T HE birth of Princess Elizabeth's child turns the mind back as well as forward. It is fifty-five years since Queen Mary, whose gracious presence and wise counsel still make...

No one can suppose that the action of Dr. Evatt and Mr. Trygve Lie, in approaching the political heads of the Western Great Powers and Russia regarding new conversations on...

The interchange of letters between Mr. Churchill and the Prime Minister regarding the committee of the five Western Union Powers which is to discuss the larger question of...

The name of Taierchwang, a village on the Grand Canal north of Suchow, has reappeared in communiqués from Marshal Chiang Kai-shek's Headquarters after a lapse of almost exactly...

Nobody can take pride in the opening passages of the six-Power conference on the Ruhr. What should have been a limited dis- cussion, concerned only with the establishment of an...

When the French Assembly adjourned at the end of September, the Cabinet which M. Queuille had scraped together was still very shaky, and there was an impression that in its...

The Security Council has spent a good deal of time discussing the definition of the words " truce," " peace " and "armistice," without coming to any more precise, conclusion...

The Government has introduced a Bill to extend State control of the liquor trade to new towns, and on the face of it the decision is a sensible one. A precedent for State...

A S soon as the lovely Prayer with which the House of Commons opens its sittings was over last Friday, the resolute little figure of Mr. Sydney Silverman was up, eager to...

It is not in the nature of Balkan quarrels that they can be settled by round-table discussions. But that is not the only handicap to the meeting of the representatives of...

/17 HE three-day debate in the House of Commons this week I left the case against the Iron and Steel Bill not merely unshaken but unmenaced. The arguments adduced by Government...

T HE term " a Pyrrhic victory " comes, I believe, from the exclama- tion of Pyrrhus after Asculum, "one more such victory and we are lost." Mr. Herbert Morrison probably...

Inquiry into Alleged Irregularities in Government Departments (to give the full title to what some papers more tersely call " the Probe "). Since this is not a court of law,...

whereby books arc sent out for review in advance on the understanding that no notice appears anywhere till the day of the book's publication. Thus an unseemly scramble to get in...

done before, and never expected to do—pay tribute to a railway sandwich. Having a few days ago to travel by a train which left King's Cross at 12.15 and would with luck reach...

Works to the new Foreign Office is interesting. Not everyone knows that Mr. Bevin and all his satellites are to be moved en masse to Carlton House Terrace. Actually this is only...

A two-line mention of the death of Dr. Curtius this week may well seem as much as such an event deserves. Yet Dr. Julius Curt:us will live in history as chief architect of a...

By GUNTHER STEIN New York. A MERICANS were just recovering from their surprise over the election when they had a second surprise. It was the change in the political and...

By WILSON HARRIS H OW far the labours of the Royal Commission on the Press will benefit humanity is a question on which some members of the Commission themselves, I fancy, keep...

By GEORGE SAMPSON H AMLET declared, in a moment of excitement, that if a great man's memory could be expected to outlive his life half a year, he must build churches. Isaac...

ByE. E. A. WHITWORTH, Headmaster of Tonbridge T HE report of the Syndicate appointed by the Council of the Senate on the Previous examination for entry to Cambridge University...

By CHRISTOPHER HOLLIS, M.P. W HAT, if anything, is the meaning of Christian civilisation ? It is obviously true that certain types of institution and certain qualities have...

By M. G. IONIDES A MID all the confusion of Palestine one fact stands out clear and insistent in its appeal. There are half a million refugees, men, women and children, who...

Like a circle, Time, thou art, Sourcekss, endless, but a chart Or locur of some point unknown, Uniform, regular, monotone . . . Yet pause a moment—curious thought— A circle...

By C. M. WOODHOUSE YEARS ago it could be taken for granted in England that all foreigners were either villainous or funny, but this view is now seen to have been exaggerated....

By HAROLD NICOLSON S OME weeks ago, in describing the exhibition of Treaties which was being held at the Public Record Office, I took occasion to deplore the fact that London...

THERE is plenty of time for reflection during a Wagnerian music- drama, and some of the less irrelevant things that occurred to my mind during the arider and more repetitive...

THE THEATRE The Solitary Lover. By Winston Cleeves. (Winter Garden.) No one would deny that the triangle Swift-Stella-Vanessa is charged with psychological interest. About the...

"Rope." (Carlton.)—" The Small Voice." (Plaza.)—" Cass Timberlane." (Empire.) Rope is the first film to be made employing the new "ten-minute- take " technique, the fi rst fi...

conduct marks in an assessment of the value of birds to human economy. It does not, I think, take other birds on the wing, in the manner preferred by the peregrine and indeed...

ONE of the large " murmurations of stares," probably more numerous this year than usual, was flying near the sea by Clacton when they became aware of a kestrel hovering...

ANNA MAYERSON'S conceptual improvisations at the Hanover Gallery owe more than a little to Paul Klee—in their mobility, their orches- tration of colour, their linear arabesques...

is presently to be the cause of much barking in the House of Commons, it is not out of place to consider the economy, not to say the ecology, of such ferae natural. I have been...

WHY NOT A SUBSCRIPTION TO "THE SPECTATOR"? Subscription rates for GL Britain and Over- seas by ordinary mail Air Mail to Members of the Forces in any part of the World ......

That is the present question in regard to such crops as broad beans, even peas and many annual flowers. I should have expected that the popularity of cloches, which still...

Complaints of the more or less new game of the tits continue to arrive, especially, as before, from Cornwall. One Cornish observer—aged ten— describes how after removing...

SIR,—Mr. Reginald A. Smith's criticisms of the Institute of Journalists cannot be allowed to pass unchallenged. I should be sorry to aggravate in any way the Institute versus...

THE CHOICE IN CHINA SIR, —All of us who share Colin McDonald's love of Chinese China will join with him in lamenting the tragic choice that now faces non-political Chinese. But...

SIR, —Let us be careful about the American election. Some of the inferences drawn are rather wild. Our Conservatives and Labour people alike, ignoring the figures, are finding...

SIR, —In a Dutch performance of Hamlet "I am thy father's ghost " is reputed to sound—" Ich bin dein Papa's Spook." In such circum- stances respect for the language inevitably...

Sta,—I was late in seeing The Spectator of October 29th, with its informed and kind reference to my father, the late Wilfrid Meynell, and its not quite accurate, and so...

SIR, —There may be some reason for despondency over the sale of fiction, children's books and poetry, though even that is apt to be exaggerated. But the demand for books of many...

SIR,—In his kindly review of my book, Rex Whistler : His Life and His Drawings, Mr. Derek Hill regrets that my brother's mural paintings were not represented. I must explain...

Sta,—Possibly it was desirable to devote two columns of The Spectator to celebrating the downfall of the public opinion poll-takers, Gallup and Roper. But is Mr. Gorer the right...

CORDELL HULL, who has been described as " the good grey Secre- tary," has written a good grey book. His memoirs, which cover both his career until he was appointed Secretary of...

Modest Proposal Notes Towards the Definition of Culture. By T. S. Eliot. (Faber and Faber. 10s. 6d.) ONE cannot help feeling somewhat presumptuous in reviewing a book of Mr....

American Themes. By D. W. Brogan. (Hamish Hamilton. 12s. 6d.) LEAVING aside Professor Harold Laski, who has many other fish to fry, we may consider that Professor Brogan...

Studies in Seicento Art and Theory. By Denis Mahon. (University of London. £2 10s.) THE practice of reissuing in this country art books printed and prepared abroad is a...

Quartet consists of four of Mr. Somerset Maugham's short stories, The Facts of Life, The Alien Corn, The Kite and The Colonel's Lady, plus their adaptation into screen plays by...

The Saracen's Head. By Osbert Lancaster. (John Murray. 8s. 6d.) MR. LANCASTER is such a well-known humorist that whatever he writes or draws is sure to attract attention. His...

Friend H.: John Cam Hobhouse. By Michael Joyce. (Murray. yPay 1 21s.) PUTRAGEOUS black and implausible white are synthetically com- pounded in the best of biographies, and we...

Other Voices Other Rooms is easily the most exciting novel to come from America this year. Though one of its chief characters is what is customarily referred to by reviewers as...

The Incomparable Aphra: A Study of Mrs. Aphra Behn. By George Woodcock. (Boardman. 12s. 6d.) " MRS. BEHN suffered enough at the hands of supercilious prudes ... and because she...

By CUSTOS ONCE again it is the old familiar story of " weight of money " in the stock markets. Sellers are few and there are unmistakable indications of a broadening of...

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 November 30th. Envelopes must be received not...

LIEF E DIU 5 01 RI 6 R 15 BE F M Blow MP= 111:1 131 _ WEILICL11313 AEIVICE113 CI 13 aC_t11 IMISMOUOC:110 SOLUTION ON DECEMBER 3rd. The winner of Crossword No. 502 is: A. J ....