22 MARCH 1946

Page 1

Some Progress in Java

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The sound decision to send out Sir Archibald Clark Kerr to mediate between the Dutch and Indonesian leaders is beginning to bear fruit. The Indonesian delegation, led by the...

NEWS OF THE WEEK

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T HE agreement announced by Mr. Bevin in the House of Commons on Wednesday regarding the repatriation of Polish troops should, if reasonable hopes are fulfilled, remove one of...

The Mission to India

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The journey of the Cabinet delegation to India this week could not have been better heralded than by the debate in the House of Commons last Friday, revealing as it did a...

Page 2

The Post-War Army

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Last week's debate on the Army estimates brought to a close the Commons' discussion of defence policy and the immediate future of the Services. The whole thing passed off...

From its first appearance in January the Investment (Control and

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Guarantees) Bill was criticised as a measure better fitted to strengthen the Treasury's grip on the City of London than to encourage capital expansion. It is a short Bill...

The Food Talks

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Such hopes as had been pinned on the outcome of the meeting of the Combined Food Board in Washington began to fade last week- end as the days passed and no official announcement...

M.P.'s Emoluments

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But for the long and honourable tradition of unpaid public service in this country, the £r,000 a year to which a Select Committee of the House of Commons proposes that M.P.'s...

Spring Sport

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It would be a pity if the shortages and frustrations at home and the dangers and uncertainties abroad which blur the contrast between war and peace were allowed to obscure the...

Page 3

THE PROBLEM OF RUSSIA

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ITH Persia's definite appeal to the Security Council against the continued presence of Russian troops in her territory e international controversy passes out of the phase of...

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Mr. Winant's pending retirement from his post as American Ambassador

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in London is an event of moment, for Mr. Winant has been an Ambassador in a class of his own. It is inevitable no doubt that the representative of the United States in London in...

A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK

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T HE half-hour allowed for the adjournment at the end of business in the House of Commons every day is, in present circumstances, the only opportunity private Members have...

Whatever his ultimate fate, Goering looks like emerging from the

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Nuremberg trial with something like triumph. He has always been the dominating figure in the dock, the most conspicuous in his white uniform, the occupant of place No. I in the...

A Liberal stocktaking was more than necessary, and the committee

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that had undertaken the work has made a good job of it. The details of the proposed reorganisation are a secondary matter ; the real question is whether the Liberal Party as a...

The Cabinet no doubt has its own means of gauging

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public opinion, and it may have some reason for believing that a popular desire exists for the victory celebrations officially ordained for the day commonly (though, some...

The news that the Soviet Government has withdrawn its ban

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on listening-in to foreign broadcasts and that the B.B.C. is to begin broadcasts in Russian before the end of this month is very satis- factory. Hitherto the Russians have...

Page 6

POLITICS IN FRANCE

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By ROGER STEPEANE F RENCH politics are dominated today by three elements—the proximity of the elections, the regrouping of political forces, and the presence (or more...

FORESTS AND CLIMATE

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By J. I). :. WARD T HE forester, having been urged on the fiftieth anniversary of Robert Louis Stevenson's death to reconsider that author's merits, found himself browsing one...

Page 7

WHAT COAL WILL COST

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By D. N. CHESTER M ANY statements have been made recently by sundry eminent persons to the effect that the future of Britain depends on coal. Most imply some kind of direct...

Page 8

RETURN TO TENNYSON

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By STEPHEN GWYNN I T was with some idea of reparation that I took down a book of my own on Tennyson, written nearly fifty years ago ; for I had long neglected the poet who meant...

Page 9

U.N.O. AND TRUSTEESHIP

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By LEONARD STEIN T HE only important organ of the United Nations not yet consti- tuted is the Trusteeship. Council, which is contemplated by the Charter as the !:inch-pin of...

Page 10

AMERICAN ZONE 1946

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By A B.A.O.R. VISITOR Y OU notice the difference as soon as you cross the border at Frankfurt. The German police no longer salute Allied officers, and are often to be seen...

NATURE AND CHARACTER

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" THERE is nothing wrong with your nature' — a man once said to me- " but your character! Well that is another matter." Gaily I went my way. Of myself did I know every...

Page 11

MARGINAL COMMENT By HAROLD NICOLSON I WAS up in Birmingham the

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other day speaking at the University on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Paul Verlaine. How astounded would Paul Verlaine have been had he known that in...

Page 12

THE CINEMA

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' Justice Comes to Germany." For General Release.—" A Defeated People." At the Tivoli.—" Army Selection—Officers." For Special Showing.—" We of the West Riding." At the Rialto.—...

Postage on this issue: Inland, rid.; Overseas, id.

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GRAMOPHONE NOTES

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THE recent orchestral recordings are not a very distinguished lot. The best of them is the Overture of Mozart's Die Entfiihrung aus dem Serail, played by the London Philharmonic...

MUSIC

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The Amsterdam Orchestra THE human ear, like the other senses, soon gets accustomed to the sounds it habitually hears. So, although the attentive listener will have perceived...

Page 13

" RUSSIA AND OURSELVES "

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SIR,—Sir Christopher Robinson is probably right in believing that the essential purposes of Soviet Russia are less sinister than those of Hitler, but do such attempts to solve...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

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EQUALITY OF SACRIFICE SIR,—Experience in North-West Europe—both liberated and occupied— shows convincingly how clearly the issues for which Britain and her Allies were...

THE WORLD'S FOOD

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SIR, When the Minister of Food revealed the full measure of the world shortage in essential foodstuffs, particularly wheat, it was first stated in the Press that the extraction...

Page 14

Stn,—It has been announced, apparently officially, that the Minister of

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National Insurance " wants to be fair and just to every section of the community," and Is therefore prepared to reduce the waiting period for sickness benefit in the case of...

'UNDERPAID DOCTORS

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SIR, —Before the general public comes to a judgement on the distrust shown by many medical practitioners of the intentions of the Govern- ment towards them, it would be as well...

THE LEGACY OF THE REFORMATION

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Sin,—In his controversy about " Russia and Ourselves," Mr. M. Philips Price attributes our "legacy of ' humanism' and valuation of personality " to the Reformation. This hardly...

BRITISH POWER IN EGYPT

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SIR, —The extent and intensity of the desire among Egyptians for the evacuation of British troops can be understood only if we realise that to the young middle-class Egyptian,...

Page 15

BALLET : ENGLISH AND RUSSIAN

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SIR, With reference to the letter I wrote about "The Sleeping Beauty," it has since been brought to my notice that Mr. Michael Somers was suffering from an injury at the time I...

MINISTERS' EMPLOYERS

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S18,—For the help of Mr. Morley and my other fellow-treasurers, may I point out that a Minister does not, and should not, come within present compulsory insurance and future...

JAPANESE BONDS

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SIR, —Mr. Dalton has said that he cannot imagine why anyone in this country should hold Japanese Bonds. He should know that the financial wealth of the country is held in many...

Sra,—Your correspondent Mr. Arthur Morley appears to be under the

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impression that "pay-as-you-earn" deals with employees only. Perhaps, therefore, it will help if I point out that " pay-as-you-earn" includes "every person having or exercising...

PARCELS FROM AMERICA

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SIR, —A complete record which I have kept of parcels I have received from America between 1940 and 1945 may interest your readers. During 1940 not one parcel out of ten was...

" THE TREND OF OPINION IN . GERMANY "

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haven't been in Germany for a long time, and I get only scanty news from there ; but I hardly think that " the neutral friend" mentioned by "Janus" on February 8th can be right....

BOOKS FOR THE RELIEF OF CHILDREN

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Sta,—In the hope of raising a sum of money for the relief of child- victims of the war, I am organising a sale of books. Mr. Hodgson, of Chancery Lane, has very kindly promised...

Page 16

In My Garden

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The expert fruit-growers become more and more insistent on the duty of -a full and free use of the lime-sulphur spray. Some growers now spray on four successive occasions, the...

"ANCILLARY' DENTISTS "

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SIR,—I was duly horrified by " X's" story of the dirty unqualified dentist, the young lady and the Portuguese , prisoners of war, but I , could not help wondering what...

Altruistic Pigs A small-holder of whom I have cognizance has

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made his neighbour envious by his rare success in egg-production ; and has confessed to his secret. It is to keep the hens in a loft over the pigs. The ascending warmth seems to...

Effects of a Belated Winter

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What odd effects the dose of belated winter has produced! The cold has not prevented poultry from laying, but it has discouraged hens from wanting to sit. Seldom was such a...

Feeding of Birds It is my experience that birds are

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hungrier in early spring than at any date, and that then a well-provided bird-table earns the highest dividends. A good table should be portable, and, to my thinking, much the...

COMMODITIES LIMITED : PROFITS DOUBLED

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SIR,—The Government are continually being attacked for failing to release sufficient of everyday commodities for civilian use, but in spite of this the large stores are all...

COUNTRY LIFb A CONSIDERABLE authority on the weather—that most English

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subject- ossures me that among rural beliefs one, at any rate, is corroborated by scientific statistics, to wit, that snow in March is wont to precede a dry summer. Well, we...

Page 18

BOOKS OF THE DAY

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The Rug'sian Enigma Report on Russia. By Paul Winterton. (Cresset Press. 6s.) THIS short and sombre volume is at the same time an act of faith and an act of renunciation. In...

Drama after Elizabeth

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DR. BOAS has once more succeeded in his very difficult task of presenting to the uninitiated general reader a literature which is by no means easy to grasp for those...

Page 20

An Arabian on Holiday

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A Pilgrim in Arabia. By H. St. John Philby. (Robert Hale. 16s.) IN the minds of many readers, Mr. Philby is associated with the deserts of Arabia, a field in which he had made...

The Indian Problem Restated

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India. A Restatement. By Sir Reginald Coupland, K.C.M.G., C.I.E., D.Litt. The Oxford University Press. . (Cumberlege : 12s. 6d.) THE author explains in his preface that this...

Page 22

Fiction

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ONE of the most popular characters in fiction is that favourite child of universal comedy, the little man who is always in difficulties but always triumphant, who is assailed by...

Desert Heroes

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Born of the Desert. By Malcolm James. (Collins. 126. 6d.) IN his modest account of great deeds by men who spent a con- siderable part of the war behind the enemy's lines, Dr....

Page 24

Shorter Notices

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Georgian London. By John Summerson. (Pleiades Books. 21s.) THE e ghteenth century is the glorious century for our city archi- tecture, and there is no better authority on the...

Au Pays de la Magie. By Henri Michaux. (Horizon. lOs.

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6d.) Tits small paper-covered volume is the shortest work—and the first available in England—of a French writer who before the war was very little known even in his own...

The Story of Burma. By F. Tennyson Jesse. (Macmillan: lOs.

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6d.) IT seems but Yesterday that Fielding Hall wrote The Soul of a People. Everyone agreed that the Burmese were not only a gentle and charming race ; they were also the most...

Page 25

" THE SPECTATOR " CROSSWORD No. 367 [A Book Token

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for one guinea will be awardea to the lender of he Arse correct solutton of this week's crossword to be opened after noon on Tuesday week, April 2nd. Envelopes must be received...

SOLUTION TO CROSSWORD No. 365

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T I M •114 REEMLIMM A el M r _ CI R &AI AIN 110111Liqd n s ili_g_ CI CI MIMI ra , ' 1::.i.4 a31113 13 13 13 i.J II GI MIMI iM1131111:1111151 MI il o El In K I N30...

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FINANCE AND INVESTMENT

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By CUSTOS WHAT with the clouded international horizon and the Budget looming close ahead, markets are doing their best in difficult conditions. While I think it would be...