Biafra is no more. After two and a half years of fighting against overwhelming odds, after two and a half years of starva- tion, after two million Biafran dead, resist- ance has...

Labour's election strategy AUBERON WAUGH It was an unfortunate coincidence of timing that Mr Wilson's first election address, with its keynote that The Labour government is...

Let them plant trees GEORGE GALE It is not often that I find myself on the side of the angels. Do-gooders do too much harm, have done too much harm, will do the final...

Rehabilitation TIBOR SZAMUELY In 1935 the Russian city of Lugansk was renamed Voroshilovgrad. In 1958 its name was changed back to Lugansk. Last week it became Voroshilovgrad...

Guerrillas in the sand LAURENCE MARTIN Laurence Martin is Professor of War Studies at the University of London and Defence correspondent of the 'Spectator'. Last weekend's...

Are we worth corrupting? JOCK BRUCE-GARDYNE, MP Mr Auberon Waugh has argued in these columns (3 January) with conviction—and convincingly—that it is the patronage of the Prime...

J. W. M. THOMPSON Mr Wilson was really making a party point when he said last Saturday that the 1970s will not be dominated by economic prob- lems as the 1960s were, that...

Fortnightly parts ALAN JENKINS The Game in 126 weekly parts; The Book of Life; History of the Second World War . . . This is where I came in, thirty years ago; only then we...

Of pot and pigs GEOFFREY WAGNER New York—The moviegoer is used to clichés. In fact, he enjoys them. The result is that the new rhetoric of the hippie cinema is rapidly...

Three's a crowd PETER J. SMITH The Select Committee on Science and Tech- nology, though in some ways the most successful of select committees, has often been criticised for...

Dollar wise LESLIE ADRIAN At dinner time on that glad night when (un- known to me, three thousand miles away) restrictions on foreign travel expenditure were being lifted, I...

Who will be boss? BILL GRUNDY You may have noticed an advertisment on the inside back page of last week's issue of the SPECTATOR. It was for applications for the post of...

From the 'Spectator', 15 January 1870 — The full accounts of the new Chinese Treaty do not dispose us to regard it with more favour, and we doubt if it will be ratified. We have...

CHRISTOPHER HOLLIS Roy Jenkins, in our hours of squeeze, So desperately keen to please, Explaining, though with anxious grief, The time's not come for much relief, And...

California, fare thee well DENIS BROGAN At the end of the long trek westward, the American frontier is producing or provok- ing some odd and even alarming phenomena 4 It is,...

Great Scott HUGH TREVOR-ROPER Anniversaries have their uses: that arbitrary impulse may start an overdue swing of the pendulum. The bi-centenary of Sir Walter Scott's birth is...

ROY STRONG Pictures in the Royal Collection: Later Georgian Pictures Oliver Millar (Phaidon, 2 vols £12) Pietro Longhi Terisio Pignatti (Phaidon £12) Chardin Georges...

Family size Maurice CAPITANCHIK Tamara Geoffrey Dutton (Collins 25s) The New Yorkers Hortense Calisher (Cape 45s) The Bag Sol Yurick (Gollancz 42s) Sick Friends Ivan Gold...

Martin SEYMOUR-SMITH The Art of Sylvia Plath: A Symposium edited by Charles Newman (Faber 50s) The suicide of Sylvia Plath in 1963, and the publication of the poems she had...

ANN WORDSWORTH Reminiscences of Wordsworth Among the Peasantry of Westmorland Hardwicke Drummond Rawnsley, with an introduction by Geoffrey Tillotson (Dillon's 30s) The...

In the blood CYRIL RAY Queen's Pawn Victor Canning (Heinemann 25s) Death at the Chase Michael Innes (Gol- lancz 21s) The Singapore Wink Ross Thomas (Hodder and Stoughton 28s)...

J. G. FARRELL The Comic Postcard in English Life Frederick Alderson (David and Charles 50s) It may be that any anthology of humour tends to have a sobering effect on the...

PENELOPE HOUSTON Nothing could perhaps shine a kindlier light on The Reckoning (Plaza, 'X') than the coincidence of its arrival in the same week as Elia Kazan's The...

Six to one MICHAEL NYMAN A question in the Christmas Quiz might have run as follows: If you take one from DGG'S six why is something less than one and a half left? Answer:...

With flying colours BRYAN ROBERTSON The Commonwealth Institute in Kensington has an excellent gallery almost continually filled with a flow of exhibitions that receive scant...

NICHOLAS DAVENPORT Let us salute the first monetary sensation of the New Year! Gold on the free market falls below its official monetary price of $35 an ounce. It actually fell...

From Mark Brady, the Rev. Godfrey Higgins, Mary Paulin, D. F. Hutchison, John Craig, Walter Hampston, T. C. Skeffington-Lodge, Jack Ross, L. E. Weidberg, T. M. Norton, R. W....

JOHN BULL The shares of British Petroleum remain a relatively depressed market. As I write they stand at 107s 9d compared with a high of 160s and a low of 100s 6d established...

Sir: You should get your geography and your facts right. At the risk of offending many Welshmen—and, who knows, Mr Powell may not be among them—your leader (10 January) confuses...

Sir: An affluent country with half its population under fifteen years of age would I think be hard put to it to find the resources fdr educating and providing employment for...

usually think it worth arguing with diehard party supporters. but I should nevertheless be interested to know on what grounds Mr Skeffington-Lodge (Letters. 3 January) considers...

Sir: Dr Rhodes Boyson (3 January) writes of the rejection by teachers of Mode 3 or cse. He may well be accurate with regard to the London area; I do not know. But the work of...

Sir: It is encouraging and I am glad to read of a Scot who tries to debunk much of what poses as Scottish—not only by foreigners—but by many Scots—but not all. Why however does...

Sir: I would not wish for one moment to be thought to be endorsing George Gale's ut- terly tendentious remarks about Jerusalem (27 December 1969). Nevertheless, I fear that the...

Sir: If only life were as simple as John A. Yates advocates in his letter (3 January). How easily he slots bawdy and pornography into their separate compartments. Could he say...

Sir: The dismissal of Robin Page (10 Janu- ary) from the Department of Health and Social Security for publishing his articles on 'The Welfare rackets' was a result of violat-...

Sir: May I point out two errors in your quiz (27 December)? (I) In Section 11, 10, Macaulay's hunchback dwarf was surely not Louis xtv who was neither hunchback nor a dwarf,...

Sir: I would be grateful for the courtesy of your columns to inform your readers that the Wyndham Lewis Special Issue of Agenda, which was reviewed in your pages on 10 January,...

Sir: I read with amusement in J. W. M. Thompson's 'Memo to Mintech' (`Spec- tator's Notebook', 3 January) of the perverse meter outside a Kensington resident's home. I recall a...

Sir: Permit me to say that I did not like George Gale's piece, 'The devil wore a crucifix' (3 January). Selfishness is no sure remedy for witch-hunting and persecution; the...

which, along with most, if not all. of the rest of Europe, have been enduring the miseries of British Standard Time, un- complainingly for years, when according to J. W. M....

Sir: Why do young men of revolutionary appearance place their feet on the seats of underground carriages? I have often noticed this. Are they deviously kicking the pants of the...

Out of step BRUCE LOCKHART L. Bruce Lockhart is the headmaster of Gresham's School, Holt. The middle-aged schoolmaster's heart sinks into his boots as the pressure for...

No. 588: Holiday spirit A recent letter in the Times correspondence columns pointed out that only Scotland and Iraq have fewer public holidays than we in England (with six)...

PHILIDOR A. Benedek (Hon. Men., BCF Tourney 119). White to play and mate in two moves; solution next week. Solution to No. 473 (Promislo 3R2bN/SpPB/...

Across 1 Mrs Beeton's home-town? (8) 5 Women warriors coming back with a revolu- tionary had a good look (5) 9 Highland festival top quality but tardy; adjust that (8) 10 Less...