What justification is there for the Govern- nlent's recent decision to take discriminatory ae liOn against scientology, and how far is it likely to succeed in its aims? What,...

With Mr Kekoalaullionapalihauliuokekooiau David Kaapuawaokamehameha standing for Mayor of Honolulu, Mr Peter Humphrey of Uxbridge rescuing a drowning goldfish CI would hate to...

POLITICAL COMMENTARY JAMES ROBERTSON lames Robertson was private secretary to the Secretary to the Cabinet and Head of the Civil Service from 1960 to 1963. He left the Civil...

AMERICA-2 PETER WALKER, MP History may express some concern that a party that contains such men as Governor Nelson Rockefeller, Mayor John Lindsay, Senator 'Chuck' Percy,...

AMERICA-1 MURRAY KEMPTON New York—Mr Nixon has created, or at least inherited, a Republican party in his own image. It is anxiously agreeable if not entirely likeable. His...

CHRISTOPHER HOLLIS Mr Robert Maxwell has announced his de- parture from the Back Britain campaign. Since Britain first at heaven's command Arose from out the azure main, She's...

FRANCE MARC ULLMANN Paris—`And what do the young people think?' 'I am afraid, mon General, they are not very enthusiastic about your policy.' 'Quite right too. It is totally...

IMMIGRANTS C. M. WOODHOUSE I watched the BBC television programme, Cause for Concern, last Friday night with particular interest because for two years (1962-64) in the last...

PUBLIC SCHOOLS ANGUS MAUDE (The provenance of the document reproduced below is uncertain. lf, however, it really was recovered. from a waste-paper basket in the lounge of a...

From the 'Spectator', 15 August 1868—The first private execution under the new law took place at Maidstone on Thursday, the culprit being Thomas Wells, a railway porter of...

J. W. M. THOMPSON How strange to reflect that, at a time when the Church of Rome has entered a sea of troubles as a result of an excessive rigidity of ideas, the Church of...

PERSONAL COLUMN MYLES na gCOPALEEN Myles na gCopaleen was the pen-name of Brian O'Nolan, perhaps best known as Flann O'Brien, author of 'At Swim-Two-Birds,'The Third Policeman'...

THE PRESS DONALD McLACHLAN Once upon a time it could be assumed—I am writing on the Twelfth—that a tidy number of politicians would naw be waiting their turn at the grouse....

MEDICINE JOHN ROWAN WILSON Manson considered the minister of Sinai in a cold distaste. He said carefully : 'Don't you realise there are people with a quarter of your stipend...

TABLE TALK DENIS BROGAN The encyclical of Paul VI has been received with bewilderment, anguish—and a dazed wonder: 'what is he talking about?' Some of the comments have been so...

ROY STRONG The candles in the chandeliers at Baihl threw a honeyed glow over the acres of whipped cream rococo and the staring ugliness of German eighteenth century prelates...

LORD BUTLER This book does justice to the memory of Balfour and as such should be warmly wel- comed. Balfour's great quality was that he `stuck on' and achieved some of his...

RODNEY ACKLAND No Leading Lady R. C. Sherriff (Gollancz 42s) R. C. Sherriff seems to have an image of R. C. Sherriff, a cherished image, which no one but himself is likely to...

Summer show BARRY COLE The Girls: Volume I The Girls and Pity for Women Volume II: The Hippogrill and The Lepers Henry de Montherlant (Weidenfeld and Nicolson 42s each) The...

Convict's tale The Man from Devil's Island Colin Rickard, (Peter Dawnay 25s) This little book is very oddly put together. Mr Rickards, a journalist who knows the Carib- bean...

PETER FLEMING Some thirty-five summers—all, to the best of my recollection, preceded or followed by an identi- cal number of springs, autumns and winters: get the hall-porter...

TIBOR SZAMUELY Internationalism or Russification? Ivan Dzyuba edited by M. Davies (Weidenfeld and Nicolson 42s) - The Chornovil Papers compiled by Vyacheslav Chornovil...

The Jews and the Age of Enlightenment in France Arthur Herzberg (Columbia University Press 112s 6d). Herzberg's great weight of learning doesn't hamper his vigorous, highly...

ART BRYAN ROBERTSON Waddington's Gallery has a highly personal summer anthology ranging from Hayden, Milton Avery, Hitchens and Heron through to Hoyland, who is represented by...

HILARY SPURLING The Royal Shakespeare Company's new Troilus and Cressida is directed by John Barton and set, for the most part with great splendour, by Timothy O'Brien. It...

EDWARD BOYLE Richter's playing of Schumann, I remember it being said, amounted to a 'rediscovery' of the composer, and I feel much the same about Colin Davis's conducting of...

Dumb Ben PENELOPE HOUSTON Prudence and the Pill (Carlton, 'X') The Green Berets (Warner, 'A') In the United States The Graduate is already as much a phenomenon as a film....

PETER WILSON Peter Wilson is chairman of Sotheby's. Before the last war the two great London auction rooms, Sotheby's and Christies, con- ducted a large number of sales every...

CHRISTOPHER FILDES Time was when the monthly trade figures could be forecast with complete confidence by the application of Lawson's Fourth Law: Bad figures take longer to add...

FILM FINANCE NICHOLAS DAVENPORT Those of us who would like the Government to practise more economy than it preaches will have observed with some satisfaction that it has not...

FINANCE USA WILLIAM JANEWAY Two prime questions stand out in considering the current state and .future prospects of the American economy. The first is: where is the American....

CUSTOS The stock market has once again broken its record. All of the 6 per cent fall from the peak of 19 July—when the Financial Times index touched 492—has been recovered. On...

PORTFOLIO JOHN BULL Well developed, highly sophisticated though the London market is, it offers few oppor- tunities for investment in public utilities—rail- ways, electricity...

in Simon Raven's idea that (moral) qualities 'are in any case recommended to us by the canons of mere common sense,' the con- dition of the neck of many a young adolescent would...

those he condemns in your 2 August issue when he accuses Turkey of being more Greek than the Greeks? The army in Turkey did stage a coup, but in 1960. By 1962, the date he...

Sir: I must agree with your editorial of 2 August in finding the Bishop of Leeds's defence of the encyclical unconvincing. I sympathise with the Pope's view of artificial birth...

LETTERS From : Rev Richard H. Hill, David Deacon, Constantine FitzGibbon, E. A. Howe, Josephine Boyle, R. L. Travers, John Biggs- Davison, MP, George Martelli, S. E. Scammell,...

Sir: The sentimentally patriotic note in Mrs Vlachos's letter (9 August) rings as false as do Harold Wilson's evocations of the Dunkirk spirit. Elements of the Royal Hellenic...

Sir: Christopher Driver's reply (9 August) to Bill Grundy's article about the Guardian was not very convincing. To say that David Hol- brook 'once' suggested himself for a...

Sir: AFTA or EEC? That is not the question. The question is: a greater Europe, including Britain, or a little Europe dependent, despite Gaullism, upon American patronage and...

tend to appeal to prejudice by reference to the fact that the Ibo are predominantly Christian while the Northern Nigerians are not. Since prejudice is thus to be invoked, should...

Sir: I am surprised a 'sentimental' view (Letters, 9 August) can so sting Mr Seymour- Smith; that our viewpoints differ is obvious, and I still perceive inaccuracies. Mr...

Sir: In reply to Mr Waugh (9 August): I. Of course I am aware that hundreds of thousands of Ibos fled their homes. But they did so because they were told by the rebels that...

has been caused by the Pope's recent pronouncement. All he has said is that the doc- trine and practice of the Church in contracep- tion remain as they always have been. Non-...

Sir: I have only just seen the article, 'Can we afford equal pay?,' in your issue of 26 July. The word that caught my attention was 'we.' Very often the writers of articles and...

Sir : At last I have read a sensible, sane and sincere article by Peregrine Worsthorne. Though allegedly satirically, he puts in a mag- nificent plea for legalised adultery (9...

AFTERTHOUGHT JOHN WELLS There were at Oxford in the 'thirties two under- graduates of the same name. As they were exact contemporaries and were both reading Greats it was the...

The idea of a Hardy Fes- tival had a nasty taste; was it a sincere tribute to Hardy, or a wish to be on the festival map? There must be many people, still living in Dorchester,...

Across I Pilgrimage? (8) S 'Eternal — of the chainless mind!' (Byron) (6) 9 Artemisia inspires youthful passion (4, 4) 10 Greek croaker is carved (6) 12 Ah, Latin for the...

PHILIDOR Black White 9 men 10 men W. Langstaff (Observer, 1938). White to play and mate in two moves; solution next week. Solution to no. 399 (Turke): K – B 5, no threat. 1...

Charles Seaton reports: Competitors were asked to use the ten given words in a coherent piece of prose. And in a passage which had to include comedy, watchmaker and pulmonary...

COMPETITION Competitors are invited to use the ten following words, taken from the opening passages of a well-known work of literature, in the order given, to construct part of...