T HE National Union of Railwaymen is asking for a 10 per cent. wage increase; the Transport Salaried Staffs Association for 7f per Wit.; and if the footplatemen's union has not...

ESTABLISHED 1828 No. 6648 FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1955 PRICE 7d.

M M. BULGANIN and Khrushchev, that inseparable duo, have been visiting Mr. Nehru in New Delhi. Garlanded like oxen, the Russian leaders have admired the Taj Mahal and improved...

By our German Correspondent Bonn. W ESTERN GERMANY, like Britain, is having to pause in the mad race for higher production, fatter wage-packets, more consumption and greater...

BY HENRY FAIRLIE . ir HE Government has put up a sad display on the Finance Bill. The technical absurdity of having to revive the Bill on Monday afternoon may seem of slight...

I N trying to explain Mr. Molotov's outspoken willingness to put himself in the wrong with the Germans over the unity of their country, it hardly seems enough to point to the...

THE COCKLESHELL HEROES 6. . . the story is true and memorable . . . it is like many British war filmS, and unlike almost all the American speci- mens, in telling its story with...

of Ministers continues steadfastly to abandon them. Lord Read- ing, replying for the Government in the House of Lords debate on Tuesday, referred acidly to the people who had...

article about the deplorable state of affairs in Britain by one of the young men, Mr. Kenneth Tynan, who wrote that letter to the Daily Express and who have been taken to task...

IN MONDAY'S Daily Mail there began the publication of a series of articles on Sir Winston Churchill entitled 'Life Begins at 80.' The series is written by an American...

and his animals.' It seems that by Tuesday the Daily Mail had lost confidence in the authenticity of Mr. Herald's account, for without a word of explanation the series was...

WHEN A sensational article appeared last Thursday attacking 'C' Division of the Metropolitan Police, Sir John Nott-Bower, their Commisiioner, and Sir Hugh Lucas-Tooth, the...

recall Yeats's bitter lines about those who sought to bring the world under a rule yet were 'but weasels fighting in a hole.' Of the two main figures in the latest batch of...

valet, John, who accompanies him on all his trips, will invari- ably call him over the phone at 7 a.m. in the summer-time and 8 in winter-time.' Sir Winston has no valet called...

BY CHRISTOPHER HOLLIS NY Member can ask the leave of the House to present a Bill on any subject under the Ten-Minute Rule. He can make his speech and then it is open to one...

of Sir Anthony Eden's initiative by attributing clarity to his suggestions about, the details of a territorial settlement where none was intended. . .'—The Times Diplomatic...

BY CYRIL FALLS W HEN an evil lasts a long time we ought in theory to become more concerned about it. In practice, unless it affects our own interests clearly and closely, we...

BY IAN GILMOUR AST year we were treated to the spectacle of some of the most reputable publishers in England placed in the dock at the Old Bailey charged with publishing obscene...

BY JOHN BETJEMAN L L of us who live in small towns, or even in large boroughs, will be cheered by the news from Rugby. Hitherto that town, like most places, has held its...

The Other Oliver Edwards I T was bound to happen sooner or later. The advertisement in the Agony Column read : 'Oliver Edwards, of London- derry and Lisburn, formerly of...

Cyprus Brigadier A. S. Parker French Electoral Law E. L. Mallalieu, QC, MP and others Undesirable Emigrants Roger Gray, J. M. Money The Name's the Same Isabel Quigly St. David's...

twelve young men without having read their letter, and Mr. Lindsay Anderson fears that some of your readers who did not see it maY have been given a false idea of it, you maY...

SIR,—The BBC and some newspapers—maybe unintentionally—have been misleading the public by persistently referring to the present French electoral law as proportional...

SIR,—The Spectator did not reach me in Italy last week, so I missed Mr. Peter Forster's letter about my review of his novel. He has misunderstood me. When I wrote of his...

SIR, —May I add to the notices for foreign visitors to Italy, recorded by Mr. Betjeman in 'City and Suburban,' the following: 'Dames are requested to keep their heads vested...

Sta,—Surely every schoolboy knows of the syn- theticsubstance laevolcucyttriglycyllaevoleuey.1- triglycyllaevoleucyloctaglycylglycine. — Yours JAMES WAT T Middlefield, Cu...

SIR,—When Mr. Betjeman referred (Spectator, November 11) to the charms and anxieties of St. David's College, he did not mention the chief cause of the college's straits. Alone...

SIR,—Thoughts arc now turning to Christmas, that great Festival of Giving, and all over the land advance plans are being made for family reunions and rejoicings. At this...

reply to Mr'. Fairlie, has already been diagnosed by Mr. Fairlie. But a good deal has, magnani- mously, been left unsaid. Mr. Anderson describes himself and his co- signatories...

THE LONDON GROUP BECAUSE the London Group- exhibition, whic h is being held in the Whitechapel Art Gallery is, this year, confined to members, there is an opportunity to...

Theatre : Paris and London PARIS THEATRE 'A BIG religious gadget' must, at some time, be assembled by every self-respecting French dramatist. Anouilh did Joan of Arc, Monther-...

TANNIIXUSER (Covent Garden) WHEN Tannhauser was performed at Sadler's Wells by the Carl Rosa Company a few months ago, it was received, in spite of an inadequate performance,...

not often that we see what is called a 'strong' situation on the London stage. Fritz Hochwaldcr's powerful melodrama about the fate of the Jesuit settlements in Paraguay was...

DANCERS: SPANISI1 AND INDIAN OF the few kinds of folk dance that can be transferred intact to the stage, Spanish de- mands a consistent brilliance, a relentless dex- terity and...

LA STRADA. (Curzon.) —OH ROSAL1NDA! (Rialto.) --SIMON AND LAURA. (Gau- mont.) FOR some time now the Italian film industry has shown itself more willing to consider the...

NOVEMBER 7, 1830 SELF-DENIAL.—II is said that the Premier, on his entering on office, was offered, but de- clined, the ribbon of the Garter, conferred on the Duke of Bedford;...

I'm do mathematician and am as aware as you are that 'statistics can be made to prove any- thing,' yet I feel I'm not alone in falling, every time, for BBC's Facts and Figures....

WINDFALLS ... ... Ian Forrest DOWNSTREAM ... • Edward Fortescue THE SECRET CITY ... Jeremiah Ashe BANKS AND BUDGE TS • Nicholas Davenport FLEET STREET ... ... Gerard Fay...

By IAN FORREST HEN I think 1'11 spend it after all,' my friend said. 'It seems to me that "small savings" are only for people with big incomes.' After listening to his problem,...

By JEREMIAH ASHE F ROM the Lop of a boom it is possible to survey the shape of things to come. Let us therefore take the present opportunity to consider the long-term future of...

By EDWARD FORTESCUE T HE Thames is so familiar, so much a part of every- day life in London, that few Londoners realise the many uses to which its waters, fresh and saline, are...

By NICHOLAS DAVENPORT FTER the crises of 1947, 1949 and 1951, we should all be familiar with the nature of the trouble besetting our Yet the nature of our present troubles is...

By GERARD FAY I F you take it simply as a thoroughfare and ignore the view of St. Paul's, there is nothing special about Fleet Street except for St. Bride's Church, which lies...

Children from Five to Ten ONE of the best of the new picture books for such children is a new sort of adventure story, Harriet and Her Harmonium. It is the discreetly...

MINNOW ofi THE SAY. By A. Philippa Pearce. Illustrated by Edward Ardizzone. (O.U.P., 10s. 6d.) SUN SLOWER, SUN FASTER. By Meriol Trevor. Illustrated by Edward Ardizzone....

MODERN FAIRY STORIES. Edited by R. L. Green. (Dent, I Is. 6d.) PEOPLE who must give presents to children this Christmas could do much worse than remember these five books. The...

QUEEN IN WAITING. By Norah Lofts. (Joseph, 12s. 6d.) THE MINSTREL KNIGHT. By Philip Rush. (Collins, 8s.- 6d.) VIKING'S DAWN. By Henry Treece. (Bodley Head, 9s. 6d.) IT should...

WHITE MAGIC. By J. M. Scott. (Methuen, 9s. 6d.) ToP SECRET. By Elinor M. Brent-Dyer. (Chambers, 6s.) THE Logi . GLACIER. By Showell Styles. (Hart-Davis, l ls. 6d.) THE STOLEN...

CHILDREN today probably no longer aspire to professions as mundane as the engine driver's, but Science and Crime by Richard Harrison and Fire Fighting by Egon Larsen (Frederick...

The Genius of Ovid BY REX WARNER T HE bimillennium of Ovid's birth falls in 1957 and we are encouraged by the publishers of Mr. Wilkinson's excellent study* 'to take stock of...

HORATIO BorroMLEY. By Julian Symons. (Cresset Press, 21s.) HORATIO BOTTOMLEY'S motto was the classic dictum of W. C. Fields : 'Never give a sucker an even break.' There is no...

THE HUMAN AGE. By Wyndham Lewis. (Methuen, 30s.) This book, sequel to that ruthless, interminable, brilliant Punch- and-Judy show The Childermass, published in 1927, continues...

MR. GORLEY Purr's twenty years' acquaintance with America has softened the piercing visitor's-squint that made Mr. Gorer's The Americans exhilarating and, to an American reader,...

SNOW ON THE PINE. By Macdonald Hull. (Hammond, 15s.) THE BLOW AT THE HEART. By Bernard Glemser. (Macdonald, 12s. 6d.) SOME readers will remember the closing scene of Long the...

THE RETURN OF THE KING, being the Third Part of THE LORD OF THE RINGS. By J. R..12. Tolkien, (Allen and Unwin, 21s.) IT is eighteen years since Professor Tolkien wrote a...

MORLFY, The ,,,d co 0 Carleton, Pontefract, Yorke., and Miss MARION GINONR. 131 Moog" - Way, Golders Green. NW II.

ACROSS 1 It sounds a very noisy smack! (6) 4 This kind of habit is a hand-to-mouth business (8). 10 Apartment X (7). 11 Exponent of skilful piece-work (7). 12 Lay petered...

Competitors were invited to submit neat and witty definitions of purgatory for three of the following : a poet, a civil servant, a schoolteacher, a housewife, a TV celebrity, a...

greetings. A prize o r 15 is offered for a message of goodwill ( . fi a s more than 100 words of prose or 12 11 . 1 1 ( of verse) suitable for use by a heavywelg i boxer, an...

anything like a real frost which, when it comes, is something to kill the tender shoots in the sheltered corner, put the final touches to the fall of leaves and make one think...

BY IAN NIALL WATCHING three crows stealing potatoes, I was amused again at their nerve. When a cat or a dog steals there is some sense of wrong- doing, but crows,...

land Beach, Lowestoft, sent me an implement he has invented for cutting weeds without the strain and backache involved in the unskilled use of a scythe, sickle or other tool...

WHITE, 7 men. BLACK, 6 men. WHITE to play and mate in two moves: solution next week. Stahlberg's Chess and Chess Masters (Bell, 12/6) gives a series of pen pictures of the...

done in the vegetable gardep is the protection of cauliflowers by breaking suitable leaves over the 'heads of the plants. This can be followed by taking a quantity of soil from...

By C USTOS ALL things considered it is reassuring to find markets so firm when money is so short. One of the effects of the credit squeeze is, of course, to force companies...

By NICHOLAS DAVENPORT As far as the City is concerned, the debate on the autumn Budget is at an end. It is prepared to concede that Mr. Butler has done enough by way of...