Mr. Hector McNeil's more or less casual remark that the United Nations Assembly should talk less, spend less and work more is likely to serve as test by which the session of the...

The failure of the proposed " go-slow " strike on the London railways is at least an indication that there is some limit to the determination of trade unionists to ignore...

Dr. Adenauer's references to the Occupying Powers individually, in the course of Tuesday's debate, were nicely balanced—a cordial word for Mr. Bevin, a declaration that the...

Though the National Health Service completed Its first year nearly three months ago no serious examination, official or unofficial, had been made till the Practitioner undertook...

It may well be that the Communists in Malaya will succeed where better-intentioned men than they have failed, and that history will hold them responsible for the creation of a...

The Hungarian " treason " trials, with the formal accusations followed immediately by a spate of comprehensive confessions, repro- duce in every detail the patterns made...

containing, among other contributions, reviews by Bonamy Debree, H. W. Garrod, C. E. Vulliamy, C. M. Woodhouse, Richard Church, Monk Gibbon and Sir Philip Magnus.

At Peking the Chinese Communists are assembling a People's Political Consultative Conference which will shortly bring into being a central Government for the vast and steadily...

F OR countries which have run into difficulty in the conduct of their international trade and finance, as for businesses which find themselves in a similar case, there comes a...

Edward Whymper, greatest of British Alpinists, recalls, in a year in which fatal climbing accidents have been unusually numerous, one of the worst of all Alpine tragedies. The...

the uninitiated. For that reason I feel intensely grateful to any newspaper that makes things really easy. It is to the Financial Times, to which I naturally turned first on...

inspired a local poet to an elegiac quatrain which, while perhaps falling short in some respects of the highest flights of Lyadas or Adonais, has undeniable qualities, as the...

the university sense) cannot be denied. The Oxford English Dictionary (very largest size) says "a head, fellow or tutor of a college," tracing the usage back cc i66o, with the...

bring American tourists to this country next year in unprecedented numbers, the state of the hotel industry becomes a question of national importance. If that is recognised, as...

T HE secret of devaluation was well kept—or was it, when so many people had been saying it would happen and happen on September 18th ? Whether that was leak- age or an...

By ARNOLD BENDER T HE first militant assertions of renascent German nationalism are connected not so much with the problem of dismantling generally as with the specific issue...

By GEOFFREY CARNALL A SOUTH INDIAN friend of mine, a devout Christian, has three pen-and-ink portraits standing on a shelf in his room. He drew them himself. The one in the...

By HUGH LYON* M Y philosophy tutor used to say that whenever his attention was drawn to some remarkable social or political doctrine he would always go to his bookcase to see...

By RAWLE KNOX B Y this time delegates to the recent Council of Europe may have decided that they know all there is to know about the political uneasiness of Ireland. While most...

By H. D. WALSTON D URING the war it was not uncommon for farmers to grumble about the higher wages paid to agricultural workers, not because the employer could not afford them,...

By EDWARD HODGKIN 0 N Thursday, September 29th, a Ministry of Health enquiry is to be held in Letcombe Bassett which will bring the controversy over the fate of this small...

Kitchen Viewpoint By MARY COSH (St. Anne's Society, Oxford) I T is ill-advised to be penniless in summer unless one has planned it beforehand. On the reduced labour market the...

HUMAN GOODS Something to be carried and paid for—that is the conductorial idea of human beings. Something rather troublesome to pack, from its vary- ing sizes, but not easily...

By HAROLD NICOLSON I RECEIVED this week a postcard from some reader of the Spectator, suggesting that I should devote my next essay on this page to defining what exactly I...

THE THEATRE "King's Rhapsody." By Ivor Novello. (Palace.) Tile vast auditorium of the Palace Theatre has an audience and an atmosphere all its own. The average age is higher (I...

BANG in the middle of the drawing-room of Anglo-Irish Ballyroden is Aunt Anna Rose's sedan chair, and there, at its window, is Aunt Anna Rose herself, now imagining that she has...

So Dear to My Heart." (New Gallery.) The Secret Garden, adapted from the novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett, cleverly escapes from sentimentality into convincing en- chantment....

it is time to face the fact that in their present form these concerts are a complete anachronism. Neither the orchestras nor the conductors concerned are to blame. It is simply...

term" once more. They seem to me to be thoroughly humane, and only occasionally a little too humble. I don't find much interest in books written especially for the young, which...

his dreams. And, indeed, it is rather incautious on his part to give us these clues to the labyrinth of his subconscious ; for we are all amateur psycho- logists now and can...

of six programmes about the police that began last week, made a poor start. After a ponderous intro- duction by the Commissioner of Police, which seemed designed 10 recruit men...

fly round the world in eight days—" the fastest time in which the ordinary traveller using existing air-lines can make the circuit of the globe." He is keeping us posted...

SIR,—I fear that Janus is justified in his premonition that the spirit of Ashridge is to be destroyed. How indeed can it be otherwise? On to r Ashridge, which is open to a broad...

Sta,—I also am an undergraduate who attended the Youth Festival at Budapest—one of the unfortunates who, not being reactionaries, had no chance to change their pound notes on...

LORD KEMSLEY AND DR. DIRKSEN SIR,-I regret to learn that your correspondents Elizabeth Wiskemann and Martin Wight doubt my word. I had a conversation with the German Ambassador...

SIR,—I am sorry that your correspondent, "Observer," finds some of my statements on Hyderabad untruthful. I can assure him and your readers that I was careful not to make any...

Stu,—Reviewing John Gunther's Behind Europe's Curtain in the Spectator of August 26th, Elizabeth Wiskemann writes: "He [Gunther] quotes an apparently objective source in Poland...

SIR, —On Monday, September 12th, British Railways ran an excursion from Torquay to Guernsey. I had bought a ticket, and on arriving at the quayside a quarter of an hour before...

Carson of Mr. Ervine's book Craigavon : Ulsterman, in the Spectator of September 16th, gives the impression that the success of the gun-running exploit was mainly due to the...

How rarely do private gardeners practise the art of green manuring, though manure is hard to get and compost usually insufficient or insuffi- ciently rotted. Seed sown even as...

architectural oddities) and perhaps the greatest are the trees. One botanist who joined a course there found a number of curiosities. What most struck him was a contrast in the...

SIR,—Dr. J. S. Whale, in his review of The Claims of the Free Churches by Dr. H. Townsend, asserts that " no man, not even an Apostle, may presume to control or mediate God's...

Far be it from me in this place, though I have the highest admiration for Sir Bernard Paget, to enter into the polemics of the Ashridge affair, but it is worth while to call...

droughts or nedr- droughts. Looking at some diaries and records—not my own—I see that surprised comments on the dryness of the season have been repeated at close intervals for...

great many of the apples not fit for marketing as such are being crushed for apple juice, thanks to a real advance in the science of preserving fruit juices without diming them...

SIR,—Mr. Armstrong's suggestion that the advantages of new machinery should result in a reduction of working hours is one which finds much support in modern trade...

SIR,—In view of the correspondence on this subject which you published during March and April this year, you will no doubt be interested to learn that I forwarded (with the full...

SUBSCRIPTION RATES. Ordinary Edition by post to any part of the world. 52 weeks LI 10s. Od. World-wide distribution by Air : " All Up " service to all countries in Europe...

The Call of the Mountains Travels Amongst the Great Andes. By Edward Whymper. The Chiltern Library. (John Lehmann. 8s. 6d.) Climbs of my Youth. By Andre Roch. (Lindsay...

The Webbs and Their Work. Edited by Margaret Cole. (Muller. 15s.) THIS book makes immensely interesting reading, but analytical readers could base on its evidence various...

Promise and Fulfilment: Palestine, 1917-1949. By Arthur Koesdcr. (Macmillan. 12s. 6d.) MR. Kt:mm . 1.ER believes that the establishment of the State of Israel must be the...

The Meaning of Treason. By Rebecca West. (Macmillan. 18s.) ONE of the few questionable things about this superlative and terrible book is its title. As a gallery of...

The Common Asphodel. By Robert Graves. (Hamish Hamilton. 15s.) Ir is surely a comment on the taste of our time that Mr. Robert Graves, a poet of real originality with a flavour...

ACK-ACK: Britain's Defence against Air Attack during the Second World War. By General Sir Frederick Pile. (Harrap. I8s.) IN the course of the last two years a considerable...

Swing, Brother, Swing. By Ngaio Marsh. (Collins. 9s. 6d.) I HAVE admired and enjoyed the work of Miss Ngaio Marsh for a long time now, but, owing to a distinction commonly made...

ice Britain's Green Mantle. By A. G. Tansley. (Allen & Unwin. 18s.) Tuts is a book for the general reader as well as for the student of )Pant ecology. The latter will need to go...

IA Book Token for one guinea Will be awarded to the sender of the first correct • ,lution of this week's crossword to be opened after noon on Tuesday week, 4th. Envelopes must...

o ilagE161 1 131A SOLUTION ON The Winner of Crossword No. 546 is Ilmington, Hants. OCTOBER 7 MRS. MILNE. Radegund, Pennington,

Tins handsome new volume of the Britannica Book of the Year, covering events throughout the world in 1948, is the first to be published in London for ten years, and its seven...

By CUSTOS DEVALUATION has come and only its timing and its scale have caused surprise. Logically, this gamble with the currency should have followed, not preceded, the measures...