The United Nations Palestine Commission, still at Lake Success, has heard Sir Alexander Cadogan in secret session explain Britain's plans for co-operating with, and presumably...

It would be disastrous if the success of the Greek Army in clearing the immediate neighbourhood of Konitza of rebels were to give rise to the impression that the situation is...

O UT of the German acceptance of the Anglo-American plan for a strengthened German administration in Western Germany, French irritation at not being told the details of the plan...

Talk about the reform of the House of Lords remains vague and ineffective, but the Parliament Bill now under discussion, cutting down from two years to one year the delaying...

There is something neat and satisfactory about the idea of the British Government and people deliberately turning their attention from the coal problem, which was taken to be...

The fact that the United Nations Security Council has formally taken cognisance of the dispute—which is in fact open war—between India and Pakistan and is about to begin its...

The considered attitude of the medical profession towards accept- ance or rejection of the National Health Service Act conditions will not be known until the result of the...

T HE hearings on the Marshall Plan now proceeding in Washington have again posed the old problem as to how Europeans should conduct themselves while American Congress- men are...

by beheading Mr. Outram, who invented iron tramways in the latter part of the eighteenth century, does not find general favour. It is a legend I was brought up on, and one does...

plebiscite on the two proposals, carried by large majorities on the City Council, to provide municipal furniture for tenants of munici- pal houses and to acquire or construct...

memorial service to Lord Baldwin on Wednesday began exactly when it was meant to begin, at 12 noon, and ended exactly when it was meant to end, at 12.3o. It was in some ways...

C OMMUNIST methods in this country are worth studying. We have lately had the appeal of the Secretary of the Labour Party to trade unionists to wake up and prevent Communists...

House of Lords. According to a booklet which the Conservative Central Office has just issued on the past and future of the Second Chamber the number is 85o, of whom something...

copy. In that year the paper used was L21-odd a ton ; today it is £55-odd. Com- positors' wages in London in 1932, minimum, £4 9s. a week ; the minimum today is £6 5s. and an...

"W HAT'S the score of American versus average non-American living standards ? " an American business-man on a sight- seeing tour of Lake Success asked an international group of...

By HORACE ALEXANDER * New Delhi. S OME forty years ago Mr. Bernard Shaw published two volumes of plays, under the composite title, " Plays Pleasant and Unpleasant." Volume One...

By HONOR CROOME I T is an instructive and rather a depressing experience to read in 1948 the various pronouncements made, in the years of free enterprise, by Left-minded...

- By RAWLE KNOX N OW that Mr. de Valera has promised the General Election for February 4th all the party leaders have taken off their coats and had a few practice swings at...

By THE HEADMASTER OF TONBRIDGE T HE appointment of Sir Arthur fforde as headmaster of Rugby emphasises in unprecedented fashion the importance of administration in the work of...

• By G. H. PEACOCK A N English county, invited to connive at a plan for its own extinction, announces its objections to hara-kiri and states its intention to fight any proposal...

By HAROLD NICOLSON W HEN I was a boy we always, all of us, went to church on Sundays. If we were in London, my parents would put on their stiffest clothes and we would walk in...

THE CINEMA "Fun and Fancy Free." (Odeon.)—" Qua des Orfevres." (Rialto.) WALT DISNEY has divided his new full-length film into two parts, the first of which can be commended,...

THE performance of Alban Berg's violin concerto by Antonio Brosa and the New London Orchestra at the Cambridge Theatre on January rith raised some interesting points. I do not...

WHAT a splendid Victorian playbill the Leicester Galleries could concoct for one of their mixed shows! Their new exhibition is ohe of the mosl varied they have given us, and one...

Snt,—Brigadier Desmond Young's recent two articles on India published in your paper were so fair, so sound and so clearly expressed that the criticisms and comments of Mr....

Sta,—Was not contributor Janus thinking with the right head when he eipreSsed misgiving about the appointment of " a leading London solicitor " as head master of Rugby ; and...

SiR,—In your issue of January 9th Janus refers to the almost universal protest against the abolition of the petrol ration ; and quite rightly adds that the Government has never...

Snt,—Your leading article in the January 9th issue entitled The Reply to Russia states, among other things, that Soviet Communism " has engineered the establishment of a...

THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST do not wish to be drawn into a theological controversy, which is beyond my province. But I cannot let Mr. Trevor Dyer's letter pass without asking your...

Sm,—Janus is right in supposing that Parliament met at Oxford in 1665 on account of the Great Plague ; but that was not the last occasion. It met there again in 1681, Charles II...

Sift,—In your issue of January 2nd, Mr. Peter Fleming clearly shows the factors which discourage a landowner from replanting his felled wood- lands. I cannot see, however, that...

course, what we enjoy or do not enjoy at a show is a matter of taste, but, if we are to accept the principle that animals should not be exploited to serve no useful purpose,...

Snt,—I read Marginal Comment on January 2nd with extreme interest. But is not Mr Harold Nicolson arriving at general, although personal, conclusions after one pariicular visit...

SIR, —Mr. Garrett writes, with a smell under his nose, of "motor-bicycle grass track racing," " gladiatorial exhibitions," " thrills to the last minute," and " it is reasonably...

Sut,—In his paragraph on- " the absurd omnibus " Janus mentions that the word was introduced by the French, and it may be of interest to recall the possibly mitigating...

Sm,—Mr. E. H. Keeling, M.P., is quite right to point out that thirty- three other constituencies will have electorates larger than Bradford's average. But these comprise for the...

your correspondent Mr. F. D. Merralls' request for a Russian definition of Democracy. If Pravda can be relied upon, I can supply one. In a broadcast from Radio Moscow recently...

sm,—I suggest that any genuine democracy must be able to answer in the affirmative two questions: (a) Does it permit parties in opposition to the government of the day ? (b) Can...

Sut,—The air line companies are not the only sufferers from the 9d. a gallon motor spirit tax mentioned in the B.E.A. accounts, and criticised in your issue of January 2nd. At...

Sta,—May I suggest that Mr. Martin Lindsay has overlooked one point when pleading for increased salaries for M.P.s ? That point is the position of the prospective candidates of...

SIR,—The Times reports a meeting of the B.M.A.* when no less than 370 representative members assembled from all parts of Great Britain unanimously (mark that word) voted against...

householders, are personally interested in the subject of wood-fuel ; and a great many people are asked to buy ill-burning wood at an exorbitant price. What sorts of wood are...

Sta,—With all deference to the authority of Professor Ekwall, quoted by Sir A. C. Grant-Duff, I suggest that he is wrong, and that your reviewer is right in his etymology of the...

THE Chiltern hills and downs, lovely in themselves and a stance for many lovely views, are underlaid by reservoirs of water that feed a number of little rivers, of which the...

Sta,—I expect I shall be anticipated in informing . STAIR that the New Year of the Commissioners of Inland Revenue is April 5th, not All

January 9th Mr. John Garrett says: " . a whole generation's capitulation to what Shelley called ` that unrest which men miscall delight.' " On - page - 56, I read: "There is...

a mania for introducing more or less new varieties of pheasant such as the so called, so uglily called, melanistic mutant and the versicolor. They were on the whole easier to...

de Londres, raises some interesting questions. According to Monsieur Queval, even " the most adult " of English love affairs are " adolescent in style." How does he know ? On...

the literary fashion in trees has varied at different dates in different countries. Cedar and fir prevail in the Bible. In much early English verse the ivy (which incidentally...

in the intensive French garden system almost the busiest sowing period of the year begins at about this date. The gardeners round Paris, Rouen and The Hague, for example, make...

A Victorian Tragedy The Order of Release : The story of John Ruskin, Effie Gray and John Everett Millais told for the first time in their unpublished letters. Edited by Sir...

T. J. WISE'S collection of books was acquired after his death by the British Museum. Few finer private libraries have ever passed into public ownership in this country ; few...

Balzac : A biography. By Stefan Zweig. Translated by William and Dorothy Rose. (Cassell. 21s.) BALZAC has been dead less than a hundred years, yet he has already become as...

DR. INGE is in his eighty-eighth year. In his preface he imagines the critics saying, " He has said all this before, and said it better. He has no sympathy with the hopes and...

The Life and Art of W. Heath Robinson. By Langston Day. (Herbert Joseph. 25s.) OF the many gifted and popular comic artists who have flourished in this country in the last fifty...

and Faber. 12s. 6d.) BRITISH administrators, using the manpower and resources of India, built a solid Empire throughout South Asia. The upper classes of the Empire Were...

History of England. By E. L. Woodward. (Methuen. 4s. 6d.) To write in 65,000 words a history of Britain from prehistoric times to the end of the first German war involves so...

John Fergusson, 1727-1750. By James Fergusson. (Cape. 10s. 6d.) Jamas FERGUSSON is perhaps best known as the editor of an anthology of Scots verse which seeks to demonstrate...

[A Book Token for one guinea will be awardea to the sender of the first correct solution of this week's crossword to be opened after noon on Tuesday week yanuary 27th. Envelopes...

SOLUTION ON JANUARY 30th The winner of Crossword No. 458 is: Miss W. B. MCINTOSH, 31, Mattock Lane, Ealing, W.5.

By CUSTOS AFTER the somewhat light-hearted optimism of the opening days of the year markets have developed a more cautious mood. While there is no denying the abundance of...

African should find an English publisher, for Mr. Bosman, who (it seems) published his first novel last year, is a writer of quite unusual evocative power. Not since Olive...

THIS agreeable and convenient edition of the well-known Prayers and Meditations will arouse mingled feelings in Johnsonians. Dr. Trueblood argues with some force that the...