HE war is moving swiftly to its climax. That does not mean that there will be any early decision, but that the maximum of intensity in the fighting in Belgium and France is...

Surprise, overwhelming force and treachery from within on an unbelievable scale have added Holland to the lengthening list of the victims of violated neutrality. Five days...

Mr. Churchill has now completed the construction of his n.:w Ministry except for a few unimportant under-secretary- ships. Few of the changes are notable, and a good many seem...

The reaction of the American Press to the invasion of Holland and Belgium shows that President Roosevelt was speaking for the vast majority of his countrymen when he cabled to...

The German invasion of the Low Countries, so far from releasing the Balkans from their anxieties, has shown them once again the perfidy of the Nazis in their treatmein of...

Larger operations nearer home have had the effect of divert- ing attention from the struggle that is still going on in Norway. The position in the extreme north at Narvik has...

There have been no protests even from extreme American isolationists against the Allied landings in the Dutch West Indian islands of Curacao and Aruba, and there is no...

Italy, who in April, 1938, signed an agreement with this country declaring expressly that "any attempt by either of them to employ the methods of publicity and propaganda at its...

Two messages to The Times from India once more rev %e the hope, which has so often been disappointed, that a sn - all gathering of representative men may get together to discuss...

Commons. When Mr. Lloyd George became Prime Minister in the last War, Mr. Asquith was at once recognised as Leader of the Opposition. Indeed, this position was specifically...

politics, will ever agree about the precise composition of a Ministry. Mr. Churchill's list has contained a fair number of surprises. On the whole he seems to have decided on a...

column. It was there stated that Commander Bower had been "scarcely cheered" by his colleagues in uniform. This sentence should have read "fiercely cheered."

The enemy is versatile in his use and exploitation of ruses de guerre. The employment of parachute troops has owed most of its success to the element of surprise, causing...

Our Parliamentary Correspondent writes: Mr. Chamberlain himself has set a fine example of sacrifice and restraint. Unfortunately the same cannot be said of some of his followers...

In view of the treachery from within which has played so sinister a part in all of the German invasions the safety of the country demands that no half-measures should be taken...

T HIS country is bracing itself to meet new perils under new leadership. The imminence of the peril and the change of Government are not unconnected. There seems every reason to...

HE part played by the Labour Party during the last ten days is likely to prove a decisive turning point in its history. At one stroke it appears to have released itself from all...

export from this country of the Communist Daily Worker and the Fascist Action should be prohibited, I am naturally very glad to see that Sir John Reith (what, by the way, is to...

Monday that "the British Expeditionary Force continues its successful advance through Belgium" were a testimony neither to the B.B.C.'s objectivity nor to its good sense. There...

are said to have been disguised as clergymen. This is the church militant in a new guise, particularly if these clerks in holy orders are furnished with the usual sub-machine...

Whitehall —or what may still be called for convenience Whitehall, even though it includes both Bloomsbury and Berkeley Square. The Ministry of Information finds its activities...

full into its own. Every page of the story of the Frisian Islands, behind whose sandbanks Germany was planning the construction of the fleet of shallow boats for the invasion of...

T HE late Prime Minister's resignation broadcast will rank very high in radio history. The impression Mr. Chamber- lain made was all the deeper because he was obviously not...

demand increasing attention. We have seen what internal Nazi intrigue means in countries like Norway and Holland. There are few sympathisers with Hitkrism in Eire, but there is...

FROM OUR CORRESPONDENTS Reykjavik, May 12th. British warships arrived at Reykjavik on Friday in a snow- storm. The streets were crowded with spectators, but there was no...

By STRATEGICUS 0 much has happened since we were engaged in investigat- ing the failure to take Trondheim that the episode almost arears to belong to the last war ; and we must...

By OUR PARLIAMENTARY CORRESPONDENT p ALACE Revolutions in this country take place in the 1 Palace of Westminster. They happen suddenly and with- out much planning ahead. No one...

By ELIZABETH WISKEMANN I F there were any doubts left in Switzerland about the nature of Nazi Germany and the challenge it flings at all civilised standards of value, the...

By AN AIR CORRESPONDENT A T last, it seems, the war in the air has really begun. The strange inhibitions which have checked the exuberance of the respective air-arms are being...

By J. M. SPAIGHT N OT enough attention has been paid to one aspect of the Norwegian side-show, and it is worth considering, for it is not without its importance. It is...

asked to notify THE SPECTATOR office BEFORE MIDDAY on MONDAY OP EACH WEEK. The name, the previous address to which the paper has been sent and receipt reference number should be...

By MARTIN LINDSAY "C OLONEL SNODGRASS asked me to say that he will not be able to leave the War Office tonight." As I heard these words I remembered that ten years ago I used...

would have joined in a reverent and respectful requiem in honour of a man who has borne great sorrows, made tre- mendous mistakes, but carried himself throughout with high moral...

this most remarkable man. Is it his abundant energy, his Flinbethan zest of life, his almost fifteenth-century virtil? Is it his versatility and the rapid variety of his many...

one or two occasions when he has visited the smoking-room a hush of awkward awe has descended upon that gay tap-room as when the headmaster, with unconvincing conviviality,...

of feeling. There is a certain naiveté about Mr. Churchill as about all truly great men. He sat there, hunched like a surly bulldog, with Mr. Attlee peeping out behind his left...

my bitterness I read some of the speeches which Winston Churchill has delivered since 1932. Again and again did he warn us that Germany was aiming at the mastery of the air, and...

one thought which recurred in a spasm of unutterable regret. Since even if he were able to summon around him the whole choir of angels and archangels, he could not at once...

By HAROLD NICOLSON 0 NE of the strangest incidents in Monday's memorable debate in the House of Commons was the reception accorded to Mr. Neville Chamberlain. Mr. Churchill, on...

so many of his followers is something which ought to be analysed and examined by those who are interested in the condition and future of the Conservative Party. It is not the...

.4 The Postman Always Rings Twice." At the Embassy. " FRANIC, disgusted with himself for failing Cora, leaves her and meets Madge, a voluptuous lion-tamer. They have an affair,...

MUSIC Tehaikovsky's Centenary IT is amusing and instructive to look back upon the vicissitudes through which Tchaikovslcy's reputation has passed during the last thirty years....

[In view of the 'japer shortage it is essential that letters on these pages should be brlet. We are anxious not to reduce the number of letters, but unless they are shorter they...

Sut,—The most important thing about the sea is the cargoes in the ships on its surface. Sea Power is the power to control the destination of cargoes. Sea Power is eventually...

required. I write with forty years' experience as tenant of a big farm and as a descendant of generations of farmers and small landowners. Mr. Radcliffe disparages the claim...

obtaining a copy of Th. Spectator for May 3rd, I have been unable to see the letters of Mr. Crofts and of Non-Catholic Parent until today. May I offer some remarks to my...

respect Miss Rebecca West's opinions, I should like, if I may, to break a,lance on behalf of those who are temperamentally incapable of appreciating Mr. T. H. White's new...

Sri,—Your recent competition offering a prize for the best verse or prose in praise of dentists has just been brought to my notice. That dentists have not been "honoured in...

Parliament the week before last Sir John Simon is reported as having said that "if every farthing of income were taken from all the people in this country who had incomes in...

a Victorian, I am often perplexed by the mentality of the present generation. That is an old recur- ring story, and I hope I am duly humble. I was much pleased, however, to be...

more or less coincides with those three saint days (particularly dreaded in Austria and the Balkans) which are celebrated on the roth, 11th and rzth of May. The apple-blossom is...

Snt,—I was much interested in the letter on collection and sale of waste paper which appeared over the signature A. C. M. in the issue of March 29th. It may amuse the writer to...

StR,—Allow me to voice a protest against the nauseous vulgarity of those who call themselves " Janeites." I am a devoted and lifelong admirer of Miss Austen's novels ; but I...

in war- time. Young nettles, the tips of bracken fronds and lawn grass are three of the things we are told to value. The first two make good vegetables for ourselves, the last...

We have all been enjoying our daffodils. They pass too quickly ; but if in any naturalisation scheme the wild daffodil and the double daffodil (found wild in a few places), are...

A Galloping Season This May Whitsuntide comes at the most gorgeous moment of the year. Spring has galloped into summer. The ash (and acacia) is hurrying to catch up the oak, and...

essential vegetable the potato has been carried through by some distinguished chemists and biologists. If these discoveries were appreciated by our administrators we might...

SIR,—I agree with Mr. W. H. Stafford in his statement that the Skagerrak and Kattegat beer advertisement looks much the same as its predecessors in the "Beer is Best" series....

Ten Lean Years. By Wal Hannington. (Gollancz. 7s. 6d.) MR. HANNINGTON'S latest book is calculated to put the reader in a bad temper ; and as the rousing of indignation is...

"My Dear Old Blind Woman" The Yale Edition of Horace Walpole's Correspondence. The Walpole-Du Deffand Correspondence. Edited by W. S. Lewis and Warren H. Smith. Six Volumes....

Return Ticket. By George Vandon. (Heinemann. 78. 6d.) lr would be possible to disapprove of this book, of its author, and of the civilisation which he represents. Here is a man...

The Greater English Church. By Harry Batsford and Charles Fry. (Batsford. 7s. 6d.) WALKING in by the west door of Chichester Cathedral today, one's first impression is of grey...

George Villiers, First Duke of Buckingham. By Hugh Ross Williamson. (Duckworth. 15S.) WHEN Queen Elizabeth died the English Crown enjoyed a higher prestige than at any earlier...

No one who has read any of the volumes of Dr. Mure Mac- kenzie's full-length history of Scotland will be surprised at the general bias and flavour of this shorter version. She...

Glasgow Keelie. By John McNeillie. (Putnam. Bs. 6d.) Mine Inheritance. By Frederick Niven. (Collins. gs.) I WONDER for how many years we are doomed to a spate of bright...

Folios of New Writing, Spring, 1940. Edited by John Lehmann. (Hogarth Press. 75. 6d.) MOST manfully, Mr. John Lehmann continues at the wheel of his official 'bus, though he must...

University Press. I25. 6d.) "DER geniale Boz," or "Mr. Digguns " as a German hotel porter ardently addressed him in New York, had a long record of popu- larity in Germany ; it...

and Kennedy. 15s. 6d.) INnusTatAL firms of long standing that publish accounts of their origin and development are to be encouraged, for such books are among the raw materials...

act as a freely moving indicator and guide to the distribution of economic resources between different uses is of comparatively recent growth, a matter of the last two centuries...

Maigret Abroad. By Georges Simenon. Translated from the French by Geoffrey Sainsbury. (Routledge. 8s.) ANTICIPATING Herr Hitler, Inspector Maigret has invaded Holland and...

6d.) ANYONE who has climbed in the Maurienne knows the Blanes of Bonneval and the Cheminee Meade on the Pic Regaud, and any. one interested in Himalayan climbing knows...

University Press. 38s.) Tins monumental study contains all the available data, either directly or in the form of references, which could be desired by the most conscientious...

zs. 6d.) This little volume is a model of what a Discussion Book should be. The author sketches out the facts, indicates differences of opinion about them, runs over a...

PRIZES of book tokens for £2 2S. and £r Is. are offered for the best passage of prose or verse, of not more than 350 words, on the subject of Solitary Meals. RULES.—Envelopes...

invited readers temporarily t exchange the task of solving our crossword puzzle for that 0 devising crossword clues for a number of given words. Th sequel to this rash...

By CUSTOS UNDER the impact of the Nazi blitzkrieg stock markets have inevitably been forced back on the defensive. In most sectiens a fairly rapid retreat is in progress, but...

ALLIANCE ASSURANCE GRATIFYING RESULTS NEW PROBLEMS MR. LIONEL DE ROTHSCHILD'S SPEECH THE annual general court of the Alliance Assurance Company, Limited, was held on May isth,...

NORTH BRITISH AND MERCANTILE INSURANCE COMPANY SATISFACTORY RESULTS THE 130th annual general meeting of the North British and Mercan- tile Insurance Company, Ltd., was held on...

LONDON AND MANCHESTER ASSURANCE COMPANY THE seventy-first ordinary general meeting of the London and Manchester Assurance Company, Limited, was held on May 15th at the Chief...

PATALING RUBBER ESTATES DIVIDEND OF 12 PER CENT. MR. H. ERIC MILLER'S ADDRESS THE twentieth ordinary general meeting of the Pataling Rubber Estates, Limited, was held on...

REPLANTING RESUMED THE CHAIRMAN'S ADDRESS THE thirtieth ordinary general meeting of the Bikam Rubber Estate, Limited, was held on Friday, May roth, at 19 Fenchurch Street,...

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

The winner of Crossword No. 62 is Mr. W. H. Julian, 8 Trelawney Road, St. Austell, Cornwall.