of fighters, substantially. The Prime Minister, indeed, went so far as to contemplate the " almost complete elimination" of Germany's fighter defence ; she would then have...

Speaking at Taunton on Saturday, the Minister of Agriculture dealt comprehensively with the recent past, the present and the future of the farming industry in this country....

The essential fact about the West Derbyshire by-election was that it was won by the anti-Government candidate, who is said to have offered his support to the anti-Government...

• I N his speech on Tuesday Mr. Churchill did not omit to touch on the operations in the bridge-head at Nettuno, but he did not answer the question of " what went wrong " there...

If the Viceroy of India's first address to the Legislature at Delhi did not fulfil all the expectations cherished regarding it that was rather because the expectations were set...

The war in the Pacific entered upon a new phase when, having successfully attacked in the Gilbert Islands and the Mar- shalls, American naval and air forces last week suddenly...

T HE spirit in which the Government has fulfilled its promise to launch its new programme for a National Health Service will give encouragement where it is much heeded. The...

D R. GOEBBELS, I should imagine, has never proved his value more decisively than at the present moment, for he wields a weapon of enormous value which no one can easily strike...

By STRATEGICUS The crushing of the Kanyev pocket, a smaller Stalingrad, reveals even more startling facts. The commander was found dead. The troops were ordered to stand, and...

By WING-COMMANDER R. GRANT-FERRIS, M.P. T HE speech delivered by the Viceroy of India last week to the two Houses of the Indian Legislature will serve to focus atten- tion on...

By WILSON HARRIS T HERE has been published in the past week a small book which in time-worn phrase, deserves the careful attention of the public, for it may be symptomatic of...

By ROBERT POWELL T HE Prime Minister's reference to Yugoslavia in his speech on Tuesday has reawakened interest in the complicated problems of that country, though without...

And her voice seemed through infinity hurled, The notes of music fell as sacramental water Sadly sprinkled on a raging world. BROUGHTON GINGELL.

tunnels of my home, Brock, the old grey badger-pig In my mazy catacomb. Silent and assiduous, Storied levels I have mined, Galleries promiscuous, Exits you will never find....

By V. SACKVILLE-WEST (Shepetovka was recaptured by the Red Army on February itch.) “T HE important railway-junction of Shepetovka. . . ." Thus do small, lost, forlorn, unknown...

By HAROLD NICOLSON D URING the past few weeks there has been much discussion, in the Press and elsewhere, of the problem whether military necessity can justify the destruction...

MR. Dm/um WOLFIT has begun a season of Shakespeare, Ben Jonson and Ibsen at the Scala Theatre, and it is to be hoped that the War Oflice may be able to allow him to finish this...

field." Generally released.—" Naval Log of Victory." Gener- ally released. Candlelight in Algeria and Naples is a Battlefield (a Ministry of Information film) approach the war...

Hindemith's Symphony in E flat. It is a long time since the name of Paul Hindemith has appeared in our concert-programmes, and its omission can hardly be due to any bias...

" A Spectator's Notebook " of February 18th, 1944, over the signature of " Janus," you printed a paragraph concerning the feature called " Au Pilori " in the B.B.C. French...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Stn,—In your article on the Machinery of Democracy you make an interest- ing plea for proportional representation. I fear, however, that you have...

SIR, -It is not clear from Sir Herbert Grierson's letter whether or not he agrees with Mr. Lewis that the Norwood Report has " doomed " University Schools of English ; and this...

Stw,—I have read with much interest the letters which have appeared in your correspondence column on the subject of Disarming Germany, but so far, however, an obvious and most...

Sta,—Has " Officer's Wife " considered that in sending her children to an elementary school she is placing them almost entirely in the society of children of the lower class,...

friend to play him the Finale of Mendelssohn's Sixth Organ Sonata, he may find the solution to the musical problem set him in Monte Cassino monastery forty years ago....

Sn1,—The statement in your article " University Sailors " that " Under- graduate naval ratings . . . are the only fit young men of their age in this country now permitted to...

I read with much interest Mr. Bowles' letter on this subject. The trouble is he offers no scientific evidence for his theories. Without this his letter will not cut much ice...

StR,—Recently there was published in The Spectator an article by Miss Honor Croome on Canada. This article stated that the Indian popula- tion was now increasing, that the...

SIR,—In these days, when we hear so much about democracy, it is odd to find His Majesty's Government losing sight of the elementary demo- cratic principle that a member of...

SIR,—Two notes. One for Mr. Harold Nicolson. Last week he regretted that St. Valentine's Day " should have lost all hold upon our national habits." Let me console him. I am...

Sta,—Mr. Willis makes a fair point. I should not have used the word " exactly " in a geographical connotation. But I must emphasise that politically and psychologically my...

ON the subject of imported animals, discussed recently in a report of the Ecologists, the number of species greatly exceeds those quoted. For example: a landowner in Southern...

SIR,—We continue to receive so much correspondence as a result of the recent article on " Marriage Guidance," by Dr. E. F. Griffith, that perhaps you would kindly allow us to...

No Man's Man. By Maev Sullivan. (Dublin : Browne and Nolan. 15s.) MRS. SULLIVAN is here performing a pious duty, the justifying of her father, Timothy Michael Healy, who began...

Yeats, The Father WHO are the best letter-writers in the English language? Opinion will vary according to individual interests and personal tastes, but I remember once...

The Time of My Life. By Harry C. de Vighne. •(Robert Hale.' tos.641.) WHETHER as fiction or fact, and Dr. de Vighne's narrative bears the unadorned impress of truth, this...

So Little Time. By John P. Marquand. (Robert Hale. rm. 6d.) Pleasure Beach. By Frank Tilslcy. (Collins. Los. 6d.) Jack-in-the-Box. By J. J. Connington. (Hodder and Stoughton....

Island Farm. By F. Fraser Darling. (Bell. Iss.) FOR Dr. Fraser Darling the ownership of an island is not a means of escape from the irks and disappointments of communal living,...

Spottiswoode. 8s. 6d.) With Pennants Flying : The Immortal Deeds of the Royal Armoured Corps. By David Masters. (Eyre and Spottiswoode. 9s.) GENERAL FULLER here reprints his...

FA Book Token for one guinea will be awarded to the sender of the first correct sciution of this week's crossword to be opened after noon on Tuesday week, March 7th. Envelopes...

winner of Crossword No. 257 is MR. E. T. RUDDLE, San Marco, The Common, Gerrard's Cross.

K. Hicks and L. Rostas. Second Edition. (Oxford : At the Clarendon Press. 12s. 6d.) IT is a tribute both to the timeliness and the quality of this book, which was first...

By CUSTOS THE best that can be said of the home railway dividends for 1943 is that they are slightly better than had been expected. While the London Midland and Scottish and the...

Preface by H. G. Wells. (Lindsay Drummond. 9s. 6d.) SIGNOR GARDINI is an Italian subject exiled from his country since the Abyssinian War. His book is divided into three...