M R. BUTLER'S Education Bill, the main features of which were dealt with in last week's Spectator, has had the uniformly favourable reception it deserves, and there should be no...

Sentence of death by hanging was passed last Saturday by the military tribunal at Kharkov which had been trying three German prisoners of war and one Soviet citizen for...

There is no short cut to the solution of the urgent problem of the coal-mines except one, and that one—the release of large n u mbers of skilled miners from skilled trades—is...

Lord Wavell made his first public speech as Viceroy of India.. to the Associated Chambers of Commerce last Monday. In address- ing this, a mainly European audience, it was not...

It is difficult to resist one at least of the conclusions which Sir William Beveridge reached when he was discussing a general election at the Manchester Reform Club last week....

Sicily and Southern . Italy are providing tests of the efficacy of Amgot in providing for the needs of the population in territory liberated by the Allies. Their success or...

Social Security schemes as a method of redistributing the national income to the advantage of the neediest are in the air. Obviously there are many ways by which such...

One at least of the activities of Geneva has persisted during the period of war and will go on when it is over—that -of the Inter- national Labour Office, whose Governing Body...

TF Christmas, and the event in history which it commemorates, 1. have any meaning for the world today it must be for the whole of the world, not for any single nation or...

Post has been sold to Lord Iliffe for L2,250,000. This seems a remarkable figure. The Post may very broadly be compared in character with the Manchester Guardian. Both are daily...

By STRATEGICUS It is only a week since I pointed out that some parts of the Dnieper had not yet even been reached by the Russians, and one of the sectors, the most important...

By W. T. WELLS It is a notable advance. To recognise the existence of a need is to take the first step towards meeting it, but though it is reasonable to hope that after this...

By CANON ROGER LLOYD N wartime we are all a little shamefaced in our keeping of I Christmas. The contrasts cannot be escaped and they are disconcerting. So we do our best not...

YES, of course it was sin, And no Christ would say, " Fight For the right," But we had to win. When the chaplain would bluster and blow About laying the rod Of God On the back...

By ELIZABETH DUNN Has the progress made by women in the last thirty years justified the burning faith of these pioneers? Has the women's vote, for instance, influenced to any...

By HAROLD NICOLSON HAVE this week been studying two wholly different publica- I dons which deal with the subject of education. The first is the detailed and comprehensive Bill...

Mr. Tom Harrisson pointed out in last Sunday's Observer, that modern methods of mass communication— radio, film and Press—have often proved to have a surprisingly shallow...

THOSE signs upon his face, love's strange stigmata, Mark him as passion's child no casual berry, Not frigid duty's fruit, no sprig of habit But flower of lovers' single union:...

THEATRE Snot accomplished actors as Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne can count on receiving the warmest possible welcome for their only too rare appearances on the English stage,...

SIR, —" Janus's " concluding paragraph in your December toth issue gives encouragement to us of the Gibraltar Diocese because it demon- strates that he—unlike some of our...

SIR, —The avoidance of mass unemployment is declared by Sir William Beveridge's report to be a necessary condition of success in social insurance. It is perhaps too much to hope...

December toth to the forthcoming visit of a Bishop of the Church of England to Italy to con- firm candidates in the British Forces there reminds me of an observation made by...

THE EDITOR a constant reader of your paper for many years, I have followed with interest the increased concern shown by your contributors and .correspondents in the education...

SIR,—With much of Mr. A. E. Newbould's letter in your issue of December 3rd I quite agree. As one of the younger prospective candi- dates of the Liberal Party •I feel that a...

am very grateful to your reviewer for his account of my book Petrarch and the Renascence. May I say that I did not latinise the latter word? It has always seemed to me...

SIR,—Does Mr. R. T. Vaughan know, when he criticises (The Spectator, December 3rd, p. 53o) Sir Wm. Beach Thomas's statement, " the trouble is not with electricity, but with the...

SIR,—Your readers must, I feel sure, be grateful for and agree with almost every word of Mr. Watson's knowledgeable article on this subject. But may we ask him to carry the...

SIR,—The Pancypriot Organisation of Religious Orthodox Institutions claims immediate cancelling of the unlawful and illiberal Laws 33,•34 and 35 of 1937 which nullify the...

article on Dickens' A Chri,r- mas Carol it was stated that the sales of the book amounted by 1844 to 15o,00o copies. Should not this be I5,000?—I am, Sir, yours, &L , HENRY...

Sut,—In your comments upon " General Smuts' Reflections " on December loth you ignore, no doubt for good reasons, one of the most striking things he said, viz., that, after this...

Lest We Regret. By Douglas Reed. (Cape. 12s. 6d.) I BELONG to the small section of the reading public which did not read Insanity Fair and its successors, so I cannot judge of...

Maiden Castle Maiden Castle, Dorset. Reports of the Research Committee of the Society of Antiquaries of London, No. 12. (Oxford University Press. Milford. 25s.) Agents :...

Redeeming the Time. By Jacques Maritain. (Bles. 12s. 6d.) THE opinions of one of the most eminent Catholic philosophers of the day on the problems of our time cannot fail to be...

Greece and Britain. By Stanley Casson. (Collins. 75. 6d.) A BOOK like this is a little hard on the author. It is the first of a new series on Britain's relations with various...

Hitler's Whistle. By A. G. Street. (Eyre and Spottiswoode. 12s. 6d.) • The Idle Countryman. By "B.B. ' (Eyre and Spottiswoode. los. 6d.) THIS is Mr. Street's diary of three...

The Machiavellians. By James Burnham. (Putnam. 7s. 6d.) To wish that your enemy had written a book may have been enough in Old Testament days, but today how much better to wish...

The People Immortal. By Vassili Grossman. (Hutchinson. 7s. 6d.) The Barricades. By Philip Toynbee. (Putnam. 8s. 6d.) THESE two titles suggest battle, and the " jtist cause "...

The winner of Crossword No. 2 4 8 is Miss HARRIS, 45 Fairfield Lane, Barrow-in-Furness, Lancs.

for one guinea will be awarded to the sender of the first correct solution of this week's crossword to be opened after noon on Tuesday week, yamiary 4th. Envelopes should be...

SINCE the fact cannot be ignored, it may be as well to state openly that countrymen in very many districts are seriously alarmed by the activities of the Town and Country...

9d.) A.B.C. By D. M. Chapman. (Baby Puffin Books. 9d.)—Counting Book. By D. M. Chapman. (Baby Puffin Books. 9d.)—It's Nice To Be Me. Poems by D. E. Stevenson. Illustrated by...

Puma!, contain more sense about the real and lasting problems of the Highlands than many more ambitious surveys. Mr. MacDonald was born on a croft, and worked on it till he was...