RICHARD HUGHES On Joyce Cary JOHN ARLOTT Andrew Young the Poet THE SCOTTISH CONSPIRACY TRIAL Letters from Sir William Hamilton Fyfe and others

The problem of railway wages is peculiarly intractable and understanding would still have.been of considerably more value than indignation even if the principle of arbitration...

The Opposition's attempted censure of the Government for its handling of African affairs (or, more properly, its attack on Mr. Oliver Lyttelton) duly fulfilled all expectations...

The fracas which interrupted the television debate in the Commons on Tuesday night was the final touch of indignity in this dispute. There is no room for useful argument within...

Our Rome Correspondent writes: Signor Pella has failed in his attempt to call a truce to Party politics so that some necessary governing could be done in Italy. The Communists...

Post-war diplomatic practice has too often been more like a theological dispute than a matter of politics. In a controversy conducted from extreme positions, and in public, the...

The attack by the New South Wales Cabinet on the.freedom of the Press, to which attention was drawn in these columns last week, has received its first check. Mr. Justice Owen,...

There are thousands of churches in this country in need of restoration. So great is their number, and so dire is the need, that it may at first seem invidious to single out the...

T HE world is too much with us. Parliament this week has been trying to speak coherently about take-over bids, television, the uses of atomic, energy, the defence of the Suez...

A CRISIS has come upon the Atlantic Alliance, a crisis that became obvious when Mr. Dulles told the Council of NATO, and thereafter a Press conference, that the failure to...

pseudonym and if you read—as 1, alas, too seldom and too cursorily do—the other public prints, you will sooner or later find yourself musing on the whole question of these noms...

has its uses in Fleet Street. Occasionally the writer behind the nom de plume becomes (as Beachcomber has been for years) inimitable and irreplaceable; on this page somebody,...

In The Robe there comes a moment when the Emperor Caligula dispatches the hero from Italy to Palestine with the words—all the better for being delivered in an American accent —"...

T HERE is not necessarily a grain of truth in the account being circulated by a Chinese Nationalist news agency on Formosa of the military alliance which (the agency says) was...

to Sir Compton Mackenzie's article about' the Edinburgh conspiracy trial have been plentiful in the Scottish Press since it appeared in the Spectator last week; in every case...

T WO things seem almost certain : that a Four-Power Conference will take place in the near future and that German re-unification will be the central problem on the agenda of...

often said, is the art of the possible; which means that it is concerned not only with what people want to do—since without desire there can be no political action—but also, and...

By THOMAS HODGKIN G ORGEOUS umbrellas, labyrinthine palaces, royal guards in scarlet uniforms, processions, audiences, courtiers, attendants, suppliants at the gates, "'tradi-...

By JOHNARLOTT E VERY poet and every poem must, finally, speak—for himself and itself—through poetry alone.. Yet of recent years the eclipse of the so-called Georgian poets has...

SIBELIUS 's eighty-eighth birthday on De- cember 8th was celebrated by the London Symphony Orchestra which gave a concert of his music at the Festival Hall, Anthony Collins...

THE " metaphysical assurance," as it has been called, which the artist derives from group activity can often warm his talents as the Mediterranean sun warms a stranger from the...

THEATRE A Question of Fact. By Wynyard Browne. (Piccadilly).—The Orchard Walls. By MANY F. Delderfield. (St. Martin's). MANY people who saw and enjoyed Wyn- yard Browne's last...

ONE can scarcely say that, in La Belle au Bois Dormant, M. Petit has produced another new ballet, but rather that it is the same old recipe with slightly different garnishings....

(RECORDS are listed, where possible, in alphabetical order of composers. Where several composers are represented on one record, it is listed under the name of the composer of...

Houdini. (Plaza.)—The Jazz Singer. (Warner.)—Our Girl Friday. (Leicester Square.) CHRISTMAS is one of the two major silly seasons in the cinema and this week's ration has...

the public on five days of the conspiracy trial. I welcome Sir Compton Mackenzie's article; it admirably expresses the anxiety of many of those who followed the proceedings most...

SIR,—May I comment on the letter from " A Settler " 7 1 have just spent a year in Kenya, mostly in Kiambu District, the part of the Kikuyu Reserve nearest to Nairobi. It is...

the question whether altruism is a virtue or merely a quality. I am, however, in common with all mountaineers and explorers, grateful to him for his tribute to the bearing of...

the " Sidelight " article by Comp- ton Mackenzie in your issue of 11th December has horrified me as it must have shocked the great majority of loyal Scotsmen. Sir Compton, whom...

SCOTTISH CONSPIRACY Stn,—Sir Compton Mackenzie's eloquent article on the Scottish conspiracy trial suc- ceeded in stirring my indignation against the Edinburgh police, though...

the comments by Sir Compton Mackenzie on the recent trial of the four young men charged with conspiring to overthrow the constitution. 1 found myself in sympathy with much of...

SIR,—In reference to the interesting article, " Five Types of Science Fiction," may we point out that John W. Campbell, Jnr., is editor of Astounding Science Fiction, and the...

SIR, —The letter from G. W. Riddell in your Issue of 11th December is a very timely protest against the difficulties encountered when .an ordinary citizen of this country wishes...

a Professor either, as Strix thinks), but I rejoice to concur with the Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge in his observations. Strix is monocular; and he does assume that Shake-...

Could you get him to do one on the mystery of train—or is it engine—spotting ?- Yours faithfully, S. L. CAIGER Ostnaston Vicarage, Ashbourne, Derbys.

his courteous letter,' and to assure him that the allegations of corruption and extortion in my previous letter referred to the Kikuyu Home Guard and the Askaris, and certainly...

SIR,—Sir Compton Mackenzie's " Sidelight " published in your issue of 27th November made welcome and valuable reading. There is, however, one passage which calls for comment, as...

England of a rarely gifted sculptor at a, time when his talents were meeting with deserved recognition. This century has so far produced few sculptors of Herickx's calibre and...

been concerned at the wasteful and harmful habit of giving children a profusion of expensive presents on every possible occasion, but especially, of . course, at Christmas. It...

Scream of steam and iron whine Free him from winter's frozen clutches, Shoot him into a future showering Flower and fruit, the sun's bright riches, Rattle him out Of the rigid...

Intermittent Fever Heaven save me ! I'm in love again— Befuddled past the wit of man ; A dupe caught walking in his sleep ; A loon to make the angels weep. Never burned there...

SIR,-At this time of year there arises a deli- cate point of etiquette which troubles this and, I am sure, many others of your readers. Half the world sends its Christmas cards...

It is the style we want. Even in ruins, Even in plants that climb up walls we're skilful At putting a design upon the place Or rather finding it, as in a face Watchful we say...

Conquistador and consul, and the great Astronomers and humanists are dead ; Their pose persists, and pastries emulate That famous set of thigh and tossing head. Where Tycho had...

Love makes short work of archaeology. In buried cities of the mind We only see the things we want to see And over every bright discovery The eagle lover stares himself...

Somewhere up the valley a turkey keeps bubbling away. Either it is near feeding time or something is disturbing the bird. The sound reminds me that Christmas is at hand, and...

For the usual prizes competitors were asked to submit a blatantly modern version—political, social, literary, musical, or what you will—of the Twelve Days of Christmas. ' One...

Small cumulus clouds were overhead as I went out in the morning.. I admired them, thinking it might have been a summer sky. During the day even the little clouds dis- appeartd,...

It is better to give fruit trees one tar oil spray than to give them none at all, but this winter I think it is more important than ever to see that they are well protected....

Foe is almost unknOwn in this district, but when other areas are fog-bound we often have mist. The mild weather has made the past week or two have more days of mist in them than...

English sonnet form of " L'hyver des Alpes " by Saint-Amand Ces atomes de feu qui sur la neige brillent, Ces estincelles d'or, d'azur et de (vista! Dont l'hyver, au soled, d'un...

Compton Mackenzie N OT having been born when Darwin's Origin of Species was published, I cannot say whether the discussions inspired by it were fiercer than those inspired by...

The Art of Giving By ELIZABETH BOWEN GIFT is a sort of ideal object. A glow surrounds it— the feeling of friend for friend, the delight of both in the gift itself. With this...

The Spectator offers three prizes, each of books to the value of eight guineas, for articles to be written by boys and girls in schools in the United Kingdom. Entries should be...

Extra for Stopping 3 y GORDON WILKINS HE campaign in favour of parking meters is now unfolding itself, and estimates show that the first installations in London should produce...

The Armchair and the Looking-Glass By LEONARD BLUNDUN (Hertford College, Oxford) Y flying visit to Istanbul provided two moments which I shall always remember with a certain...

The Spectator is always ready to encourage the considerable literary talent which is to be found among undergraduates. It there- fore offers to publish articles of sufficient...

Joyce Cary By RICHARD HUGHES T HERE is a monograph on Joyce Cary in the British Council's series on Writers and their Work. In it, Walter Allen calls Cary the " novelist and...

Maria Cross. By Donat O'Donnell. (Chatto & Windus. 21s.) IT is a relief to find a Catholic critic who does it the hard way; and does it brilliantly at that: Donat O'Donnell's...

Power and Influence. An Autobiography. By Lord Beveridge. (Hodder and Stoughton. 30s.) Power and Influence. An Autobiography. By Lord Beveridge. (Hodder and Stoughton. 30s.)...

Caves of Adventure. By Haroun Tazieff. Translated from the French by Alan Hodge. (Hamish Hamilton, 12s. 6d.) CHILDHOOD experiences of the Cheddar Caves, visits later on to some...

What Life Has Taught Me. By Twenty-Five Distinguished Men and Women. Selected and arranged by Sir James Marchant. (Odhams Press. 9s. 6d.) MIGHT one not expect to find something...

Cut into by doors The morning assumes night's burden, the houses Assemble in tight cubes. From the palace flanking the waterfront She is about to embark, but pauses. Her dress...

The Bedside Guardian 2. Edited by Ivor Brown. (Collins. 12s. 6d.) "O LORD, as Thou wilt have read in yesterday's Manchester Guardian . . ." According to the old story, the...

Pick of Today's Short Stories. Edited by John Pudney. (Putnam. - 10s. 6d.) Collected Stories. By James Hanley. (Macdonald. 15s.) The Ever-Interesting Topic. By William Cooper....

as it goes, a workmanlike chronicle of the handful of British professional people, with comfortable incomes and long holidays, who had the astonishing luck (as it now seems to...

Spinka. The Library of Christian Classics, Vol. XIV. (S.C.M. Press. 30s.) THE first and more substantial of these two books is one of a series of twenty-six volumes, designed...

Russian Icons. Introduction by Philipp Schweinfurth. (Batsford. 30s.) IN his brief introduction Professor Schwein- furth succeeds in showing clearly the basic differences...

beyond doubt her abundant knowledge of her terrain and its history, literature and legend. She seeks first to present a topographical survey of the Weald and takes us on...

follies and grottoes of England and Wales that Miss Barbara Jones has so diligently located and fondly 'described survive to surprise and charm another generation, it will be...

IT is a pity that this volume has appeared hard on the heels of Martin HO •limann's collections from Italy and Greece. Mr. Wideson is a self-confessed amateur where Photography...

way, to add to your list. Mr. Osmond has had the excellent idea of telling the history of an ordinary English valley from prehistoric times to 1900. His valley is imag:nary but...

By NICHOLAS DAVENPORT THE curtain fell at the Savoy with dramatic suddenness. In fact, the manager announced that the play would be stopped because the actors had agreed upon a...

By CUSTOS THE COURTAULDS bonus and dividend brought about a sharp recovery in the industrial share markets this week. The one-for-one scrip issue was not unexpected—the Chair-...

for one guinea will be awarded to the sender of the first correct solution opened after noon on Tuesday week, December 291h, addressed Crossword, 99 Gower Street, London, W.C.I....

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