THE statement regarding India's constitutional future issued by the Governor-General on Tuesday was the response to a demand from the Indian National Congress for early and...

T HE Prime Minister was wise to sound a warning note at the close of his generally optimistic survey of the week in the House of Commons on Wednesday. The war in the air and on...

M. Sarajoglu, the Turkish Foreign Minister, has left Moscow without concluding an agreement with the Soviet Government. Though the exact course of the discussions is a matter of...

When Herr Hitler made a virtue of his plan for the move- ment of populations, and the transfer of persons of German origin from countries controlled by Russia, his fellow-...

The prospect of a reasonable agreement be:ag reached between Russia and Finland would be easier to assess if it were known what Russia's demands on Finland are. But on that...

What is most interesting in Sir Nevile Henderson's final report on the "termination of his mission" in Germany is his account of the personal forces which led that country into...

General dissatisfaction was expressed in the House of Commons last Tuesday about the scale of separation allow- ances for the wives of soldiers with children. The married...

The enormous increase in deaths and injuries on the roads since the war began is in the main attributable to the black- out. We are paying a heavy and certain toll in deaths now...

The air attack on the Firth of Forth, the first enemy attempt to reach objectives in this country, and the attacks on warships at Scapa Flow, were strictly legitimate acts of...

All those who are interested in houses and other fixed property have been long waiting to know what compensation they will get in the event of destruction from enemy action....

wherever possible readers of The Spectator should place a regular order for their copy either with a newsagent or with the office of the paper, 99 Gower Street, W.C. 1, since...

The Government is pledged to stop profiteering, and the promise is likely to be fulfilled, at least in the cases of certain essential commodities, by the Prices of Goods Bill...

IT lays no ordinary strain on the country's fortitude to hay , : to face within 24 hours two such blows as the loss of the Royal Oak' and the appointment of Sir John Gilmour as...

lp ROM the almost universal approval which the Prime Minister's reply to Herr Hitler evoked Mr. Lloyd George's Council of Action dissents. That is not in itself a matter of...

N EVER was it more important than it is today that Parliament and Press should continue to perform their functions with vigilance. It is a truism that a democracy will exhaust...

of which, dated mid-October, has just appeared, will interest all students of the political side of the war, provided they read it critically and realise that there is a danger...

C OLONEL LINDBERGH'S astonishing broadLast, in which he suggested that Canada was a disturber of American peace by remaining under the British flag and getting dragged (though...

from Ankara to account for himself to Herr Hitler, must be reckoned the most brilliant diplomatic failure of recent times. Military Attaché at Washington during the last War, he...

the German airman who was decorated with the Iron Cross for sitikir, the 'Ark Royal.' It is true that the 'Ark Royal' is un- scathed. But it will be found, if the story is ever...

who was summoned for storing on her premises more than three gallons of petrol without a licence, and was fined Do, the petrol not being confiscated, seemed—in view of the fact...

a deplorable gaffe in the matter of its "Butter for Goering" communication to the Press, it is highly desirable that it should make that clear, for on the face of it the affair...

By STRATEGIC U S V OR some time official quarters had expected the Germans r to begin their offensive against the Allies on or about 0..tober t5th, and, reasonably obedient to...

By SENATOR FRANK MACDERMOT I N the last Great War fifty thousand Irishmen, the majority of them Nationalists and Catholics, lost their lives fight- ing in the British Army and...

By MRS. CECIL CHESTERTON T HE aristocracy of labour was no figure of speech in the early Soviet days. Financially and socially the proletariat were in the saddle, while the...

By ROSE MACAULAY I N war-time everything (except courage) goes a little bad, a little what cooks call "off." Civilisation, culture, wit, pity, happiness, goodness,...

By RICHARD M. TITMUSS U NDERLYING every social and military question in Germany is the problem of man-power, both qualita- tive and quantitative. For six propaganda-riddled...

By DERRICK SINGTON N OW that the alien tribunals have done three weeks' work it is worth while considering what is likely to be the future of the "refugees from Nazi...

By BERNARD DARWIN i'LL warrant," said the old woman of the opium den (in JL Edwin Drood) to John Jasper, "I'll warrant you made t1',.! journey in many ways, when you made it so...

AMERICA WATCHES By ERWIN T HE Senatorial debate about America's neutrality policy drags drearily along toward an apparently inevitable conclusion : repeal of the arms embargo...

By HAROLD NICOLSON • C OLONEL CHARLES LINDBERGH has again been broadcasting to the American people. He urged them as he had every right to do) not to repeal the Neutrality Acts...

He represented Minnesota in Congress, and belonged to a small group of insurgents who fought the governing classes and Wall Street with might and main. As a child in Washington...

were forced to lead became abnormal. He is not possessed of any sense of humour and was unable to add that lovely lubricant to the harsh grating of his machine. He could not buy...

main- tain his own simplicity, his own few clear-cut convictions, against the adulation of a whole continent? It was almost with ferocity that he struggled to remain himself....

lived. Slowly the smoke of burning weeds would rise against the autumn woods, and lazily the apples would drop in the orchard. His mind had been sharpened by fame and tragedy...

Lindbergh was ungrateful to the British Press and people for the reserve with which they treated him when he was living over hem. He came to me one day in London and asked...

the great qualities of Charles Lindbergh; he is, and always will be, not merely a school-boy hero, but also a school boy.

blaze of glory. The American public had been deeply disappointed that the war had produced no romantic figure, and they seized upon their "lone eagle" as the embodiment of all...

MUSIC 4 , Non piu andral " WHAT a month it has been for Malvolio! Lock up the cakes and ale ; scrape the gilt off the gingerbread and send it to the Chancellor ; England...

"Stanley and Livingstone." At the Gaumont. "Only Angels liave Wings." At the Regal. Stanley and Livingstone lost all chance of being a good film when the producers gave it that...

It is a subject of continuous interest to watch the urban children in their new environment. The actual organisers of the billeting in the villages necessarily see the worse...

Swallows were feeding their fledglings in a Hertfordshire cottage garden on October 8th, which is the latest date in the annals of this cottage where swallows have been watched...

Words change themselves in country speech in curious ways not explained in such beautiful theories as Grimm's law. The field where I listened to this encomium on oat flower as a...

One of the hedges almost alongside the Icknield Way in South Oxfordshire was much prized a few years ago in the locality for its production of a certain black or very deep...

Flock, ffight, flower—may they all mean much the same thing, at least in local speech? The question is suggested by a recent experience in the use of rural words. A youngish...

Happy Exiles Extremely cheerful accounts reach me from the extremities of our island of the influence of evacuation in imparting the rural bias about which our educational...

It is alleged that rats and mice cost the nation 70 million pounds a year. How this particular figure is arrived at I have no idea, but at a time when all waste is to be avoided...

speak of the Baltic States having "fallen easy victims" to the U.S.S.R. and becoming "virtual dependencies," only enjoying their own forms of government and their social systems...

[Correspondents are requested to keep their letters are given a preference over those bearing a pseudo name and address of the author, which will be as brief as is reasonably...

Sra,—At present it is probable that many people share Mr. Robert Powell's doubts on the efficacy of warfare by leaflets, but it is possible that at a later stage—after...

October 6th is a timely and salutary warning against an attitude which in times like the present may only too easily develop into an obsessiOn. Even in peace-time the...

StR, — It may seem early to start talking about a peace settle- ment at this stage of the war, but many are asking already how any effective solution can prevent another attempt...

Is love a light for me? A steady light, A lamp within whose pallid pool I dream Over old love-books? Or is it a gleam, A lantern coming towards me from afar Down a dark...

SIR, —We do not in England give any courtesy title to a criminal who has broken into a house and murdered its tenant and taken his property. Why then should " Janus " ask us to...

Sit,—In your issue of October 13th a "News of the Week" paragraph under the above heading was so misleading that perhaps you will allow me to say something by way of...

SIR,—On October iith, in reply to a question in the House of Commons, Mr. Butler said that the Government were not prepared to authorise the publication of the documents deal-...

SIR,—In reply to Lord Ponsonby, may I say that he is not quite accurate in saying that my article pointed to Germany as a menace because she has fought four wars in less than a...

PRIZES of book tokens for 42 2S. and Li Is. are offered for the best two lists of six English words or phrases, the use of which should be discontinued. Competitors should give...

The Wisdom of Dr. Benes Da. BENES is both a political philosopher and a practising politician. As a philosopher his thoughts are wide and deep ; as a politician his experience...

Tits topicality of this book's title will attract some readers, arid its triteness repel others ; but it is likely that the more fastidious type of reader, who will fall into...

The Moores of Moore Hall. By Joseph Hone. (Cape. tzs. 6d.) MOORE HALL, near Ballyglass, Co. Mayo, was an incon- spicuous ornament of the golden age of Irish architecture. It was...

THE population problem has for the last few years regained, as a topic of economic debate, much of the interest and urgency which it possessed a hundred years ago when Malthus'...

THE three American books reviewed here illustrate strikingly in their different ways the dependence of America upon the civilisation of Europe; and at the same time the...

Suicide Excepted. By Cyril Hare. (Faber. 7s. 6d.) WHAT is to become of the detective story in war-time? There is much talk of " escape " literature for black-outs, but perhaps...

Old Home Week. By Minnie Hite Moody. (Putnam. 7s. 6d.) THE author of The Asiatics carries his own Asia with him, and his publishers do wrong to suggest that in his new novel...

Financial Supplement No. 5 8 o 8 FRIDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1939 1557)

Government Borrowing and Gilt-Edged—Bank Cash Expansion—Investors' New Problems By CUSTOS THE City may be conservative and tradition still counts for a good deal in many...

How does the war affect life assurance? This is a question which many people are asking, both as regards existing policies and as affecting new ones. First and foremost, of...

By CUSTOS I AM not quite sure whether these are war or peace markets— perhaps they are short war markets—but they are surpris- ingly good. Political news admittedly very...

Since the publication of the accounts of Imperial Smelt- ing Corporation the Ordinary shares have participated in the general market improvement. This is hardly a reflec- tion...

UNIT TRUST EXPERIENCE I see that one of the unit trusts, the Orthodox, has announced that the public has invested more heavily in its sub-units in the first five weeks of war...

While nobody disputes the Government's prior claims on the new capital market for the purposes of its huge borrowing programme, it is good to see an aperture still available for...

There was unconcealed disappointment when the Birmingham Small Arms Company cut its dividend from o per cent to 6 per cent. The decision was the exact contrary of general...

and other journals supplied to newsagents on the usual sale-or-return basis has now to be seriously restricted. Readers of The Spectator are therefore urged to place a regular...

trt 2 ,4 r"tioi- I , ' 1, 1 ' A 14 P foll I A 2 1 , R.A.222 Ut4 NI I 5 AG' 5 ISO. 1 2:1151 1t rA LtOAD II1 1 $ 0 ALI * 0 16 e la A 't-4. - ro AN 1 A L NE Illoao ti o y PLAYED I...

PRIZES were offered for the best two propaganda leaflets suitable for distribution in Germany. The entries, though noteworthy for their goodwill towards the German people,...

Book Token for one guinea will be given to the sender of the first correct solution of this week's crossword puzzle to be opened. Envelopes should be marked "Crossword Puzzle,"...