T HE possibility of Italy's intervention in the war as the ally of Germany must clearly be faced. It is still only a possibility and some of the signs suggesting that it is more...

Yugoslavia has a new cause for alarm in the truculent attitude adopted by the Italian Press, in the Italian fleet movements in the Adriatic, and the rumoured movement of troops...

In the brief address which the Prime Minister delivered to the Free Church Council on Tuesday, he sounded a note which Lord Halifax had already struck in his speech to the...

A T the moment of going to Press there is much that is still obscure regarding the position in Norway, though the magnitude of the advantages already gained by the Allies is not...

Every country in the Balkans is watching the struggle in Scandinavia with feverish interest, knowing that at any moment the lot of Denmark or Norway may be its own. It has been...

Turkey is in a position to view the German menace mote calmly, but her people are enthusiastically pro-Ally and the Government prepared for anything. She has no illusions about...

President Roosevelt's address to the Pan-American Union in Washington was an unqualified denunciation of the policy and actions of the Nazi regime, though he did not mention the...

their annual conference next month and that they are to be addressed by Sir John Simon. There is, however, no men- tion of Mr. Hore-Belisha. Hamlet is to be produced, com- plete...

in this discussion expressed extreme dissatisfaction. Irres- pective of party, there is a feeling that several Ministers have no conception of the magnitude of the effort that...

there was a really interesting debate on Tuesday on the organisation of man-power. Mr. D. 0. Evans, who led off for the Liberal Opposition, surveyed the whole field, but his...

Next Tuesday the Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts will meet to consider the programme now made possible by the Government's grant—£25,000 to balance the...

Our Parliamentary correspondent writes : All this week Members of Parliament have possessed their souls in the most exemplary patience. Like the public outside they have been...

With the extension of the war to Scandinavia Great Britain's paper-supplies, already substan- tially reduced, are now severely restricted. All journals, daily and weekly ? will...

K ING HAAKON is said to have observed recently to a foreign visitor " Hitler is a devil." He has had no reason to change his opinion in the past week. Day by day fresh...

T HE story of Sir Nevile Henderson's " mission " to Germany, reviewed on another page, deals with just that period in which Herr Hitler's policy was visibly shaping itself for...

last week about the organisation of the Norwegian army. Actually the national militia system is very like the Swiss, which is gener- ally recognised to provide the makings of a...

other departments concerned with propaganda of one kind and another have always been a little difficult to disentangle, but I confess I am astonished to learn that the B.B.C....

means, and the weeklies, though the amount The Spectator and journals like it consume is negligible by comparison, will have immediately to follow suit. All the dailies, or...

stage, attended by representatives of the Theatrical Managers' Association, as well as of the Lord Chamberlain, the Home Office, the L.C.C. and other bodies, was almost...

T HE death of Dr. H. A. L. Fisher a week after the accident he sustained when on his way to preside over the Conscientious Objectors' Appeal Tribunal—a position for which he...

By STRATEGICUS T HE Allied reaction to the invasion of Norway has been so swift, so versatile, so daring and so powerful that the situation has been revolutionised, and what...

By SIR DANIEL HALL T HE evidence continues to accumulate that the food-pro- duction policy of the Ministry of Agriculture is inade- quate to the needs of the situation. It is...

By WILSON HARRIS T HE discussion between Prof. Lionel Robbins and myself has probably served by now any purpose it was capable of serving, and this article will bring it to an...

By MERCURIUS T HE scattered contingents of German troops in Norway are dependent for their existence on the maintenance of their communications with Germany. These communi-...

By G. H. GRETTON W E have seen in a previous article how the economic factor puts a high premium on bachelordom and childless marriages. This tendency is a national disaster....

By E. R. G. HEATH I N a recent isssue of The Spectator an enlightened public schoolboy added his views frankly and fairly to the con- troversy now raging round the public...

By JOHN RAY M URIEL did not want to go down to the house. As the car tore along the main road they argued endlessly about it. " As if I wanted to see that place again! " she...

Italy's Intentions " The co-ordination of the Italian Press with the Germ an has been so obvious that complaints are being heard on oll sides. Today a banker stated : ' I am...

yearn the peoples of Europe see an aggressor beaten back, and realise that the fight for freedom is not going to end in defeat and disaster, but in victory." —Het Volk...

are now incontestably masters of the North Sea, which means that the German occupation of Norwegian ports cannot be maintained long. It is equally clear that Germany no longer...

THIS much I know ; if ever comes the time When truth and freedom perish from mankind, It will not be when men can bravely die, And smiling leave the much-loved things behind....

the Apocalypse who have now dismounted and led their horses back into the distant Hollywood stable. I have small criticism to make of the ivory tower so long as one remains in...

four men from Europe will cause us to lose the Second German War. It is that their presence in the United States may lead Ameri- can opinion, which is all too prone to doubt the...

in the United States who are not Americans. I thought of W. H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood ; I thought of older men who also had retired within the ivory tower. I thought of...

By HAROLD NICOLSON A MAN came to see me the other day who had been in Finland until the moment of final capitulation and who still bore upon his forehead the signs of wear and...

attitude and that of his companions upon such grounds. It is easier, when Western civilisation is bursting into flames and thunder, to retreat into the gentler solitudes of the...

Aldous Huxley, Gerald Heard, Isherwood or Auden should return to Great Britain and immediately engage in mortal combat. Mr. Huxley, at least, has always been a convinced...

"Of Mice and Men." At the Odeon. THERE are times when the unfortunate film critic regrets the many adverbs and adjectives which, faute de mieux, he has lavished on the general...

THE THEATRE " King Lear." By William Shakespeare. At the Old Vic. ONE of the least disputable remarks that Lamb made about the English theatre was that " Lear is essentially...

Soviet Symphonies NEW music has been sadly scarce since last September and, since there is a limit to one's stock of ideas about the round dozen of symphonies by Beethoven and...

well and, what is more, quickly grown lettuces, radishes and young carrots, and next week hope to cut their magnanimous or big-hearted broccoli. These gourmets' feasts are the...

Hodgkins, Aldridge, Rogers ANY exhibition of the work of Frances Hodgkins is an im- portant event. She is showing pictures in gouache at the Lefevre Gallery. Broken in form,...

of that lovely but tricksy plant Iris stylosa will be characteristic of this spring in general. Instead of flowering sparsely in January, it is flowering with unprecedented...

a couplet of imperatives which, he said, had much improved his game. It seemed to me that the lines are equally applicable to the swinger of the scythe, that much superior...

for the naturalist than any other period of the year. In my record swallow and cuckoo first make themselves apparent about April 12th, and there is a particular clump of bushes...

DITOR [Correspondents are requested to keep their letters as bri are given a preference over those bearing a pseudonym, al name and address of the author, which will be...

SIR, —Mr. Pierard's interesting contribution in your number of April 5th requires rectification in a certain respect. In his exposé of the position of Belgium, and the policy...

SIR,—Mr. E. W. Adams raises points which would need a long pamphlet with which to deal adequately. May I be allowed to make clear my position on three questions : r. The...

Mr. Bonham-Carter gave vent to some very Socialistic views on the democratisation (what a bastardly word!) of the Public Schools. He proposes a scheme for establishing a number...

democratisation of the Public Schools. For it must be evident to all but a few Blimps and Haw-Haws that the only practical foundation for true equality in the national life is...

bold step in landing troops in Norway. Some quarters in the Allied countries were certainly taking too lightly the possibilities of the German Navy. It remains to be seen what...

to burlesque Lord Haw-Haw in place of refuting him is not without an element of danger. Why, in the first place, do peOPle listen to Haw-Haw? My own obserVation leads me to...

SIR,—May I suggest another method of approach to the intricate tariff question raised by the issue of Federation? Consider the position of a wealthy country today, and we...

issue of April r2th to draw attention to the reluctance of English universities to honour pioneers -whose contributions to learning and intellectual progress lie- outside...

Snt,—I trust I will be permitted voice my appreciation for the poem " The South " by Frederic Prokosch, which appeared on page 214 of the February 16th number of The...

have read,' as I did, Mrs. Allen's leiter with great sympathy. Her point of view is that of the vast majority of freedom-loiing people here . and in other countries. I hope that...

SIR,—I usually attempt the solution of The Spectator " Cross. word "—not always successfully. Two weeks ago I had some trouble in finding the word indicated by the clue—"...

The Best Books in the World A FEW years ago I used to have luncheon about once a week with an Oriental diplomat, at that time accredited to the Court of St. James's. He was a...

Failure of a Mission. By Sir Nevile Henderson. (Hodder and Stoughton. 75. 6d.) LAST autumn the British Government issued as a White Paper Sir Nevile Henderson's last report in...

Masaryk. By Paul Selver. (Michael Joseph. as.) To write an introduction to a book about my father was not easy—to review it still more difficult. I rather think it was a rash...

Mrs. Delany. By Simon Dewes. (Rich and Cowan. 15s.) SHE was a wonderful old lady, but she should never have accepted that house at Windsor, and the pension. Even if her Jacobite...

Monetary Management. By Sir Charles Morgan Webb, C.I.B, (Pitman. 7s. 6d.) PARTLY analytical, partly descriptive, and with a dash of history thrown in, this little book (the...

The Making of a Queen. By Eleanor Graham. (Cape. 8s. 6d.) QUEEN VICTORIA has provided a happy abundance of material for many writers. It is doubtful whether we can be greatly...

The Library of Edward Gibbon. A Catalogue of his Books. Editei and compiled by Geoffrey Keynes and R. A. Skelton. (Cape. 15s.) " ALWAYS scribble, scribble, scribble—eh, Mr....

Armistice, 1918-1939. By Michael Foot. (Harrap. 8s. 6d.) A GREAT many books are going to be written before long about the history of the last twenty years; and not all of them...

Inside Europe. By John Gunther (War Edition, to January, 1940). (Hamish Hamilton. I25. 6d.) Inside Europe. By John Gunther (War Edition, to January, 1940). (Hamish Hamilton....

Brother to the Ox. By Fred Kitchen. (Dent. los. 6d.) MR. KrraiEbt was born in Sherwood Forest, but soon after- wards his parents migrated to Yorkshire : so " I cannot say much...

8s. 3d.) WITH the publication of The Lepers, the series dealing with the novelist Costals and his relations with women is completed. Monsieur de Montherlant is an important...

have at one time or another been honoured in English literature, with the exception of Dentists, who have been unfairly confined to the humorous papers. Prizes of book tokens...

THE usual prizes were offered for the best lists of the Six Greatest Fools in History ; competitors were asked briefly to give reasons for their choices. This was a confusing...

By " CUSTOS " IT is tempting just now to say that the Budget shadow is stealing across the stock markets. So it is, but it is no .ise pretending that this is the only or the...

ROLLS RAZOR LIMITED THE twelfth annual general meeting of Rolls Razor Limited was held on April 15th at 255-289, Cricklewood Broadway, London. Colonel Sir Thomas A. Poison,...

War conditions, it seems, have not been unfavourable to the Cable and Wireless combine. At least, that is the im- pression one gets from this week's dividend announcements....

Rather sooner than had been expected the Treasury has made its second call on holders of dollar securities. The latest list is longer than the first and includes most of the...

We shall not have to wait much longer for light on Excess Profits Tax darkness which now envelops the prospec ts (Continued on page 580) FINANCE AND INVESTMENT (Continued from...

P. H. GALLOWAY, LIMITED IMPROVED RESULTS 'THE eleventh annual ordinary general meeting of P. H. Galloway, Limited, was held on April nth at Southern House, E.C. Mr. J. E....

SIR JAMES LITHGOW'S SPEECH THE ordinary general meeting of William Beardniore and Co., Ltd., was held on April t2th in the Council Room of the Federation of British Industries,...

William Beardmore and Co. is among the undertakings to which rearmament demand, reinforced by the plant modern- isation which better times made possible, has brought a sharp...

the Rolls razor has not suffered in war conditions. Last year Rolls Razor, Ltd., made a gross profit of £88,489, against £59,708, and its net profit, after tax, was £45,635,...

Once again the Dunlop Rubber accounts are a model of clear and concise presentation of the affairs of a complex group. The figures reinforce the excellent impression created by...

DIRECT subscribers who are changing their addresses are asked to notify THE SPECTATOR o f fice BEFORE MIDDAY on MONDAY OF EACH WEEK. The name, the previous address to which the...

Token for one guinea will be given to ti sender of the first correct solution of this peek's crossword puzz to be opened. Envelopes should be marked "Crossword Puzzle. and...

of Crossword No. 58 is Mr. J. H. Lewis, The Guest House, Hickling, Norwich.