T HE week's operations on all fronts have brought both gains and losses, with the gains on balance predominating. But in Malaya the situation is serious, and worsening. The...

Journalists interviewing M. Litvinov at Washington asked one of the questions which have often occurred to Britons and Americans during the last few days. Was it likely that...

After Crete, Malaya ; and after each of these demonstrations, one of them disastrous, of the supreme necessity of provision for the strong defence of airfields, there has been...

In asking the House of Commons for the fourth vote of credit for the current financial year last Tuesday Sir Kingsley Wood pointed out that the total probable expenditure of...

Mr. Hudson stated last week that agriculture would have to lose the xo,000 young men (under 25 at the time of their regis- tration) who had already been selected for release to...

The time has now come when persons in " reserved occupa- tions " have to be examined more closely, and examined, individual by individual, to ascertain whether their work is of...

An Admiralty communiqué issued on Tuesday shows how the Germans are seeking deliberately to stir up trouble between the British and French navies and between Britain and Spain...

The. question has naturally been asked whether the entry of the United States into the war would modify the policy of Eire. Mr. de Valera stated last Sunday that there would be...

M EMBERS of Parliament, and in common with them everyone whose business it is to give serious thought to tne international situation, are seriously concerned about the question...

T HE little fourpenny booklet on The Defence of Calais, by Eric Linklater, which the Ministry of Information has pre- pared for the War Office, a little perplexes me. That it is...

of the forth- coming by-election in the Willowfield division of Belfast, where a Government seat was being contested against the official Government candidate by Alderman...

local attention has just arisen in an interesting form at Plymouth. A week or two ago twelve well-known business and professional men in that ravaged city, most of them active...

way through enemy defences in Libya and elsewhere, but not quite so gratifying to find them applying that process as extensively as they apparently do to their billets at home....

could be relied on to avoid any suspicion of propagandism in the course of his present speaking-tour in the United States. I retain that confidence fully, but Dr. Huxley has, I...

in view of the German reverses in the east, should still be resisted. There are, it is true, one or two encouraging signs. As lately as October the German official radio was...

FAR EASTERN DANGERS By STRATEGICUS T HE position in the Far East has now been clarified. In general it seems that the Japanese have lost as many capital ships as the United...

By JAYA DEVA F IVE years ago, on November 25th, 1936, the anti-Comintern Pact was signed between Japan and Germany. The Japanese have ever since claimed that it was they who...

By SIR WILLIAM MARRIS B Y way of change from graver matters, it may be entertaining to recall the routes by which many of the military terms which we are using every day came...

By A HEADMASTER O NE of the problems vexing the public boarding-schools is the means of bridging the gap between their present exclusive- ness and the needs of a democratic...

AND love like clouds against the sun Blows banners against the eastern sky; And love like stars when day is done Lights the way to Babylon; And love like mountain stream fast...

By HAROLD NICOLSON TN one of his retrospects, Mr. Noel Coward adopted an ingenious device for marking the passage of the years between 1914 and 1918. The same patriotic verse...

be aware that one's opposite numbers in Germany are suffering more acutely than one is oneself. It is for me a small and recurrent solace to realise that when nervous depression...

moods of nervous depression come in waves. For no very particular reason one passes through dark zones into lighter zones, and it may well be that when the snow-drops come I...

and to realise that the public (stunned as they were by our naval losses) seemed unaware that two decisive events had occurred. The fact that the United States have entered the...

similar attrition of those protective sheaves in which our nerves are encased. We still sing the same resolute and indeed triumphant song. Yet we sing it a little louder, our...

to grow without heat, it is a desirable habit, where possible ' to keep a box of cress or mustard and cress by the kitchen door, that the cook may cut what she wants without...

farmer a detail of weather- - prophecy that was new to me. His farm, though a good 7o miles from the sea—the North Sea—is very popular with the gulls. Most of them are...

Perhaps because of very open weather, rats and rabbits, both undesirable neighbours, are already breeding. It is a grim calculation that a pair of either species may increase...

" The Morning Star." At the Globe. It is much to Emlyn Williams' credit that he has written and pro- duced the first serious play about the war ; but it is a pity that he has...

B.E.N.A. War does not kill British interest in natural history, though it may scotch it. Evidence of this is supplied by the re- emergence of the British Empire Naturalists'...

" Judas Was a Woman." At the London Pavilion.—" Birth of the Blues." At the Plaza. Judas Was a Woman is Jean Renoir's La Bite Humaine with a new and rather stupid title and...

Snr,—Mr. Hinton's letter in your issue of December 5th raises once more the question of the destiny of the small trader. Mr. Hinton has undoubtedly a just complaint if he is to...

REGIONAL P.i0DUCTION CONTROL Sta,—There is deep insight in Mr. Hammersley's article on " Some ProduCtion Deadlocks," particularly since most of what he suggests is contained...

Sta,—Although an exact definition of first-line air strength is not possible (authorities differ so much), that given by " Janus " is, in spite of its R.A.F. origin,...

SIR,—However this period is described by future historians, it will most certainly not be described as an age of chivalry. The war has shown up in a vivid way the real position...

SIR,—Your " Country Life " Notes of November 28th contain two errors in regard to the habits and disposition of foreign pheasants. The Amherst. pheasant is not quarrelsome with...

SIR,—Concerning the correspondence on the above matter in The Spectator, I should like to emphasise on behalf of the National Federation of Retail Newsagents and Booksellers,...

SIR.—As far as rural areas are concerned the Rent Restriction Acts have increased the housing difficulty for the village inhabitants rather than mitigated it. In 1914, when the...

Sta,—Mr. D. Neville Jones in his letter in your issue of December 12th compares the training of German troops as seen by the marine who escaped from Calais with the " endless...

SIR,—One would be sorry to spoil Mr. Cave's ingenious mnemonic, but surely, if the method of the New Testament be any guide, Religion (and particularly Doctrine, which is its...

SIR,—The entry of japan into the war must inevitably put a new strain on shipping. We can all save ships by helping to cut down petrol consumption. Whether we take buses or...

SIR,—There is a very large number of cultivated men now in the Forces who are able to carry with them only a minimum of books. Could you, Sir, use your influence to persuade a...

StR,—In Mr. Harold Nicolson's Marginal Comment last week, his ex- planation of ow. affinity with the Chinese omits one characteristic—their commercial integrity. As a member of...

The Pierian Spring Goethe and the Greeks. By Humphry Trevelyan. (Cambridge University Press. 18s.) _- AT first sight a book like this seems remote enough from our present...

Modern Iran. By L. P. Elwell-Sutton. (Routledge. I2S. 6d.) MR. awELL - SurroN portrays modern Iran as a country which, lodged beween the Oriental and Occidental worlds, draws...

HOUSMAN'S character was such that many who did not know him, and not a few perhaps who did, have wondered what he was really like ; and the appearance of another volume...

Cock-a-doodle-do. Charles B. Cochran. (Dent. iss.) THE title and sub-title of Mr. Cochran's book—Cock-a-doodle-do, Reminiscences at Random—anticipate but do not disarm criti-...

Herself Surprised. By Joyce Cary. (Michael Joseph. 8s.) Green Acres. By Doreen Wallace. (Coffins. gs. 6d.) The Gay Gaillard. By Margaret Irwin. (Chatto and Windus. zos. 6d.)...

to say in favour of opening the British Foreign Office to women should be much strengthened by the experience of Mrs. Harriman, American Minister to Norway, 1936-194o: women...

My Name is Frank. By Frank Laskier. (Allen and Unwin. 2S. 6d.; FRANK LASKIER'S broadcasts had the stuff of greatness : put into print they lose nothing in the reading. By a...

GUY MOTORS LIMITED STRONG POSIT ION PRESIDING at the twenty-sixth annual general meeting at Wolver- hampton on December r7th, Mr. Sydney S. Guy, the chairman, said: The...

By CUSTOS MARKETS are back on the defensive, and in some sections are yielding ground in face of superior forces. In the case of securities like Japanese and Siamese loans,...

edited by Edith Sitwell. (Gollancz. 8s. 6d.) IT may be a truism that there are two kinds of anthology : the anthology of personal taste and that written for a particular...

BARCLAYS BANK (DOMINION, COLONIAL AND OVERSEAS) RECORD CURRENT AND DEPOSIT ACCOUNTS SIR JOHN CAULCUTT'S STATEMENT STATEMENT by the chairman, Sir John Caulcutt, K.C.M.G., on...

a Book Token for one guinea will be given to the sendeg of the first correct solution of this week's crossword puzzle to be opened. Envelopes should be marked with the words...