23 DECEMBER 1922

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The chief points of the Allied plan for the Straits,

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which will now go through, are :—(1) An International Commission, under the League of Nations, with a Turkish President, to control the Straits. (2) Free passage for the...

For ourselves, we feel very little interest in the so-called

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Freedom of the Straits, except as regards merchant vessels. We most sincerely hope that no British Govern- ment will ever be so rash as to try to send a fleet of war- ships into...

NEWS OF THE WEEK.

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T HE chief event of the week is without question the progress made at the Lausanne Conference. Though the sittings are not ended, the crucial point, the Freedom of the Straits,...

Unless the reports from Lausanne give a totally wrong impression

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of what took place, the chief Russian delegate did his best to sterilize the Conference and to stir up warlike feeling. The Bolshevist State, in spite of inter- national...

Lord Curzon is to be very warmly congratulated upon the

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way in which he has represented and maintained the interests not only of this country but of peace and reason at Lausanne. His has been an almost daily triumph, and he deserves...

We had not only backed the wrong horse in Greece,

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but we had backed it in a way so devious and reckless that when the double clad* came, in the rout of the Greek troops and in the dismissal of Mr. Lloyd George, first by the...

An IDEAL CHRISTMAS PRESENT. There is no better Christmas present

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than a year's sub- scription to the " Spectator." The " Spectator " will be sent post free from its offices, 13 York Street, Covent Garden, London, W.C. 2, to any address in...

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We wish that we- could record that with the closing

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of the year the Irish Free State was making definite progress in the re-establishment of law and order and that its opponents were being defeated. Unfortunately the facts seem...

Mr. Cosgrove shows the true spirit of democracy—. a spirit

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with which the Spectator fully sympathizes— when he declares that the doctrine of Mr. De Valera and his supporters can be described as " the people have no right to do wrong."...

On Friday, December 15th, Parliament was prorogued. The King's speech

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showed that the whole programme which was contained in the King's speech when Parlia- ment met on November 23rd has been accomplished. The items were (1) giving ,effect to the...

Mr. Cosgrove, the President of the Free State, contri- buted

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a very remarkable article to the Daily Express of Thursday. He begins by pointing out that the present deplorable condition of Ireland is due to the fact that Mr. De Valera has...

As we pointed out last week, there is a whole

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world of difference between such reprisals as these and the very proper corporate punishment which the British Govern- ment visited upon certain districts—though that punish-...

We may add here that the last British troops left

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the Free State during the past week. There seems to be no doubt that at their departure the Dublin crowd showed regret, and that voices in the crowd even declared that they...

Mr. Cosgrove goes on to defend the recent action of

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himself and his colleagues in detail, but, though we hold that he makes out a perfectly good case for the execution of Childers (provided that Childers was compos limas) and...

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In the House of Commons on. Thursday, December 14th, the

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Prime Minister made an important speech on Reparations. He first explained the French point of view. The French still had great hopes about the amount of money that might be...

He next showed that he was determined to re-establish the

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doctrine and practice of Cabinet responsibility and also to insist upon the " work of the Departments being done by the Departments." In short, Mr. Boner Law's explanation of...

In the French Chamber on Friday, December 15th, M. Poincare

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spoke on Reparations and appealed for a vote of confidence. Although he would not define the measures which might yet be taken, as the Anglo-French discussions were still going...

The Daily Express of last Saturday published another page in

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the extraordinary dealings of the Coalition Government with Greece. When the Greek rout in Asia Minor had already begun, and even within ten days of the fall of Smyrna, Mr....

We publish elsewhere a letter by Mr. Israel Cohen on

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the question of Palestine. Later we shall return to a point in the controversy which Mr. Cohen has not touched, but which we hold to be the governing factor. It is the risk, and...

Addressing the annual Conference of the National Unionist Association on

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Friday, December 15th, Mr. Bonar Law surveyed the political situation. He dealt first with Mr. Lloyd George's criticism that though the Unionists " apparently had a majority...

Mr. Bonar Law went on to say that he was

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convinced that if we made payments without receiving anything from outside sources the standard of living here would be reduced for a generation. As it was, if there was not a...

Bank Rate, 8 per cent., changed from 8i per cent.

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July 18, 1922 ; 5 per cent. War Loan was on Thursday, 99f ; Thursday week, 99i ; a year ago, 91g.

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THE ENGLISH-SPEAKING WORLD.

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By EVELYN WRENCH. T HE announcement that South Africa will take part in the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley in 1924 has caused much satisfaction, for now all the Dominions...

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TOPICS OF THE DAY.

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THE BELITTLING OF THE GOVERNMENT. T HE Government ' s first session has come and gone, and in our opinion Mr. Bonar Law and his colleagues have done very well. They are facing...

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MR. LLOYD GEORGE'S CONTRACTS.

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I T is very trying. Week by week we make a resolve that we will, if possible, say nothing about Mr. Lloyd George. When he was Prime Minister he was in himself a subject that...

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COMMUNIST SUNDAY SCHOOLS. T HE Patriot, a weekly paper which indefatigably

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barks warnings and brings to light dangers, or at all events movements which might become dangers, to the State, has been publishing a series of articles on the teaching in...

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IRELAND REVISITED.

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V.—MORAL FORCES. T HE condition of Southern Ireland being what it is, it is clear that the reign of law and order can only be restored by force, consistently and fearlessly...

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THE CHARACTER OF A NOBLE LORD : A " CENTO

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" FROM POPE. O NE of the parlour games of the Italian literati in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was to construct whole poems out of lines picked out from the works...

OF THE USE AND ABUSE OF YULE-LOG AND MISTLETOE.

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W E wonder if our readers have ever asked them- selves why the Spectator was not in the habit of publishing a Christmas number full of the season's greet- ings and of remarks...

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CHRISTMASTIDE SNOW HUNTS.

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" And so when Yuletide, ancient rule, Sends boys from Homer and from school To ponies and mince pies, Oh, may no frost their sport prevent, But hazy, mild, and good for scent Be...

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

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DOMESTIC WORK FOR UNEMPLOYED WOMEN. [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Now that the " impossible " has achieved the possible, and the nation is relieved from the...

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PROFIT-SHARING ON THE LAND.

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Some interest has been aroused among social reformers by a description which I gave in my book, England To-day, recently published, of...

THE LATE LORD SUDELEY.

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Lord Sudeley's work in connexion with our museums and picture galleries has received such ungrudging support from you that I feel sure...

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A POINT FOR THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS—NEED OF AMENDMENT OF

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INTERNATIONAL LAW. [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—To my utter amazement I read in your comment on " The Anarchy of Ireland " the following paragraph (Spectator,...

ROADS TO EMPLOYMENT.

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Snt,—In the excellent article headed " Roads to Employ- ment," which appeared in your issue of December 2nd, you mention the proposal by Lord...

THE STATE OF THE ROADS.

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—I am glad to see that you are advocating the drastic improvement of our roads throughout the length and breadth of the country, which is...

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" HOW IT STRIKES AN AMERICAN."

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] own splendid insight into things American, running over many years, and the special articles by Mr. Bell, have apparently left a not...

A PEACE OF GOD FOR SOUTHERN IRELAND. [To the Editor

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of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—At this fateful hour the friends of Irish peace will be sparing even of good words. But a suggestion may be hazarded which does not touch on any topic...

PENNSYLVANIA'S DEBTS.

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sin,—My citation from Sydney Smith's ebullition (Letters on American Debts) was merely supplementary to a larger com- munication published in...

THE QUESTION OF PALESTINE.

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sin,—I must perforce crave the hospitality of your columns once again, as I cannot well permit the charge brought against me by Lord Sydenham...

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LORD MELBOURNE.

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Lord Melbourne may have amused himself by telling Queen Victoria he did not know who was his grandfather, but Sir Matthew Lamb was a...

HOME FOR AGED AND INFIRM LADIES. [To the Editor of

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the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—The Community of St. Peter wish to express their gratitude to all who have helped with the Fund towards extending this branch of their work. The Community...

A NEGLECTED FACTOR. [To Vie Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Is

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not organized Christianity at once the most necessary and the most neglected force in English life ? Take a typical . case. Last night, in the village where D. G. Rossetti lies...

DR. SCHLIEMANN'S WIDOW.

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—I have followed with great interest your references to Dr. Schliemann's work at Troy in an article published in the Spectator, in...

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" DACTYLIC " VERSE IN ENGLISH.

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] have not noticed so good a specimen quoted by any of your correspondents as " The Lark," by James Hogg. The first six lines are as follows Bird...

CUTTING TIMBER AT THE TIME OF THE FULL MOON.

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Six,—I have just read with much interest the review of Mr. Guise's book, Six Years in Bolivia, which appeared in your issue of October 28th....

A FISH-CATCHING RAT.

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sra,—Some days ago a parishioner of mine saw a strange disturbance and splashing in a stream in my parish. He stood still for about five...

THE ELUSIVE SHAKESPEARE. [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sin,—Mr.

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Hookham is rather hard on Shakespeare ; in Coriolanus he finds a repulsive mentality, explained by " artistic decadence " and " moral blindness." Lord Macaulay must be as...

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] venture to submit, pace

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Mr. Arthur C. Jennings in your issue of December 2nd, that Byron meant rather to prance in anapaests than canter in dactyls—or, it would be fairer to say his preliminary...

A NORTH-EAST YORKSHIRE GARDEN.

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—On reading of the gardens in winter in Surrey and in Dublin I went round my garden, which is less than a mile from Whitby, on the top of...

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sia,—The lines quoted by

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your correspondent from The Bride of Abydos are very familiar to me. They were cited in this same connexion by Edgar Allan Poe so long ago as 1848. He pointed out that if we...

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sin,—In Assam it is

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the custom never to cut bamboos until after full moon, as, if they are cut while the moon is waxing, the small insect which comes after the sap is in the bamboo, and in time...

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THE CHURCH ON THE HILL.

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WHEN bells have ceased to sound Upon a quiet evening, And all the folk are praying, Then can I see From all the valley round The notes but lately pealing One by one returning...

POETRY.

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THE SHEPHERDS. WITH splendour through the watchful skies The great Star moves in pomp of gold : And round their sheep, with rustic cries A merry wake the shepherds hold,—...

NOTICE.—When " Correspondence" or Articles are signed with the writer's

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name or initials, or with a pseudonym, or are marked " Communicated," the Editor must not necessarily be held to be in agreement with the views therein expressed or with the...

VAGARIES OF THE VIPER.

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—" The old and simple remedy " for the bite of a. viper mentioned by the writer of the interesting article that appeared in the Spectator...

THE CINEMA.

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THE MOUNT EVEREST EXPEDITION AT THE PHILHARMONIC HALL. CArrAnkr J. B. NOEL tells the first part of the story of the Everest Expedition, of which he was a distinguished member....

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M U S IC.

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PURCELL AND HIS NEW PUBLISHERS. Tim activities of the Purcell Society cover nearly half a century. No blowing of shawms and trumpets has heralded their valuable work....

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CHRISTIAN PLATONISM.* A maw of reasonable and devout mind, when

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he considers that for thousands of years we have been searching for truth and that no dialectic agility can bring us to agreement, will often feel that further discussion, if...

BOOKS.

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HAIG'S GENERALSHIP.* Or the many vexed questions connected with the conduct of the War none has aroused more interest and discussion than Unity of Command, and none has been...

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LORD AND LADY WOLSELEY.* ALTHOUGH Sir George Arthur, the editor

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of this book, obviously intends the documents which it contains to be regarded as " human documents " illustrating the relations between husband and wife, many of the letters...

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ENGLISH HOMES : PERIOD III.* IT is always a pleasure

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to welcome an addition to the beauti- fully produced " English Homes " series published by Country Life. Mr. Avray Tipping's appreciations increase the value of a book that the...

TRAVELLERS' TALES.* THE literature of travel has now a host

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of friends, and this is the age of anthology-making, so that it is rather strange that we have not been given before now any number of volumes of selected passages from travel...

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- MEMORIES OF A TURKISH STATESMAN.* ALTHOUGH these reminiscences of

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Djemal Pasha refer to quite recent years they seem ancient history. The Com- mittee of Union and Progress—the organization of the Young Turks—began by promising a free,...

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LIBERALISM, MODERNISM AND TRADITION.* This is the ablest book to

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which the controversies connected with the Cambridge Conference of 1921 have given rise. Speculative theology is too . technical and abstract a science to be popular. Those who...

MIXED MARRIAGE.* THIS book is the plain narration by an

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American woman of her courtship and marriage to a Chinaman, and takes us up to the death of her husband. For her, the two states were simultaneous, for she was one of those...

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POETS AND POETRY.

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A GOOD BEGINNING.* Ma. PETER QUEMCELL is the youngest of the seven poets whose work has this year appeared for the first time in Georgian Poetry. He has, I believe, but just...

OTHER POETRY.

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Ma. G. K. Cur.srizeroN has lately visited America. The sinister influences of Prohibition and Edgar Allan. Poe are apparent in every page of his new book of verse, The Ballad of...

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THE ROMANCE OF FINANCE.t

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WEYMAN'S gift of narrative is well represented in a story which might not seem, on the surface, to hold so much potential excitement and romance as such of the author's earlier...

FICTION.

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MISS MAPP.* A EarErrn of the present writer's, who had been ill, said that the worst of having to stay in bed was the amount of Light Literature that was lent him. " And Light...

A SENSE OF HUMOUR.*

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SOMETHING should be done about Mr. Canaan. He has discovered that " the number of thinking men and women in the whole world is so small that they would hardly populate a...

OTHER NOVELS.

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AN UNKNOWN QUANTITY. By Gerard Hopkins. (Chatto and Windus. 7s. 6d. net.)—Mr. Hopkins, having purged his mind of Oxford, now takes us through London's Bohemia. A wonderful...

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THE LOVE BOOK. By Gertrude de S. Wentworth- James. (Werner

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Laurie. 2s. 6d. net.)—Miss Wentworth- James, after explaining that all love into which sexual attraction enters is indecent, gives us a hundred pages of advice on the...

SPORTING PIE. By F. B. Wilson. (Chapman and Hall. 15s.

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net.) It is to the amateur clubs that we look for the truest vin- dication of cricket as an exercise and as an art. Mr. Wilson, whose record in amateur games has been notable,...

SOME BOOKS 01? THE WEEK.

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( Notice in this column does not necessarily preclude subsequent review.) New anthologies of poetry, to be valuable after so many years of anthologizing, should represent...

OUNDLE'S STORY. (London : The Sheldon Press. 4s. 6d.) Most

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of us have only heard of Oundle because it was there that the late Mr. F. W. Sanderson (whom Mr. H. G. Wells has called " one of the greatest teachers and statesmen that the...

THE LIFE OF SIR ARTHUR PEARSON, BT., C.B.E.

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By. Sidney Dark. (Hodder and Stoughton. 10s. Od. net.) Having had twenty years of acquaintance with his subject, and at least ten .years of considerable intimacy, Mr. Dark has...

STONECROP. By Cecile Tormay. (Philip Allan. Os. net.)— The title

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of Miss Tormay's new novel is wonderfully appro- priate. The arid conditions which it suggests arc the spiritual hall-mark of the book itself. Her story of Vella, a Croatian...

THE BROKEN SIGNPOST. By Sydney Tremayne (John Lane. 7s. 6d.

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net.)—Blossom, the beautiful Italian orphan, runs away from Tregaviskey (Cornwall) and becomes a cinema star. She gambles, accepts motor-cars from her admirers, and steals...

EASY EXPERIMENTS IN SCIENCE. By Herbert McKay, B.Sc. (Oxford University

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Press. 2s. 6c1.) Not since the publication of the late Mr. F. W. Sanderson's Hydrostatics have we chanced upon so beguiling an elementary science book as that before us, a...

CHANGE PARTNERS. By Horace Annesley Vachell. (Hutchinson. 7s. 6d. net.)—This

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astonishingly old-fashioned novel reads as though it must have been produced not later than the penultimate decade of the last century. It concerns two wives who are so...

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THE BALKAN PENINSULA AND THE NEAR EAST. By Ferdinand Schevill.

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(G. Bell and Sons. 20s. net.) Professor Schevill, of the University of Chicago, writes with all the dignity of the historian who is conscious of a specialized knowledge and...

Another well-documented study from an American Uni- versity. Mr. Shotwell

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only superficially concerns himself with the kinds of history and their several purposes ; but his account of the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin historians is acute ; and to a reader...

With the help of Mr. Samuel Crowther, Mr. Henry Ford

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has been able to write his biography. It is evident from his account that it is by personal qualities that he has gained his position. We see Mr. Ford as a man of specialized...

WHO'S WHO IN AMERICA: Vol. XII. 1922-1923. Edited by A.

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N. Marquis. (Stanley Paul. $7.50 net.) This excellent book of reference passes into a new edition every two years. The present issue, as compact, compre- hensive and accurate as...

THE ROMANCE OF COAL. Illustrated. By C. R. Gibson. (Seeley,

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Service and Co. Os. net.) We may not be grateful for all the gifts that coal mines have given us—smoke palls, fogs, an industrialized England, and a social revolution—but...

FINANCE-PUBLIC & PRIVATE.

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By ARTHUR W. KIDDY. EUROPE'S DEBT TO AMERICA. [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sra,—On the 27th of this month the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Governor of the Bank of...

Mr. Pember Reeves, the chairman of the Anglo-Hellenic League, has

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written a vigorous pamphlet on the diplomacy of the Western Powers in the Near East. He points out that Mustapha Kemal has finished the conflict that began in the eleventh...

WHO'S WHO IN THE NEW PARLIAMENT. Edited by T. W.

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Walding. (Philip Gee. 2s. net.) Politicians will find this little book uncommonly useful. To each short biography is appended a summary of the Member's election address, which...

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FINANCIAL NOTE.

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Business on the Stock Exchange has been severely restricted during the past week, as is frequently the case during the closing days of the year. Apart, however, from a setback...