11111E outstanding characteristic of Japanese operations in the Far East is their swiftness.' The enemy have secured bases in Borneo, the Celebes, and more recently ,, in...

On sixty-six separate occasions heavy air-attacks had been made by powerful bombers on Brest in the hope of destroying the Scharnhorst,' the Gneisenau ' and ' Prinz Eugen,'...

Addressing the Devonshire Club last Monday, Lord Bennett clearly recognised that there are two possible solutions of the commercial and financial problems of the Empire after...

Sir William Beveridge's Committee on Skilled Men in the Services has made a searching report on the use of skilled men in the Navy, the Army and the Air Force, and discloses in...

It is not surprising that there should have been a good deal of misunderstanding about the operations of income-tax among the wage-earners who have only recently become liable...

Lord Reith, as Minister of Works and Planning, will take over powers hitherto exercised by the Ministry of Health, and under a Bill which is being prepared will assume other...

An important point was raised in the House of Commons debate on Imperial and foreign broadcasting concerning the powers of B.B.C. Governors. What are those powers, and to what...

N O good will be done by minimising the disasters of the past week. The first thing is to look the facts in the face, and the second to see what should be done about them. What...

as one word—most of all when used, still more improperly as an adjective—" a nearby policeman intervened." I wholeheartedly agree.

No Minister today is more vocal than the First Lord of the Admiralty. Monday morning's papers are sure to contain reports of at least one week-end speech by Mr. Alexander, and...

of disturbance without that is of Sir Nevile Henderson being odopted as the Government candidate for the vacancy at Grantham. There may be nothing in this. Sir Nevile's name may...

is distressing. On Tuesday a debate on broadcasting, calculated to interest keenly every man and woman in the country (and many children) took place in the House of Commons. The...

T HE Churchill difficulty deepens. The worst thing possible would be to exaggerate it, but it is the Prime Minister himself who has most recently emphasised it. " I must ask the...

" donated" for given. Only half-damns, I am afraid, for the usages, though thoroughly objectionable (particularly "donated "), are not actually

Someone raises the vexed question of hyphens, complaining in particular that the columns of this journal are much _too full of them. There is no short and universal law about...

By STRATEGICUS T HE worst, and probably the wisest, thing we can say about the fall of Singapore is that it is the beginning of a critical phase of the war that may extend over...

By A MANAGING DIRECTOR T HE definition of Lord Beaverbrook's powers and responsi- bilities as Minister of Production was received without any very evident enthusiasm either in...

By ROSE MACAULAY W HEN Mr. W. J. Turner, in a recent article in these pages, protested against the day-long pauselessness of broadcast- ing, I am not sure that he was right....

By MARK BENNEY U NDER the ironic eye of Fred, my foreman, the works- inspector deposited his burden on my bench. An awkward armful, there were eleven steel blocks which, pieced...

By ALEXANDER DUFF T RAVELLING along an Irish country road the other day, I noticed two cars immediately ahead, proceeding in the same direction as mine. My Irish companion...

crease in demand. It is not merely that elderly people find in reading some occupation for the long dark evenings of war-time and some distraction from the painful...

war-time could contend that there has been any real absence of good intention, either on the part of the publishers, or on the part of the authorities concerned. From the first...

the only, not even perhaps the most serious, disability with which publishers have to contend. Even if they obtained double their present ration of paper they would still be...

By HAROLD NICOLSON I PROPOSE this week to write about books, and to discuss some of the difficulties to which literature in general, and publishers in particular, are today...

since they already receive a more generous paper ration than that accorded to newspapers and periodicals. Yet it is a far easier thing to reduce the size and shape of a...

DEAREST, the daffodils are shining, Through lazy lids they give a lovely light, I dream they are a chandelier illuming My ballroom in the Palace of the Night. Oh, dearest,...

"Captains of the Clouds." At Warner's. Hellzapoppin'" At the Leicester Square.—" Film and Reality." For Non- theatrical distribution. THE two best releases of the week are at...

" Twenty to One." At the Victoria Palace. " On Approval." At the Aldwych. THERE is no high falutin' nonsense- about Twenty to (Me. It is a lively rough-and-tumble show, with a...

SIR,—I am happy to observe from Mr. Leo Kennedy's letter which appeared in The Spectator of February 13th that he does not dispute the proposition that there should be closer...

THE EDITOR INDIA AND DOMINION STATUS SIR, —The grant of Dominion status to India bristles with difficulties many of which, without intimate knowledge of the country, are not...

Sin,—The myth that the vast sums of money needed to finance our war effort come from taxation must be dispelled once and for all. The banks create the necessary credits and...

published in The spectator of February 13th, prompt me to resume the recent corre- sPondence on the subject of education and its future in this country. Mr. Jacks' article, " A...

that "a strong 'community-sense " grows best in a boarding-school ; that the public- school influence on secondary day-schools has been most clearly shown by the provision which...

Sia,—" Janus " agrees with Mr. Stanley Unwin that a neutral country should be denied free copies of books published in belligerent London ; but Trinity College in Dublin is a...

THE most gorgeous emergence: of spring are seen in northern or high mountain regions. Flowers innumerable tread on the heels of the melting snow, even help to melt it. Immigrant...

SIR.—It is not often that one questions any observation made by the level-headed and entertaining " Janus," but he said something in your issue of February 6th which troubled...

SIR,—The following quotation is not without interest at the present time: "When offering me Cabinet office in his Government in 1908, he [Mr. Asquith] repeated to me Mr....

garden again, not in these days because the snowdrops are in flower, but because we may begin to increase the nation's food. Two vegetables at any rate, ilea beans and turnips,...

conditions of war ; and to some extent interserve the general good. Among the inventions are new light portable silos, light rafts, so to call them, for collecting grass...

St. Valentine now marks, more precisely than before, the beginning of the spring, for the reason that the close season for a number at birds, especially geese and duck, has been...

IN recent years, several very worthy efforts have been made to restore the literary periodical to popular favour by presenting it as a book. The latest venture of the Hogarth...

The Other America " HERE, then, is Latin America. Here is an area more than twice the size of the United States, here are 125,000,000 people in the brisk daylight of the...

The Screwtape Letters. By C. S. Lewis. (Geoffrey Bles. is.) Tins is a witty and profound book. It is also a flag hoisted on an advanced stronghold which shows us the direction...

Reminiscences of the Russian Ballet. By Alexandre Benois. (Putnam. ass.) Balletomane's Sketch-Book. By K. Ambrose and A. Haskell (A. and C. Black. las. 6d.) M. BENOIS was one...

H. M. Pulham Esquire. By John P. Marquand. (Robert Hale. 9s-) And One Was Beautiful. By Alice Duer Mi ler. (Methuen. 75. 6d1 Under New Management. By Naomi Jacob. (Hutchinson....

e n a 0 El AIM 0 n El m on 12 a F3 13 VI 0 i4M011 =no El = n 0400 Entammo MI 0 C1 1:1 mom rianenco SOLUTION ON The winner of Crossword No. ege, Portrush, Co. Antrim. MARCH...

will be awarded to the sender of the first correct this week's crossword to be opened after noon on Tuesday week. ;., e ■ o p e , •iwold be received not later than first post...

By CUSTOS MARKETS are still on the defensive, and seem likely to re so for some considerable time. Although the Pacific war n is their chief, it is not their only enemy....

Pattern of Conquest. By Joseph C. Harsch. (Heinemann. 8s. Ma. HARSCH, former correspondent of the Christian Sc Monitor in Berlin, cannot be said to write agreeable or correct...

IMPROVED TRADING RESULTS THE adjourned annual general meeting of Booker Brothers, McConnell and Co., Ltd., was held 08 February 17th St 37/41 Gracechutch Street, London, E.C....

ENGLISH ELECTRIC COMPANY PROFIT MAINTAINED THE twenty-third annual general meeting of the English Electric Company, Ltd., was held on February 18th in London. Mr. G. H....