Ever since the Russians decided that their blockade of Berlin was doing them more harm than good they have been trying various tricks all aimed at combining the minimum...

N OTHING could have been better calculated to turn a red-hot crisis stone cold than the communiqué issued after the talks between British, American and Canadian representatives...

The trial of Alger Hiss for perjury, which has provided the American public with the bulk of its reading material for the past weeks, has ended with a two to one verdict against...

What useful purpose is to be served by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek's digression to the Philippines, where he has been holding conference with President Quirino ? They have, it...

When the Minister of Food went off to East Africa to inspect the groundnuts scheme on the spot, there was a hope that he might bring back some new facts to buttress the high...

As soon as it became clear that one of the causes of the latest British dollar difficulties was a falling off in American purchases, speculation over the exact ssate of the...

The horns of a dilemma are never a comfortable resting-place, SIX:1 Marshal Tito may be forgiven the lack of grace with which he has made his enforced switch from eastern to...

T HE most interesting weeks at Westminster are those in which pre-arranged business has to give place to business which circumstances impose even on Government Whips. This has...

The Forestry Commission's latest annual report summarises their activities up till last Michaelmas. Its most disturbing disclosure is that we are still, and indeed increasingly,...

The dinner at the Guildhall to commemorate the thirtieth birthday of Chatham House came too late for mention in the last issue of The Spectator, but it cannot be allowed to go...

G RAVE as the immediate consequences of the London dock strike are, the deeper causes of a stoppage immeasurably disastrous to the national economy raise issues graver still....

back to 1911, but a good many people must remember the famous Sidney Street siege of that year, when a battle took place between two desperate gunmen established in a house...

H AS the Hiss trial ended or not ? The trial that has been in progress for over a month at Washington has certainly ended, the jury having failed to agree and letting it be...

Commission on the Press appointed and arc so palpably discomfited at the outcome of their efforts, are, I am bound to admit, putting up a vast bluff with immense industry. The...

London College of Theology, the Inter-Collegiate University, the Universite Internationale, and other similar bodies regarding which I possess a well-stocked dossier (including...

By M. J. BONN T HE visitor to Germany finds a still war-ravaged country. The fields look smiling, apart from being pock-marked by bomb-craters ; but the cities are rubble which...

By D. W. BROGAN A GENERATION ago a Scottish business-man found himself in difficulties. So he summoned a meeting of his creditors. The most important was the bank-manager, who...

By BANN LE KNOX E VEN before the Republic of Ireland was officially declared on Easter Monday, little posters began to appear in odd corners of Dublin, urging, in heavy...

By EDWARD HODGKIN T HE best-known consequence of the disaster to the cross- channel ferry the 'White Ship,' in which William Atheling and his companions were drowned, was that...

By DAVID JAMES M ANY, indeed, are the temples at which the British worship their national god, Sport, and to the votaries of one the others arc often unknown. To those who...

THE strings may falter, but not I. . . I turned upon a wheel of sound— A blue song rippled from the sky, A green song bubbled from the ground. And in that moment I was knit...

THE CHOLERA IN LONDON ON Thursday, Mr. BERNAL drew attention to the disgraceful sanatory state of London. He complained of the smells from St. Margaret's Churchyard, which...

LIVING IN THE FUTURE By C. H. PALMER (London School of Economics) "Be not solicitous, therefore, saying: What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or wherewith shall we be...

By HAROLD NICOLSON ETURNING by train recently after a long day by the river, I purchased at the local railway station a copy of the Star evening newspaper. It contained an...

THE Renaissance Society has recently celebrated the tercentenary of the birth of John Blow with a festival of his music. Blow was Purcell's master, and was succeeded by his...

THE CINEMA "Streets of Laredo." (Plaza.)—" Colorado Territory." (Warner.) • — Champion." (Odeon.)-- Poet's Pub." (New Gallery and Tivoli.) Tins is "tough guy " week in the...

HUMOUR in art is a wide subject, and one day it would be a goocl i idea to collect together some of the many oil paintings with a humorous content, from the fat Sebastian del...

OUR radio is not, in general, very seasonable. True, some popular half-hours take a summer vacation, but that is a negative season- ability. For the most part the programmes for...

It is an all-embracing programme, but it reserves its closest caresses for the subject of holidays—holidays at sea or on bicycles, up hills, down dales, with camera or...

Letting the knob more or less find its own way round the wave- lengths, I fell in with some light entertainment from which, as one in the sticky morass of a nightmare, I could...

THE most interesting of these records are orchestral. For H.M.V. Sir Adrian Boult and the L.S.O. have recorded Vaughan Williams' Sixth Symphony, excellently except for a slight...

Elsewhere recently radio has taken us (for its reporting at any rate must be seasonable) to golf championships, and told us about the Royal Show at Shrewsbury, and continued to...

ONE of the most agreeable by-products of "colonial month" in London is the display of old maps and drawings of the colonies which has beZn organised at the British Museum. Out...

today can speak Latin as a living language. Old Persc boys of Dr. Rouse's time can do it well, and some of their pupils too. But their accent by no means renders their words...

and genealogies" in the Bible. They are there because the Bible is a record of persons, not of abstractions. The liturgical use of the Matthaean genealogy as the Gospel in a...

Stn,—I was keenly interested in Mr. Harold Nicolson's remarks on Latin as an international mediaeval language in last week's Marginal Comment. I often discussed this matter with...

DOCTORS AND THE STATE Sta,—The issue of arbitration that Dr. Margarct Jackson' mentions in her article, The Doctors' Real Work, is more than the sufficiently knotty one of the...

Sta,—The problem of education may be the problem of the teacher, but it is surely more essentially the problem of the headmaster. It hardly seems to be generally realised that...

SUBSCRIPTION RATES Ordinary edition to any address In the World. 52 vreeks El 10s. Mi. 26 weeks I5s. Oct Mr Mail to any Country in Europe. 52 !meek, r2 7s. 6d. 26 weeks LI 3s....

was very interested by the letters of Canon Ellison and Sir Howard Kelly on the subject of Monsignor Ronald Knox's version of the Bible. While I agree with many of the things...

Sta,—Your correspondent, Mr. Pullar-Strecker, would no doubt have felt more at one with the word "Enosis," and found in its associations something rather more aperitif, had it...

Si,—Mr. J. H. Morrow sees many advantages for us in the felling of German forests, but his letter shows the danger of viewing Germany's problems apart from their European...

Sta,—As usual, Janus raises a number of interesting points. Of course, everyone who thinks of the matter does so from his own particular outlook, and I feel that the books...

SIR,—I am dismayed by my friend J.A.B.-C's note, in which he attri- butes with apparent approval to Mr. Butler a definition of the objects of our educational system as: (1) the...

Sra,—The dismay with which Left-wingers greet any of their supporters who dare to think things out for themselves, and, having thought, leave their ranks, is clearly shown by...

This year has been notable or the success of the agricultural shows, which culminated last week in the "Royal" at Shrewsbury. Almost all the county and more general shows have...

previously discussed, have invaded my garden has further deepened. The third generation of these blackamoors has now appeared, though no old parent of this hue has been seen. It...

Report of the National Coal Board? My last delivery of household coal (February, 1949) was inspected by my coal merchant and by a representative of the Ministry of Fuel, and I...

SIR, —Has it ever been noted that in Rob Roy, Sir Walter Scott does not seem sure whether Sir Hildebrand Osbaldistone was a knight or a baronet? It seems strange for a votary of...

a crass materialist and every possible type of reactionary, could I ask Mr. Maurice Webb, through your courtesy, if he noticed in the miners march any banners inscribed with...

increasing practice. Birds and rodents, as well as foxes and rabbits, may be kept off by the right odours. Little bits of sacking steeped in fluids of the Renardine sort will...

A CRICKET MATCH got up for a charitable purpose was held one recent Sunday afternoon on a charming common that has long enjoyed the name of No Man's Land. An attempt was made by...

Sitting in his garden a neighbour of mine saw with great 'distinctness at close quarters a cuckoo fly down to a hedge-sparrow's nest, stop there not more than a few seconds and...

The Floral Year. By L. J. F. Brimble. (Macmillan. 30s.) THIS book is remarkable because its effect on the reader is highly emotional, though it consists almost entirely of...

"Nathaniel, You Great Man ! " Nathaniel Hawthorne. A Biography. By Randall Stewart. (Yak University Press: Geoffrey Cumberlege. 22s.) 'THERE will eternally be something oddly...

Midland England. By W. G. Hoskins. (Batsford. 12s. bd.) " MIDLAND ENGLAND": what do the words suggest ? Industry first of all, I suppose—iron, pottery, boots, beer ; and, for a...

"A good commander," General Stilwell wrote in one of the more coherent entries in his personal diary, "must be impartial, accessible, human, humble, patient, forbearing." He...

THIS is a book which can only be read with difficulty and effort, in spite of the importance of the subject and the formidable qualifica- tions of the author. It consists of a...

The Philosophical Lectures of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Edited by Kathleen Coburn. (Pilot Press. 25s.) C:oleridge as Critic. By Herbert Read. (Faber. 65.) THE few people who...

John Knox and Other Plays. By James Bridie. (Constable. 10s.) MR. BRID1E is a tantalising dramatist. As a man of medicine who came to creative writing late in life, he brought...

Katherine Mansfield and Other Literary Portraits. By John Middleton Murry. (Peter Nevi11. 12s. 6'd) WHEN Mr. Murry can detach himself from his subject, when he can stand back...

aircraft-carrier did not, we are told by Sir Hugh Lloyd, commend itself to the bomber crews on the island ; it was impossible, they pointed out, to maintain a steady bomber...

for one 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, luly 26th. Envelopes must be...

Fh. IE1511 r 5 L 0 Zic 0 I C A 0 U AI L A A eori !ME 5 0 Cli1Cligl 14 among En VI CI 0,0 12I al1121EIN ri 11 Ei AVM Fl A SOLUTION The winner of Crossword No. 536 Banbury...

By CUSTOS It was not to be expected that the Cripps-Snyder-Abbot talks would in themselves bring decisions which would resolve the investment uncertainties which spring from the...

TRADITIONAL poets, not without cause, frequently accuse the modernist school of cerebral rather than emotional inspiration. Some of the volumes here reviewed confirm that the...