A WEEK ago the prophets of woe, for reasons best known to them- selves, were busy finding weaknesses and contradictions in the American attitude to the Atlantic Pact, undue...

French recovery has too frequently been measured in terms of finance rather than economics ; the declining franc has obscured the solid achievements of French reconstruction,...

The Estimates which have now appeared for each of the Services confirm, as they were bound to do, the impression given by last week's Statement on Defence, that the general...

The Constitutional Assembly at Bonn has moved with no con- spicuous speed, but the first visible fruit of its labours, a draft of a basic law, published in The Times on Tuesday,...

Those who felt that the Hungarian Government had reached the depths of crude brutality in its indictment of Cardinal Mindszenty, its publication of " spontaneous" telegrams from...

The psychological effect of the abolition of sweet rationing is bound to be considerable. The abolition was a thoroughly good thing, and the clear risk of a run on the shops...

The Survey of Major Economic Changes in 1948 produced by the Department of Economic Affairs of the United Nations gives chapter and verse for the general impression that 1948...

The two Private Members' Bills on domestic subjects which had their second reading at the end of last week were discussed in an atmosphere of constructive cordiality. On the...

S PEEDING-UP is a process which is not always received in factories with great enthusiasm. But its application to Question Time this week in the House of Commons has been...

On Tuesday, Members of Parliament had one of their rare oppor- tunities to discuss the working of a nationalised industry—in this case railways. The criticisms advanced in the...

be very little—in the rumour that in certain eventualities the Government might consider an appeal to the country this summer, the fact remains that we are well into the last...

to direct the body known at present as O.E.E.C.—Organisation for European Economic Co-operation—having expressed a desire for some better name than that, I feel impelled to make...

India in the past has owed a great deal to Oxford and Cambridge, which supplied so many of the men who for generations administered her so well. And it is worth remembering that...

unfortunate, largely through Lord Baldwin's own fault. When the Colonial Secretary said in the House of Commons that the Governor of the Leeward Islands had been invited to come...

month to a purveyor of beaver meat, who supplies that commodity to the fortunate inhabitants of Finsbury Park and environs. I say fortunate, because neither beaver steak nor any...

Having commented last week on a heading (which I need not quote again) in the Sunday Express relating to Princess Margaret, I must in fairness mention the sequel. A large number...

Since I wrote last week, in connection with the Government Hospitality Centre at 2 Park Street, that the Minister of Works was to be congratulated on his idea and its execution,...

of anything it needs for its welfare, I am bound to say I sympathise to the full with Sir Stanley Unwin's renewed protest against the obligation laid on all publishers to send...

By OWEN TWEEDY I an astounding existence of just nine months the young State 1 of Israel has organised a successful military campaign, has set in motion a full governmental...

By PETER TOWNSEND Shanghai. T HE lunar New Year has come early. The plain along the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, lying fallow, basks in a clear warm sunshine that belies...

By EDWARD MONTGOMERY New York, February 18th. p RESIDENT TRUMAN told his Press conference yesterday that there was " no mystery or confusion " about United States policy on the...

ANTI-TSETSE ALLIANCE By MICHAEL LANGLEY T HE gnat, Glossina, whose fate was discussed early this month by the International Scientific Committee for Trypanosomiasis Research,...

By J. B. ATKINS " S IR," said Dr. Johnson, " the great chair of a full and pleasant town club is perhaps the throne of human felicity." It was handsome of him to say so,...

" STUDENT UNDERWORLD " By J. T. EVANS (Selwyn College, Cambridge) S INCE the war ended, there has been a stream, sometimes running shallow but never failing, of " letters to...

Contributions for this page may be submitted by undergraduates at any of the universities or university colleges of Britain. They may be on any subject, but should be...

By HAROLD NICOLSON T has long been a matter for regret that we should be accorded only one life upon this earth, that we are unable to transmit perience, that the transference...

A NOTE ON BRARD THE theatre has lost a tremendous figure with the death in Paris on February nth of Christian Berard, the decor artist. In England his influence has been more...

"Treasure of Sierra Madre." (Warner.)—" Whispering Smith.' (Carlton.) — " The Loves of Carmen." (Odeon.) Treasure of Sierra Madre is a film which successfully restores one's...

A scientific farmer—at Rothamsted, that factory of ingenious ideas—has been paying special attention to the prognostics of that beautiful wild bush, the spindle. It is one of...

The crimes of the fox are much greater ; they are, indeed, greater than I had realised till this week. In some of the Lake Districts, as on some Welsh hills, they are by far the...

THE results of continued warmth, experienced, perhaps, rather more in the north than the south, have begun to prove disastrous, however agree- able. For example, I saw in...

THE Ballets de Paris opened their season at the Princes Theatre on February r6th, and on the following night Lord Berners' ballet, Wedding Bouquet, was revived by the Sadler's...

badger, which has been, and is, most ignorantly abused, is whitewashed by a great agricultural biologist. Most of the sins attributed to it have proved to be committed by foxes,...

February becomes a busier month now that portable glass is a common and popular possession ; and a good many vegetables, and flowers, may be safely sown. There is one garden...

SIR, —By the public at home the British soldier in Germany is variously regarded. Many see him fighting an unsuccessful battle against vast temptation. This is a view put...

British Colonies with a fellow minister who has worked for thirty years in Northern and Southern Rhodesia and Nyasaland. I happened to quote the Colonial Office declaration of...

PLUNDERED NYASALAND $lit,—During a recent visit on business to Nyasaland I was again struck by the pessimism prevailing among the European community with regard to the future...

SUBSCRIPTION RATES Ordinary edition to any address in the World. 52 weeks £1 103. Bd. 26 weeks 15s. Ocl. Air Mail to any Country in Europe. 52 weeks £2 7s. 6d. 26 weeks £1...

Four Races in Kenya, by M. F. Hill, and I must write and say that it is my im- pression after a stay of one year in the country that few of the Europeans looked at the racial...

by the remarks of Mr. S. K. Ratcliffe concerning Bristol students. His opinions are based on a Press report in which veracity has been sacrificed for news value. It must first...

Mr. Anthony Kiely, is certainly outrageous, but I doubt if this kind of thing applies only to a Socialist Government, as he seems, perhaps unintentionally, to imply. I myself,...

Stu,—I agree with Mr. Hill's picture of the Colonial future in Kenya, but it can be improved on by getting straight some facts about the Colonial past. He quotes Sir Philip...

from Mr. Anthony Kiely complaining that nearly ten months after his father's death on April 26th of last year his mother was still waiting for her widow's pension. The facts of...

Sm,—In a letter published in the Spectator of February 11th, Mr. E. G. Barlow draws attention to a case reported in an article which appeared in the Gamekeeper and Countryside...

SIR, --Mr. Vulliamy's'epithet in his review of Martin Tupper seems imply that he has not read Kipling's " If " carefully, or he would surely agree that, for its purpose of...

Sm,-I trust you will allow me to answer Janus's references to the Cambridge University Nationalist Club, and to its recent speaker, Mrs. Hugo Harper, of Newnham College. Janus...

LIGHT ON ULSTER Sta,—In his article In Darkest Belfast, Mr. Rawle Knox quotes, as a legiti- mate Roman Catholic grievance, that their schools only receive a 65 per cent. grant...

Sta,—In the Spectator of February 4th Janus implies that there was a gas- chamber in operation at Belsen concentration camp. In fact, there was no gas-chamber there, and most of...

Sta,—I am in complete agreement with your contributcir, A.C.2, in the Spectator of February 11th. I had the good fortune to command overseas a company in a well-known county...

SIR, —Sir William Beach Thomas, in his notes of January 14th, asks, " How do sparrows detect D.D.T. ? " In this country the answer is that they don't. This house has been...

SIR, —Curiously enough the note in the Spectator of February 18th, The Attack on Christianity, appeared on the same day as a leading article in the Church Times, suggesting that...

Man without Honour Ape and Essence. By Aldous Huxley. (Chatto and Windus. 7s. 6d.) MR. HUXLEY is out of love with human beings in his new novel Ape and Essence. But then in no...

The Romany Rye. By George Borrow; with an Introduction by Walter Starkie. (The Cresset Press. 9s. 6d.) " PRAY proceed with your narration "—so Lavengro once addressed Mr....

Napoleon, For and Against. By Pieter Geyl. (Jonathan Cape. 21s.) THE identity of a nation is rooted in its consciousness of its own history. For this reason every stage in a...

A History of Cast Iron in Architecture. By John Gloag and Derek Bridgwater. - (Allen and Unwin. 63s.) "THE easy conte t ma. we show fpr Iron is only the result of our own...

IT was an excellent idea to issue this neat new edition of Lytton Strachey's works, for they were fast becoming unobtainable. People of my generation first read Strachey when...

The Heat of the Day. By Elizabeth Bowen. (Cape. Os. 6d.) autumn evening comes from the pages. Throughout the - War atmosphere with its tension and exaltation, the heightened...

Russian Child and Russian Wife. By Tanya Matthews. (Victor Gollancz. 15s.) Tins is a disturbing book. There have been many books about life in the Soviet Union, but few writers...

Politics and the Press, 1780-1850. By Professor Arthur Aspinall. (Home and Van Thal. 42s.) IMMENsE industry must have gone to the production of this volume, but for whom it is...

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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, March 8th. Envelopes must be received not...

By CUSTOS FROM the replies so far announced to the F.B.I. inquiry on dividend limitation, it is already abundantly clear that the renewal of tho present voluntary agreement...