCCESS is often the theme, most often the reason of biographies. In autobiography it is pleasantest to see a man succeed at being himself. John Verney in A Dinner of Herbs...

Your England Revisited. By Ian Nairn. (Hutchin- son, 30s.) OUR England, his London, in which angry young Nairn has now had ten years viewing buildings and drinking beer....

The Art and Artists of Russia. By Richard Hare. (Methuen, £5 10s.) The Art of Buddhism. By Dietrich Seckel. (Methuen, 50s.) The Art of the Renaissance in Northern Europe. By...

How Grim a Budget? By NICHOLAS DAVENPORT 'Tit's week I would like to discuss not what I ought to happen, but what is likely to happen in the budget. The way the economy is...

By CUSTOS ERE was a very quiet opening in the stock MERE after the holiday, except for some fall in copper shares on the worsening of the Rhodesian crisis. Few people are...

recommendations would not harm BRISTOL AEROPLANE. British Siddeley Engines, which ac- counted for 65 per cent of the company's in- come in the last report, is engaged in the...

By LOTHBURY ANOTHER record year for The Bowater Paper Corporation in 1965, under its chairman, Sir Christopher Chancellor, CMG. Pre-tax profits were up at £16,379,000 and,...

Last month ROLLS-ROYCE issued one new share for four at 37s. and these shares can be bought at 5s. premium to yield 5.3 per cent. This seems to be a good opportunity of...

By PHILIDOR No. 278. K. A. L. KUBBFL (Die Schwalbe 1929) WHITE 10 play an mate in two moves solution next week. Solution to No. 277 (Guidelli): Kr—B 4 , threat K Kt—K 3. r . ....

Smoked Out By LESLIE ADRIAN But perhaps cigarettes may not be the sole cause of lung cancer. Harcourt Kitchin's book You May Smoke (Library 33, 10s. 6d.) puts for- ward a...

lot are Pets Welcome and Children tVelconie. both in the Herald Advisory Services series at 3s. 6d. (23a Brighton Road, Croydon, Surrey). Readers often ask me, in the middle of...

wine trade has tended over the years to apply household names like Medoc and Volnay to blends. It was with great pleasure that I saw in the new list from the small City firm of...

ACROSS.-1 Seersucker. 6 Chat. 10 PLO'. 11 Marmalade. 12 Runciblc. 13 Clerks. 15 Thin. 16 Oxen. It Shear. 20 Peers. 21 Tyre. 22 Stud. 24 Archie. 26 Immanent. 29 Pharisaic. 30...

Sir Edgar Whitehead on Rhodesia SAMUEL BRITTAN One year's subscription to the 'Spectator': £3 I 5s. (including postage) in the United Kingdom and Eire. By surface mail to any...

ACROSS 1. Arrangements on the stage? (3, 3) 4. My, 1 groan-it's that bitter plant (8) Ilk Nothing l can do in Latin, it's a beast! (7) II. Put off about circulation check-...

Untrodden Paths By STRIX 1 don't have an agent; D, besides running the farm, acts as a sort of regimental sergeant-major With supervisory powers over the whole estate. He does...