Colonel Knox, the United States Secretary of the Navy, warned an audience at Washington - bit 'Monday _against expecting an "early, conclusive showdown with_ the : Japanese...

TF the war were confined to Europe, Africa and the Atlantic, the Allies would have good reason for satisfaction, but in the Far East the tide continues to run against us, and it...

The recall of Mr. Duff Cooper from Singapore, where he held the position of Resident Minister with Cabinet rank, cannot reasonably be regarded as an admission by the Government...

Representatives of nine Allied countries now in enemy occupa- tion met in London last Tuesday and resolved that enemies and quislings of any nationality shall be tried and...

The Pan-American Conference which is just opening at Rio de Janeiro will have a bearing of considerable importance on the attitude of the Latin American States to the war. The...

Australia's desire, sharply stimulated by events in Malaya, for closer contact between the Dominions and Whitehall was given expression on Tuesday by Sir Earle Page in an...

A significant appointment has been made by the new Prime Minister of the Yugoslav Government, M. Slobodan Jovanovitch, who succeeds General Simovitch. Its significance lies in...

Since the United States' entry into the war there has been a good deal of speculation in America regarding the prospects of Mr. de Valera lending or leasing to the United States...

T N a week in which the All-India Congress Committee is 1 meeting at Wardha to discuss Congress' future action it Indy oe well to consider briefly the fundamental question of...

is justified, or at any rate very nearly—to characterise the super- secrecy of some official communications, for instance. Here is one, a real case. An officer commanding a Home...

.the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to English (hereafter to be known officially as S.P.C.E.—perhaps one day R.S.P.C.E.), I would reason mildly with the writer of an...

inspires me to certain reflections. In existing conditions the case for the rationing of ‘ vanity, I submit, is unanswerable. And there is a great deal too much vanity in Who's...

which this country is pulling its maximum weight at this crisis of the most critical war in its history? Allegations—I will not go so far as to say evidence— that there is not...

readers an opportunity of passing judgement on the banning by British authorities at Singapore of the American broadcaster Cecil Brown by printing the offending script in full...

By STRATEGICUS In effect the calculations turned upon the diversion of British naval power, and to a very considerable extent that may be taken to be achieved by attacking when...

By J. G. CROWTHER M R. EDEN in a recent speech suggested that Britain and Russia may have a good deal to learn from one another. He is undoubtedly right. Russia covers...

By MAJOR BONAMY DOBRiE DON'T see," a senior officer remarked, "why the poor I regimental officer should have to do what the Board of Education, with all its millions and all...

By SIR EVELYN WRENCH [This article was, of course, written before the 7apanese war broke out.] I T is just seventeen years since the first sod at the Singapore naval base was...

friend (who is an internationalist and a liberal) should have been betrayed by his rage at my lack of enthusiasm into disclosing his anti-Semitic bias. I am always frightened of...

listen to the many current schemes for a New Europe I am assailed by a dishearten- ing sense of unreality. Yet although the several schemes which are advanced appear to me to be...

By HAROLD NICOLSON M ANY impulsive people are already tempted by the entry of the United States into the war, and boy the possibility of a major German disaster on the Eastern...

week a furious reply. All Englishmen, I was assured, were imperialists at heart ; whenever we were asked to surrender territory we always started to talk about the "interests of...

a heavy blow to German self-confidence, and I am well aware that, in the high hysterical stratosphere to which the German soul has soared, courage can change quite quickly into...

The Big Blockade. At the London Pavilion.—Ferry Pilot. At the New Gallery and Marble Arch Pavilion. THE whole gigantic bulk of total war cannot easily be made to conform to any...

United Artists at the Royal Academy. Modern Paintings at the Leicester Galleries, and elsewhere. FOR the second time the Royal Academy has invited all the members of...

SIR,—The article on "The Problem of Prussia" by H. Sinsheimer, published in your issue of November 14th, has just come to my notice. Why does Mr. Sinsheimer drag Alsace into his...

Empire Banks controlled by the City, the question of whether the word " British " appears in the name of the bank is immaterial. Mr. Willis explains that some Empire banks, for...

SIR,—Mr. Connely's letter in your issue of January and is, I think, written under an entire misapprehension of the position. In the first place I know of no Australian Bank...

THE ALLIES AND FRANCE Sia,—I have read with interest the article published in your issue of January 9th by "A French Correspondent" concerning allied policy towards...

Snt,—" Janus's " criticisms in your issue of January and of the B.B.C.'s attitude to music are severe but fortunately inaccurate and easily disproved. One has only to refer to...

the use of your columns at various times. I venture, nevertheless, to beg another inch or two for a marginal comment on Harold Nicolson's brilliant essay on diaries. How right...

Sta,—Our need to expand production and economise in man-power resembles, in certain ways, the problem which faced Germany after the Battle of Britain was won by us. It is true...

may I add one word of warning? Here in Lyme Regis our Council houses are pretty and well devised; but hardly any British architect takes reason- able precautions against the...

this Association is running a prize competition for the lay-out of a model post-war building estate, the details of which are com- prehensive. There will be a woman on the jury;...

by Mr. Harold Nicolson's article in your issue of January 2nd. No one will doubt that, with his exceptional powers of observation, deduction, and de- scription, and his special...

It has been, I think, a common experience this winter—certainly a local one—that game43irds weigh more than they usually have ; and you may observe the same in the birds on the...

supplied little vases of Iris stylosa, associated with yellow jessamine, a few pink and blue primroses and plenty of that useful vulgarian, lungwort, of which the pink variety...

A REAL victory over war has been won by that excellently practical and, one may say, poetical organisation, the International Committee for Bird Preservation. One of the keenest...

Very many country people, for the first time in their lives, have been induced to take an interest in poultry, and have had personal experience of the muddle, the harmful...

SIR, —The long-established English custom of sponging on artists, especially on authors, has now become an outrageous ramp, and there are persons in Great Britain, presumably...

We have heard a good deal of the need of campaigns against rats, which certainly do nothing but harm from man's point of view, and are now grimly numerous; but in justice it...

Aesthetics of ' Leviathan ' The Aesthetic Theory of Thomas Hobbes. By Clarence De Witt Thorpe. (Oxford University Press. 225. 6d.) WE do not usually associate the name of the...

Soviet Asia. By E. S. Bates. (Cape. 8s. 6d.) THERE is probably no people which has less racial prejudice than the Russians. This was as true of the Tsar's Empire as it is of...

THIS chronicle of the war needs no commendation to Spectator readers. They may, nevertheless, be too ready to assume that they know what it contains and, like all of us, be too...

A Thousand Shall Fan. By Hans Habe. (Harrap. los. 6d.) IF only it had a heroine Herr Habe's book would make a most excellent film—for adult audiences only. As :t is, it makes...

As a picture-book this slim volume is delightful. The illustra- tions, which range from reproductions of seventeenth and eighteenth century engravings, and of late eighteenth...

IN its personal reminiscences of Hardy the volume by Henry W. Nevinson is a model of self-unconsciousness, as might be expected, and succeeds in saying more about its subject...

The Fort. By Storm Jameson. (Cassell. 6s.) Winter of Discontent. By Gilbert Frankau. (Hutchinson. gs. 6d.) The Fort has many virtues ' • it is both short and stimulating. The...

M. Dickie, (Chambers. 15s.) MANY, perhaps the majority, of fishermen in these islands have been unable to visit the streams of their hearts during the last couple of seasons....

DR. SPENCE, the author's father, was a Methodist parson in Iowa. For this reason the book is an important sidelight on the . Middle West. It is also an entertaining, neatly...

3s. 64.) Tins little book has an unfortunate title. For Mr. Lennard, the foundations of democracy are not threatened where they have been well and truly laid and they have been...

I. , uTTER& L :Eq) 10;g_ -- ifc icilic E EWA L T i4 0 E s ORI I of tPsiLiy A X 4 . ! SOLUTION ON JANUARY 30th The winner of Crossword No. 147 is Mrs. Q. W. Blair, 76,...

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

By CUSTOS UNDER the rival influences of weight of money and the news from the Far Eastern war front markets are performing a gentle see-saw movement. One cannot help noticing,...

doubtful if Nazi or Munich or Petain would even have an entry, so complete is its innocence of any preoccupation with the international situation : to which it might be added,...

with a newsagent and are unable to obtain regular delivery of the paper are invited to communicate wi h the Sales Manager, THE SPECTATOR, LIMITED, 99 Gower Street, London, W.C. 1.

BARCLAYS BANK LIMITED EXTREMELY LIQUID POSITION THE following is an extract from the statement by the chairman Mr. Edwin Fisher, on the report and accounts for the year ended...