From the point of view of the military and the police the situation in Kenya is improving. This is the first necessity, for before anything else can be done effectively order...

regretted that the Parlia- mentary Labour Party, by a narrow majority in a thinly attended meeting, should have • declined the Prime Minister's invitation to join in all- party...

The story that the United States Government have proposed to the British Government the .repudiation of parts—in par- ticular, secret parts—of the Yalta Agreement of 1945 is now...

The Transport Bill, having had its third reading on Monday, left the Commons for the Lords a better Bill than it was originally, but still lacking some essential adjustments and...

It is to be hoped that India will not develop the habit of inviting every peripatetic British politician who visits India to address the two Houses of the Assembly. It is to be...

On February 12th it was agreed between the National Coal Board and the National Union of Mineworkers that the wages of 320,000 day-wage men would be raised by 6s. a week, even...

A fortnight ago there was occasion to criticise here the unreasonable terms of the Criminal Law Amendment Bill, now before the South African Parliament, which is designed to...

Although, as we perhaps over-frequently remind ourselves, we live in an Atomic Age, few seem to be clear in their own minds about world trends in the development of nuclear...

Mr. Churchill, in his speech to the National Farmers' Union on Tuesday, added his emphatic voice to those of, his own Minister of Agriculture and of the late Labour Government...

T HE floods and foreign\ policy have continued to engage the House of Commons this week. The first thorough debate on the flood damage was arranged for Thursday and was...

1 ? IHE Suez Canal is a vital link—it might better be said the vital link—between Europe and Asia for all but the lightest traffic. Aeroplanes can convey a human, but not much...

and Mr. Mont Follick might be regarded simply as one of Mr. Follick's frolics—the Member for Loughborough is a most amiable man, but the House of Commons has never consented to...

to £750. Unfortunately it is the Australian allowance, not the British. The latter remains obstinately pegged at £25. While that annoys me a great deal it should give pleasure...

the Persian earthquake. He probably got there faster than the Indian District Commissioner who heard, while returning by sea from leave, of a serious disaster in the area for...

in spite of his seventy-nine years and the ill-health which has caused him to resign his see, has, it may be hoped, many pros- perous years before him. But it would be...

Berlin, made a great impression on the various audiences he has addressed in London in the past week. Standing in the very front of the firing-line in the cold war (if cold and...

have always thought such a body unnecessary, and I never liked the controversial spirit in which it was first proposed. But now that it is taking shape I wish it nothing but...

man should be imprisoned for three weeks and get no more compensation than £5 out of the poor-box. Whether there is a prospect of more compensation from some other source I...

13, GORONWY REES 0 N August 3rd, 1948, Mr. Whittaker Chambers, then a senior editor of Time magazine, testified before the notorious Committee on Un-American Activities in...

By TANGYE LEAN F OR those of us who learnt to read between the two world wars, Proust's A la Recherche du Temps Perdu was a kind of optional university which we attended or...

T HE process of revising the Canon Law has inevitably brought into sharp prominence the question of the proper status and function of the laity in the government of the Church...

By GAVINGORDON ' It was on the morning of Sunday, February 1st, that Belgians living away from the coast and the Scheldt heard of the break- ing of the dykes and the...

" SPECTATOR " Please write :-- THE CIRCULATION MANAGER, "Spectator," 99 "Gower Street, London, W.C.L

By JOHNTAWNEY T HE demonstrator said, "So you see, gentlemen, the tractor more than replaces the horse," but the gentlemen did not quite see, for the horse had played no part in...

In Search of a Home By A. J. COOPER (Wadham College, Oxford) T HE Delegacy of Lodgings is a forbidding building, full - of doors and corridors. It was from this, a week before...

Nelson. (Wigmore ON the face of it one would hardly expect a" concert-reading " of a new opera to give a fair or even adequate idea Of its quality ; and it seemed a doubtful...

is the play itself which is of no importance : but that would be unwise, for it has its moments. Tennents have had it knocked into three acts, relieved of some of its painful...

a wet, sweaty production of the play based on Somerset Maugham's damp, hot story about the tart from Honolulu who falls into the clutches of a Bible-punching missionary on a...

THEATRE The Shrike. By Joseph ICranun. - (Princes.) THE captive is always likely to be an interesting and appealing figure on the stage. Put a, man in manacles and—unless you...

The Little World of Don Camillo. (Continentale and Rialto.) The Virtuous Isidore. (Curzon.)—Rough Shoot. (Odeon.) As a legacy from the French Film Festival there has been left...

Drawings for Pictures. (Arts Council Gallery.) ROGER FRY'S child thought and then drew a line round his think. "Let this be plain to all," said Michelangelo ; "drawing consti-...

IT is to be hoped that no intelligent foreigner will stray into the exhibition of British furniture that fills the vast spaces at Earls Court. How could one possibly convince...

Apollo Society Recital. (Recital Room, Royal Festival Hall.) Ti - man are thousands of poems in the English language, yet in every programme of spoken poetry the same ones...

• To celebrate its centenary, the Royal Photographic Society is staging a double exhibition. Some forty cases of early apparatus, documents and records are on show at the...

By J. P. W. MALLALIEU ivi y mother, if she coulAave had her way, would have banned all games of chance. Like drink, Isadora Duncan, Socialism and Conservatism, games of chance...

In view of the importance of the nation's health, and the interest properly taken in it by the public, "The Spectator" offers three prizes of f15 15s. for the best article on...

Set by Allan M. Laing One of Samuel Butler's best-known notes is : " It was very good of God to let Carlyle and Mrs. Carlyle marry one another and so make only.two people...

Clio, Muse of history, is checking her records for accuracy, and has asked for evidence on certain matters. A prize of £5 was offered for a frank statement by one of the...

ON the 10th instant, the now ancient vacancy occasioned among the Royal Academicians by Turner's death was filled up by the election of Mr. Frith; an artist than whom none...

Sta,—Thank you for your forthright criticism of the ten-per-cent. reduction in the grant for adult education and Workers' Educational Association recently announced by the...

Sut,—With regard to the elaborate new cost-of-living index, for which data are now being collected, no one seems to have pointed out that it may encourage continuous monetary...

have only just seen your issue of January 2nd, with its com- ments on the McCarran Act. I think, although I have only been in the U.S.A. for three weeks, that this is one of the...

A National Distress Fund? Sta,—As a band of men who meet regularly for the sole purpose of finding ways and means ot helping those in need whether they are far or near, the...

very great help, and it is especially welcome because there were very few leading articles about the debate. But the question whether we have a right to be consulted by America...

Sta,—I do not think that Mr. Vernon Bartlett in his article on the Federation plan faces squarely the question put in your own editorial note: Should the scheme be forced...

his article on Rugby for All. He states that he would like to see the Rugby Union adopt the rule that forbids a player to kick the ball full pitch into touch except from a...

SIR,—With regard to this question of the interpretation of Bach on the piano—no matter how many people may claim to like " Bach " played on the piano, and "prefer" it to the...

SIR,—I am glad to be able to agree with something in Mr. Mallalieu's article, entitled Rugby for All, namely that there should be a Rugby Union "rule which forbids a player to...

Sm,—It was unexpected to find in the notice of the "Nation's Health" competition that the Spectator is favouring a change in the calendar, as the articles are to be received by...

sill,—In the course of his notes on Boris Godunov, your music critic says, "Of course we must all admit to the fact that Mussorgsky was a hopeless drunkard." This looks like a...

SER,—I should like to comment on Dr. Wolfenden's article Vacation Work in connection with its significance in the educational systems of the U.S. and Canada. The studies of a...

Long before the dog reached me I could see he was lost. He was a young dog, half a collie, half something else, and he stood little higher than a good-sized fox. I was reminded...

FOR some time now I have been in the habit of pausing when a scene has pleased me and examining the points that make it seem pleasant, and I have discovered that often my...

Raspberries that fruit early should be shortened now, while late- fruiting and new canes should be cut back to six inches. A top dressing of compost or manure will benefit soft...

As we went along the road, the wind, rising to almost a gale, was threshing the poplars, and 1 was glad when we were past them, for the poplar-tree is not to be trusted,...

"My old dad was roadman with the County Council all his life. If we wanted him we always knew where he was, between the quarry and the crossing. My mother would send me along...

THE description of the impact of the old world on the visitor from the new is one of the classic themes of American literature. So is the description of the European milieu,...

a new Pbaidon edition of " Renoir " ; Margbanita Laski "The Brontë Story" by Margaret Lane; and the Bishop of Soutbwell "According to the Scriptures "by Dr. C. H. Dodd.

Lucrezia Borgia The Marriage at Ferrara. By Simon Harcourt-Smith. (John Murray. 21s.) BYRON, wandering by chalice into the Ambrosian Library at Milan, found his attention...

Francis Younghusband ; Explorer and Mystic. By George Seaver. (John Murray. 25s.) Francis Younghusband ; Explorer and Mystic. By George Seaver. (John Murray. 25s.) THE figure...

Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti. By Maya Deren. (Thames and Hudson. 25s.) THERE is perhaps something slightly misleading in the title of this most interesting book;...

Newman's Way. By Sean 0 'Faolain. (Longmans. 25s.) "WHOEVER comes off safely in a quarrel, the man between never does." Mr. O'Faolain quotes the Gaelic proverb incidentally, but...

This selection from the writings of 'R. B. Cunninghame Graham, published to mark the centenary of his birth in 1852, contains fourteen of his stories and sketches, fifteen...

Alexander and John Robert Cozens. By A. P. Opp& (Black. 30s.) THE history of English water-colour painting is still so largely frag- mentary that a detailed study of two of its...

Night is Darkest. By Georges Bernanos. Translated from the French by W. J. Strachan. (Bodley Head. 10s. 6d.) Troy Chimneys. By Margaret Kennedy. (Macmillan. I Is. 6d.) Desiree....

Pleasures Strange and Simple. By William Sansom. (Hogarth Press. 12s. 6d.) UNLIKE many creative writers who turn occasionally to journalism, Mr. Sansom has never assumed a...

contends, determine the psychology of fashion. Snob- bery and sex are the most important. Clothes are designed to denote status. In the case of men they now express respecta-...

Peacocks and Primroses. A Survey of Disraeli's Novels. By Muriel Masefield. (Bles. 21s.) . HAPPILY entitled, scrupulously compiled, this intelligent and pious tribute to Lord...

Claude Colleer Abbott. (Bodley Head. 30s.) GORDON Borroauxv has never been the poet of the many; - his plays are too short to make commercial production easy, and his...

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IA Book Token for one guinea will be awarded to the sender of the first correct solution opened after noon on Tuesday week, March 3rd, addressed Crossword. 99 Gower Street,...

the market in industrials and gold shares began to show signs of fatigue in mid-week. This was due partly to the slowing down of tax collections revealed in the weekly revenue...