A fortnight after the announcement that Argentina was preparing to receive 4,000,000 immigrants from Europe comes the news that she has undertaken to invest 7oopoo,000 Argentine...

The steady reappearance in the Fourth Republic of all the familiar features of the Third is none the less depressing for being inevitable. The game of Cabinet-making has gone...

critical, and the im- pression increases that forces are in motion which no one can arrest. The debates in the two Houses of Parliament last week were calculated to do more harm...

Several days of acute anxiety, during which newspaper reporters were not content to await Mr. Strachey's public statements and dogged him wherever he went, have ended in a...

As a set-off to many wise and salutary decisions the United Nations Assembly has acted with great foolishness regarding Spain. By striking a purely ideological note it has...

The unanswered questions about the future organisation of British transport are so big and so numerous that no Commons' debate could answer them. But it might perhaps have...

One by one the lessons of post-war economics are being learned. It has become clear that to achieve full employment in the sense of providing a job for everybody is only to take...

It would be foolish to contend that the vote of the doctors on the National Health Service Act is a matter of no consequence. When some 64 per cent. of general practitioners, on...

T HIS week—or at any rate for the first half of it—the House of Commons has achieved a positively Aristotelian unity of theme. In one sense at least this prolonged debate on...

The Memorandum on Boarding-out of Children and Young Persons, a blue book published by the Stationery• Office last week, contains, in spite of the clumsiness of its title, a...

M ISTRUSTFUL generally of slogans, particularly in memory of the " Peace in our time " which a recently published biography recalls, a sceptical public may be inclined to look a...

freely given has been—legitimately, but ruthlessly—taken away. That applies particularly to bread units which are no longer convertible into points. Now it is reasonable enough,...

the Russian paper, Red Fleet, on the British convoys that took aid to Russia in 1942 stirred the House of Commons to deep resentment, irre- spective of party, on Tuesday. In...

who have views on statues must not keep them all for the represen- tation of President Roosevelt in Grosvenor Square. I had myself taken vague notice of the proposal to put up...

con. siderably impressed when talking to a distinguished Sudanese a few days ago to hear the tribute — evoked by a quite casual turn in the conversation—which he paid to British...

highway on Monday is instructive. One April evening in 1944 Mr. Ernest Searle, living in a village in Warwickshire, went for a ride on his bicycle after dark and ran into a...

in print before, though I doubt it. Campbell-Bannerman entered the Cabinet for the first time as Secretary of State for War in 1886 in Glad- stone's third administration. When...

as in many other places. It is unusual for a college to choose an Admiral as Master, though Peterhouse some years ago chose a soldier in Lord Birdwood. But Downing made no...

By JOHN A. STEVENSON T HE political situation in Canada has now reached a state of fluidity, but such currents of public opinion as the year now ending has disclosed have not...

By DOROTHY F. BUXTON T HE problem of the 380,000 prisoners of war in this country and of the 100,000 still in the Middle East has not been disposed of by the repatriation...

By E. L. PACKER T HE gross annual turnover in gambling is being watched from two sides. Treasury officials are said to be working out plans to tax betting, and representatives...

By H. G. DANIELS A FEW days ago I went into a bookseller's shop in Zurich and asked to see his stock of Tauchnitz. He took me into a dark corner of the shop, and let me browse...

MISTRESS and wife should be twain, Said Montaigne ere he died of the stone, And marriages made upon earth For what they are worth. But we, Husband and wife, Foolish, unknown,...

By HELEN MacGREGOR T HE annual pre-Christmas great wail about the quality of children's books and toys is audible as usual. " Quite too frightful, my dear," greets these...

By HAROLD NICOLSON I UNDERSTAND that a group of Labour back-benchers intend to submit to Mr. Bevin on his return a scheme which they have drafted for the immediate reform of the...

THE sixty drawings by Stefano della Bella at the Arcade Gallery are very well worth a visit. He worked in the middle of the seventeenth century, in Florence for the most part,...

MUSIC THE week has been remarkable for two excellent revivals—Purcell's Fairy Queen at Covent Garden on December 12th and Orazio Vecchi's L'Amfiparnasso at the Wigmore Hall on...

"Song of the South." At the New Gallery. " The Wind " and early Chaplins. At the New London Film Society. FOR those who were not brought up on Uncle Remus, Song of the South...

Louts MACNIECE'S adaptation of a Norwegian fairy-tale, The Heart- less Giant, belonged by nature to the Children's Hour, but might equally well have found a place in the Third...

THERE are some excellent recent recordings to notice, but it will not be possible to do more than mention some of the most out- standing. For sheer size the Columbia Messiah is...

SIR,—Mr. Peter Fleming's discussion of the ethics of dropping a bomb on Hiroshima might have taken a different turn had he in the course of his many travels visited the place....

THE PUZZLE OF THE KREMLIN SIR,—Mr. Chancellor's puzzle in your issue of November 1st reminds one rather of those games of chess one sometimes plays against oneself. You can...

and if they are now required to accept a more modest return on their capital, a return that is based quite fairly on a national policy of low interest rates, it is difficult to...

SIR,—Mr. J. F. Goodridge, in your issue of December 13th, speaks of a widespread desire to know whether in countries under Soviet influence a policy of oppression and in some...

SIR,—Twenty-five years ago there were over 50 independently-owned railways in Great Britain, most of which were in a sound financial position before the first world war. During...

Sta,—In your note on the Socialists' abuse of power with the closed shop where they have a majority on local councils you say, " The first and best battle-ground is the...

SIR,—May I endorse Mr. Kenneth Lindsay's excellent article on UNESCO in your issue of December 13th? As an observer from International Student Service on the periphery of the...

SIR, —The last thing I wish to do is to enter into controversy with an old friend like Sir Nigel Davidson, but it would seem that his opinion of the Mandi differs from that of...

issue of Decem- ber 13th, would regard the difference in destructiveness between atomic and chemical bombing as being quantative rather than qualitative. • I would reverse the...

SIR, Most of your readers will welcome, as we certainly do, the news that food parcels may now be sent to the hungry people of Europe. But the people of Europe are cold as well...

in your friendly note on the B.B.C. debate? You say that I " emphatically condemned broadcasts embodying attacks on other countries." What I condemned was the denial of...

SIR,—In your issue of December 6, 1946, Mr. 0. Leveson Gower asks under the heading Food from Distressed Countries for an explanation why Poland is exporting eggs to Great...

character for Janus, as a Tory, to bother about Mr. Gandar Dower's broken election promise. Perhaps Mr. Gandar Dower's statement was only meant as seriously as other Tory...

SIR,—British publishers are naturally anxious to win back their pre-war export trade, and all we who formerly used English books so much wish them the best. But even when one...

SIR,—If a man wishes to give a guinea to his vicar as an Easter offering he must put two pound notes into the plate. If a company or firm gives Do° to the local hospital, the...

SIR,—Sir Max Beerbohm's pleasant little rebuke comes like a butterfly touch, but my poor little " gifts " combined with your circulation have been so fortunate as to bring from...

A query last week concerning Tennyson's correction of the seed- distribution passage in In Memoriam has been answered, but not perhaps completely. In reference to the line in...

A ploughman, who had been called in to plough up a field for two new farmers, said on leaving that he had left a pair of socks under the hedge. Would they retrieve them against...

Snt,—I have a very keen desire to have Pen Pals in your country, and I have consulted many of my friends, one of whom gave me your name and address as a well reputed publisher...

years in the production of dwarf varieties of plants. The dwarf Michaelmas Daisies, which can be used aI an edging, are now to be had in great variety of shade and are a real...

subject of the population of starlings, one giving an ecstatic account of the manoeuvring of untold multitudes over a space of some twenty acres (in Nottinghamshire), the ether...

with headquarters at Pres- ton, Lancashire, is not in communion with the Protestant Evangelical Church of England—a newly created body—the Evangelical Church of India, or the...

its work, and affiliation with other educational bodies in India and elsewhere, whose status was questioned by Janus—we write to state for the information of your readers and...

IT is usually a surprise, though it happens often, to find other countries taking their lead from an English example, generally in some political or social reference. But it may...

of your readers to a matter which is of grave concern to other schools besides the one of which I am head? In 1939 this school gave up its playing fields of about eight acres so...

The Emergence of the Jewish Problem, 1878-1939. By James Parkes. (Geoffrey Cumberlege, Oxford University Press, 15s.) DR. PARKES warns his readers not to expect a full-scale...

The Chindits The Wild Green Earth. By Bernard Fergusson. (Collins. 10s. 6d.) THE exploits of No. 5 Column during Wingate's 1943 operations, and its commander's skill and...

White of Selborne and His Times. By Walter S. Scott. (West- house. 21s.) THIS is a book about the man. It is a close-up portrait, built up patiently by a biographer who must...

The Living Novel. By V. S. Pritchett. (Chatto and Windus. 8s. 6d.) MR. PRrrarErr, in his preface to this collection of essays on Eng- lish, French,. Italian and Russian...

Zito Hellas. A Popular History of Ancient Greece. By C. E. Robinson. (Chapman and Hall. 12s. 6d.) THIS is a timely book. For the study of ancient Greek history can give us the...

Our they come for the Christmas market, to be bought for pleasure, for reference, for prestige and snob value, part of the ever-renewed effort to tame art, classify it and make...

Late Harvest. By Norman Douglas. (Lindsay Drummond. 8s. 6d.) IN this short, retrospective volume Mr. Norman Douglas touches upon each of his seventeen books, identifying some...

All for Hecuba. By Michael MacLiammoir. (Methuen. 21s.) IT may seem very ungracious to begin by saying of a book so full of true charm as in this autobiography of Michael...

APART from his literary work, Mr. Higginson will long be remem- bered as master of the Cattistock and South Dorset Hounds. He brought to the County of Dorset, however, not only...

The Triumph of Death. By C. F. Ramuz, Translated by Allen Ros. Macdougall and Alex Comfort ; Introduction by Denis de Rougement (Routledge. 8s. 6d.) The Peacock Sheds His Tail....

5s.) ONE would naturally expect good, light verse from the daughter of the late Harry Graham, author of Ruthless Rhymes, and one is not disappointed. The verses in Consider the...

common with that Alexandrine creature which, like a wounded snake, drags it slow length along. In short, it may be dead but it is unseasonably disinclined to lie dawn. Before...

[A Book Token for one guinea will be azzarded to the sender of the first correct solution of this week's crossword to be opened after noon on Tuesday week, December 31st....

R E . 11s . ' 441ACS NrjE.SIT I SOLUTION ON JANUARY 3rd The winner of Crossword No. 404 is E. GRAHAM GUEST, ESQ., 5, New- beide Terrace, Edinburgh.

By CUSTOS JUST as one began to fear that the City's voice might not be heard in protest against the financial terms of the Government's railway nationalisation proposals,...