T HE two debates on the League of Nations in the House of Lords this week had their value, though neither of them carried matters much further. Lord Phillimore's demand on...

Socialist leader and student of Stendthal, by members of the Royalist Camelots du Roi has had instant and salutary effects. The attack itself was brutal,• but, given the time...

choice between losing their vote altogether and accepting the compromise framed by General Hertzog, which would place them on a separate electoral roll and give them the right...

somewhat unexpectedly, escaped a further blow from the Supreme Court. The decision, indeed, only confirms the Tennessee Valley Authority's 'right to sell electric Power from the...

between the northern and southern battles. In the - south a small and very mobile column overran a desolate plain and scattered the remnants of a force not particularly warlike...

Abyssinians have suffered a rather serious reverse near . Makalle. There, as recently in the south, the Italians have shown that they can carry everything before them in a...

Stock Exchange comes at an appropriate moment to reinforce the arguments of those witnesses who have been urging • lately before the Arms Traffic Commission the need for...

Italy can make out of the secret report on -British interests in Abyssinia which the Giornak d'Italia has somehow secured and published. The report was drafted by an...

the text of which is now published, turns out to be as much concerned with the protection of marriage as the increase of divorce. Indeed, one clause in the Bill, stipulating...

in the agenda that suggested limitless fathoms of boredom—" Milk (extension of temporary pro- visions) (money)." But the distribution of milk at cheap rates in schools which...

Minister at the present time is helpful to the situa- tion. Mr. Baldwin cannot, of course, expect to be immune from criticism, but an attack from Sir Austen is likely to weaken...

benches, there also came pleas for a vigorous exten- sion of milk distribution, notably to children under live and nursing mothers. Mr. Walter Elliot made the obvious rejoinder...

men who were responsible last year for the preparation of that important volume The Next Five Years to form them- selves into a permanent organisation is welcomed. " The Next...

body of James Thorpe, the Sunderland goalkeeper, emphasises what was said here last week on the necessity for the reform of coroner's Courts. The jury, though warned by the...

are still speculating as .to the reasons that induced Sir Austen Chamberlain to end his remarkable speech on the Bill to create a Ministry of Defence with the reminder that "...

Mr. Malcolm MacDonald would advance his political career by bringing the Anglo-Irish " economic war to an end. Happily, his return to the House coincided with an explanation by...

T HE League of Nations is symbolically proclaiming its stability by exchanging a temporary for a .permanent habitation at Geneva in the week in :which the House of Lords in this...

T HE second Report of Mr. P. M. Stewart, the Commissioner for Special Areas (England and Wales), is not less interesting than the first, which the Rouse of Commons debated last...

-I T is tempting and easy to think that what- appens in Spain is of no account to the rest of Europe. Isolated by the sea and mountain, Spain only too often seems a park of...

T HERE is obviously something to be said both for and against the acceptance by British Universities of the invitation to attend the 550th anniversary of the founding of...

: WHAT DOES HE DESIRE ? By H. G. WELLS In reading him we have to bear in mind certain very characteristic habits of thought that pervade his argu- ments. Chief of these is...

By ARCHER OUST Three main questions arise : (a) Is there any obligation on the Mandatory to introduce a form of self-government in Palestine ? (b) If so, is the measure...

By D. W. BROGAN T HE smashing-in of President Loubet's hat at a race meeting was one of the turning-points of the great Dreyfus crisis, and the attack on M. Leon Blum may be...

By GUY KENDALL (Headmaster of University College School, Hampstead) ORD BROUGHAM remarked a century ago, " the 1.1 schoolmaster is abroad in the land " ; but if he were alive...

By GEORGE ELLIDGE T IME passed slowly in this village in the south of Spain. I had seen all the sights of the place : that is to say, the fourteenth-century church on the hill...

[TO the Editor Of THE SPECTATOR.]" Slit,— For a variety of obvious reasons, ranging from. the death of His Majesty to the shock of the new Queens' buildings, there has been a...

By MONICA REDLICH E VERYONE who has ever had a stroke of good fortune knows that sudden feeling of panic, not that the luck may desert him, but that he so very, very nearly...

[Von einem deutschen Korrespondenten] Ars Heinrich Heine, der grosse deutsche Diehter und Schrift- atelier, heute vor achtzig Jahren auf dem Pariser Friedhof Montmartre zu...

Tins play has an interesting theme, and although it does not make the most of it and is imperfectly constructed, good performance makes it theatrically exciting from the...

At the Academy. "Captain Blood." At the New Gallery HERE are a pack of films to choose from ; but •I confess that though one or two of them offer a few moments of meagre...

The Aura of England On coming to England, in the grip of an acute frost, straight from the tropics, I was reminded of the verdict of an Australian who came recently to live in...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR [Correspondents are requested to keep their letters as brief as is reasonably possible. The most suitable length is that of one of our " News of the Week...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] Sia,—Nowlicre have I read a more candid admission of the failure of the League from one of its supporters than in the second paragraph of...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—The Catholic Press of this country has lately revealed an attitude towards the Italo-Abyssinian conflict which has caused much...

SIR,—As one studies the correspondence in your columns on this important subject one cannot repress a feeling of surprise at the temerity of most of the writers. In other...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—As a regular reader of The Spectator I have followed with special interest the correspondence on the above subject.; indeed I always...

[To the Editor. of THE SPECTATOR." SIR,—Mr. Lionel James is clearly right in pointing out that , / Songs of Praise provides amply for New Year's Day in _the - 1 twenty-four...

Mr. Ross Wallace, I have nothing further to say, except this, that it is his type of attitude, rather than his facts, which makes us young people react instinctively against...

liked to express their praise and worship in song, and they can render almost anything in that old col- lection con motto brio. I took..some of my parishioners once to a very...

fifteenth-century men of Miss Gilbert-Lodge's who still imagined that the earth was Hat ? Plato (a fifth-century—n.c.—nitin) 'described it as '– spherical: A...

some inconsistencies in Mr. Ross Wallace's most recent letter'? To the question, " What of the Church's opinion of morality ? " he replies : " It is all in favour of it." Here...

to see that Mr. Lionel James had made what was almost a recantation of his previous letter, " Hymns Ancient and Early-Victorian." His criticism,' telling though it was, -did not...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Perhaps I have not fully grasped Mr. Wells' thought (or should I say Mr. Steele's ?), but if he means to assert that the only finally...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] Sta,—" C. D.'s" letter in your issue of January 24th is a most generous gesture, and its aims deserve strong support from others interested...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] Snt,—The committee of experts has found that an embargo on oil would be effective only if the United States were to limit her exports to...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—There have been many public tributes to the life and work of Mrs. Henry Sidgwick, but I should like nevertheless to add a few words,...

By the MARQUE SS OF LOTHIAN GENERAL SMUTS, as revealed in this vivid, moving bio- graphy, is an incarnation of Goethe's profound thesis that thought is only truly thought when...

Foa the last fifty years and more, as many generalisations have been made on scientists as on almost any other group of professional workers in the world ; on the principle,...

ANOTHER year passes, and Professor Toynbee and his collaborators promptly produce their Survey of it. The volume for 1934 covers a rich and catastrophic series of events :...

Adventures in Reputation. By Wilbur Cortez Abbott. (Harvard University Press. $2.50.) As an historian, Professor. Abbott's interest is in history itself as much as in the...

Shakespeare. By John Middleton Murry. (Cape. 12s. 6d,) 't Is it really necessary," cries Mr. Murry towards the end of his book, " that some poor pedagogue, like myself, must...

Sane Schooling. By J. H. Simpson. (Faber. 7s. 6d.) SCII0OL31ASTERING is essentially an interaction of personalities, and the good- schoolmaster-a Pestaloze - i or .a...

Trz recent years the monks and monasteries of Athos have been the subject of printed comment varying from the scholarly to the sensational. There was Mr. Choukas with his Black...

Snarcis Venatio. By H. D. Watson. (Blackwell. 5s.) Taw pleasant little: book is introdUced by Professor Gilbert Murray in a foreword from which we learn that, mirabile dictu,...

Language, Truth and Logic. By A. J. Ayer. (Gollancz. Os.) " You call that nonsense, but I've heard nonsense compared with .which that would be as. sensible as a dictionary."...

Spinoza. By Sir Frederick Pollock. (Duckworth. 2e.) .. Mona years ago than I care to recall, I lit upon the Ethics of Spinoza. The experience was strange, for though I under-...

By SEAN 0 'FAOLAIN The Flesh is Willing. _By Richard Terrell. (Gollanez. Is. 64.) Wilderness-BlossomS. . By Russell Green. (Nelson. 7s. 6d.) , Period Programme: By, Guy Pocock;...

in -the well-known Highways and Byways series. But it was Written nearly thirty years ago, and a revised edition (Macmillan, 7s. 6d.) is more than welcome. For the changes the...

of Capitaine en Seconde Pierre Viaud, -mainly transcribed by Mr. Metcalfe from original letters : " I have ventured , to transcribe ...- . somewhat largely, so that those who...

in Belfast and self-educated everywhere from Los Angeles to Offaly. This book (Rich and Cowan, 7s. 6d.) is the journal (or rather pages from the journal) kept by hini from...

By Sir George Dunbar Sir George Dunbar, after scrving irr the Indian Army, has devoted his time for some years since he retired - in assembling the material of a new. History...

Series has put forth another branch and has covered new ground in The English Abbey (Batsford, 7s. 6d.). Both in subject and treatment this volume is at least worthy of its...

This pamphlet iPitman, 2s.) consists of a lecture, or, as it announces itself, a "Reading' delivered before the Inner Temple. There is nothing new or original that it contains ;...

and E. C. Withycombe It is no exaggeration to say that the compilers of this little reference book (Oxford University, Press, 8s. 6d.) haVe put every student of English...

• Finance 11-mi the exception of the London and North Eastern, whose result& will have been announced before the end of this week, the trunk railways of the United kingdom...

AVIATION AND ARMAMENT SHARES. ALTHOCGII business in the Stock Markets during the last few days has tended to be specially active in the shares of Aviation and Armament...

Br ZENO IA. prize of one guinea tall be given to the sender of the first correct solution of this week', crossword puzzle to be opened. Envelopes should be marked " Crossword...

The winner of Crossword No. 177 is Dr. C. A. A. Lever, Hatherton, Llandudno.