1 AUGUST 1952

Page 1

A Pressed Men's 'Election

The Spectator

One volunteer is worth quite a number of pressed men. But the American Presidential Election knows no volunteers. Two pressed men face one another in the lists. General...

ANTI-CLIMAX AGAIN

The Spectator

HE present Government's record in economic policy of four anti-climaxes in nine months is one that the preceding Labour Governments did not surpass. Mr. Butler's statement on...

Page 2

Next Move for Steel

The Spectator

The White Paper on the re-transfer of the iron and steel industry to private ownership has the basic merit that it proposes the restoration of the Iron and Steel Board, which...

Talk of Oil

The Spectator

The characteristic performance of Dr. Moussadek in offering arbitration over the oil-dispute in Persia and then immediately withdrawing the offer is a sufficient discouragement...

The Wage Issue

The Spectator

The question of wage increases is rapidly taking on an aspect which it has-not worn for some years. The assumption that there is a semi-automatic process whereby wage demands...

Prison Disclosures

The Spectator

Few bodies do more useful work than the House of Commons' Select Committee on Estimates. Striking evidence of that is provided by the committee's report on prison con- ditions,...

Page 3

Schuman Plan and Reality

The Spectator

Last week's meetin g in Paris of the Forei g n Ministers of the six countries takin g part in the Schuman Plan certainly managed to g ive an impression of brisk activity. M....

AT WESTMINSTER M R. BUTLER, one suspects, rose to make his

The Spectator

state- ment on the balance of payments with somethin g of the hollow feelin g of the actor who knows in his heart that the play cannot live up to the preliminary puffs and...

Ill Fares the Land

The Spectator

By a coincidence reports of the debate of the House of Commons on transport in Scotland and reports of the 1951 census so far as it bore on the continued depopulation of...

Page 4

AFTER FAROUK

The Spectator

• E XCEPT that Capri is more genial as an ultimate resting- place than a dungeon in Pomfret Castle, there is much in common between the decline and fall of King Farouk and of...

Page 5

I see that some impulse is to be given to

The Spectator

the production of that revolting commodity, the prune (possessed, it is said, of certain medicinal qualities in keeping with its general character), in this country. It will...

Studying, with the care it deserved, Viscount Simon's reply to

The Spectator

a proposal of Lord Jowitf s in the debate on the Defamation Bill in the House of Lords on Monday, I lighted on a passage in which Lord Simon illustrated a contention by a...

A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK

The Spectator

AC CORDING to Carlyle this country in his day was inhabited by twenty-seven millions, mostly fools. The Editor of the Daily Express evidently holds a similar opinion of his own...

In considering that full weight must be given, much more

The Spectator

weight than has in most quarters been given, to the well known devotion of the Express to veracity. It is well-known because both its " Controlling Shareholder," Lord...

The French Ambassador did well to give a farewell party

The Spectator

on Wednesday in honour of M. Michel St. Denis, who is leav- ing London after many valuable and active years in this country. M. St. Denis, under the pseudonym of Jacques...

Sir Alexander Cadogan must be counted one of the favourites

The Spectator

of fortune. To get a Suez Canal Directorship, an O.M. and the Chairmanship of the B.B.C. Governors, all within the space of a single year or not much more is something that...

Cricket, fortunately, has no concern with politics, but it sometimes

The Spectator

has an oblique bearing on them. And there is just a touch of political—and more than a touch of psychological—. importance in the announcement that Pakistan was on Monday...

Page 6

The Democrats Choose A Winner

The Spectator

T HE Democratic Party's nominating Convention was a very nearly perfect example of the American faculty for making everything come out all right in the end. Those abroad who are...

Page 7

The Close

The Spectator

By SIR HENRY BASHFORD ALISBURY is the most distant of our three market-towns. To go there is always something of an event. And, whenever we do, we turn into the Close. Apart...

Evita and After

The Spectator

By GEORGE BRINSMEAD U NTIL the coming of Evita, only one woman—a hand- some Irishwoman, " Madama " Lynch—had ever played a dominating part in the public affairs of a Latin...

Page 8

African Airfield

The Spectator

By VERNON BARTLETT three in the morning the airfield becomes active. The lights are switched on along the runway. The motor- coach arrives with the outgoing passengers, some...

Page 9

In a Highland Deer-Forest

The Spectator

By SETON GORDON p OACHING gangs have been at work among the Highland deer. Fast cars with powerful headlights bewilder the deer, which are held in the headlights and shot, the...

Page 10

UNDERGRADUATE PAGE

The Spectator

Oxford in the Vacation By DAVID WAINWRIGHT (St. Edmund Hall, Oxford). A CANADIAN lady was recently reported to have said that she had found Cambridge more attractive than...

!be prrtator, 3Iuly 31g, 1352

The Spectator

At this moment Drury Lane Theatre presents one of those extraordinary spectacles for which we should in vain seek a parallel beyond the precincts of the histrionic profession....

Page 11

MARGINAL COMMENT

The Spectator

By HAROLD NICOLSON T HE appointment of Sir Alexander Cadogan as Chairman of the Board of Governors of the B.B.C. has, I observe, induced our leader-writers and commentators to...

Page 12

CONTEMPORARY ARTS

The Spectator

CINEMA We're Not Married. (Odeon, Leicester Square.) Son of Paleface. (Carlton.)—Where's Charley ? (Warner.) AMERICAN films on American themes are more cloyingly complacent...

MUSIC

The Spectator

Tun programmes of this year's Promenade Concerts contain no absolutely new works, no first performances. Instead there are sixteen works which have never been played at a Prom....

EXHIBITION

The Spectator

CaLcurr' presented a sword of honour to the young major-general who had routed the Mahrattas at Assaye, and there was a silver table- service from his victorious- Deccan army....

Page 13

SPECTATOR COMPETITION No. 129

The Spectator

Set by R. Kennard Davis A prize of £5, which may be divided, is offered for a poem of not more than eighteen lines, entitled " Disillusionment," based on and including the...

SPECTATOR COMPETITION No. 126

The Spectator

Report by limpet The following advertisement appeared four years ago under the heading " Personal " in a country newspaper : " Cricket—Will the Boiler Engineer Gentleman who...

Page 14

Earthing Up

The Spectator

Earth up growing greens and celery. Use a good insecticide to counteract leaf-miner. Draw earth away from onions to allow them to swell out. Three good crops of weeds in a...

Reverting to the Wild

The Spectator

Walking home, I met Dick, who told me that his dog had once gone wild to have her pups and he had had to bring the family back to civilised surroundings. My grandfather had a...

Slate Fences Slate fences are unlikely to be found anywhere

The Spectator

but in a slate- quarrying district. From the look of them they are an old thing, and yet so effective that I wonder they have not been exported. The fences vary a little in...

The Poplar Tree

The Spectator

Few birds seem to trust the poplar tree in this area. Sometimes a thrush or a blackbird makes use of the lower branches, but for the rest the poplar tree is hardly ever the...

COUNTRY LIFE

The Spectator

As I expected earlier in the year, it has turned - put to be, a great season for rabbits in this locality. Fields that never had them before, so long as I can remember, have...

Page 15

Sta,—In 1931 I heard Canon B. K. Cunningham use the

The Spectator

term " dak bungalow " to interpret St. John's ." many mansions." He pointed out that it was appropriate to the upward journey of the soul after death, using temporary...

Von Papen

The Spectator

SIR,—In his review of Franz von Papen's memoirs Mr. Alan Bullock takes an objective and detached standpoint which is wholly admirable, but inevitably inadequate. To follow...

SIR,—To the several variants of the Greek " monai "

The Spectator

rendered in the A.V. of the New Testament and recorded by Janus, one occurs to me w i hich was in frequent use in Ireland in past years. In return for a kindness the wish was...

Snr,—Why did Janus not mention the translation of the New

The Spectator

Testament by Mgr. Knox ? It is the most spiritually enlightening I have found, and it has no bias. He used the term " dwelling-places," but surely " mansions " is less...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

The Spectator

- In Defence of Tyndale Sm,-1 hope you will allow me to comment on the paragraph by Janus dealing with the translation of familiar passages in the Bible. The particular verse...

The Winston Churchill Trophy

The Spectator

SIR,—I do not think it is so funny that Mr. Fenner Brockway should enquire earnestly why the Iver Heath Conservative Association used a U.S. servicemen's baseball tournament to...

Page 16

The Increasing Male S1R,—Earlier this year there was a correspondence

The Spectator

in the Spectator about whether in this country there were more women than men in the marrying age-groups; the correspondence rather petered out for want of reliable contemporary...

Battle of Britain Week

The Spectator

Sur,—As Battle of Britain Week again approaches (September 15th-21so, may I commend to your attention the work of the Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund. Last year we spent...

Holidays in Scotland

The Spectator

SIR,—Thou g h I am delighted that Mr. J. Howard Wright enjoyed his first, and I hope not his last, visit to my country, I am afraid that my reaction to the content of his first...

Thomas Gray

The Spectator

SIR, —Janus was facing the wrong side of the London road in his parenthesis on Thomas Gray. The only sense in which Pembroke College " produced " Gray was that in which a...

Country Life

The Spectator

SIR,—I was most interested to read Mr. Niall's reference in your issue of June 27th to the greater spotted woodpecker in a friend's garden. Exactly the same thing is happening...

French Books in England

The Spectator

Snt,—Mr. J. R. Dodeman's letter surely does less than justice to the many British booksellers who maintain well-stocked French book departments under the control of competent,...

Arabesques of Address

The Spectator

Snr,—One hesitates to question the accuracy of any statement of Mr. Harold Nicolson's; but could he ever have addressed Prince Talleyrand as " Ambassador from His Most Christian...

Page 17

The Great Divide

The Spectator

Survey of International Affairs : 1947 - 1948. By Peter Calvocoressi. (Oxford University Press for Royal Institute of International Affairs. 45s.) THE major problem that has...

BOOKS OF THE WEEK

The Spectator

The Secluded Poet Emily Dickinson. By Richard Chase. (Methuen. 16s.) SHE became a legend while she was yet alive, with her poetry so different from anyone else's and the red...

Page 18

Man of Peace ?

The Spectator

Rose-and Crown. By Sean O'Casey. (Macmillan. 21s.) SEAN is a man of peace, he tells us in this fifth volume of his auto- biography ; but, wherever he goes, people will tread on...

Page 20

AN IDEAL BIRTHDAY GIFT

The Spectator

We will post the SPECTATOR to any of your friends residing in any part of the world at the following rates :— 52 weeks, 35s. ; 26 weeks, 17s. 6d. In addition a Birthday...

Origins of Writing

The Spectator

A Study of Writing. The Foundations of Grammatology. By I. J. Gelb. (Routledge and Kegan Paul. 25s.) THE author of this book purposes " to lay a foundation for a new science of...

Irish Authoresses

The Spectator

LADIES are rarely known in polite society by their surnames except when they appear in the dock. But more than a generation ago the combined name of Somerville and Ross was so...

The Poet's Purpose

The Spectator

The Open Night. By John Lehmann. (Longman. 15s.) THESE eleven brief essays, with their prologue and epilogue, are Mr. Lehmann's study of writers, diverse in their genius, linked...

Page 21

THE "SPECTATOR" CROSSWORD No. 689

The Spectator

A Book Token for one guinea will be awarded to the sender of the first correct solution opened after noon on Tuesday week, August 12th, addressed Crossword, and bearing NUMBER...

Solution to Crossword No. 687

The Spectator

CI L*I 11 13 L3 B OBBOMBL1121313 71 013L3M 13 PI ra itit3OPILICIM ?71I1©10[ © 13 © Mi{.111131313 MCIOMP312 ?LI 111 BPJB 11319M rinntleaorsnn ILI Q iii ELI C 11 VA1313EIMBO...

Page 22

Italian Opera Concentrated

The Spectator

Italian Opera. By Francis Toye. (Max Parrish. 8s. 6d.) THE " World of Music" series, of which this is the latest volume. has made formidable demands for compression on some of...

• Fiction

The Spectator

THE first three books are all different varieties of the popular novel, curiously linked to each other. Far and away the best of the three is Campbell's Kingdom, a roistering...

Page 23

FINANCE AND INVESTMENT By CUSTOS THESE are puzzling days for

The Spectator

investors. After steeling themselves against the threatened impact of further " grave and far-reaching measures " to strengthen the pound they have been treated by Mr. Butler to...