T HE assassination of Count Bernadotte is the direct responsibility of the Jewish Provisional Government. For years the Stern Gang and the Irgun Zvai Leumi waged a campaign of...

The opening days of the Third General Assembly, which promises to be not only protracted but in many ways critical for the future of U.N.O. itself, threw little light on the...

The passage in the speech of Dr. Bramuglia, the Acting President of the United Nations Assembly, on Tuesday, urging obliquely the admission of Spain to the United Nations, was...

With the Minimum of glory to her arms and considerable dis- credit to her rulers, India, using pretexts and methods which would have appealed more strongly to Hitler than to...

The debates on the Second and Third Readings of the Parliament Bill this week have consisted for the most part in raking over dead embers, though a certain amount of...

Communists, who say that the shooting affray in Grenoble last Sunday followed a veiled threat by him of unconstitutional action, and from the Assembly, which says that the shots...

HE Play's the Thing" from the point of view of this column, which is concerned not to advocate or to attack any policy, but to comment on Parliament's debates as works of art,...

The economic tensions, such as they are, between Britain and Canada today are essentially of the kind which can be resolved by a clear-headed advocate. And Sir Stafford Cripps,...

Nothing seems capable of stopping the rot in Burma. Her first Foreign Minister, U Tin Tut, who narrowly escaped assassination a year ago, died on Sunday after a hand-grenade had...

D ISAPPOINTING as was the Foreign Secretary's inability to satisfy the expectations which his return from Paris to the House of Commons on Wednesday had raised, his silence on...

the officers responsible for the military exercises at Aldershot a few weeks ago, in which two cadets died of sunstroke after route marches indicates, J have little doubt, that...

presented to him by Captain Ernest Marples, M.P., in the matter of the accuracy of a statement by the Minister on Housing. The question is of some importance, and I have looked...

report of the l debate on the Second Reading of the Parliament Bill. Of these, nine lines—one inch—were devoted to speeches against the Bill, or, to be strictly accurate, to one...

Ministers is perplexing. What form should they take, and how long should elapse before they are contemplated ? In the past we have moved cautiously in such matters. There are...

word, may affect the whole interpretation of a speech. ' That was so with the Foreign Secretary's statement on the Berlin situation in the House of Commons on Wednesday. He used...

the High Commissioner for India, has come back from that Dominion to summon a Press conference and inform his hearers that the majority of the British Press reporters in India...

to get known throughout the world it will not be the fault of people who believe both in those [Ams and in the power of the printed word. The League of Nations had not, so far...

1.-ANEURIN BEVAN By FRANCIS WILLIAMS In his book "The Triple Challenge," published last week, Mr. Francis Williams, till lately Adviser in Public Relations to the Prime...

By A TRAVELLER IN SPAIN A N observer outside Spain today might well be puzzled by the way in which Franco's regime, while publicly execrated, is privately condoned by the...

By JOHN GARRETT A POEM published last month in a Russian weekly announces that Shakespeare's spiritual home is in Russia, the only country where he is appreciated by all...

By BASIL GORDON F EW authentic stories of individual lives which can be vouched for as true ever filter through from the Soviet Union to the West. On the rare occasions when...

By KATE O'BRIEN The remains of W. B. Yeats, Ireland's greatest poet and dramatist, were last week brought back from Mentone, where he died in 1939, in the Eire corvette...

THE SPECTATOR readers are urged to place a firm order with their newsagent or to take out a subscription. Newsagents cannot afford to take the risk of carrying stock, as unsold...

By J. P. W. MALLALIEU, M.P. Cricket, rich in so many things, is especially rich in writers. There has been great writing about other sports, especially hunting and fishing, but...

A TUMBLING black figure Into the sky, A pointing finger of silk And I Caught by that fisted white Stopped suddenly. In the still world I hung The very air Held its breath,...

By HAROLD NICOLSON T HE shock occasioned by the murder of Count Folke Bernadotte has been wide and deep. It reminds us that nobility of character and disinterested motives are...

THE Proms ended on Saturday night, in a traditional orgy of crooning and hand-clapping, applause and mutual compliments. It was a successful season by all accounts (I deserted...

"Sleep My Love." (London Pavilion.)—" This Time for Keeps." (Empire.)—" The Exile." (New Gallery.) THERE are many ways of getting rid of one's wife and one of the simplest and...

THE THEATRE "Twelfth Night." By William Shakespeare. (New.) THE Old Vic season opens not with a bang but a Belch. Never was Sir Toby less domineering, never did he more surely...

Seasons are strangely upset: with me a bush of Laurustinus is now in the fullest flower on the south side, and flowers are plentiful on Viburnum Fragrans, Cydonia Japonica,...

the extinction of certain field sports, especially the hunting of the fox, happens to coincide with a greatly increased membership of the British Field Sports Society at 3 St....

still being urged—and with wisdom—to collect more and more briar hips. Further study on their chemical make-up has, it seems, enhanced their value as providers of vitamin C and...

OUR country people ; who have so much rural knowledge on many subjects that they may seem to possess an instinctive or hereditary acquaintance, have nevertheless some surprising...

INTELLECT AT WROCLAW SIR, —It is only too easy for those who attended the Cultural Congress for Peace held at Wroclaw, to appreciate the reasons for the disgruntled tone in...

on Soviet propaganda methods, but at the same time it reveals a dis- heartening absence of the capacity to grasp the elements of the Soviet technique of penetration. Dr. Huxley...

Sift,—The note by Janus in The Spectator of September 17th compels me to make this intrusion upon your space ; for it gives the impression, created I am afraid by the film...

SIR, —The hospitals have insufficient beds chiefly on account of a shortage of nurses. The suffering caused by this .falls increasingly on the old: indeed, it is stated on good...

SIR,—In your note The Student Nurse's Status you refer to an estimated shortage of "still over 40,000" and suggest that the Whitley Council "will find much more to do." One...

SIR, —I think Mr. Crosfield's letter in The Spectator of September 17th on the attitude of the Polish Government towards the Czechs at the time of Munich requires some...

S,—In his further reference to this topic Sir William Beach Thomas does not give any authority for the erroneous assertions which he makes, other than the case of Quantrill v....

Sm,—Whilst in Germany last August I visited the historic city of Goslar in the Harz Mountains. I had the curiosity to see the forests from which much of the timber exported to...

Sra,—I have read the Rev. Henry Carter's letter on the problem of German refugees with mixed feelings. Whatever is the fate of Germans evicted from Czechoslovakia, Poland and...

JUST TO REMIND readers overseas that copies of THE SPECTATOR are available for Christmas and New Year Gifts AND to invite them to take out subscriptions for their friends....

SIR,—Those of us whose husbands are " self-employed " must sympathise with "A Minister's Wife" in the matter of the compulsory payment of 6s. 2d. a week for health insurance....

trial of the German Generals is proof of a charming natural characteristic of our race that makes us incapable of harbouring resentment for past injuries. I suggest that it is...

StR,—In reviewing M. Vincent Miss Graham refers to its hero as "a Saint in all but name." I think she may like to know that the name is there too. He was long ago canonised as...

sn1,—may I, in expressing my gratitude for Mr. S. K. Ratcliffe's note of appreciation of the late A. Wyatt Tilby's contributions to journalism and letters, remind your readers...

Sta,—I should be very grateful if Mr. Richard Hughes would tell me what is meant by the description of the slaughter of 20,000 of my co-religionists in the Warsaw ghetto as...

SIR,—A parenthetical remark in Guy Boas's article on The Omnibus School appears to me of the utmost importance. Referring to the tendency for multilateralism to lead to...

SIR,—As a member of the illogical British public, I should like to endorse Mr. Nicolson's comments on the German generals in The Spectator of September 17th. But I would ask,...

Sia,—Between July, 1945, and May, 1948, British Quakers, largely through the generosity of non-Quakers, were able to send four million 'garments to Europe. We are now anxious to...

CHAPTER I of this volume, which is edited by Mr. Butler, continues the Proceedings of the . Council of Heads of Delegations from October 16th, 1919, untit the end of its...

Arnold Bennett Again• r Arnold Bennett. By Walter Allen. The English Novelists Series. (Home I & Van Thal. 6s.) Mu. WALTER ALLEN has written a very good book, full of insight...

Party Choice. By Michael Berry. (Eyre and Spottiswoode. 6s.) "THOUGH he finishes by coming down on the side of Conservatism, his method is objective," say his publishers on Mr....

Meredith. By Siegfried Sassoon. (Constable. 15s.) WHATEVER the ups and downs of fashion, Meredith's distinctive con- tribution to the canon of English prose and poetry will...

Here and There. Selected Short Stories. By W. Somerset Maugham. (Heinemann. 8s. 6d.) The Servant. By Robin Maugham. (Falcon Press. 6s.) Mn. SOMERSET MAUGHAM never fails to...

Five Poems 1470-1870. By E. M Tillyard. (Chatto & Windus. 8s. 6d.) DR. TILLYARD'S latest book sets out to explain and criticise five representative poems, ranging from The...

Iv the times are not sufficient to purge the reading public of pity and terror, then two new novels—Mr. C. S. Forester's The Sky and the Forest and Mr. Howard Fait's The Last...

By CUSTOS THOSE investors—and they must now form the great majority—who are content to follow a policy of masterly inactivity must feel that they are being strongly vindicated...

' - r'.0iP _ P .H1P A 6 1111R t!HIAiI4E:LIEIO'N 72LE!CIA 1 OS L RA0 0 1 MA T kio!siA;litir v i IiNiC E E , M.Wr; .> C UAa L e tIEIy•C . 14IELIL-E OlgY ONcPSE ir .TIE SZ 2...

[A Book Token for 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 October 5th. Envelopes...