W BITING in the December issue of Prism, a member of the Community of the Resur- rection sums up the contribution of Christians to society in haunting terms. Rejecting many of...

an aircraft carrier: two airliners collided in a snowstorm over New York, killing 137 people; a USAF aircraft crashed on to a tramcar in Munich, kill- ing at least sixty; and...

No. o9ls Established 1828

rr HE Russians have a curious knack of drawing . attention to past actions which, from their point of view, would be better left in obscurity. The protests about the treatment...

MHE Spectator does not normally publish letters I from authors who are unwilling to put their names to them; and the fact that this week we print a couple of letters over...

I t ViscountAlexander of Hillsborough has his way the Lords will soon be discussing a motion on the subject of the influence of the Roman Catholic Church—or its offshoots—over...

By BERNARD LEVIN One of the things 1—in common with many observers—have long admired about this remark- able group of people is the fact that they are somehow in but not of...

Congo from 1 - the latitude of London is largely crystal- gazing. As presented in the daily press the pic- ture is not unlike that of Milton's chaos: . . . where eldest Night...

From MICHAEL LEAPMAN TEHERAN F EW people in Iran really believe that Prince Reza, born to such a sickening and irrelevant chorus from the world's press a few weeks ago, will...

By ALOYSIUS C. BICKERSTAFF 3atmarp My first prediction is that on the first of January (or the day Before, to Assist the Sunday Papers) a List of Honours will be published...

SIR,—Mr. Newton thinks that when I feel alarm at the presumption I seem to see among teachers and students of English, I am afraid only of a bogey of my own devising; Mr. Hough...

R. Marcetic Wonder Drug MD Literature into Life Donald Davie Clerical Blood Pressures Rev. Philip Wells Whitewash? C. Tobin, W. P. Jasper! 'I Am a Pornographer' J. P. Donkavy...

SIR,—We have followed with great interest the articles and correspondence concerning the position of the Austrian minority in South Tyrol. They were timely for two reasons;...

SIR,—On September 2 you published a paragraph about the announcement of 'Super penicillin' (Cel- benin) in highly critical terms. A critical approach to this, as to all...

letter gave your readers in the South of England the impression that the clergymen of the North were all frustrated and embittered. There are frustrated and ambiitered...

Sin,—Again Mr. Nicolas Walter is correct and must compliment him on his excellent detective AA orlk, but surely Mr. Girodias must be conversant with th e editorial policy of The...

SIR,-1 am, and have long been, an admirer of Isabe Quigly's film criticism, but I feel that her natnra loathing of Nazism and all its works has impaired her judgment in her...

film about Captain Rogge. Of course she , right in saying or implying that any person w11 helped the Nazis prolong their war by making speck exploits in their cause helped fill...

Original Spirit By DAVID CAIRNS The rest was all very gay and jolly. but it was not Mozart. This Barber, on the other hand, like last season's Cinderella, is recognisably by...

De-bagging Shakespeare By ALAN BRIEN WHEN the Stratford Com- pany opened at the Ald- wych last week, several critics took it upon them- selves to warn prospec- tive customers...

Two Puzzlements By ISABEL QUIGLY Spartacus. (Metropole.) —Elmer Gantry. (Leic- ester Square Theatre.) —The World of Suzie Wong. (Plaza.)—Shoot the Pianist. (Con t i nen-...

By OLIVE BARNES RAGS to riches, inno- cence rewarded, virtue triumphant and a merry Christmas to one and all —the cracker-motto mes- sage of the Ashton /Pro- kofiev ballet...

Wherefore Does He Why ? By COLIN MAcINNES A CTING exists by being heard and seen; yet it is extraordinary how great actors of the past have survived as living presences...

Alexander Blok, By Sir Cecil Kisch. (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 21s.) SIR CECIL KISCH has undertaken to trace the development of Alexander Blok's poetry by relating it...

A pproach to Hamlet. By L. C. Knights. (Chatto and Windus, 12s. 6d.) "?sPeare's Rival. By Robert Gittings. ( Heinemann, 18s.) ^ESPEARE, like death, is approached in a Mul titude...

sub- culture inaccessible to an older generation, grammar schools- are still a civilising influence. With some of the independent schools, they are `virtually alone in...

THE Scottish fifth column in English medicine is now a legend. For many years the South has received transfusions of talent from the Scottish medical schools and the Hunter...

Race and Nationalism. By Thomas Fra (Allen and Unwin, 30s.) The Vision Splendid. By C. E. Lucas Phil f (Heinemann, 25s.) THE pile of books purporting to be the real (1 on the...

PHILLIP MADDISON gets a medal and goes to prison in the eighth and latest of Mr. William- son's herculean sequence of late-Victorian and Georgian novels. He also makes some...

r ' ut , permon of the Colonel, there would be ls,. 'e the course of a liaison visit to an American D : c L ial permission? And why just an hour? For he Compleat Imbiber 3....

By NICHOLAS DAVENPORT SPARE a thought at this festive time for the out-of-work and the part-timers. Note that I did not say 'Spare a dime,' for 1 am not suggesting that they are...

By CUSTOS T HE Christmas calm has settled down on the Stock Exchange, but it may be only the calm before the storm. Mr. Kennedy has appointed Mr. Douglas Dillon as his...

K LINGER MANUFACTURING Co. 11 0 stockings, managed to double its profits .° its own technicians, invented methods of speed processing of yarns and now intene l year to September...

Who? By KATHARINE WHITEHORN To look at, he is a mixture: he has the wild Fabian eyes of a Michael Foot (dimmed out by American-looking hornrims), a neat and diffident mouth; he...

The Agency Game By LESLIE ADRIAN Is the agency game as black as it's painted? Tall, sad tales of travel- lers' woes are the small change of conversation in the post-holiday...

What has been omitted in order to accom- modate these fascinating facts, without which one would hardly dare to accept a dinner in- vitation, is not yet revealed to me, though...