N OTHING could be hollower than the charge that in concerning itself with the criminality of Russia after letting the criminality of Germany go unchallenged the League of...

T HE fighting in Finland increases in intensity, and the odds facing the Finns are well described by the state- ment in a despatch from Helsinki that when a hundred Russians...

The National Coalition Cabinet formed by Hr. Hansson, the Swedish Prime Minister, on a broad basis includes two Conservatives and two Liberals. Hr. Sandler, recently the object...

It was a wise step on the part of Sir Percy Loraine, the British Ambassador in Rome, to visit Malta, where contra- band control of cargoes bound to or from Germany is exercised,...

Herr von Ribbentrop's White Paper, designed to throw the responsibility for the war on Britain, may make some impres- sion in Germany. It can make none elsewhere. Never was any...

The Balkan correspondent of The Times has been giving instructive examples of German propaganda in the countries of South-East Europe. In most of these countries popular feeling...

Though news on the subject is scanty, it seems increasingly clear that Germany could not count on Belgium's neutrality in the event of a German attack on Holland. Speaking in...

While other events nearer home tend to overshadow it the situation in India still demands the attention of all who realise how considerable an effect the difference between...

Though it was gratifying to learn from Mr. Oliver Stanley that exports in November showed a substantial in- crease of 5o per cent. over October, and were nearly back to the...

The Report of the Commissioners of Prisons for 1938 reveals a continuance of the policy which makes for the humane treatment of prisoners and their reform rather than for their...

Commons on Tuesday Sir Kingsley Wood reviewed what he called the second chapter of the war in the air, the study of which gives some indications of the preparedness of the Air...

The man-in-the-street finds himself torn between the apparently conflicting demands that he shall save in order to pay for the war and spend discreetly to prevent trades- men...

IT is fortunate that the articles on Germany contributed by Mr. Oswald Garrison Villard to the Daily Tele- graph, The Spectator and other papers in the course of last month have...

INCIDENTS at sea and in the air occurring in endless succession have for some time had a major place in the war news ; the communiques concerning military operations on the...

important work comes out at a high price most of us cannot buy it because it is dear, nor get it from a library because so many other people want to. This apropos, in...

of enemy ships and the cheering of German submarine crews has evoked two classes of comment. On the one hand, it is pointed out, very justly, that submarine crews who sink...

Joseph Kennedy, the Ambassador to Great Britain, going home to exhort his countrymen to keep out of the war at any cost. Not, of course, that we ever expected America to come...

in the proceedings at Geneva this week—the President of the Assembly, M. Hambro, of Norway, and Dr. Rudolf Holsti, the Finnish delegate—are prominent Groupers. The Group...

hard. A day or two ago I met a Conservative M.P. who has occasionally supplied a little of the grist from which this column is laboriously ground. I asked him if he had anything...

Bremen,' but the explanation of her escape to a German port seems fairly clear. She was sighted by a British submarine, which quite rightly refrained from torpedoing her at...

By STRATEGICUS T HE Finnish campaign has now, as I write, been in progress nearly a fortnight, and it is permissible to draw some definite conclusions. The war potential of...

By E. SINCLAIR HERTELL New York. A MERICA is enjoying the war—on the stage, the cinema, the radio, and above all, in the newspapers, some of which in the largest cities are...

By EVA M. HUBBACK P ERHAPS the most acute of all problems on the home front is how to maintain the standard of living of the people, threatened—as Sir John Simon, Mr. Keynes...

By 1428912 W HAT has a mere soldier on the home front to add to the experiences of a civilian in this strangest of wars? We are uprooted—so are you ; we are pitchforked into...

By DOROTHY L. SAYERS [These extracts from the war-time letters and papers of the Wimsey family appear weekly in THE SPECTATOR] 8. From Mr. Paul Delagardie to Lady Peter Wimsey...

[This article, by a writer intimately conversant with German life, has arisen out of recent articles on War Aims in THE SPECTATOR and a recent letter by the Archbishop of York...

By A. M. GIBSON T HAT living organisms develop in response to their environment is an established scientific truth. If the converse holds—that development according to environ-...

By FRANK TILSL.EY "M ISTER! " They crowded round me as I left the pay-box. " Mister—can we come in with you? It's an A film an' the chap at the door won't let us in 'less we go...

By HAROLD NICOLSON W E are told repeatedly that our scientific knowledge has outstripped our intelligence: it has certainly outstripped our faith: it has also outstripped our...

function of the B.B.C. in war-time. There are those who desire to see our whole wireless system turned into an agency for home and foreign propaganda and who would wish to...

lose our sense of astonishment that such a thing as wireless tele- phony should exist at all. Only if we continuously regard it as a miracle shall we be able to estimate rightly...

Louis MacNeice which is to be published in the first number of a new periodical, edited by Cyril Connolly, and called Horizon. Mr. MacNeice records an experience similar to my...

Mr. MacNeice was in County Antrim on that warm August night, and I in Cornwall. I walked down to the jetty through the cobbled street. From each cottage as we hurried down to...

in a state of incandescent amazement. One of her earliest recollections was the pained surprise occasioned by the fact that the family barouche was transported from Dover to...

the current criticism of the B.B.C.'s home programme. Obviously that programme could be, and will be, improved. The technical difficulty of providing an alternative pro- gramme...

foreign countries. People who compare our propa- ganda with that put out by Germany and draw unfavourable conclusions from such comparison do not realise that we and the Germans...

OPERA The Latest Verdi BY a happy chance it was possible to hear on consecutive evenings last week Verdi's two last operas, his tragic master- piece, Otello, at Sadler's...

" The Marx Brothers at the Circus." At the Empire. " Disputed Passage." At the Plaza.—" Paramount News." At Various Cinemas. THE old crazy sets have gone now for good, that...

Why ? A highly developed sense of beauty is not general in London children, but a number of little evacuated children were overwhelmed with wonder at their first sight of hoar-...

A great sportsman assures me (in answer to a query of mine) that there are what he calls cock years and hen years— that is exceptional seasons which encourage the production of...

Paintings and Lithographs GOODNESS knows what the picture-buying public is to do. People are told to save, and they are also told that there are thousands of artists out of...

That absurdly English unit of area, the rod, pole or perch, retains its full popularity in rural England. It makes a notable appearance in the admirable scheme for the higher...

After visiting St. Helena a year or two back, I wrote with some enthusiasm of the St. Helena Lily, from which the very poor inhabitants of that pleasant island hoped to earn a...

through the experience of a second Great War must feel that the disastrous calamity which has overtaken us might have been avoided if the councils of the nations had not lost...

Sm,—In view of the continued efforts of German propa- ganda to separate England and France, it may not be out of place to recall a conversation which took place in LOndon some...

[Correspondents are requested to keep their letters as brief as is reasonably possible. Signed letters are given a preference over those bearing a pseudonym, and the latter must...

1st you say: "Germany would have the unfettered right to choose her own form of Government, so long as that Government in- volved no menace to her neighbours." That means, I...

Sta,—Being absent on military service, I have only just had an opportunity of reading the interesting correspondence on the future of Public Schools, and it is a source of great...

SIR,—I was glad to read Sir Norman Angell's article, and also the letter from your correspondent on November 24th. But may one not go further? Germany and Russia and others...

SIR,-Mr. Moorman's account of the Emergency School opened in Manchester is of special interest to those of us who have made a similar effort in London. In North Kensington there...

SIR,—Mr. R. T. M. Haines deplores the relaxing of the Government control of margarine on the ground that all the margarine marketed under this control contained added vita- mins...

Snt,—With reference to the paragraph about Chillingham Wild Cattle which appeared in " A Spectator's Notebook " column• in your issue of December xst, I would like to point out...

Sta,—In his contribution to your last issue, " The Ear of Britain," Mr. Philip Frank states that the B.B.C. occupies 8 per cent. of musical time with organ music, "mainly the...

Snt,—Miss Dorothy L. Sayers, in her letter of rebuke for Mr. Savage, tells us that one of Christ's sayings " is precisely that He was God." Would Miss Sayers add to the debt she...

SIR,—Mrs. Croome takes a romantic view of " the best that civilisation can give." Her allusions to my article on the middle classes remind me of the words of a certain...

SIR,--,-It was a pleasure to read Mr. Piper's article on " Country Church Visiting " in your issue of December 8th. The majority of guide-books are still written by persons who,...

DR. RAUSCHNING'S earlier book, Germany's Revolution of Destruction, attracted deserved attention, because its author, as former Nazi President of the Danzig Senate, could...

Our War Aims THESE two books by specialists in international affairs may help in clearing the minds of those who are at all concerned to prevent the present war leading to...

RETURNING refreshed from the excursion into the psychology of war which formed the subject-matter of his last book, Mr. Durbin has achieved what is probably, in spite of its...

A NEW life of that greatest of explorers, Captain Cook, was badly needed. At first sight it seems sad both for authors and publishers that two should be published together. But,...

DURING the year or two preceding the outbreak of war the one conclusion upon which all were in agreement was that Europe was in a mess. In different tones of voice these two...

Why not THE SPECTATOR AN OFFER TO OUR READERS FOR THEIR FRIENDS The publishers will post a copy of THE SPECTATOR for fifty-two weeks to any address in the world (excluding...

More People. By Edgar Lee Masters. (Appleton-Century. los. 6d.) THE aim of the Poets of Tomorrow series is to publish a representative selection from those poets who, not yet...

The Blaze of Noon is a remarkable and original book. It is the story of a phase in the life of a blind man which, though it is an astonishing tour de force, possesses a depth...

Stop Press. By Michael Innes. (Gollancz. 8s. 6d.) (Gollancz. 7s. 6d.) FOR thirteen years Mrs. Christie's admirers have been waiting for her to reproduce the superlative form of...

THE usual prizes were offered for a short letter on some innocuous and irrelevant topic calculated to provoke a pro- tracted correspondence of the sort that sometimes appears in...

progressive nurseries complaints are heard that all existing nursery rhymes are out of date. Prizes of book tokens for £2 zs. and kr is. are offered for new nursery rhymes,...

As the weeks go by it becomes clearer and clearer that if we avoid inflation we are not going to avoid a pretty sub- stantial rise in prices. Up to a point a higher price level...

Like every other commercial vehicle maker Guy Motors, Limited, is now engaged to capacity on Government work. This was made clear by Mr. Sydney S. Guy at the annual meeting when...

as rubber. Supplies are controlled by the quota, which is generous, and exports by licences, which are not easy to obtain. The other non-ferrous metals and many other vital...

Consolidated Gold Fields of South Africa has presented some remarkably good results for the year ended June 3oth. Net profits, after tax, have fallen by only £12o,000 to...

This change at first sight looks like a complete volte - face on the part of the Ministry of Supply. The policy of pre- venting inflation by restricting prices is abandoned and...

Sir Walrond Sinclair, chairman of the British Tyre and Rubber Company, is among the growing number of indus- trialists who would like to see a vigorous drive for export markets....

GUY MOTORS LIMITED INCREASED DEMAND SUPPLIES FOR OVERSEAS STRONG FINANCIAL POSITION MR. SYDNEY S. GUY'S SPEECH PRESIDING at the twenty-fourth annual meeting of Guy Motors,...

WANKIE COLLIERY COMPANY SUBSTANTIALLY INCREASED COAL SALES THE sixteenth ordinary general meeting of the Wankie Colliery Company, Limited, was held on December 13th at...

Shareholders in the Wankie Colliery Company, the South African gold-mining undertaking, will welcome their chair- man's explanation of last year's surprising fall in profits....

TILE ordinary general meeting of this company was held, on December 7th, in London. Mr. H. C. Porter (the chairman) first referred to the irreparable loss the company had...

BRITISH TYRE AND RUBBER A SUCCESSFUL YEAR Tim fifteenth annual general meeting of British Tyre and Rubber Company, Limited, was held on Tuesday, December 12th, at Winchester...

[A prize of a Book Token for one guinea will be given to the sender of the first correct solution of this week's crossword puzzle to be opened. Envelopes should be marked...

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