The Commonwealth Conference opens amid universal goodwill and general perplexity. On the dominating problem, how India as a republic can remain a member of a society whose...

The prospect of increased Russian pressure on Iran is likely, though the evidence that it has already begun is still slight. Moat of the rumours of frontier incidents and...

T HE gravity of the attack on two British warships on the Yangtse on Wednesday, with , casualties amounting to over 7o killed and wounded, needs no emphasis, the more so since...

The resolutions discussed at the Easter conferences of organisations within the Labour movement boded ill for Sir Stafford Cripps, the Labour Party and, for that matter, Great...

Israel's application for membership of the United Nations received a chillier reception than had been expected and, as a result, has been referred back to the Political...

The declaration of the Republic of Eire at midnight on Easter Day was not an occasion for superlatives. It was an occasion for reservations and qualifications. Ireland (minus...

The way in which the American Government and people rise to the occasion again and again to keep the programme of aid to Europe moving is magnificent, but nothing can make it...

The talks in Washington between leaders of the British and American film industries on what have been called " mutual pro- duction problems " are being conducted by Mr. J....

T HE long stretch of sittings—the metaphor is anatomically justifiable—from January to Easter is the most prolonged and strenuous part of the parliamentary year. It is the...

The system of Death Duties, under which three separate taxes, each separately charged, were payable upon death, was unnecessarily complicated. Consequently, when the Chancellor...

T HE rumours about the possibility of the lifting of the blockade in Berlin are interesting—and as yet no more than that. They may have gained currency because the event...

side. Sitting a day or two ago in the corner of the smoking-room of the club I have frequented for the last twenty years, and rarely get to now, I joined with one other survivor...

Sir Bernard Pares was the ablest, and on the whole the wisest, of British authorities on Russia—more the old Russia than the new. He first went there in 1898—five years before...

match-box labels is inspiring news. But who on earth invented the appalling hybrid " phillumenists " which the members have chosen as a name for themselves ? Phil—pure Greek ;...

be study- ing precedents and are likely to look with a particularly favourable eye on the third week of April." Actually advocates of a fixed Easter, of whom I am emphatically...

The death of Mr. Ashley Anthony Froude carries the mind back to distant controversies, one ecclesiastical, through his uncle Richard Hurrell Froude, one literary, through his...

W HAT the purpose of the Peace Conference now in session in Paris is I have never quite understood. Peace exists, and no one, so far as I know, proposes to break it. But the...

By PETER TOWNSEND Shanghai T 0 the north, in the gullied and terraced loess uplands ; to the central China plain, where brown-sailed junks penetrate the low-lying ricelands...

By D. W. BROGAN I T is better, I think, to enter Holland by air than by sea. The service to the Hook of Holland is very good, but coming into that port you miss the sudden...

By F. A. VOIGT YRANTS, as Cardinal Richelieu observed, always pose as public benefactors. We have been assured, and are still being assured, that the concentration camps and...

By EDWARD MONTGOMERY New York 0 VER the Easter holidays the Congress is taking a brief holiday from the press of legislative work. The House of Representatives, which for once...

AFRICAN TRANSPORT By BRIGADIER G. S. BRUNSKILL, C.B.E. T HE successful development of Africa for the benefit of her native peoples, for the export of her natural wealth to...

By PETER FLEMING T HE last time (I admit this with shame) I visited Stratford- upon-Avon it was to see Mr. Randle Ayrton playing Lear in a building intended for the...

ON BEING INTERVIEWED By RUSSELL GREENWOOD (Queen's College, Oxford) I N the Army most interviews were brief and unambiguous. At least, they were from the standpoint of a...

at any of the universities or university colleges of Great Britain. They may be on any subject, and should be approxi- mately 1,400 words in length. They need not be typewritten.

.By HAROLD NICOLSON I AM sometimes asked by the parents of infant prodigies whether, in my opinion, the work of such prodigies is of sufficient merit to justify them in "...

THE THEATRE • Brigadoon. (His Majesty's.) IT is strange how the public answers the call of whimsy in' one instance and turns a deaf ear to its elfin voice in another, and in...

" The Last Days of Dolwyn." (Empire.)—" Melody Time." (New Gallery.)—" That Wonderful Urge. (Gaumont and Marble Arch Pavilion.) As an inveterate film-goer I cannot but rejoice...

Parsifal in a concert version loses all its theatrical enchantment, and the Flower Maidens in the organ loft of the Albert Hall were hard put to it .to exercise their seductive...

between those who believe in artificial manures and those who do not ; but one detail of agreement is general: a small dose of sulphate, just a pinch or two near the stem, does...

o' the year are open to the Londoner! Even the exhibitions show that spring feeling. For example, though I have not yet seen it, I have received most enthusiastic accounts of...

SOME familiar, but always welcome, lithographs by Vuillard may be seen at the Hanover Gallery, where Eileen Agar is also showing new paintings. These, still in that interesting...

borrowing from autumn. The best of all autumnal prunuses, officially labelled autumnalis, flowered at its proper date ; but could not resist the spring and flowered more...

from Sussex, thus : " Could you help us ? Since the last week of January, we have been dis- turbed by a chaffinch. He pecks at our windows from about 5.30 a.m. to...

on farms of all sorts it was said the other day that the tree fruits promised well. After hearing this I went to the nearest tree, a Louise Bonne pear, and counted the blossoms...

SIR, —Let me assure your correspondent Monsieur Jean Bailhache that though in my article L'Affaire Kravchenko I tried to be objective, I laid no claim to be impartial. It was as...

SANATORIUM STUDENTS SIR, —Owing to wandering, the Spectator of March 25th reached me belatedly. I opened it in the Roman Forum, and in the beautiful spring silence of that dead...

Sm,—The defenders of Charles I are clearly at issue between themselves. Canon Smyth admits the king's political duplicity ; Dr. Esme Wingfield- Stratford denies it. Canon Smyth...

SIR,—Whilst sympathising with the difficulties experienced by the writer of Dead End ? I cannot help thinking that she is allowing the natural impatience and despair of youth to...

loss of life at Hiroshima -was 30,000. This figure does net agree- with the official figures published by the occupying authorities and quoted in the Report of the British...

SIR, May I make the correspondence on this subject an excuse for returning to the charge? Mr. Trevelyan truly says that the issue at the next election will be Social:au But it...

Slit,—If, as 'Mr. Friedinan seems to maintain in his letter of April 8th, colonial Po*ers are already " accountable " to the United Nations, they surely do not become less so...

Snt,—Janus, discussing Mr. H. L. Stimson's On Active Service in the Spectator of April 8th, seems to take the line that Mr. Stimson has proved his case that the U.S. and...

SUBSCRIPTION RATES Ordinary edition to any address in the World. 52 weeks £1 10s. Od. 26 weeks 15s. Od. Air Mail to any Country in Europe. 52 weeks £2 7s. 6d. 26 weeks £1 3e....

Hopkins and Roosevelt (II) The White House Papers of Harry L. Hopkins. Vol. II, 1942-45. Edited by Robert E. Sherwood. (Eyre and Spottiswoode. 25s.) THOUGH not less...

Mrs. Gatty and Mrs. Ewing. By Christabel Maxwell. (Constable. 15s.) PAROCHIAL life in the nineteenth century seems to have acted as a forcing ground for women writers. Amongst...

THIS book, very pleasantly produced, contains a series of talks from the B.B.C. Third Programme given by fifty well-chosen, and in some cases eminent, speakers. Whether such an...

The Prospect for Christianity. By K. S. Latourette. (Eyre and Spottiswoode. 6s.) FEW recent achievements have been so remarkable as the production during the past dozen years...

A Bow at a Venture. By Angus Watson. (Independent Press. 8s. 6d.) No one, I suppose, can do the Samuel Smiles trick in modern dress without being dubbed unctuous and pious. Why...

Delightes for Ladies. By Sir Hugh Plat. With Introductions by G. E. and K. R. Fussell. (Crosby Lockwood. 15s.) HERE are more than " delightes for Ladies " ; the book, well...

MAURICE DE GuERIN belongs to the tribe of Chenier and Chatterton: to the exclusive race of poets , fv`hose promise has been cut short by death and prolonged by generations of...

WHEN, in 1826, Hazlitt published, in The New Monthly Magazine, a series of articles consisting of his talks with Northcote, the title given to them was "Boswell Redivivus." The...

Tales Out of School. By Geoffrey Trease. (Heinemann. 8s. 6d.) TILE juvenile fiction thqt fills the shops, Mr. Trease implies, is generally mediocre, The " comics " are worse....

The Conscious Stone. The Life of Edward William Godwin. By Dudley Harbron. (Latimer House. 12s. 6d.) FEW people will be familiar with the name of Edward Godwin. This proud and...

[A Book Token for one guinea will be awarded to the sender of the first correct solution of this week's crossword to be opened after noon on Tuesday week, May 3rd. Envelopes...

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By CUSTOS THESE are puzzling days for the stock markets and for investors. Any rational interpretation of recent news would have suggested the likelihood of a fairly widespread...