I T is unfortunate that Mr. Dean Acheson, the American Secretary of State, shillild have hastened so precipitately to condemn the Chinese counter-proposals as completely...

Late news, suggesting the. renewal of the Chinese offensive in Korea, leaves the situation still vague. There has been no relaxation of pressure by the North Koreans in the...

One unhappy failure has marred the otherwise uniform success of the Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conference. It is true that the Kashmir question was not discussed formally at...

Dr. Adenaucr is so fully habituated to carrying on in an atmo- sphere of anxiety that the stresses to which he is being subject at this moment need not seem particularly...

Wherever the fault may lie, and it by no means lies with the British Government, the delay in reaching any conclusion about the Four-Power talks on Germany is - deplorable in...

General Eisenhower has now almost completed his tour of European capitals, and will shortly be returning to Washington to report to the American President and Congress on what...

The formation of a General Council of the Press has always been dear to the hearts of Mr. Herbert Morrison and some of his friends and not very dear to anyone else's, though the...

T HE central question with which the Beveridge Committee on British broadcasting was expected to deal has been firmly answered. There is to be no fundamental change in the...

some feminine gathering, referred to the fuel crisis, and remarked in no profoundly serious vein that one remedy was for women to wear more petticoats ; he noticed that in his...

T HE Cabinet changes are important on both administrative and personal grounds. The separation of housing and health has long been widely advocated, and the Prime Minister's...

what would appear to be the simplest of questions. What is the missing word in the quotation " There were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over...

Heard's Riddle of the Flying Saucers in the Spectator a month ago. Since then I have been reading Donald Keyhoe's The Flying Saucers are Real (Hutchinson, 2s.), pressed on me by...

the Reindeer Council of the United Kingdom (though I believe I have given it a little publicity before). The purpose of the Council, as I under- stand'it, is to acclimatise...

to be saved nor a body to be kicked. That can be said with, if anything, more truth of a Government department. Take the Ministry of Health. In the past many people paid...

By LIONEL ROBBINS I N last week's Spectator Mr. Oscar Hobson made certain criticisms bf a recent statement of mine on defence prepara- tions. It is with reluctance that I enter...

By D. R. GILLIE Paris I OPES and fears in suitable proportions are certainly essential to a nation's health. The more realistic they are, no doubt, the better it is for...

(Philosophic Lyric for a Samba) 0 to scuttle from the battle and to settle on an atoll far from brutal mortal, 'neath a wattle portal I To keep little mottled' cattle and to...

T HERE are some signs that one of the New Year resolutions of the United States Government has been to step up its propaganda to the Iron Curtain countries. What President...

By CECIL NORTHCOIT S British missionaries leave China on furlough, their visas are not being renewed for their return journey. Here and there a few specially qualified people...

The Hungarian Ticket- Collector By 1'. L. DORMANDY (Royal Free Hospital, London) I HAVE once, only once, solved the life-problem of one of my fellow-men. I say life-problem,...

By HAROLD NICO1SON ORD HALDANE, in his autobiography, contended that, had L our statesmen been less " illiterate " about Germany, it might have been possible to avoid the...

THE Macnaghten String Quartet at the Mercury Theatre and the London Classical Orchestra at Chelsea Town Hall have included contemporary works in their programmes this last week....

CINEMA T Sunday in August." (Academy.)-- ,, Branded." (Plaza.) HE charming fi lm at the Academy, which is written and produded by the author of Open City. Paisa and Bicycle...

THE fifth column has struck and the enemy are within the gates. Behind locked doors the surrender was made. Not a shot wos fired, not a bridge blown. Overnight they appeared,...

At once we realise how violent a revolution has taken place during the past quarter of a century. I remember that just after the last war I lived in a small Georgian cottage in...

begins its routine in the garden.' I refer to the sawing of cord-wood for the open fires.' No matter how satisfactory a modern heating instalment may be, the English winter...

New Year is dues) 1 suspect, to something more than the flood of bills and tax-claims. It is a sign of our origins, our relationship with nature and the four seasons ; a bond...

relative to the Police arrangements in connection with the Exhibition in Hyde Park. On the one hand, it has been asserted that an importation of foreign detectives was about to...

Magazine Port) 1 cl,

Report by A. D. C. Peterson One of the greatest difficulties of headmasters is the writing of testimonials which satisfy simultaneously their bearers and the truth. A prize of...

Set by Glyn Daniel Anthropology has been called, among other things, " the study of rude people by more rude people," and "the study of marriage customs by the unmarried and...

SIR, It is pleasant that the Jubilee Exhibition of the Whitechapel Arf Gallery should be receiving the attention this great institution richly deserves, but I regret that your...

SIR,—I can support, from a long-experience, Dr. Lampard's diatribe againsf the waste of money in drugs. From the end of 1919 to the end of 1946 I was Adviser in Venereal...

How to Get the Houses SIR.—The proposals for building more houses put forward by Robert W. 1 - arran in the Spectator of January 12th deserve serious attention, if not...

to .live in lodgings, having the privilege of a bath only when my landlady thought fit, and then, a year ago, was fortunate enough to secure the tenancy of a factory-made...

Sta,.....yor editorial comments on India have been consistently cynical and wilfully perverse. lt seems to be a case " India is damned if she is perchance right and, of course,...

by the Church. The summary of beliefs contained in those writings (known as the Creed) was also determined by the Church. Mr. Wilson Harris appears to accept the Church's power...

or who imply, the word " heretical " should read again Doctrine in the Church of England. pp. 81-83, and the chairman's remarks near the bottom of p. 12. Neither " dirty linen"...

Sia.—Two statements of Mr. BLackmore's letter need correction. He says: (1) "It was Japan that attacked China and not vice versa." (21 That the advance of Ch'ien Lung stopped...

Sia,,7---My daughter (aged .14) and I have formed a New to read at least one worth while book each month of As there are so many books, I shall be very grateful in compiling a...

SIR.—There are considerable murmurings of a coalition, but Janus has Made a very good point when he asks: "Would Cptain Thorneycroft, I wonder, welcome the idea so stropgly...

Sia,—Accusations of heresy tend to be double-edged. The orthodoxy so • vigorously defended against Mr. Wilson Harris in his sincere and helpful article, The Birth of Christ,...

D A LEVERSON• and Ronald Firbankt were both writing during the 1914-18 war. They both belonged to the upper- class Edwardian world at a time when only the imaginative could...

the Week Novelists and the Churches The Churches in English Fiction. 1.3) A. L. Drummond. (Edgar Backus, Leicester. 125. 6d.) THIS is an unusual book and, in some respects, a...

" I AM a reporter," murmurs the correspondent to himself, this being a talismanic phrase like "I am a commissioned officer," which implies that the speaker, though he may have...

Thirty Years with G. B. S. By Blanche Patch. (Gollancz. Its. 6d.) Miss PATCH became Bernard Shaw's secretary in 1920, and remained in his service until his death thirty years...

1 Believed. By Douglas Hyde. (Heinemann. cos. 6d.) Tuts is an extremely important book. It is the best account yet published of how the Communist Party works in England • it...

The Life of Mahatma Gandhi. By Louis Fischer. (Cape. 2Ss.) MILLIONS of Hindus look on Gandhi as an incarnation of the divine ; some English and more Americans would agree with...

The Melodies Linger On. The Story of Music-hall. By W. " WELL, we might trot round. to the Empire at about ten," Algernon Moncrieff remarked in The Importance of Being Earnest....

IA Book .Token for one guinea will be awarded to the sender of the first correct solution of this week's crossword to be opened after noon on Tuesday week, January 30th....

A Silo 101Z-,, E e '0 , . ) e:y N T opoN l" INEllivi wils aiR , A v 1 T I c I liMMIN•u ft. 141110 - tWINGE5 'ALADDIN 5 L la v Re t. Illa IF 5 E m P . () cep I... P 0 w E...

Three Ha'pcncc to the Angel. By Charles Harris. (Phoenix House. ios. 6d.) AFTER the spate of trash which is all that seems to be published immediately before Christmas, what a...

The Simple Art of Murder. By RaymoneChandler. (Hamish Hamil- ton. los. 6d.) MR. RAYMOND CHANDLER is impressively sponsored; his dust-wrapper proclaims the superlative faith...

Winters of Content and other Discursions. By Osbert Sitwell. (Duck worth. 2 t S.) THIS book is a welcome reissue of Sir Osbert's Winters of Content (first edition, 1932)...

Books. is. 6d.) IT must be confessed that Professor Grant is not so sure in his touch with Pope as he is with Thomson, as indeed might be judged by his introduction, which is...

By CUSTOS As I suspected, markets have needed very little time in which to shake free from the momentarily depressing influence of the sheet steel cuts. Buying, much of it of...