I T would be a strange thing indeed if this country had not been moved to the depths by the tragic events in Athens and the grim reports of our soldiers engaged in battles with...

The British Medical Association has agreed to negotiate with the Minister of Health, though it is asking for something a long way removed from that which the Minister has...

The substantial majority—a vote of 143 to 70—secured by Mr. Mackenzie King in the Canadian House of. Commons on the vital division arising out of the conscription controversy,...

A good deal of criticism about housing, which Mr. Duncan Sandys had to answer in the House of Commons last week, referred to delays which occurred before Mr. Sandys was Minister...

General de Gaulle has carried one stage farther the task of consolidating the position of liberated France and restoring her to her proper place among the United Nations by his...

Mr. S. M. Bruce, the High Commissioner for Australia, emphasis- ing the need of making peace-time aims clear to the peoples of the United Nations "in simple and unmistakable...

After long delays in which the leaders of the Italian parties dis- cussed their incompatibilities and one at least of them endeavoured to make capital out of the British...

T was already a foregone conclusion that the Labour Party I would make up its mind to contest the General Election as an independent party appealing to the electors to return a...

ago by Mr. Tone Wold, the Norwegian Minister of Justice, on his recent visit to - ,the liberated northern districts of Norway, but from other sources I gather that heOhas...

a late official of the Ministry of Home Security who has discovered that a comfort- able way of reading in bed is to project the reading matter on to the ceiling by a kind of...

be conducted by experts—in science, theology, economics, anything. Hence the vigour of The Times correspondence about C.E.M.A. exhibitions and loaned pictures, and the...

Several contributors to the Malta Shrine of Remembrance Fund have urged me to "keep pegging away" till the full amount of £2,000 is obtained. But my importunity has limits and...

T HERE is one aspect of the Bethnal Green shelter disaster appeal that is worth considering. The Master of the Rolls has made some pungent comments on the action of the...

the week's films the other day, there seems to be a great need for some- thing like a Film Information Centre, where cinema-goers can find out about the exhibition of those...

think they are very good at putting it. The persistent hostility to the National Health Service scheme on the ground that the doctor's essential duty is to his patient...

of its observations on the unhappy Greek affair I found more of the latter order than the former. It may or may not be true that "British diplomatic prestige has fallen to its...

By STRATEGICUS W HILE the Allied offensive up to the present has not yielded the results that were expected, its achievement is none the less real and important. If the...

By " Z " I NDIA is outwardly quiet, but there is deep discontent—deeper perhaps . than ever. It is felt most acutely in Congress circles, for many Congress leaders are still in...

By H. D. '!tALSTON ARMERS, and indeed all interested in agriculture, have been r long awaiting some definite pronouncement concerning the future of the industry. It is not...

By CLOUGH WILLIAMS-ELLIS H ELL is paved with Reports and Plans that have never been fulfilled. If London fails to implement those now prepared for her by Patrick Abercrombie...

By STORM BACK T HE Chicago Air Conference has done much to help the progress of civil aviation, but it has also exposed the vulnerability of Britain. The American delegation...

By HAROLD N1COLSON I TRUST that I shall not be considered intrusive if I add a marzinal comment to what is written elsewhere regarding last Friday's debate upon the situation in...

teturn to that sure instinct which has inspired the principles of our foreign policy from the days of Canning to the days of Grey and Arthur Henderson. Our departure from that...

have occurred in Athens, there was a deeper perplexity which was concerned, not with any local or momentary crisis, but with one of the most fundamental principles of British...

Our aim in Greece is to secure conditions in which the Greek people shall have occasion to choose both the Government and the Opposition that they desire. I am not among those...

due to something far more important than any ideological sympathy ; it has a basis far more realistic than any natural affinity to countries who possess and maintain political...

Christmas Exhibitions THE nineteenth-century English and French join, at Wildenstein's, in a glorious chime, ringing out over the clamour of wars in splendid protestation of...

Sadler's Wells Opera : " Gianni Schicchi " and " H Tabarro." THE Sadler's Wells Company has returned to the Prince's Theatre with a revival of two parts of Puccini's Trittico....

" Western Approaches." At Warners and the Regal.— ,, Out of Chaos." No release yet arranged. Western Approaches is a story of the Atlantic convoys, of the sur- vivors of S.S....

THE TROUBLE IN GREECE Sta,—Friday's debate on Greece left several matters in obscurity which, in justice to the Greek people, should be clarified. Firstly, Mr. Churchill...

Sue—If Lieut. McQueen will do me the honour of looking at my letter again; he will, I think, realise that he has misinterpreted it. Also, I am sure unintentionally, he has...

to keep order and to be impartial. There are only two ways of performing them: either to recognise in the normal way a legally estab- lished government which is capable of...

has ceased to be a distinctive figure. He is simply Everyman. The Army of today necessarily includes all sorts: religious and irre- ligious, idealists and cynics, intelligent...

those who think with him should be invited to put their political generalisations to the scientific test of facts. Mr, Bevin's Wages Councils Bill is a fact by which they can...

and a half years I should like to say that the article "What the Soldier Thinks" in your :ssue of November 24th, in my experience, is a very fair and exact generalisation of the...

SIR,—The writer of the article "Doubts and Discontents" avoids dealing with the first conviction attributed to the soldiers of the 2nd Army— that we shall lose the peace and...

SIR,—E. B. George finds my remarks "misleading" and then proceeds to misquote my words, even putting an expression I never used in inverted commas. For instance, I said the new...

Sla,—We are now entering what will be a protracted age of conferences and congresses, in which most of the nations of the world will take part. If the present procedure is...

covering about seven parishes has been made by the agricultural economists of Oxford. The chief motive was the belief that planners will go wrong if they do not plan for the...

of plants big or small is being stressed by some authorities in very different departments of the garden. Ashes, for example, which of course are not in themselves suppliers of...

SIR,—Your correspondent Margery Whitehorn makes a commendable effort to be fair and objective in judging Eire's neutrality. But her argu- ment, like the High Commissioner's...

on November 24th, is evidently unaware of the experiments already carried out in certain centres to extend the education period beyond the present school-leaving age of 1 4....

Sus,—The recent revival of interest in the post-war overseas trade position of Great Britain should be considered against the background of the White Paper on Britain's War...

For the first time within my experience the blackbirds have been in song. The bird has not a long period of song, which is surprising, since its very near cousin, the thrush,...

of The Countryman that an old farmer has been testing for a score of years the truth of one of the oldest weather prognostics embalmed in verses, best known being the popular...

A letter reached me last week—from a great authority on country life— asking how the floods were in my district. The query synchronised with a visit paid by a member of my...

A SUBCRIPTION TO THE SPECTATOR at the special rate of 26s. per annum conceded to Members of the Forces on active service? Send your order and remittance to THE SPECTATOR,...

Primer of the Coming World. By Leopold Schwarzschild. (Hamish Hamilton. 10s.) HERR SCHWARZSC.HILD'S World in Trance was a sufficiently arrest- ing analysis of the pre-war, in...

Penn After 300 Years William Penn : 1644-1718. A Tercentenary Estimate by W. W. Con" fort. (Oxford University Press. 12s.) THERE is no lack of biographies of William Penn—Dr....

Reflections in a Mirror, By Charles Morgan. (Macmillan. 8s. 6d.) Mit. CHARLES MORGAN'S mellow and persuasive voice is here raised for art, idleness, and the humane. It is good...

Selected Writing. By Reginald Moore. (Nicholson and Watson. 2s. 6d.) "YES! in the sea of life enisled "—to the permanent separation of human beings from each other, the present...

Park System. By William Lamin. (Faber and Faber. 7s. 6d.) Thirty Years Farming on the Clifton Park System tells of the experiences of a farmer's son- who, nearly sixty years...

The Golden Fleece. By Robert Graves. (Cassell. 12s. 6d.) AT all stages of human history men have been fascinated by stories of travels and adventures ; among the histories and...

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, December 26th. Envelopes should be received...

SOLUTION ON DECEMBER 29th The winner of Crossword No. 299 is MR. A. E. Rica, Charnwood, rowborough, Sussex.

are collected a number of addresses, broadcasts, and short articles written by Spender during the last seven or eight years of his life. Whether he ever intended that they...

One King : A Survey of the Dominions and Colonies of the British Empire. By Derek Tangye. (Harrap. 12s. 6d.) THIS is a good book and one that is much needed, for the general...

By CUSTOS TEN days before the date originally fixed by the board, but over a week after the announcement of the 15 per cent, ordinary dividend, British Celanese has issued its...

GUY MOTORS LIMITED VERY SATISFACTORY POSITION PRESIDING at the twenty-ninth annual general meeting of Guy Motors, Limited, at Wolverhampton, on December 14th, the Chairman,...

TEE NATIONAL BANK OF SCOTLAND LIMITED ANNUAL MEETING THE 119th annual general meeting Of the proprietors of the National Bank of Scotland, Limited, was held in the bank's head...