T HE remarkable victory of General de Gaulle's Rassemblement du Peuple Francais at last Sunday's municipal elections has given the French Government and people a great deal to...

After a phase of uncertainty and delay American progress towards aid for Europe has been resumed. The process of sweeping in the corners to collect immediate funds for the...

The understanding between the British and American representa- tives at the Geneva trade conference whereby Empire preferences are to be reduced in return for cuts in the United...

The plan for the dismantling of industrial plant in the Anglo- American zone in Germany is in some danger of being submerged in a flood of talk. Consequently it will be...

The General Assembly of the United Nations has been ploughing itself deeper and deeper into the mud. The United States proposal for a standing committee of the General Assembly...

Mr. Bevin's announcement• at Wandsworth on Wednesday that he would be no party to the degree of disarmament which proved so disastrous in 1939, carrying with it the implication...

After months of negotiations possessing much of the torpid quality of building activity in general the National Joint Council for the Building Industry at last agreed on Monday...

The new Minister of Fuel was given an early opportunity to dispel a good deal of the fog which surrounds his office when Sir John Mellor, on the first day of the new session,...

T HE interval between the Parliamentary " hail—farewell—and hail again " was very short. On Monday the Lord Chancellor pronounced a nunc dimirtis in stately and sonorous tones,...

The Congress committee on un-American activities has opened its inquiry into Communist influence in Hollywood. " We want to know," its chairman has announced, " what strategic...

T HE Government, the Prime Minister told the House of Commons on Tuesday, was presenting it with a balanced programme for the session. His words were aptly chosen. There is...

week to identify the author of the prayer used regularly at the beginning of each day's proceedings in the Lords and Commons as Mr. Speaker Yelverton, who held office in 1597-8....

of living lead to absurdities past belief, but evidence given in Stratford Court last week goes a little beyond anything I have seen recorded yet. The Borough Accountant of...

N O passage in Mr. Eden's speech on Tuesday was more loudly cheered, by Labour members equally with Conservatives, than that devoted to " the performance of the hon. Member for...

released a week or two before the expiration of his three-year term of service, to enable him to sail with the Test team to the West Indies, is not quite as simple as it seems....

entirely such as could be desired. Sir Oliver Harvey is an almost self- designated successor to Mr. Duff Cooper in Paris, so completely is he equipped by personality and...

By JEAN-PIERRE GIRAUDOUX Paris U NLIKE the Third Republic, the Fourth is not a Republic of personalities. While individuals were responsible for the collapse of the former...

By GORDON WATERFIELD I TALY'S former colonies consist largely' of deserts on the remote edges of Africa. But deserts make good aerodromes, and corners of continents can be...

By GEORGE BRINSMEAD T HE arts are now a weapon in our diplomatic armoury. It is no longer seriously suggested that the British Council is an independent body financed by...

By WARREN POSTBRIDGE W ITH the unveiling this week of Reid Dick's statue of King George V the list of royal statues in London lengthens. They are a variegated lot and erected...

By DEREK WALKER-SMITH, M.P. T . many people recalling the brave intentions of 1945 the cut in housing will seem " the most unkindest cut of all." Certainly housing, however...

LAY me at last, 0 Lord, Whether bone or ash, With my partner in the flesh, Or her with me. Draw not Thy sword From its sash To sever us in eternity, If such there be. And if...

By P. F. JENNINGS W HEN the people at the garage in which Harblow's car seems to spend most of its time said that they couldn't provide him soon enough with a reconditioned...

By HAROLD NICOLSON ▪ HAVE this week been reading Miss Carola Oman's very full- ." length biography of Nelson. The book will be reviewed else- where : I mention it only because...

WITH Yehudi Menuhin, Maggie Teyte, Jacques Thibaud, Edwin Fischer and Richard Strauss all appearing at four different concerts on the same Sunday, it looks as though impresarios...

" WHAT a passion we have for funerals! " one of my Welsh friends once said. A certain melancholy, a thread of that emotionalism in a minor key which, rightly or wrongly, we...

THE CINEMA s , Bachelor Knight." (Odeon.)—" Pursued." (Warner.) Ir will come as a great shock to those people who, like myself, were under the impression that Shirley Temple...

brought a considerable number of new recordings o( his works. Clifford Curzon and the National Symphony Orchestra have recorded the first piano concerto (Decca) and the Trio di...

Francis Iles (alias Anthony Berkeley, alias A. B. Cox) performed what is evidently a much-needed service by lucidly explaining the difference between the thriller, the detective...

Sta—Whilst I agree to the principle of having a universal Church, the form that Church is to take upon itself will be a problem of no mean order. One becomes all too easily...

SIR, —In his article Farming in France of the 17th October Mr. Oyler states that we have much to learn from French farms and methods of farming, but he gives a misleading...

SIR, — The militant suffrage movement may be a " humiliating memory " for some political persons and parties, but in the long story of the achieve- ment of human liberties 't...

to sit in a comfortable office and verbally chastise the workers from the fastnesses of Bloomsbury because they aspire to a five-day week. Do you and your American friends ever...

" CONSCRIPTS IN GERMANY " SIR,—With a feeling of astonishment and deep regret I have read in The Spectator of September 12th, 1947, an article by the Very Rev. C. Bardsley...

Sta,—While the repatriation of German P.o.W.s goes on steadily, though slowly, it is clear that a large number of these men will still be in this country during the winter and...

Sta,—With reference to your , paragraph German • Complaints in the News of the Week for October 17th, may I suggest that, human nature being what it is, it is fantastic to...

the chewing of hard mutton - bones. Are not the teeth of the inhabitants of the Aran Isles and Tristan da Cunha nearly perfect on the entirely soft diet of fish and potatoes ?...

Member for the Western Isles, but nevertheless I am constrained to expostulate against the aetiology propounded by Janus to explain the former glories of the teeth of the...

Sia,—Barbara Castle, M.P., in her most interesting review of the cotton crisis, writes, " On the very doorsteps of the mills are women who I believe could be attracted back to...

Snt,—I suppose you uphold Dr. Johnson about the conglobulation of the swallows. For he was just as accurate about that as he was about the St. Kilda cold. That was a scientific...

A local phrase—from the mouth of a northern farmer—seems to me wholly delightful. He called to his less obedient dog: " Come thee here, thee with thy prick lugs." Geese...

GARDENS, as well as houses, suffered from German bombs and have needed re-making. The extent of such work in and about London—that rus in urbe—has induced the always excellent...

London is surprisingly hospitable to birds (but not to butterflies) as well as plants. This season the jay is thought to have permanently established itself in the central parts...

SIR,—In reviewing Sir Oswald Mosley's book The Alternative a fortnight ago I suggested that his assertion that " The Oedipus-complex, as most people know, is connected with the...

a friendly and intelligent goose has discovered where its food is kept and continually endeavours to get in, always by the method of turning the handle. It cannot quite manage...

SIR,—Has the value to the modern world of the study of the classics ever been put more convincingly than it was just over a century ago by Dr. Arnold? After referring to " what...

opinion on the above discussion based upon the experience of thirty-five years spent in teaching. It is this. Classical masters make a richer, deeper, wider contribution to a...

In answer to many enquiries about the sumachs—there is the common sumach, with huge pinnate leaves that, as they wilt, but not before, assume brilliant hues of light red. The...

SIR,—In the article Czechoslovakia Today the writer states: " Suddenly, however, without the permission and indeed against the will of his own party, Fierlinger, the Social...

A Poet's Growth A Study of Goethe. By Barker Fairley. (Clarendon Press. 15s.) " TALENT alone cannot make a writer. There must be a man behind the book ; a personality which,...

Portrait of Edith Wharton. By Percy Lubbock. (Cape. 10s. 6d.) PORTRAIT of Edith Wharton.... Very old, very slow memories began to stir in my mind, like sluggish crustaceans...

Theme and Variations. By-Bruno Walter. (Hamish Hamilton. 16s.) NOT everyone will find this book attractive ; but it is full of inter- esting musical history and forms an...

The House by the Sea. By Jon Godden. (Michael Joseph. 9s. 6d.) Two satirists—one English and one American—and a romantic story- teller should be enough to satisfy the most...

What is Christian Civilisation? By John Baillie, D.D. (Christophers. 5s.) Tins little book contains the Riddell Memorial Lectures which Professor Baillie delivered at King's...

Crimean War Diplomacy and Other Historical Essays. By G. B. ' Henderson. (Glasgow University Publications. Jackson. 21s.) THE writer of these historical essays was killed in an...

M Elf131131131312110 S 131 atlk.4111 !A v . 11:1 KiNio oG A L E A RIT LINK EQ fat11113112 t21 13 t3 A 0 13 riga!!! 123 10 13 El El namsmatrirmu SOLUTION ON NOVEMBER 7...

one guinea will be awarded to the sender of the first correct solution of this week's crossword to he opened after noon on Tuesday week November 4th. Envelopes must be received...

By CUSTOS FROM the purely City standpoint the King's Speech has brought no surprises. Iron and steel nationalisation is postponed—but not yet abandoned—the gas indusry is to...