p RACTICAL considerations about the business of producing steel have never at any time influenced the Government very deeply in its struggle to get the Iron and Steel Bill on to...

The birth-pangs of the T.U.C.'s wages policy are formidable and prolonged. After yet another week of discussions the economic committee of the General Council has still not...

Despite the Russian parade of handing over administration in their zone of Germany to the Lander Governments of the " Democratic Republic," the lot of the people of Eastern...

The large majorities by which the Political Committee of the General Assembly adopted the plan to give eventual independence to Libya and Somaliland and send a commission of...

It is a great pity that the Prime Minister of India should have marred his recent and very welcome visit to this country by an unfortunate and quite unjustifiable attack on...

To questions in the House of Commons about the "-ospects of a peace treaty with Japan the Under-Secretao of State Foreign Affairs returned, last Monday, non-committal replies....

To discover any justification for hope in M. Vyshinsky's latest speeches on the control of atomic energy it is first of all necessary to divorce manner from content. His...

It is to be regretted that the Roman Catholics have decided to make the question of increased support for their schools from public funds a General Election issue. The supreme...

T HE return of familiar faces to Westminster this week betokened the end of some weeks of great diplomatic activity, and gave new life to the debates. The Attorney General and...

T HE time has come when the Western Allies must take risks with Germany. Two alternative courses lie before them, neither of which is entirely free from danger. They can put...

T HESE Liberal and Conservative manoeuvrings arc a little disturbing to anyone who feels that the country has had enough of the present Government, with all its virtues, and...

By FITZROY MACLLAN, M.P. 66 UCII," I wrote in a report which I sent to Mr. Churchill from German-occupied Yugoslavia in 1943, "will depend on Tito, and whether he sees himself...

Heard on the Wireless Heart on his sleeve, yes ; the egoistic hurt dissolved In pity for the world's sorrow, The avid desire of the small hours Decked in the flame of morning...

By D. W. BROGAN 0 F course, in some ways it has grown smaller. I have done even more travelling (against my will) in the past twelve months than usual. I have seen similarities...

By ROSE MACAULAY T HE maze of little streets threading through the wilderness, the broken walls, the great pits with their dense forests of bracken and bramble, golden ragwort...

B‘ j. P. W. MALLALIEU, M.P. HE other afternoon, Bob Hesford, of Huddersfield, received one of the most prolonged ovations ever given to a goal- keeper. The odds against saving...

By PETER FLEMING O N the crest of the ridge I switched off the engine and let the car coast down the hill which sloped, gently at first, towards the still distant sea. The...

By SIR STEPHEN I ALLENTS S S a little Londoner, tramping the streets with his nurse, I used to feel my heart leap up when I beheld a man with a 'black face and a bundle of...

By FREYA STARK HE whole of Puebla seemed to be on the way to the bull-ring that winter afternoon. The 23,000 people for whom there was room on the benches were certainly there....

11 MARGHANITA LASKI W HAT the subject really needs, of course, is field-workers and a research grant and something promised on the Third Programme. All sorts of fascinating...

By F. TENNYSON JESSE "They that go down to the sea in ships: And occupy their business in great waters ; These men see the works of the Lord And his wonders in the deep." T...

g% C. M. WOODHOUSE T HE British and American Governments have both made clear, by implication, their belief that the war in Greece is finished : the British, by announcing the...

punishment is deemed necessary for the completeness of the example: the public flocked to see the Mannings hanged on Tuesday, and, with the expression of disgust at such an...

By JUDITH }MUM_ k T HE open-air movement in France is vigorous and growing. During the war one of the few good results of the Vichy administration was the impetus which was...

THE meter's heart-beat stills. The red flam.: leaves the spines Like prehistoric bones Reared in meticukus lines. The shilling, then, is spent. The fireless, darkened room...

The Earthquake By D. G. MACMILLAN (Clare College, Cambridge) T HE Spectator penetrates to some remote places, as does the undergraduate on vacation, and one September day I...

HAROLD NICOLSON I ALWAYS feel sorry for those eminent persons who year by year are invited to deliver the main speech at the annual meetings of the National Trust. It is all...

THE THEATRE Lady Audley's Secret. A Victorian Melodrama with Music, from the Popular Novel by Miss Braddon. (Princes.) To do something badly on purpose it is first necessary...

arc called upon to make • greater effort, the aircraft industry may be depended upon to give good measure. Indeed, the necessity to count the cost with particular care has had...

THE revival of Strauss's Salome at Covent Garden on November itth has aroused almost universal indignation. The work itself, in spite of the brilliant cleverness of many...

Au. the gramophone companies seem to have thought of Christmas, and there is a large choice of what are called " light classics " with some not too large (and therefore...

FROM time to time complaints arise that the B.B.C. is not, in political affairs, impartial. The complaints are almost invariably made by people who in fact strongly desire the...

ONE diarist holds that the last leaves usually fall before November Nth. They are often wont to crash after St. Martin's summer. If that is ao, we arc promised a very late...

Sta r -Thanks to Mr. Harold Nicolson's marginal comment on the D.N.B., my friends tell me that I am a doryphorous, glistening and hardshclled beetle. And all this because filial...

Sta,—Mr. Nicolson is less than just in his attitude towards the doryphore ; he exposes, scolds and finally threatens (" I challenge the doriphores "), and in so doing manages to...

Su t,—Either Janus or the reference-book he has used clearly errs in giving the number of " Anglicans in England, Scotland and Wales " as 2,360,000. What would appear to have...

to an article by Mr. Gareth Lima which appears in the Spectator of November 4th, 1949, under the heading The Indolent Farmer, and which contains many distorted statement' and...

SIR, —In my review of Professor Ellmann's Yeats: the Man and the I overlooked the possibility that there might be survivors from the pc iasi of Irish history which it covers,...

SIR-I have always read with great interest the articles on farming matters by your usual contributor, Mr. Walston. To me, a farmer, they seem to show a real practical knowledge...

translated this book " writes your c ritic of The Fateful Years by M. Francois-Poncet. But surely an inadequate version of so important a contribution to history is better than...

SIR,—May I comment on the first sentence in the review of Dr. P. M. Young's Oratorios of Handel, which appeared in the Spectator of October 28th. The sentence is: " For nearly...

SIR,—The mention of the authorities of the S.P.G. feeling "bound in conscience " to take the course which they did over the Church of South India by Bishop Roberts in his letter...

Sta,—Before the war I lived at Dorchester, Dorset. - To reach London by the first delivery next morning, I could post a letter in the pillar-box at 8.30 p.m.; at the post office...

SIR,—Some months ago Janus gave me a hint of his identity ; since when I have imagined I understand why the Editor tolerates his intolerances. Nevertheless, I hope that he will...

SIR,—I hesitate to cross swords with Dr. Julian Huxley. I have but little experience of controversy, although I have c Cambridge training in science and a liking for objective...

Sm,—Our loyalty to the departed seems to be supplanted by a mordant and ungenerous disparagement. And to the distress of his many friends our detractors are now hard at work on...

SIR,—In your review, by Mr. St. John Ervine, of Professor Ellmann's book on Yeats, there appears a thumbnail estimate of John B. Yeats, the poet's father, so false and virulent...

Sril,—On a recent Saturday afternoon a gioup of people watching a game on Harrow School cricket fields approached me with the warning that the parish church steeple was on fire....

SIR, —Mr. Black and I must clearly agree to differ. He evidently believes that the National Health Service should provide his customers with " articles of dress"; whilst I feel...

Sta,—It was a pleasure to read Honor Croome's intelligent and unbiased article in the Spectator of November 4th on the difficulties in the way of teaching thrift today. Any...

SIR,—I have taken a keen interest in pictures for a good many years 4 nd may claim to be fairly well informed about painting, but I must confess that I am not much the wiser...

SIR, —I find the following sentence in what purports to be a criticism of my novel On a Dark Night in the Spectator of October 28th: " This operation (a hanging) took seventeen...

S1R, —For fifty years and more I have read the Spectator every week, except when I have been out of reach of it. Never until this article appeared has it printed anything that...

SIR, —In common with other folk I find it very expensive nowadays to indulge in many habits started in easier times, but the habit of reading the Spectator, formed a great many...

SIR, —Mr. Stephen Lcc, in his interesting review of Mr. Ramsey's Henry Ireton in the Spectator of November 11th, has enriched our language with an intriguing new metaphor ;...

Through French Eyes The author of " The Secret of the English." which was awarded the Prix Me of the French Academy in 1947, surveys contemporary English literature. WaiTING...

The Early Alpine Guides. By Ronald Clark. (Phoenix House. 159 TILE hardy Switzers of the Middle Ages are said to have lowered the average height of their race by serving as...

Degas Dancers. By Lillian Browse. (Faber. ,C4 4s.) Ir is easy to see why Degas loved the ballet. It suited hint perfectly, for it provided a complete world, a world that made...

South London. The County Books Series. By Harry Williams. (Robert Hale. 15s.) THIS is an admirable book ; and whether the ten Metropolitan Boroughs dealt with can exactly be...

Bricks and Flowers. By Katherine Everett (Constable. 15s.) NEITHER the sober title of this autobiography, nor the illustrations of ladies in Court dress or of houses and...

Modern English Drama : A Survey of the Theatre from 1900. lfv Ernest Reynolds - . (Harrap lOs 6d.) THIS is an important book for students of the theatre," especially those...

)5nowdonla: The National l'ark of North Wales. By F. J. North, Bruce Campbell and Richenda Scott. (Collins. 2ls.) tI' ttts is one of the first ten titles announced by the "New...

England Yesterday and Today. In the Works of the Novelists, 1837 to 1938. Edited and Arranged by F. Alan Walbank. (Batsford. 15s.) MR. WALBANK has set out to prepare an...

Mysterious Marriage. By E. Graham Howe. (Faber. 15s.) THE mysterious marriage of Dr. Howe's new book is " the marriage between spirit and matter, there and here, heaven and...

Peter Carl Faberge, Goldsmith and Jeweller to the Russian Imperial Court and Principal Crowned Heads of Europe. By Henry Charles Bainbridge. (Batsford. ,C7 7s. Od.) WHEN the...

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 O 0 0 O 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 O 0 0 O O 0 O 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 O 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Europe and a Wider World, 1415-1715. By J. H. Parry....

After the Bombing and other Short Poems. By Edmund Standen. (Macmillan. 6s.) The Pythoness and other Poems. By Kathleen Raine. Hamilton. 6s.) Two Colloquies. By Martyrs...

An Introduction to Georgian Architecture. By A. E. Richardson. (Art and Technics. 25s.) THE series to which this book belongs made an excellent start last year with volumes on...

Soviet Russia and the Far East. By David J. Dallin. (Hollis and Carter. 30s.) THE publication of this book, which starts with the Japancs: invasion of Manchuria in 1931, has...

The Unbroken Thread. By Viscount Templewood (Collins. 15s.) EARLHAM and the delightful circle—Gurneys and Barclays, Buxton; and Hoares—to whom its hospitable roof gave temporary...

RE : assoss, revisions, revivals, collections of verse and prose, and series of elegant " library editions " have been pouring from the publishers' offices in such numbers that...

The Heir. By V. Sackville-West. (Richards Press. 6s.) America. By Franz Kafka. (Seater and Warburg. 9s. 6d.) Mice. By Elizabeth Eliot. (Cassell. 8s. 6d.) The Prisoners. By...

IN the later months of the year the trickle of books for children becomes a flood. Three-quarters of them are ephemeral—with well-worn themes, slipshod writing and poor...

NATIONALISATION THREAT SIR WALTER BENTON JONES'S VIEWS Tim annual general meeting of The United Steel Companies Limited was he ld on November 16th in London. Sir Walter Benton...

Aviation and Shipping Company, Limited, was held on November 11th in London. Mr. Noel W. Purvis, F.I.C.S. (Chairman and Managing Director), in the course of his speech, said:...

For King or Parliysent. By Philip Lindsay. (Evans Bros. 10s. 6ti.) CRITICISING publishers, Mr. Harold Nicolson recently wrote: "The worst about many (book) wrappers is that...

By CUSTOS IT was inevitable that sooner or later the Government would step in to stop the rot in the gilt-edged market. One need not be surprised, therefore, that stabilising...