20 JULY 1944

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NEWS OF THE WEEK

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LL other news this week is overshadowed by the opening of General Montgomery's great offensive from Caen. This, here can be little doubt, is the real thing, and a little...

Unconditional Surrender

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Once again, last Tuesday, certain members of the House of Commons sought to wring from the Government a definition of the expression " unconditional surrender " as applied to...

hanges in Japanese High Command

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The Tokyo wireless announced on Tuesday that General Tojo, e Japanese Prime Minister, had been relieved of his post as chief f the army general staff, and that he had been...

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Evacuees and Hosts

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The new evacuation of children and mothers, prompted by the flying-bomb peril, has now reached considerable dimensions, though its sources are confined to London and the...

Threat to Durham

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It is deplorable that while in this way Continental treasures an (or are not) saved like brands from war's burning, one of the finest architectural compositions in Great Britain...

Surplus Stores Post-War

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The Government's White Paper on the disposal of surplus stores after the war shows that some useful thinking has been done on the subject. After the last war disposal of stores...

Art Treasures in the War Zones When the Allied advance

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up Italy was slowed down with th prospect of dogged and destructive fighting across the rich art region in the world, a very natural and intense anxiety was fe among educated...

Liberties and Controls

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Mr. Morrison's statement on the renewal of the Emergency Powers Act was satisfactory as far as it went. He said the Govern- ment recognised that, when hostilities in Europe came...

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POST-WAR HOUSING

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HE Town and Country Planning Bill and two official reports recently issued by the Ministry of Health are signs that a ore definite shape is being imposed on the problem of the...

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* * * *

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The men and women who come back from the war will have learned lessons which no university can pretend to teach them. On the other hand, from the point of view of book-learning,...

* * * *

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A week ago, although it is already a century back, I was earl wild strawberries picked by myself " in southern England." Th were not bad, yet it seemed to me that Nature without...

There will be a large and immediate demand for young

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graduates in all the professions recruited through the universities. Until this demand can be met the departments of State and all the secondary schools will be seriously...

The supply of university teachers is limited and cannot be

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increased quickly. The only channels from which reinforcements could be drawn are the schools, but the schools will not be able to spare their best-qualified teachers, or indeed...

A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK S IR RICHARD LIVINGSTONE, who will succeed Sir

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David Ross as Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University in October of this year, has done a service in calling attention to the problem with which every university in the country...

Mr. Herbert Morrison, who seems to enjoy, or at all

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events discuss with unction, his powers of binding and loosing, has to. us that in certain eventualities he might relax the black-out regul - tions during the winter months ;...

Thus there will be (i) a great demand for university

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graduates, (ii) a large number of men and women anxious to meet this demand, and (iii) a shortage of teachers. If we are to avoid giving the ex-Service candidates a poor return...

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"THE MOMENT HAS COME"

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By STRATEGICUS ITH the gloom now customary with him, but with less than his usual military insight, Dittmar announces the latest velopments in the words " The moment has come."...

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THE RHINE BARRIER

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By PETER MATTHEWS W HEN General de Gaulle took leave of the Press in New York last week he raised a question which bulked large in the peace negotiations of 1919, as it...

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LONDON IN 1970

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By HAMILTON KERR, M.P. HE Town and Country Planning Bill recently came before the House of Commons for its Second Reading. The Bill and the White Paper outline the short and...

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I CAME TO MALTOT

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By TREVOR ALLEN O N a hot summer day, between the wars, I tramped over the great corn uplands from Caen and came to Maltot in its sleepy hollow. It is but a small hamlet, and...

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Mandel was something more than a heroic figure, something more

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an an indomitable will ; he was a man of amazing mental vigour d one who would have played a leading part in the regeneration France. His real name was Rothschild (although he...

The last time that I saw Georges Mandel was in

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his office at the Colonial Ministry in Paris on March 14th, 1940. Most Secretaries of State, when receiving visitors, prefer to have no papers on their table, seeking thereby to...

Mandel, Paul Reynaud and others were then interned in a

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fortress in the unoccupied zone. After they had been there a few weeks the Marshal sent one of his aides-de-camp to inquire after their welfare. This officer first entered the...

MARGINAL COMMENT

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By HAROLD NICOLSON HE Vichy wireless on Friday night announced the sudden death of Georges Mandel. Few details were given and the whole story ill only be disclosed to us when...

e was arrested at Bordeaux in June, 1940, while he

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was lunching the Chapon Fin. Witnesses of that incident have described the erne embarrassment of the officer and the two gendarmes who roached his table and the kindliness and...

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THE CINEMA 4 4 Passage to Marseilles." At Warners.—" Uncertain Glory."

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At the Regal.—" The Great Moment." At the Plaza.—" Under- ground Report." At the Empire. AN inspection of new American films, and particularly of those released in London this...

POETRY AND SCIENCE

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NIGHT, like a silver Peacock in the sky By Moon bewitched turns many thousand eyes In vacancy. Flits past in fading mist A Comet's tail, the Phidenix of the Sun, Blown from her...

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MR. NICOLSON AND PLANNING

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SIR,—Mr. Harold Nicolson's discussion of Professor Hayek's book opens up some interesting questions. In contemplating planning we are charged by the Professor with being false...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

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THE GERMAN PEOPLE SIR,—Miss Eleanor Rathbone, whose general effort to help the persecuted cannot be questioned, suffers from Germanophilia. The tragedy of her position seems to...

SIR,—Far be it from me to speak ill of the

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human race ; they might not like it, and where should I be then? But I doubt if they have the power of fighting furiously and thinking calmly at the same time. I have noticed...

SIR, —In the last War a brother very dear to me

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was killed in battle. A few weeks ago my only daughter in the prime of life was killed by enemy action. From these two facts I have learnt a simple truth. The boy, killed in the...

t; Miss Rathbone, whose record of public service in this

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country held in universal respect, is surely unduly credulous so far as the rrnan people are concerned. These vait numbers in Germany eagerly riou s to help the Allies exist, I...

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DOCTOR AND PATIENT SIR,—To deal with Dr. Gordon Makes article

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on above in your issue of 7th curt. in the compass of a letter is difficult. Personally, I am disinclined to defend to the Public the attitude of the Profession to the White...

THE BALFOUR DECLARATION sm,—Anow me to say that you were

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fully justified in stigmatising as indiscreet and impracticable the proposed demand of the Republican party in the United States for unrestricted immigration and land owner-...

THE PAPER RATIONING

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Stn,—Mr. Nicolson's " Marginal Comment " on the paper crisis in the book trade comes as a valuable and I hope efficacious reminder of this vital problem. Three points in...

Sna,—The pre-war small publisher most certainly deserves special consideration, but

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it is questionable whether he has been more greatly handicapped than the publisher with a long back list of publications who lost his stock by enemy action and received no...

CIVIL LIBERTIES

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Sta,—In the debate on the continuance of the Emergency Powers Act, on the anniversary of the taking of the Bastille, the Socialist spokesman argued for the unmodified...

Sta,—Referring to your note on the book famine in "

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News of the Week," the question arises whether the present restricted allowance of paper is used to the best advantage. During the past month I have received no fewer than five...

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Economic Destiny. By R. G. Hawtrey. (Longmans. 21s.)

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THIS book, the author tells us, was planned before the war, its purpose being to trace the world's economic troubles to their sources, and to examine critically the various...

OOKS

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The .Stranger Within the Gates Prisoner in Germany. By Robert Guerlain. (Macmillan. 7s. 6d.) ins book is presumably a translation from the French; at any rate, read it recently...

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How To Cure Germany

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THIS concise and clearly written book, which has had a good reception in America, deals with most of the more important aspects of the German question. It discusses less fully...

A Bilingual Writer

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Memories of Happy Days. By Julian Green. (Dent. - ros. 6d.) I SOMETIMES wonder whether the doctrine that a man need only write about himself to be interesting is as universally...

The Ships of Our Allies

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Navies in Exile. By A. D. Divine. (John Murray. ns. 6d.) THE maritime countries of Europe that were submerged beneath the tide of German conquest possessed in their ships a...

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Mr. Gunther Again

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Tins book, as the author admits himself, is much more about the way a newspaperman sees the war than about the war itself. The Press has become a more powerful Fourth Estate...

Fiction

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DISCRIMINATING novel-readers will sigh with relief to find present patch of fictional dullness lighted up by a new Maugh —all the more as we had been told by the - master some...

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SOLUTION TO CROSSWORD No. 278

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anomie' mammon n mannon Ementam 0 in m oo© M UMMMM1113 OMMmum n en men annum= ummmmmn noun m mmnin manna= e nunnen UMMMMEIMS IM 13 11 13 PI kAtinri MINIMEICIERM SOLUTION ON...

THE SPECTATOR" CROSSWORD No. 280

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[A Book Token for one guinea will be awarded to the sender of the first correct stluticn 'oj this week's crossword to be opened after noon on Tuesday week, August 1st. Envelopes...

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COUNTRY LIFE " THE difficulties and restrictions of war have

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done very little check the activities of the Society " ; with such a sentiment op yet another volume—for it has 6o mes—of the county na history societies. Indeed some, including...

The Coal - man's Friend Here is a little incident that illustrates

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the English fondness birds as well as the birds' appreciation. A pied wagtail built her on the top of a high stack of coal in a station yard. After she laid her eggs, the coal...

In My Garden My experience seems to be the common

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one that vegetables early more or less failed, while later crops germinated and adrnirably. One may almost say, it is never too late. A great ad cage in very late sowings is...

Use for Deep Shell Holes It's an ill wind —.

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A use for one deep shell hole was fo soon after the bomb fell by a number of sand martins. The san cliff exactly suited them ; and a dozen nesting holes were put promp into use....

'Excessive Yield One incidental result in the agricultural experiments, continuous!

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in progress at Rothamsted, will please those who persist in argui against the use of artificial manures. One plot of wheat treated wi a large amount of nitrogen produced such...

Shorter Notice

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The Reading of the Bible. By Sir Frederic Kenyon. (Murray. 4s. 6d.) IN his The Story of the Bible, published some eight years ago, Sir Frederic Kenyon showed how clearly and...

Postage on this issue: /n/and, rid.; Overseas, id.

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COMPANY MEETING

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VENEZUELAN OIL CONCESSIONS THE NEW TERMS THE twenty-eighth ordinary general meeting of the Venezuelan Oil Concessions, Limited, was held in London. Sir Andrew Agnew, C.B.E ,...