17 NOVEMBER 1950

Page 1

Peking Gains Time

The Spectator

Speculation goes on about the intentions of the 60,000 or more Chinese troops in Korea and about the line the Chinese Central Government Delegation will take when it eventually...

Russia's Conference Proposal

The Spectator

Mr. Bevin and M. Schuman have now expressed themselves, as Mr. Dean Acheson had already done, on the Soviet Note of Novem- ber 3rd, proposing the convention of a Four-Power...

CO-OPERATION• IN EUROPE

The Spectator

I T was unfortunate that the speech of the Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs in opening the debate on the Council of Europe on Monday should have been so largely negative, but...

Page 2

The Attack on Tibet In the absence of all authoritative

The Spectator

news the situation in Tibet can -only be surmised. Earlier reports of Chinese progress, emanating mainly from the Peking radio, were clearly greatly exaggerated. News reaching...

Sunday Amusements

The Spectator

The decision to leave the question of the Sunday opening of the amusement section of the Festival of Britain to a free vote of the House of Commons is sound, -and a very...

After Marshall'

The Spectator

The Marshall Plan was not made in a day, and it is most unlikely that any American economic policy to succeed it will come into existence without a great deal-of discussion. The...

Nepal and India

The Spectator

The ' situation in Nepal is obscure and unhopeful. The deposed King after seeking asylum in the Indian Embassy at Khatmandu, arrived last week in Delhi, where he was received by...

The Government and the " Peace Congress

The Spectator

Neither his personal prestige, which is considerable, nor his powers of persuasion, which are not small, enabled the Home Secre- tary on Tuesday to make any convincing defence...

Page 3

Looking at the Abbey

The Spectator

The discussion initiated by Lord Halifax on the future of the old Westminster Hospital site raises once more the eternal and usually insoluble problem of the relation between...

Sound Sense About Timber

The Spectator

In its seventh report the House of Commons Select Committee on Estimates suggests that the restoration of private buying of timber will be worth trying, even if it involves an...

AT WESTMINSTER

The Spectator

R. BEVIN and Mr. Chuter Ede have played the " lead " on alternate nights. Mr. Bevin was in his familiar role of the realistic well-wisher of European union (functional brand and...

Page 4

THE COAL PLAN

The Spectator

I F the British economy is to be a planned economy and if the British system of government is to be truly democratic then it follows inevitably that good citizens should...

Page 5

Is there to be any freedom left in this regulated

The Spectator

country ? N. it, it is clear, where Socialists in alliance with trade unionists—most of them, no doubt, are trade unionists themselves—are in command of local Councils....

Americans think our habit of calling groundnuts groundnuts leads to

The Spectator

a lot of confusion—this kind of confusion, for example, from a Government order: " In the nuts (unground) (other than groundnuts) order, the expression `nuts' shall have...

What (a) is a Christian Arts Festival ?, and (b)

The Spectator

What is the point of it ? For answer go to Reading any day from next Wednesday onwards. Reading possesses a Christian Council including all denominations from Roman Catholics to...

A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK

The Spectator

W HILE the month is yet November it may be considered still relevant to refer to the prayer which once graced the Book of Common Prayer entitled: " A form of prayer with...

" Referring to the cruelty allegations, the judge said there

The Spectator

was an incident when Mrs. H. was preparing supper in the kitchen. The husband made the ill-timed suggestion that he was prepared to read Chaucer to her." Daily Express. Only...

In the matter of Professor Ponteoorvo and others—heard is the

The Spectator

9.25 up. " You know, it's all William the Conqueror's fault—bringing over all those foreigners and Protestants." Quite true, no doubt ; there is always a cause behind a...

The Archbishop of York's comments on the deplorable effect of

The Spectator

the newsprint shortage will be duly marked in the right quarters. But I hope also that His Grace measured the number of square inches of good news-space occupied by photographs...

Arriving at Paddington a few days ago by a train

The Spectator

which got in at 7.5 p.m. I walked the not inconsiderable distance from the far arrival platform to the dining-room a long way down on No. 1 departure platform, with the idea of...

Page 6

A West German Army ?

The Spectator

By MARK ARNOLD-FORSTER Berlin, November 12th T HE only conclusion that can yet be drawn from the , unfinished controversy about German rearmament is that the Russians and the...

Page 7

The Care of the Old

The Spectator

By ANGUS MAUDE, M.P. T HE problem of the support and care of old people is becoming every year more serious ; its seriousness, however, is at present apparent only to those...

Page 8

Our Secret Police

The Spectator

By R. H. CECIL I - F there were no such institutions as M.I.5 and the Special Branch o t o f p r ete n dt h e M e t t r h o a p ot th e re ta e r n e w Police T i t h w e y o...

Page 9

Lew Douglas

The Spectator

By SIR ARTHUR SALTER IF EW Ambassadors have left this country amid such general and sincere expressions of regret and admiration as Mr. Lewis Douglas, and no Ambassador's wife...

Page 10

SPECTATOR CHRISTMAS NUMBER

The Spectator

Next week's Spectator will be a special double Christmas Number of 76 pages, over twenty of which will be devoted to new books

The Candida Secret

The Spectator

By GEORGE A. RIDING N O play of Shaw's has had 'a greater vogue, on stages both amateur and professional, than Candida. No one who has read it has failed to wonder, as the...

Page 11

UNDERGRADUATE PAGE

The Spectator

A Venetian Chore I eyes piercing mine, " a job that will call for special qualities of body and brain. You're a good sailor ? Right. I've chosen you to do this because I feel...

Contributions to the Undergraduate Page, which may be sub- mitted

The Spectator

by undergraduates from any university or university college in Britain. should be as nearly as possible 1,400 words in length. There are no restrictions as to subject-matter,...

Page 12

MARGINAL COMMENT By HAROLD NICOLSON S OME weeks ago upon this

The Spectator

page I wrote my triennial, or it may be biennial, denunciation of English caterers and cooks. My thesis was that our cooks are lazy because we do not notice what we eat ; that...

Page 13

MUSIC

The Spectator

A NEW symphony by Alan Rawsthorne was played by the B.B.C. Symphony Orchestra, under Sir Adrian Boult, at the Albert Hall on November 15th. This is the composer's largest work,...

CONTEMPORARY ARTS

The Spectator

THEATRE “music at Midnight." A Play with Music. By Guy Bolton. (1-hs Majesty's.) " ARTLESS " is perhaps the least churlish of the epithets which can be applied to this...

CINEMA

The Spectator

As a weapon with which to defend the peace of nations, The Men is bitter sharp. It deals exclusively with half-paralysed war veterans and the hospital in which they struggle, or...

Page 14

ART

The Spectator

IT has more than once been suggested that the gallery-going public in this country are so slothful or so timid that until an exhibition has been made respectable by mention in...

RECENT RECORDS

The Spectator

JENNIE TOUREL sings Duparc and Faure with beautiful finish, and Hans Hotter has made an endearing recording of Schubert's In Friihling—all for Columbia. Disappointments were...

“Zbe spectator," gobemba 16th, 1850

The Spectator

PASSPORT ANNOYANCES THE Premier, in enumerating at the Lord Mayor's banquet the municipal superiorities foreign visitors to the Exhibition would find, might have= included in...

Page 16

The Ethics of Gambling

The Spectator

SIR,—I am surprised at the Spectator's rather grudging attitude to the report of the Social and Industrial Commission of the- Church Assembly on the ethics of. betting and...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

The Spectator

Smuts and Shaw 'Sis,--I9 his article on Shaw Mr. St. John Ervine writes: "Lady Chatterley's Lover, if he had read it, would have horrified him." I don't know positively that...

Far Eastern Policy

The Spectator

Sta,—May I suggest consideration of the reverse side of the "sombre facts " mentioned in your leading article of November 10th ?- The reverse side displays, first,...

Insurance and the Private Patient

The Spectator

Sin,—The article entitled The Private Patient which appeared in a recent issue of the Spectator is most timely. Disillusionment with the hospital benefits provided under the...

Page 17

Delegates to U.N.

The Spectator

Sts,—Janus attempts to counter my criticism of the absence of M.P.s by pointing out that they have wider responsibilities than are involved in merely representing the...

Justice for Teachers ?

The Spectator

SIR,—Teachers will welcome F.C.I.I.'s letter under this heading. They will, I am sure, endorse the claim of those engaged in insurance to a similar salary scale ; but they...

Party Manners SIR,—Your reviewer of Party Manners must have a

The Spectator

very short memory when he can write that " It was indeed as tasteless as it was implausible to suggest, as Mr. Gielgud does, that a Socialist Minister might be capable of...

The Other 64 Graphic " Sia,—I am sorry to see

The Spectator

that Janus made one of his rare mistakes last week. We have had only three editors on the Daily Graphic in the past seven years—Mr. Roland Thornton, Mr. Norman Hamilton and...

A Private Members' Victory

The Spectator

Sia,—May I correct a mistake in the paragraph entitled "A Private Members' Victory" in your issue of November - 10th, 1950 ? You welcome the Government defeat on November...

Page 18

Hops in — Kent In the Kentish hop-gardens, however, the burning of

The Spectator

the vine-sterns is a legitimate procedure, for it is done on such a scale that considerable amounts of potash are left, to scatter round the " hills," as the root- mound of the...

Postage on this issue: Inland and Overseas lid. ; Canada

The Spectator

(Canadian Magazine Post) Id ;- adian

In the Garden

The Spectator

As I write this I break `off from time to time to observe a yaffle (green woodpecker), who for the past hour has been putting in some heavy mechanical drill work on the lawn...

COUNTRY LIFE

The Spectator

IN all parts of the country where there are gardens the raking up of fallen leaves from lawns and paths is now in process. Who _does not know that happy-melancholy task,...

Page 19

THE SPECTATOR

The Spectator

readers are urged to place a firm order with their newsa g ent or to take out a subscription. Newsa g ents cannot afford to take the risk of carryin g stock, as unsold copies...

Coleridge expressed his joy on, departing from Cologne in a

The Spectator

poem of seven lines : As 1 am a Rhymer And now at least a merry one, Mr. Mum's Rudesheimer And the church itf St. Geryon Are the two things alone That deserve to be known in the...

A prize of f5 was offered for a poem (of

The Spectator

not more than eight liner) to go in a visitors' book which makes the best of things on the lines of a comment heard recently: " Its such a pleasure to dry good glass." Perhaps I...

Page 20

BOOKS AND WRITERS

The Spectator

T HE extraordinary poetic reputation of Ezra Pound, that has caused him to be placed on a level sometimes higher than that of W. B. Yeats or T. S. Eliot, has not yet been...

Page 22

Larger than Life

The Spectator

Alexandre Dumas: A Biography and Study. By A. Craig Bell, (Cassell. 3os.) THE phenomenal life of Alexandre Dumas requires a biographer of comparable appetite, industry and...

Reviews of the Week

The Spectator

Bolsheviks at_Work The Bolshevik Revolution: 1917-1923. VoL i. By E. H. Carr. (Macmillan. 2 SS.) THE first volume of Mr. E. H. Carr's projected History of Soviet Russia has...

Page 24

The Foreign Service

The Spectator

Both Sides of the Curtain. By Sir Maurice Peterson. (Constable. 2 is.) THE first two hundred and ninety-nine pages of this book run :along more or less normal lines. The...

Timeless Record LYTTON STRACHEY said of Charles Greville that, having

The Spectator

once tasted the delicious fruit of the tree of political knowledge, he found he could eat nothing else. This might have been said of Mis: Arbuthnot, who deesibes Greville as "...

Page 26

Animals and Art

The Spectator

An Artist's Life. By Sir Alfred Munnings. (Museum Press. 2is.) THE old saying that animals and art have but 'the first letter in common was, I feel sure, coined by an art...

Page 28

Fiction

The Spectator

Insurrection. By Liam O'Flaherty. (Gollancz. 95. 6d.) AFTER an interval of ten years another novel from Mr. Ralph Bates, and very welcome it is.. Childhood in a Wiltshire...

Waters of Silence. By Thomas Merton. (Hollis and Carter. ics.)

The Spectator

A CERTAIN disquieting anomaly pervades this otherwise excellent account of the Cistercian Order. Authorship directs attention to the performer and is s'ot really compatible with...

BEDDOES is a poet whose life and work have never

The Spectator

been portrayed in organic relation ; - nor does Mr. Donner in his long introduction to this Muses Library selection succeed in making good the lack. Mr. Donner is not content to...

SHORTER NOTICES

The Spectator

James Joyce's Dublin. By Patricia Hutchins. (Grey Walls Press. Ifs.) THIS is a first-clastpicture-book with a very intelligent. text. The idea of trying to recapture as much as...

Page 29

SOLUTION TO CROSSWORD No. 599

The Spectator

eli101111111150011011171 nrunno ilermern ifininnninn n n ri rg tr, urinal o n irinenn EICIIIITIN rn rimming D minimum n en FAIN10111,10 imnaren ©n annnn ei mom n kM1111111 RI...

THE "SPECTATOR " CROSSWORD No. 601 COMPANY MEETING IA Book

The Spectator

Token for one guinea will t awarded to the sender of the first .correct wha i on of this week's crossword to, ilk opened after noon on Tuesday week, 'November 28th. Envelopes...

Page 30

FINANCE AND INVESTMENT

The Spectator

By C U STOS TEM RE is nothing in the current behaviour of markets to call for any revision of the View that improvement should continue—on cautious lines. International...