S IGNOR MUSSOLINI must have found it difficult to decide whether to attend the Nyon Conference or not, and there is little doubt that from his own point of view he decided...

at Shanghai have retired a few miles to strong prepared positions, though their right wing still rests on the International Settlement, which thus remains in perpetual danger....

of importance in Spain in the past week. Gijon, the last port on the north coast remaining in Government hands, is still holding out, but its fall cannot be long delayed. When...

in approving the demand of the Ceylon Government for an increase of the quota of foreign cotton goods import into the island raises delicate questions, as the Manchester...

in Canada by Mr. Te Water, the High Commissioner of South Africa in London, was surely a prime example of how things ought not to be done. Mr. Te Water may in the first instance...

to be adopted for the immediate future in Palestine seems to have been settled at Tuesday's meeting of the League of Nations Council, before which Mr. Eden laid the British...

joint session of the Council of State and the Legislative Assembly struck a good note, and has been well received by Indian opinion generally. The Congress party stayed away...

ebullience, but no explosions. General Goering expatiated on the virtues of the Four Year Plan, which Dr. Schacht, the Minister for Economic Affairs, views with such misgiving...

Hesketh Bell in the campaign which he has waged for many years with varying success against the keeping of captive orang-utans in zoos and elsewhere. It seems well established...

visiting Soviet Russia, not for the first time ; and his impressions, given after his return in the Manchester Guardian, cover many points of interest. One, on which he insisted...

Edwards, of Chile) in the League of Nations Assembly's general discussion on Tuesday, was devoted to the reform of the League itself, and contained one very salutary and one...

cost Li ti millions in the coming year, has no doubt been influenced to some extent by discussions at the Imperial Conference. Its expansions are mainly naval and aerial ; on...

duties of £1,176,130, or roughly 5o per cent., have been paid, denounced in his will the policy of high taxation generally, and that of high death duties in particular. On the...

T HE Nyon Conference on the suppression • of piracy , in the Mediterranean has been brief, harmonious . and effective. Germany and Italy declined to attend,. not, it seems...

N O one who reflects on the changed surroundings of life in this country, and still less anyone who considers Europe, can escape the conclusion that the " vigilance " which is...

in this country—he was a very considerable figure indeed —to identify himself with the Oxford Group, and Dr. Buchman and his followers are justified in making the most of it....

to reach this country contains a leading article (by Mr. Gandhi himself) which opens with a significant sentence : " I have been receiving several letters from different...

COMMUNICATION FROM THE SECRET POLICE Coblenz, June 21st, 1937. To Assistant Preacher Herrn Ernst Loh, Horchheim bei Koblenz, Friedrichstrasse 15. " A fine of 5o R.M., or...

on ex-President Masaryk by a writer perhaps better qualified than any other in this country to appraise him. Little, obviously, remains for me, who met Dr. Masaryk only once, to...

Your Moat, gives us some good straight talk about things in general and politicians in particular. He has nothing but benevolent contempt for " kind - hearted old people sitting...

" Sausages are the traditional Anglican Sunday breakfast." —The Church Times. ANUS

By D. R. GILLIE Nothing is more important, in days when Democracy throughout Europe seems to be fighting for its life, than to know what its prospects are in the countries...

By PROFESSOR GUGLIELMO FERRERO T HE great rearmament programme which Great Britain has been carrying out for a year and more is generally regarded as an important guarantee of...

For 36 hours we have been living in an atmosphere of rumour and excitement, waiting for the 1,000 refugees (British subjects) whom we are to convey to Hong-kong. We anchored in...

By SIR EVELYN WRENCH In the train from Tokyo-Kyoto, August 21st. "W HY are you Japanese invading China and making war against her ? " I asked a Japanese friend in Tokyo. "...

By LEO HUBERMAN E IGHTY million dollars a year is a lot of money. And yet the American industrialists who pay this annual bill to the spy agencies can never be certain that...

Hong-kong, August 26th. Yesterday a thousand British subjects were brought to our ship by British destroyers. During the 14 mile journey from Shanghai the refugees were made to...

will not be long before the Japanese capture the city. No one can foretell what the subsequent chapters in the drama now unfolding will be. There is said to be growing...

By JULIAN MOCKFORD C ONSIDERlNG',-.its brief association with man, the dodo has done very well for itself in art and history ; and recent references to it in The Spectator must...

By JAN STRUTHER E VERY Friday evening I wind on to a mental bobbin the seventy miles of road from London to the sea : and every Monday morning I unwind it again, leaving it...

By E. L. WOODWARD T HE sight of waterfalls, gorges, and torrents moved our ancestors far more deeply than it moves us. Indeed, our generation tends to bundle falling water into...

EX-PRESIDENT MASARYK By DR. R. W. SETON-WATSON THOMAS MASARYK was an altogether unique figure in the history of our times—the living proof that there still are nations which...

" The Edge of the World." At the New Gallery The Edge of the World is likely to be the best film of the ; it is also something of a portent, for it is about real people in real...

THE THEATRE " Bonnet Over The Windmill." Ey Dottie Smith. At the NeW Tins is what occurs in Miss Dodie Smith's new play. In the upper portion of a house in Camden Town live...

Art and the Public Schools - IN viewing the exhibition of Public Schools Art which is now being held at the Imperial Institute, it is of importance, before passing judgement, to...

dem Sprichwort " In der Kiirze liegt die Warze." Manchmal ist es schwer, die verschiedenen SA, SS, NSDAP, KDF, HJ, BDM, and ahnliches sowohl zu identifi7ieren als auch...

their bodies are not uncommon on the road—more than once in a blue moon— however seldom that may be ; but it is a very common animal indeed. In some districts it abounds. I know...

announced by a distin- guished research committee which has been searching for the distributing agency of foot-and-mouth disease. The hedgehog is the alleged enemy. I should...

On a farm in Berkshire, very familiar to me, an agricultural labourer was asked whether he remembered the date when a certain field was last sown with Sainfoin. Labourer; always...

Bismarck and his tits, our. Prime Minister has been trying to attract tits to the old Downing Street garden. He tells the tale of the tragedy of the unhatched eggs in the latest...

English Autumns More often in September than in any month of the year we feel that England is endowed with the perfect climate. The characteristic September day is of spring...

went to the police the other day and entreated them to stop the weekly decanting of litter on a beautiful common. It is situate about twenty-five miles North of London, a...

(Correspondents are requested to keep their letters as brief as is reasonably possible. The most =tab's length is that of one of our " News of the Week " paragraphs. Signed...

D. Jones, in asking " What do Welsh Nationalists want ? " proceeds to answer the question from some ideas of his own which misrepresent the party's plans and the views of other...

defence of Welsh nationalism in your last week's issue was finely reasoned. From the remoteness of his study he seems to have elaborated, with wonderful historical moderation, a...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Permit me to say that your leader last week misunder- stands the case of the " Lansbury pacifists " when it states that their hope of...

September roth Mr. J. B. Jones writes that : " Dante, politician as well as poet, visualised more passionately than any other ideal, philosophical or religious, that of a...

Sfit,—Since " A Solicitor " wrote that excellent book English Justice, public trouncing of lay magistrates has flagged. As my experience of them increases I feel more strongly...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—In his letter published by you on September loth Mr. J. B. Jones refers to " The Austro-German catastrophic defeat at Vittorio Veneto by...

Bryce's Holy Roman Empire is relevant to Mr. J. B. Jones's attempted equation of Mussolini's ideals with the very different ideals of Dante, which Mr. Griffith has admirably...

SIR,—As one of His Majesty's Inspectors of Schools, recently retired after some thirty years' service on the Secondary Schools Board, I should like to endorse Mr. G. F. Bridge's...

SIR,—A protest is called for in the face of the unwarrantable imputations of a perversion of facts brought by Mr. G. F. Bridge against Mr. H. G. Wells in regard to the outspoken...

Sm,—Your appreciative review of Mr. Gollan's book in your issue of Septeinber 3rd suggests that particulars of an experi- ment carried out by Cable and Wireless, Limited, in...

SIR, —The Presidential Address on "'The Informative Content of Education " made by Mr. H. G. Wells to the British Associa- tion, was a brilliant feat of outspokenness. And how-...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—It was with great interest that I read Mr. Basil Wright's article on Soviet Drama in your last issue, especially the section dealing with...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] Sia,—In your issue of September ioth, our book Chinese Fairy Tales and Folk Tales was reviewed by William Plomer. The whole of the first...

I HATE to watch them reaping the Five Acre, The field at the hill's foot, steeply sloping. One sees the pattern too clearly, with a God's-eye view : Sees how Time, with...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Those of us who find The Spectator the only readable weekly must regret that " A Spectator's Notebook " should be in the hands of a...

[To the Editor . of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—In your comments on the address of Professor Crew to the British Association you quote his conclusion that to be born is a more...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—The problem of Army recruiting today is a very difficult subject, and the writer has read with much interest the troubles the British are...

The Village Carpenter (Adrian Bell) ... The Art of the Admiral (Admiral Sir Herbert Richmond) A False Utopia (W. T. Wells) . . . . The Press and World Affairi (S. K....

THE substance of Mr. Chamberlin's new book is an indictment of dictatorship and collectivism, based on moral, intellectual and economic grounds, and a vindication of liberal...

By Commander Russell Grenfell, R.N. (Faber and Faber. 12s. 6d.) CoMMAND1311 GRENFELL entitles his book on naval strategy The Art of the Admiral, but though he writes of the...

The Press and World Affairs. By Robert W. Desmond. (Appleton-Century. 16s.) DR. DESMOND has done a notable piece of pioneer work in the history of journalism, by surveying the...

Memoirs. Volume I. 1869-1924. By the Rt. Hon. J. R. Clynes, P.C., M.P., D.C.L. (Hutchinson. 12S. 6d.) Mx. GLYNES should have a stimulating story to tell. We are never allowed to...

Conrad's Prefaces to His Works. With an Essay by Edward Oarnett. (Dent. 75. 6d.) Tips book is as much .a memorial to Edward Garnett as to Conrad : a memorial to the greatest of...

The Tranquil - Heart : Portrait of Giovanni Boccaccio. By Catherine Carswell. (Lawrence and Wishart. 12$. 6d.) No writer before Boccaccio, we are told, " dreamed of writing...

FOR the climber, there is a rich, humorous satisfaction in turning up old drawings and engravings of peaks and passes he has climbed. The Grivola in King's Italian Valleys, or...

EMINENT critics have often declared that since it is virtually impossible to be bilingual we should read translations rather than foreign originals. Certainly few of our...

The English Country Gentleman. A Study of Nineteenth- Century Types. By Chester Kirby. (James Clarke. 6s.) THIS is an excellent and entertaining little book. It consists of an...

of the .historical influence of Palestine. It is curious, for he greatly resembles a Christian. His obsession with a future life and with the universe, his emphasis on the need...

By FORREST REID Sandwichtnan. By - Walter Brierley. (Methuen: 7s. 6d.) The Young Desire It is a first novel of quite exceptional interest and originality. The book falls into...

INDI A Tan Great War has changed more than the face of Europe : it has changed the very habits of the people, both at home and abroad, and in India the change is particularly...

an absence of twelve years, it is impossihle not to be struck by an interest in South Africa of an entirely new kind. This fresh interest has perhaps much to do with the...

Fiat justitia, ruat caelum has never been a dictum whose use I would advise in considering capital reconstruction schemes. I opposed the Plan Bros. scheme, now happily defunct,...

Is there something wrong with trade, and, if not, what is wrong with the stock markets ? This question, directed by an indus- trialist to a stockbroker of my acquaintance this...

With a President unfriendly to the stock markets still in the saddle at Washington the American investor—and speculator— may perhaps be forgiven for some slight uneasiness...

My chief quarrel with the Paterson, Laing & Bruce directors is that they have presented the scheme, within a month of the usual date of publication of the annual accounts,...

It is symptomatic of the state of markets that the first reaction to the announcement of a ro per cent. final dividend by the Indian Iron and Steel Company has been a fall in...

D. Y. R. (Invemess-shire).—Would retain your part interest in the Nanking Railway bonds and also the holding in Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation. Further fluctuations...

INVESTING IN THE DOMINIONS— AUSTRALIA Ir would probably not be far from the mark if it were reckoned that something over L'500,000,000 is at the present time invested in...

POLITICAL MARKETS. IN addition to the disturbing influences referred to in the next paragraph, the Stock Markets during the past week have been dominated by international...

I am glad to see that the Trust of Insurance Shares has issued a new and enlarged edition of its Bank and Insurance Shares Year Book. This is the second year of publication, and...

The heavy fall in American securities has been almost as potent a factor in the Stock Markets in the past week as have been the political influences. Opinions upon the...

Though the economic conditions in Japan must be strained, and especially the finances of the Government, by war expenditure, it is not surprising to find that banking profits...

This examination, which occupies a number of pages of the Year Book, traces the return obtained by an investor on an investment of L2,800 spread equally over 28 representative...

BY ZENO [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...

SI TI RI AILLGIHI Ti I-101 HON. 191 10 .11, , 111IDI H 1 U NITIBIA OIRIOITIU N D I CI Al BIN xINIMI I IN S TI RI Ej LIOI TICI AITI S PI AlW C I MI ; AIOIDIUIN I I PI LI Al I...