31 AUGUST 1944

Page 1

NEWS OF THE WEEK

The Spectator

T HE rapidity of movement in this astonishing phase of the war is such that military operations must always be far ahead of the record of them. Little, therefore, is gained by...

Bulgaria Seeking Peace

The Spectator

Bulgaria is wishing a vain thing if she imagines that after all the harm she has done to the Allies she can wipe out the heavy reckon- ing against her by simply reverting to...

The French Agreements

The Spectator

The signing of agreements by Mr. Eden and M. Massigli, French Commissioner for Foreign Affairs, and by General Eisenhower and General Koenig, gives formal sanction to measures...

Page 2

The South-East Asia Campaign

The Spectator

The plan of the campaigns in South-East Asia is at pIesent designed for the winning of severely limited objectives, and within its scope it is not likely that it has fallen...

Mass Murder According to Plan

The Spectator

There is no possibility of doubting the reports of the mass murders at the German concentration camp at Maidanek, near Lublin, perpetrated according to plan with scientific...

The Framework or. the League

The Spectator

The desire of the deliberators at Dumbarton Oaks to acquaint the public with their decisions whenever possible is laudable, but it cannot be said that the information imparted...

Demobilisation Procedure

The Spectator

Mr. Bevin issued a statement on Tuesday repudiating certain reports relating to his demobilisation plans. He added that "at the appropriate moment " the Government will announce...

Mr. Churchill's Tests of Freedom

The Spectator

In the message which Mr. Churchill sent to the people of Italy on leaving their country it was evident that he was moved by sincere friendliness to them, and no one could feel...

Page 3

THE SIXTH YEAR

The Spectator

HE war is entering its sixth year. If that disappoints some hopes it can hardly be said to have disappointed expectations. And we are justified in believing that the sixth year,...

Page 4

An airgraph from Saskatchewan brings a suggestion I am gl

The Spectator

to pass on. Kindly-disposed people in this country, it is indicat might do a service that would give pleasure out of all proport . to the small sacrifice it entails, by visiting...

A SPECTATOR 'S NOTEBOOK

The Spectator

I T would be singularly unfortunate if the peculiarly harmonious relations both between this country and the United States gener- ally, and between the officers and - men of the...

The word " logistics " seems suddenly to have broken

The Spectator

into acne currency in the last few days. Not, of course, that it is a new wet but it has only penetrated the newspapers lately. I admit it fou me at a loss. Clearly it is of...

Two wills of which details have just been published provoke

The Spectator

so, reflections. Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch left £5,431, and another we known writer, Mr. C. L. Graves, long connected with Punch a earlier with this jcumal, £4,421. Either of the...

There is one aspect of the future of Germany that

The Spectator

has not been much discussed so far. It is impossible to discover what the total of her dead will be by the time the war is ever, or even to make any confident estimate. The...

A Scottish prisoner of war asked one of his German

The Spectator

guards wit whom he was on easy terms what he was going to do when the was over. " I shall get on my bicycle," the latter replied wt ardour, " and ride right round the frontiers...

Mr. Willink's reference to Mr. Churchill's warning that "Won] who

The Spectator

will have to have a time in bed, and will have the care of baby" (any connexion between the two?) should keep out London is, according to the Evening Standard, being distributed...

Page 5

GERMANY'S PROBLEM

The Spectator

By STRATEGICUS N the east as in the west the German direction of the war appears I to have - drifted once again into decisions that bear very little relation to the facts....

Page 6

A UNIQUE CAMPAIGN

The Spectator

By MAJOR-GENERAL SIR F. MAURICE T HE consequences of the Allied Victory in Normandy are un- folding. There were some shakings of heads when General Montgomery claimed a...

Page 7

THE FOURTH REPUBLIC

The Spectator

By FRANCIS GORDON " La Republique nous appelie ; Sachons vaincre ou sachons mourir." LIVER since the aristocratic sinecurists of the eighteenth century J destroyed the...

Page 8

THE LEGEND OF DECADENCE

The Spectator

By JANET ADAM SMITH " U SING extremely large forces of artillery and aircraft "— " throwing an exceptional number of fresh formations into the battle "—" under pressure of a...

Page 9

PEGUY

The Spectator

t 5 SEPTEMBER, 1914 YOUR course set North from Orleans, satchel tight With books, a needy scholar from her City, Paris was mastered with its dread and pity • —And there was no...

BOSWELL IN NORMANDY

The Spectator

By MILES JUVENIS S OME time before we left England I had been collecting a few suitable books to take with me on my travels. The choice is one which most people have considered...

Page 10

The Rumanians on the other hand can plead with considerable

The Spectator

justification that they were forced into hostility towards us by circumstances beyond their control. We in this country have been apt during the last twenty years to interpret...

Inipired as they were by fear of Russia, attaching as

The Spectator

they did a perhaps exaggerated importance to the retention of Bessarabia, un- willing to succumb to German economic and political domination, the Rumanian people turned...

MARGINAL COMMENT

The Spectator

By HAROLD NICOLSON T HE abandonment of Germany by Rumania and Bulgaria has I not aroused in this country the interest which might have been expected. To a large extent the news...

There are, however, certain things which at this moment sve

The Spectator

should bear in mind. Bandits of the type of Horia Sima, or atm trics such as Codreano or antiL-semites such as A. C. Cuza are in no sense representative of Rumanian thought or...

It is doubtful whether on this occasion the British public

The Spectator

will be stirred to any warmth of sympathy for the Bulgarian predicament. Even if Bulgaria's " complete neutrality " merges into co-belligerency it is questionable whether this...

Page 11

OPERA

The Spectator

Cosi fan tutte. At the Princes Theatre. THE Sadler's Wells Company's new production of Cosi fan tune s a brave venture and a welcome addition to the meagre entertain- ments of...

THE CINEMA

The Spectator

1, Champagne Charlie." At the London Pavilion, Regal, and Cinema Moderne, Bayeux. IF for no other reason, this film would demand attention as being the first major directorial...

THE THEATRE

The Spectator

Bird in Hand." At the St. Martin's. IT is rather surprising to find that the late John Drinkwater could write an entertaining comedy, for humour was not conspicuous in...

Page 12

BIRTHRATE AND HOUSEWORK

The Spectator

E. Estcourt's excellent letter recalls some features of a Pro I suggested as subject for the " Foundation Oration " at Univers:: College in March, 1918. The committee, however,...

ha,—My father, a Parsee of the Parsecs, and a former

The Spectator

member of the Indian State Railway, is a great champion of the British. I, though, like many of my contemporaries less conservative and more critical, have lived and worked in...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

The Spectator

INDIAN DEADLOCK S1R,—Your correspondent " Z " nearly (but not quite) stated the essential absurdity of the Indian situation. This is the way it has become taken for granted...

Page 13

COTTAGERS' LIGHT

The Spectator

Sut,—One of the troubles of the electricity industry is the multitude of remedies proposed by those people anxious for its reorganisation. Many -of the proposals come from...

111 1--As a young housewife and mother, I feel I must

The Spectator

comment on at • E. Estcourt's interesting article, " Birthrate and Housework," in your of August 18th. The article states the facts of the problem clearly, t offers no very...

gat, I thoroughly agree with last week's article by D.

The Spectator

E. Estcourt. Before my marriage I trained as a nurse in a London Voluntary Hospital and was then an Army Sister, and I have always been healthy and used to hard work. However,...

SIR,—Your correspondent " A Mere Consumer," p. 173, The Spectator,

The Spectator

August 25ttt, asks for readers' reasons why electricity is cheaper else- where than here, and gives excellent reasons why it need not be so. Can you, Sir, or your readers,...

GENIUS OF THE JUNGLE

The Spectator

Sm,—Sir William Beach Thomas's recent paragraph on "a certain genius of the jungle " can refer, by copious internal evidence, only to James Corbett, of Kaladhungi, whom I have...

Page 14

BALLET RAMBERT

The Spectator

SIR,—I hope you will not consider it inappropriate if, in reference to your notice of the " Ballet Rambert " in last week's Spectator, I call your attention to the fact that for...

COUNTRY LIFE MANY of us hoped that the War Agricultural

The Spectator

Committees were an in. stitution that might solve many of our farming troubles. Their work includes the best features of the Russian system: the provision of machinery from a...

PUBLISHING AND LABOUR

The Spectator

Sut,—Mr. L. J. Cormack's invocation of Euclid does not meet the point I sought to make. Euclid, if 1 remember rightly, submitted no proposi- tion to the effect that the less...

Postage on this issue: Inland, ild.; Overseas, rd.

The Spectator

A FRONTIER TOWN

The Spectator

SIR, — In the article "Normandy's Place in the War " in The Spectator of August 25th the statement that " Puigcerda, Cerbere and Le Perthus are held by the F.F.I." is made. In...

In My Garden The really astonishing yield of a few

The Spectator

roots of self-sown potatoes almost inclines one to the heresies that potatoes should be planted in autumn and not earthed up. Indeed this second theory has had recently some...

The Poppy ,Seed What a mysterious seed is the poppy's!

The Spectator

In one wheatfield where poppies had been virtually unknown, the plains grew up in such density that the corn had to be ploughed in and a spring crop sown. This Was in Berkshire....

Guns and Vermin On the subject of vermin, one of

The Spectator

the only places known to me person- ally where rabbits (almost extinct in many districts) are a worse plague than they ever have been is over a wide space reserved for gunners...

THE FUTURE OF THE FILM INDUSTRY

The Spectator

Sta,—There would appear to be almost a conspiracy of silence on the part of our post-war planners, educationists and social economists respect- ing the part the cinema is to...

WHAT ABOUT ALBERTA ?

The Spectator

Stay—One of the most significant political events (practically unreported in our Press) in the British Empire for the past 20 years, is the re-election of the nine years old...

Page 16

Our National Bank

The Spectator

IT is evident that Sir John Clapham has enjoyed tracing the emergence from a state of chaotic experiment of something as safe as the Bank of England. It is not only the Bank of...

BOOKS OF THE DAY

The Spectator

A History of Holland "DUTCH history," write§ Dr. Renier, "is full of errors and mis- understandings, but it is a story without a villain." May be that is one reason why we in...

Page 18

The Gospels

The Spectator

Christ in the Gospels. By A. E. J. Rawlinson, D.D., Bishop of Derby. (Oxford University Press. 6s. 6d.) THESE are days when Bishops, hard pressed by manifold diocesan cares and...

The Self-Conquering Combatant

The Spectator

The Way of Recovery. By Squadron Leader William Simpson, D.F.C. (Hamish Hamilton. 7s. 6d.) ON the day the Germans invaded the Low Countries, Squadron Leader Simpson was shot...

Page 20

Fiction

The Spectator

MR. CARY'S new novel is narrated in the first person by its hero, who is a broken-dovsin and penniless old painter, aged sixty-seven. When we first meet him he is just out of...

What.Next ?

The Spectator

THE announcement that we are threatened with a new Dark Age is not unfamiliar, but neither is it obsolete. We shall be hearing it again in many forms and at many lengths, in...

Page 21

SOLUTION TO CROSSWORD No. 284

The Spectator

SOLUTION ON SEP 1 EMBER I S t et Winner of Crossword No. 284 is MARK BATES, ESQ., 33 Worcester. The Tything,

"THE SPECTATOR " CROSSWORD No. 286

The Spectator

[A Book Token for one guinea will be awarded to the sender of the first correct seiution of this week's crossword to be opened after noon on Tuesday week, September 12th....

Page 22

FINANCE AND INVESTMENT

The Spectator

By CUSTOS IN the stock markets it is now a tug-of-war between those who are still prepared, at the current level of prices, to look forward optimis- tically into the post-war...

Shorter Notice

The Spectator

Early in 1939 Miss Bosanquet (bearer of a name with varied and honourable implications in the last half-century) decided to go to Canada, ride from coast to coast on horseback,...

Page 23

COMPANY MEETING

The Spectator

WELLMAN SMITH OWEN ENGINEERING CORPORATION DISTRIBUTION MAINTAINED THE twenty-fifth ordinary general meeting of the Wellman Smith Owen Engineering Corporation, Limited, was...

OMPANY MEETING

The Spectator

TANDARD BANK OF SOUTH AFRICA A SATISFACTORY POSITION HE 131st ordinary general meeting of the Standard Bank of South no, Limited, was held on August 30th at the head office,...