18 SEPTEMBER 1920

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M. Kameneff departed for Russia on Saturday after an unpleasant

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interview with the Prime Minister. In a letter which his sympathetic friend, Commander Kenworthy, sent to Monday's papers, M. Kameneff said that Mr. Lloyd George had accused him...

The President of the Board of Trade received the executive

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of the Miners' Federation on Thursday week and vainly urged them to refer their demand for higher wages to the Industrial Court and to abandon their demand for a reduction in...

The Prime Minister, in a letter published on Wednesday, confirmed

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Sir Robert Home's statement as to the necessity of controlling the price of coal until the export price approximated more closely to the domestic price. At the same time the...

Mr. Smillie, in reply to Sir Robert Home, admitted that

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but for State control the price of coal would be far higher than it is. Nevertheless, he contended that it was unnecessary to raise the price of " domestic coal " by 14s. 2d. a...

The Prime Minister on Thursday made a crushing reply to

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M. Kameneff's letter. M. Kameneff, so far from knowing nothing about the sale of Russian jewels, had actually informed Moscow that diamonds to the value of £40,000 had been sold...

NEWS OF THE WEEK.

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W E have had this week another edifying illustration of the difficulty of dealing with the Bolsheviks, who repudiate the whole moral code of civilized peoples. When 'M....

TO OUR READERS.

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Should our readers experience any difficulty in obtaining the SPECTATOR during the eummer holidays from Newsagents or Railway Bookstalls, will they please communicate at once...

NOTICE.

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Owing to the Government having taken over our old vremiees, toe have removed to new offices, 13 York Street, Covent Garden, W.C. 2. where all communications should be addressed.

* ** The Editor cannot accept responsibility for any articles

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or letters submittal to him, but when stamped and addressed envelopes are sent he will do his best to return contributions in case of rejection.

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The French and Italian Premiers met at Aix-les-Bains on Sunday

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and announced on Monday that they were in entire agreement on Allied policy, except as regards the Russian problem. Signor Giolitti concurred in the French demand for the...

The significance of the figures published by the Mines Depart-

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ment was hotly disputed by the Miners' Federation, which natur- ally prefers its own guesses at truth to the truth itself. But the revelation of the fact that the coal " surplus...

The Trade Union Congress on Thursday week decided by a

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large majority to replace the Parliamentary Committee of sixteen by a General Council of thirty members. Mr. Clynes pointed out that the General Council would not give the trade...

Fighting continues along the Polish frontier. The Poles on Monday

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took Kovel, with 3,000 prisoners and 36 guns. The Bolsheviks, according to their friends in Berlin, are about to resume the offensive. The Polish peace delegates have, however,...

At the Congress on Saturday the figures were announced of

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the elections to the Parliamentary Committee. Mr. J. H. Thomas was at the head of the poll by a great majority. It was significant that Mr. Smillie was only sixth on the list...

The Labour Party Executive announced on Tuesday that it had

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refused the application of the newly formed Communist Party for affiliation, on the ground that " the declared objects of the Communist Party do not appear to be in accord "...

In an interview in the Daily Express of Monday, Mr.

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Appleton said that his assailants were members of a group which had worked for years to crush the General Federation. " They are for revolution. That is because they have not...

The strikes in the Italian metal industry have taken a

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curious form. Instead of leaving the factories because the employers could not pay the higher wages demanded, the workmen have barricaded themselves in the factories and made a...

A Court of Inquiry appointed by the Ministry of Labour

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began on Tuesday to investigate the dispute in the engineering trades, arising out of an electricians' strike at Penistone. The strike was called owing to the refusal of Messrs....

The discussion on Friday week at the Trade Union Congress

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was remarkable for a determined attack upon Mr. Appleton, the very able Secretary of the General Federation of Trade Unions. At the end of the debate the Congress decided no...

As the Miners' Federation bases its whole case on the

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assumption that the coal industry will have a " surplus " of £66,000,000 for the year ending with May next, it is well to note that the " surplus" for the quarter ending on June...

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We notice that the Irish Times professes some alarm on

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the ground that " the official recognition of the Northern Volunteers, or of any large number of them, would complete the unhappy marshalling of Ireland into two armed camps. If...

Germany has deliberately violated the provisions of the Peace Treaty

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respecting the Kiel Canal by forbidding the passage of ships carrying munitions to Poland. Article 380 of the Treaty says that " The Kiel Canal and its approaches shall be main-...

The four Egyptian delegates who have returned to Egypt to

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describe the Milner scheme of self-government have made known their views at various meetings and in discussion with members of the Legislature and with the Press. The Cairo...

The Indian National Congress, by a majority of more than

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two to one, has carried Mr. Gandhi's resolution refusing to co-operate in the Montagu scheme of government for India. Of course, if the new scheme were really to be boycotted it...

On the other hand, the correspondent says, there are many

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who confess their satisfaction and admit that the scheme " meets quite ninety per cent. of their real desires." The cries of " Vive l'Angleterre I " when the four delegates...

General Haldane, favoured by the cooler weather and streng- thened

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by reinforcements from India, appears to be restoring order in Mesopotamia. Two columns, working from Baghdad and from Persia, have cleared the railway up the Dials valley to...

The Republican party won the State elections in Maine on

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Tuesday by exceptionally heavy majorities. As Maine, unlike other States, holds its elections in September, the contest is always looked upon as foreshadowing the result of the...

The Ministry of Agriculture's monthly Report shows that the harvest

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has been disappointing. At the end of June nearly everybody expected an unusually heavy corn crop, but the expectation was disappointed by the appalling wetness of July and the...

The Government have decided to appoint a special Assistant Under-Secretary

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for North-East Ulster. This move is welcome as a new declaration on the part of the Government that the Protestant and Unionist block has as good a right to self- determination...

Bank rate, 7 per cent., changed from 6 per cent.

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Apr. 15, 1920; 5 per cent. War Loan was on Thursday, 84/ ; Thursday week, 85; a year ago, 941.

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TOPICS OF THE DAY.

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BEFORE ACTION. U NLESS something both fortunate and unforeseen happens between the publication of this article and our next issue, the nation will be face to face with one of...

WHAT MUST WE DO I I S there nothing that can

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be done to modify a fight not for or against some change in industrial remuneration, but for revolution itself—revolution from a democratic to an oligarchic state ; from freedom...

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THE " DAILY HERALD " AND BOLSHEVIK MONEY.

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T HE disclosure of the intercepted wireless messages between Bolshevik agents about the subsidizing of the Daily Herald—on which subject we wrote in our ism of August 21st—has...

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THE RECRUDESCENCE OF SLAVERY.

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O UR readers may know either from questions in Parliament or notices in the Press that the Anti- Slavery Society has of late been showing considerable anxiety in regard to the...

1111, ONLY WAY TO DEAL WITH THE MINERS. IN our

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first leading article we have written virtually on the assumption that there will be a strike. We have no right at present to assume anything else, although the papers on...

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A DOUBLE TONGUE. T HERE used to be long ago in

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mid-Victorian times a slight distrust among ordinary people of an Englishman who was bilingual. If he spoke French or German or Italian or Russian so as to be able to think in...

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FINANCE—PUBLIC AND PRIVATE.

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THE MENACE OF LABOUR. [To rue EDITOR OF TIM EPECTATOR."1 SIR,—Despite the threatening outlook at the moment of writing, and notwithstanding the defiant attitude of the miners,...

" GEORDIE PITMAN."

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A CCORDING to Mr. Smillie the pitman, miner or collier, as he is variously styled in the North and in the South, is a " wage-serf " and a down-trodden individual enchained by...

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

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[Letters of the length of one of our leading paragraphs are often more read, and therefore more effective, than those which fill treble the space.] THE CONDITION OF IRELAND. no...

[To THE EDITOR OP THE " SPECTATOR29 SAS, —By the time

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these lines reach you the Lord Mayor of Cork will have either been released by the Government or he will have starved himself to death, or he will be still alive, and this last...

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HUNGER-STRIKING IN AMERICA.

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[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] enclose an item I cut from the Daily Chronicle, which I thought would be interesting in view of the hunger strike of the Lord Mayor of Cork,...

" HUNGER STRIKE ENDS IN DEATH.

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POTTSVILLE, PA., Aug. 11.—After having been on a hunger strike for 43 days, Charles Wilson, colored, died to-day in the county jail. Wilson, while serving a sentence of seven...

THE DICTATORSHIP OF THE PROLETARIAT. [To THE EDITOR OF THE

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" SPECTATOR."] SIR,—I hope that some competent psychologist will explain the hypnotic influence of catch-words upon the present generation. The object of the inventor of these...

MONEY AND PRICES: AN ILLUSTRATION. [To THE EDITOR OF THE

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" SPECTATOR."] SIR,—In your review of the Interim Report on Money and Prices by a committee of Trade Union leaders and Labour politicians, you quote the authors as shying " the...

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MR. SMILLIE.

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[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] Sse,—In your issue of last week, p. 324, second column, lines 8, 9, &e., you say : " We must not be surprised that a Scot s inflamed with...

PROPOSED LEAGUE OF BRITISH CITIZENSHIP. [To MR EDITOR OF THE

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" SPECTATOR."] SIR,—It is with feelings of real gratitude that I see you have taken up this important subject: my only regret is that the Spectator is not to be found in every...

REUNION IN SCOTLAND.

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[To THE EDITOR or THE " SPECTATOR."] SIR,—In reply to Mr. E. A. Gurney-Smith, may I say that your statement that between " the Church of Scotland and the United Free Church . ....

SOCIALISM AND MARRIAGE.

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[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."1 SIFL,—I have no desire to be discourteous to the Rev. John McNeilage. The reason I did not answer his letter of August 7th, and also August...

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POETRY.

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GIPSY-NIGHT. (Written for Pamela Bianco.) WHEN the feet of the rain tread a dance on the moves, And the wind creeps through the rooks and the trees; And Dobbin has stabled his...

FRANCE AND GREAT BRITAIN.

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(To THE EDITOR or THE " SPECTATOR "1 Sri,—The question of our relations with France is a very difficult one to write about at the present juncture, when there are so many...

THE APES OF GIBRALTAR.

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Pro THE EDITOR or rue " SPECTATOR.") SIR,—Will you intercede for the apes of Gibraltar? It is stated in the Press that an order has been issued for their destruction or...

NOTICE.—When "Correspondence" or Articles are signed with the writer's name

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or initials, or with a pseudonym, or are marked " Communicated," the Editor must not necessarily be held to be in agreement with the views therein expressed or with the mode of...

Zr112 Sputatur

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TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION. Including postage to any part of the reffriY• United Kingdom £2 8 4 OVERSEAS POSTAGE. Including postage to any of the British Dominions and Colonies...

SOME PLAYS WORTH SEEING.

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GLOB11.—.Frendi Leave .. s.30 - 2.30 [War comedy. fresh and amusing.] • LONDON PAVILION.—Londott, Paris, and New Y orb 8.0-2.30 [Revue. Clever dialogue, beautiful costume. not...

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BOOKS.

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THE RISING TIDE OF COLOUR.* [CONOLIIDING nonce.] MR. STODDARD'S remedy—or shall we say the practical methods which he recommends ?—f or meeting and preventing the rising of the...

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THE ENGLISH AGRICULTURAL LABOURER.* TH011011 much has been written about

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the English agricultural labourer, the conditions of his life have not received such scientific treatment as has been bestowed upon the urban worker. • A Ilisfory of the...

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THE AUSTRIAN RED BOOK.* THE Socialist Government of German Austria

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have now com- pleted their publication, in English, of the correspondence of the Austro-Hungarian Foreign Office preceding the outbreak of the war, nominally supplementing the...

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RHODES.*

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Ix would be well if propagandist books, such as have poured from the press in the last few years, were all produced in the style of the sumptuous volume devoted to Rhodes by the...

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FICTION.

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LINDA CONDON.t 111n. HERCESHEIDIER'S new novel is in considerable contrast to much of his former work. He is no longer aiming at powerful writing with sharply contrasted lights...

THE LIMITS OF UNBELIEF.* No greater praise can be given

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to this book than to say that its combination of breadth and devotion recalls Thomas Erskine, of Linlathen. The author regards the religious instruction generally given to...

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POETS AND POETRY.

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VACHEL LINDSAY, [Mrs. Wilkinson, who contributes the following article, is an American critic of considerable reputation. Her recently published New Voices—a critical work of...

READABLE NOVELS.—The God in the Thicket. By C. E. Lawrence.

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(Dent. Os. net.)—A poetic extravaganza which seems to have taken its origin from the Russian Ballet. It is perhaps refreshing in these prosaic days to exist for an hour in the...

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SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.

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[Notice iss this column does stot necessarily preclude sultesduent review.] We have received the July number of the Revue Economigue Internationale, edited at Brussels by M....

The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, at 20

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Buckingham Street, Adelphi, has published its forty-third Annual Report (2s.), containing a lively paper by Mr. G. K. Chesterton and illustrated particulars of the Society's...

Posais WORTHY OF Coarsroznerion.--Chaine. By S. Winsten (C. W. Daniel.

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5s. net.)—The reader may wonder if it is the function of poetry to make him long more passionately than ever to reform the Prison system, but that is the effect of reading Mr....

A History of British Socialism. By M. Beer. 2 vela.

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(G. Bell. 12a. 6d. and 15s. net.)—Herr Beer, an Austrian-German Socialist who lived in England before the war, has written a useful history of English Socialism in its varied...

Rabelais. Readings Selected by W. F. Smith. (Cambridge University Press.

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Ss. 6d. net.)—This little volume of select passages from Rabelais, with notes, was arranged by a Cambridge scholar who devoted the best part of a lifetime to the study of the...

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The Jewish Peril : Protocols of the Elders of Zion,

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which was published in the spring and suddenly went out of print, has now been transferred to new publishers, " The Britons," at 62 Oxford Street, who have issued a second...

The Bulletin of the Imperial Institute, dated January-March but only

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just published (Murray, 3s. Bd. net), contains a report on cotton-growing in Mesopotamia, where, it seems, the soil and climate are favourable, but the industry " is restricted...

WORKS Or ItsPERENas.—Athena, a Year-Book of the Learned World (A.

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and C. Black, 15s. net), is a new and useful publication which will replace the German handbook that held the field before the war. The first issue is restricted to the English....

We are glad to learn that the Central Asian Society,

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at 74 Grosvenor Street, has doubled its membership since the Armis- tice, as Asiatic questions have assumed greater importance for us than ever before. The latest part of the...

Nineteen-Sixteen, Nineteen-Twenty. With an Introduction by Sir W. Sutherland. (L

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J. Gooding. Is. net.)—This littlebook Is a skilful exposition of the work of "The Lloyd George Coali- tion in War and Peace." " The work could not have been accom- plished by a...

Mr. Arthur E. Baker, the borough librarian of Taunton, is

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Issuing A Shakespeare Dictionary in parts, one for each play (4s. net). The third part, devoted to Macbeth, contains inter- esting notes in alphabetical order on the characters,...