There can no longer be any doubt about the fate reserved by their Russian masters for the people of East Germany. The arrest of the Foreign Minister, Herr Dertinger—the third...

, It was, no doubt, inevitable that for one of the Occupation Powers to make the arrests under the Occupation Statute at a moment when it is everyone's desire that that...

Mr. Michael Blundell has been explaining away that part of his speech at Thomson's Falls last week in which he voiced the settlers' new demand for the "transference of power"...

General Neguib is finding out by bitter experience how hard it is to be a democratic dictator. When the army movement which he led seized power six months ago one of its...

Relations between the Mullah Kashani and Dr. Moussadek have been subject to frequent fluctuations. Both are tempera- mental men with a lively sense of their own importance; both...

The recent short session of the Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe, which was mainly conspicuous for the protest of Mr. Alfred Robens against the suggestion that...

HEY'RE off ! " The reassembled Commons on Tuesday gave a vivid impression of the start of yet another contest for the Publicity Stakes. It is no reproach to a politician to seek...

, The end of the prohibition on the re-sale of cars must be welcomed, like any other move towards a normal market for cars, both new and second-hand. This branch of trade has...

It is all to the good that the Sunday Observance laws should be discussed, as they are to be on a .Private Member's Bill, in the House of Commons next week. It would not be to...

p RESIDENT EISENHOWER'S inaugural address was simple, impressive and instinct with a strong religious fervour. In certain respects it recalled Lincoln, in others Woodrow Wilson....

completely from Hogmanay and its supposititious derivations. I have no intention of going back on that, except to observe that the Concise Oxford Dictionary, which thinks it...

Royal Commission on Land and Population in East Africa as a full member, though her willingness to co-operate with the Commission in every way possible when it is sitting in...

I DO not weaken in my conviction that everyone who is not already sick of the word Coronation will lie long before June 2nd arrives. By that I do not mean, of course, that I...

developed in strange ways. Or doesn't get developed. Medical science is responsible for a good deal. Incidentally I am asked, by _a reader who reluctantly acquiesces in...

still un- decided. I believe that there is, and I think that there should be, a strong public opinion adverse to the execution of this man. Public opinion, certainly any mere...

modest, not to say deprecatory, where any achievement by the University of Cambridge is concerned. When, therefore, I recall that the University Rugger match last term was won...

to go on coining farthings at a cost of a halfpenny apiece, but is there any sort of sense in it ? Who wants farthings ? They are quite abominable coins. Drapers no longer, so -...

A FTER the Nazi arrests there was a cartoon in a West- German newspaper which is owned by the Social Democratic Party. The cartoon shows the entrance-gate to a fortress. The...

By RICHARD CHANCELLOR I T was once an established technique of the Tsarist Secret Police, more particularly of the Okhrana of Nicholas II, to divert the attention and canalise...

By JACQUETTA HAWKES A STRANGE country may delight the traveller either by surprising him or by completely fulfilling his expecta- tions. Japan proved for me to be a land which...

By ROY LEWIS I N the East African colony (not to particularise too closely) I stayed in the home of an old friend, a high legal dignitary; in the West African colony I stayed...

(1872-1953) Have we been, after all, in too great haste To give Maecenas wealth as well as taste ? For you have shown us that, to play his part, It needs but an expenditure of...

I T was cool in the sewing-room—the warm coolness of the shaded part of the house in a hot North Australian afternoon—cool and quiet, with the drowsy cackle of the fowl-yard...

Out of their graves the great dead shine Their light-years to the heart of man ; Then needling eye and pricking tongue Sew the darkness up again. PATRIC DICKINSON.

Traffic-Jam By T. F. HIBBETT (Christchurch, Oxford) H ALF of the town was flooded. We forged along the streets in our motor-bus, wheels awash, and were able to look down...

SCULPTURE The Unknown Political Prisoner THE international sculpture competition on the theme of "The Unknown Political Prisoner "is clearly going to set the cat amongst the...

Memory. (Leicester Square.) THERE is no doubt whatever that men are not such bores as they used to be. The Iron Mistress is the chronicle of fighting Jim Bowie's life in the New...

Escapade. By Roger MacDougall. (St. James's.) DAEDALUS was the great artificer, but it was left to his son to put to the test his most spectacular invention. The unseen hero of...

The Italian Book. (National Book League, 7 Albemarle Street.) / Tins is an entirely delightful exhibition which has been most capably got together by Mr. J. Irving Davis. It...

IT might have been almost any pianist, but it was in fact Jascha Spivakovsky, playing a Mozart piano concerto at the Festival Hall last week, who turned my thoughts once again...

FRANCE.—Louis Napoleon has at length found a bride; not a princess, to be sure, but a beauty and a countess. He is going, we are told, to marry for love. Our readers may have...

AFTER THE SINGING By J. P. W. MALLALIEU T HERE is a supreme moment in International Rugby Football; but it comes only once every two years. Some- times it is one of hope,...

about Wuthering Heights, Cold Comfort Farm, Toad Hall or the Castle at Dunsinane. A large entry revealed a widespread belief in the gullibility of other people, especially...

We will post the SPECTATOR to any of your friends residing in any part of the world at the following rates :— 52 weeks, 35s.; 26 weeks, 17s. 6d. In addition a Birthday Greeting...

Prize of £5, which may be divided, is offered for a translation In equivalent English form of the following sonnet by the early seventeenth- century poet Jean-Baptiste...

Snt,—The Bishop of Monmouth's original contentions were that "the Coronation Oath is a Sta:e document" imposed upon the Church by the State; and that its particular reference to...

The Settlers' View Snt,—Your issue of January 9th contains three or four items of interest to Kenya settlers who, as you say, "grow more impatient." The paragraph headed...

sift,—It is good of Mr. C. J. Slade to explain that in his article on Privacy and the Press he did not intend to attack journalists at large. But he still hits out too wildly in...

SIR, — The moving appeal made by Mrs. Doris Hodges on behalf of herself and all agnostics who think like her almost forces one to offer, If a sermon is impossible, at least the...

SIR, —Alas, I have to contradict Mr. Juraj Krnjevie when he states that in Yugoslavia agrarian reform was carried out so that at the time of the introduction of the post-war...

SIR,—The Rev. R. S. Dawson has so aptly added to your notice of the translation of 'the Four Gospels by E. V. Rieu in the Penguin Classics that further comment is unnecessary....

Sta,—Since nobody better fitted to allay Mr. T. B. Peacock's fears has come forward, may I, speaking as one who has had some experience in the schooling of horses, assure him...

Rook parliaments have been the subject of interesting observations publisbed in the winter number of The Countryman. Some people have seen what they consider to be solid...

wonderful scent on the road, I was reminded of a cocker spaniel I used to have. Nick was trained for the gun, as well as I knew how to train ,him, but he already had more skill...

SIR,—I refer to Mr. Harold Keeble's letter in the Spectator of 16th January, in which he states, "Telling half a story for propaganda purposes is usually considered the most...

As yet the sun is nothing but a wintry glow of yellow, red or orange, and half its time, when it is on view, it is veiled in mist so that it is hard to believe that it gives any...

Spread seed-potatoes in trays to encourage sprouting. Make sure that they are not only screened from the light, but well protected from frost, for there is nothing more damaging...

to a Sunday paper about the circus being cruel to humans, and even a reader of the Spectator saying that it is cruel to animals. Of course the trouble with T. B. Peacock is...

all accounts. He cele- brates at the slightest provocation, although he manages to remain • respectable in never being so bad that he has to be taken in charge. He goes to...

The Better Half Sophocles : Electra and Other Plays. Translated by E. F. Watling. (Penguin Classics. 2s.) Sophocles : Electra and Other Plays. Translated by E. F. Watling....

The Private Papers of Senator Vandenberg. Edited by Arthur H. Vandenberg, jun. (Gollancz. 25s.) IN his introduction to this book Mr. Arthur Vandenberg, jun., the son of the late...

Poetical Works of Robert Bridges. Enlarged edition including" The Testament of Beauty." (Oxford University Press. 12s. 6d.) THE late Poet Laureate never did his reputation a...

" AND in short measure Life may perfect be." But not " Lives." You cannot plant an oak in a flower-pot. There is a mean between some of the standard American biographies, with...

Flowers of the Coast. By Ian j-lepburn. (Collins. 25s.) Under the Sea Wind. By Rachel L. Carson. (Staples. 12s. 6d.) THE amateur botanist is certainly among the most innocent...

North Country Life in the Eighteenth Century. By Edward Hughes. (University of Durham Publications. O.U.P. 30s.) NORTHUMBERLAND, north of the Coquet at any rate, has always...

The Church and the Artisan Today. By Roger Lloyd. (Longmans. 4s. 6d.) THE purpose of this short book, written with evident sincerity and conviction, is to discuss the problem...

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[A Book Token for one guinea will be awarded to the sender of the first correct solution opened after noon on Tuesday week. February 3rd, addressed Crossword, 99 Gower Street....

OBJECTIVITY, whatever that may be, is a jewel, but the more frequently a reviewer passes judgement the more likely it is that judgement will be weighted by mere taste or...

World Arising. By Harry Hopkins. (Hamish Hamilton. 18s.) Mn. HARRY HOPKINS, a British journalist, has recently returned from an extended tour of South-East Asia, that is to say,...

Ileana's first memories are of the headquarters town in the frontier valley to which her father's army was driven in 1916 when he led Rumania against Germany after succeeding...

Amazon. By Willard Price. (Heinemann. 18s.) MR. WR.LARD PRICE challenges his readers by the choice of his title, but it is certain that anyone not familiar with the literature...

MRS. BONE'S HMV of Oxford is probably better suited to the reader in bed than the eager tourist, though its format might be uncomfortably large for either. She assumes a good...

Year of Space" by Eric Linklater, and Betty Miller "Elizabeth Barrett Browning" by Dorothy Hewlett.

By CUSTOS IN face of many uncertainties, domestic as well as external, stock markets are putting up a brave show. 4 With the £20 million Anglo-Iranian debenture issue so...