26 JANUARY 1929

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News of the Week

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T HE best news we have hid since the beginning of the King's illness was published on Tuesday, when it was stated that His Majesty would-soon-be moved to the sea. The house of...

* * * * At Hankow, the Chinese local authorities

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have broken their pledges in regard to the separate administration of the former German and Russian Concessions. Inciden. tally their action is a direct challenge to the central...

There have been many rumours lately of a quarrel between

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Stalin, Secretary-General of the Communist Party in Russia, and Bukharin, who is the nominal head of the Communist International. It has even been said that Bukharin has been...

* * * * The Chinese National Government is making

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very slow :progress - in settling the country. The will seems to be there without the ability to break with immemorial bad traditions, and without the money for putting reforms...

Japan is evidently anxious to end the deadlock with China;

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and there is every . reason to believe that the Chinese - _Government is equally anxious: But Japan eels that it is- essential that the anti-Japanese boycott should-be...

EDITORIAL AND 'PUBLISHING OFFICES : 13 York Street, Covent Garden,

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London, IV .C. 2.—A Subscription to the SPECTATOR costs Thirty Shillings per annum, including postage, to any part of the world. The SPECTATOR is registered as a Newspaper. The...

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• The new ruler has evidently done his best to

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make - a clean sweep of the Barakzai dynasty, and he has also rounded up most of the Sirdars as well as the Notables who had hoped to secure their position in the shadow of...

Opinfon is still divided as to whether the King or

The Spectator

Genera Zivkovitch is the real Dictator in Jugoslavia. Probably, as_ in Spain, it . is six of one and half a dozen of the other. But there can be no quastion that a strong hand...

One hundred and two robberies and four murders in One

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week have made the Chicago police take sweeping action. Last Sunday' night they arrested three thousand people. " Never mind ' injunctions. If you are barred, grab an axe and...

Yet a third Amir has mounted the throne in Kabul,

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a development in the internal affairs of Afghanistan which should refute once and for all the silly notion that British influence had anything to do with the recent rebellion....

The young nation in a hurry is a common phenomenon

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nowadays, and there need be no surprise at the crisis in the relations of Great Britain and Iraq. The Iraqi Cabinet has resigned as a protest against the British bovernment's...

More valuable in the • long run than the fireworks

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which May or may not go off at meetingS of the League Council, more valuable, certainly, than the set-piece of the Aisenibly, is the unobtrusive work of the various technical...

. On Tuesday Parliament reassembled after the Recess. The Prime

The Spectator

Minister met very satisfactorily Mr. Thurtle's request for a day to discuss the. Channel Tunnel Scheme. Although .he was not able to grant a day, he admitted that the subject...

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The sale of 25, 000 acres, out of the 41,000

The Spectator

acres of Lord Ailesbury's Savernake Forest estate, is one of the largest transfers of property that have occurred in recent years The buyer, Mr. E. C. Fairweather, gets some...

; The National Farmers' Union has carried its revolt against

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- the Government further than ever before. 'It has threatened in fact if not in name—for the Union itself has apparently repudiated the word " threatened " —to refuse support to...

We regret to record the death of Mr. R. C.

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Lehmann, who died on Tuesday at the age of seventy-three. His name will long be cherished at Cambridge—and not only there but at Oxford and in the wider fields of literature,...

In the House of Commons on Wednesday the _issue between

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block grants and percentage grants for the maternity and child . welfare services was fought out and decided. There is, of course, substance in the argument that the block grant...

On Tuesday in the House of Commons Mr. Briggs moved

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his amendment, which was significantly sup- ported by many Unionists, to exclude breweries, distil- leries and tobacco factories from the category of those industries which will...

Speaking at Manchester on Monday Mr. Churchill discussed such interesting

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questions as currency, Ration- alization, Safeguarding, and the position of the cotton trade . " There is another thing," he said, which. I do not think would do us any good at...

Bank Rate, 4.1 per cent., changed from 5 per cent.,

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on April 21st, 1927. War Loan (5 per cent.) was on Wednesday 1021 ; on Wednesday week 10211 ; a year ago 101j1. Funding Loan (4 per cent.) was on Wednesday 911 ; on Wednesday...

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The Problems of East Africa

The Spectator

O F all the inquiries into the problems of East Africa that which has been conducted by Sir Edward Hilton Young's Commission has been awaited with the greatest anxiety. Neither...

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Unem lo ment—an 0 ortunit

The Spectator

S O much has been written.of the difficulties of provid- ing for the workless that we are apt to forget that the very fact of unemployment_ provides us with a means for...

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The Aberdare Fund and the Grant

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.O UR readers who have subscribed to the Aberdare Fund have naturally been much concerned to know whether the whole of their money would be doubled by a grant from the Lord...

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Need for for Continued Generosity in Aberdare T HE word I

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like., best-in ,the Prince of Wales's appeal for the miners, which I see now placarded on so many walls, is the word " continual." _He says . that continual. effort is...

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Our Aberdare Fund-L8,004 'is. 6d. so far

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The following list represents subscriptions to the SPECTATOR Aberdare Fund received up to the first post on Tuesday, January 22nd, 1929. All remittances (which should be...

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A New Charter For India THERE has lately been a

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remarkable se q uel to Mother India, the book in which Miss Katherine Mayo championed the cause of her sufferin g sisters in India, but made so little mention of the medical...

Training in the Taunus S ELDOM can a British army have

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done its summer trainin g amid more beautiful surroundin g s than the " Army of the Rhine " in the country round Wiesbaden. To a soldier the bulk of whose service has been spent...

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Coleridge and Criticism

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D E QUINCEY said of the publication of The Lyrical Ballads, `.` that it was the greatest event in the =folding of my own . mind." He added, to explain himself further, " I found...

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The Donkey, the Pedlar, and the Impossible . Rat .

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. iuY house—which the local rural council persists in 131 regarding . as a rateable residence, though I have stated firmly that as the caretaker of ail ancient English...

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Correspondence

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A LETTER FROM CAIRO. [To the Editor of the Sr-rem-rim] SIR,—The serio-comedy of Egyptian politics was enlivened by the sudden exit of the Wafd Premier, Mustapha Nahas Pasha,...

Music

The Spectator

THE TYRANNY OF THE CONDUCTOR. The conductor's art has been developed to such a fine degree That there is a distinct danger that its original purpose may be obscured. It is...

[Mr. Alan Porter's article in the Spectator Conference series on

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" Readers' Problems " will appear next week.—En. Spectator.]

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A Picture of the Tsar

The Spectator

[As we are publishing extracts from the " Letters of the Tsar to the Tsaritsa" during this and succeeding weeks, we have asked Sir John Hanbury-Williams, who was Chief of the...

The Letters of the Tsar to the Tsaritsa, 1914-1917 [By

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arrangement with Messrs. John Lane The Bodley Head, Ltd., who will publish the complete book in the spring, we - are able-to print a series of extracts from " The Letters of the...

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The League of Nations

The Spectator

The International Idea THE MISTAKE ABOUT THE LEAGUE. trikalz are still people, it appears, who confuse the idea of the Society of Nations (how much more appropriate the French...

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- * * * A FOOD RECIPE.

The Spectator

A number of correspondents most kindly send the lost recipe for birds Which I asked for last week. The title of the) book is How to Attract and Protect Wild Birds (Witherby, ls....

THE KEW BADGER.

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The presence of a badger—and. foxes—in Richmond Park recalls the last appearance of a badger in Kew—in the summer of 1914. I have received a full account of its history from one...

A FRENCH THEORY.

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It is well said in one commercial broadsheet recently issued on the subject of sugar beet that " a further most valuable consideration is the increased fertility of the soil, as...

Much of the information about the sufferings of particular birds

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comes from the forty-one " watchers " employed by the R.S.P.B. They do yeoman service in a score of ways ; and it is quite true that the multiplication of " protected areas " by...

A TRAPPED TERRIER.

The Spectator

The letter has the following postscript :— • " Since I wrote, a little Sealyhain terrier bitch Went off hunting With another 'terrier 'at ten o clodk in the morning. The other...

CLEAN WATERS.

The Spectator

Th4i• best methods of prevention are very fully discussed iri the. 'Journal of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. The throwing out of oil is a gross waste as well as...

Country Life

The Spectator

A M.F.H.'s PROTEST. A LETTER full of facts and written by an ex-Master of Fox- hounds (whom I have regarded for many years as one of the very best naturalists of. my...

SEA BIRDS AND THE NAVY. •

The Spectator

On the subject -of wild life on-our coasts all lovers of birds should be grateful to the Navy for their co-operation in pre- venting nuisance from waste oil. Action was hurried...

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the Editor

The Spectator

Letters. -to_ . AFFORESTATION OF ABERDARE DISTRICT- - . _ [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] . SIR,— Whenever I visit the Aberdare district I am invariably impressed- by, its...

OUR ABERDARE FUND [To the Editor. of .the SPECTATOR.] Sin,—At

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our meeting of the Aberdare " Chamber of Trade " —on the 15th instant--.–it was unanimously' resolved that I, as Chairman ; should write to you on their behalf and exPreis to...

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sza,—Since the Spectator has

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adopted Aberdare, we think yoii may be interested in the efforts which this Bureau is making to provide employment for the miners' womenfolk by developing the market for quilted...

• - - ' [To the Editor of thi SPECTATOR:]*

The Spectator

'Wish to thank - you and Spectator readers for the subitantiaI help you 'have' given to nre and iny "faniily: haVe been unemplOYed: since the fock-oiit Of:1928 `and haVen wife -...

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WHAT IS WRONG...WITH BRITISH _ AGRICULTURE ?

The Spectator

fro fhe Editor of the SPECTATOR.] • SIR,—Mr. Montague Fordham, at least as speaking for economists, should,_ know full well that the ,agricultural question cannot be picked out...

" A SURVEY OF FASCISM " [To the Editor of

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the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—While thanking you for the kind allusions to myself in your notice of the International Centre of Fascist Studies' first year-book, entitled A Survey of...

At Gyfarwyddwr y- GwEJAFtspi.

The Spectator

Syn,—Fel un sydd wedi deilliaw o fudd mabwysiad eich eykhgraivii o Dref Aberdar, teimlaf yn dra ddiolchgar i chwi am eich Cynorthwy yn yr argyfwng yrydym ynddo, oherwydd...

°tin • ABERDARE FUND'-POINTS FROM' LETTERS •••

The Spectator

A. H. L. Bolton. I cannot resist the appeal of your Special Commissioner . . I gladly enclose a cheque for twelve weeks at this rate to help to brighten some sad home. Mee. E....

TRANSLATION.

The Spectator

[Being One who has benefited under the adoption scheme orthe SpeetafOr • I beg to tender - you my sincere thanks for yourlfelrilli the distress we are in, owing to the...

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HOUSING . ON A SOUND FINANCIAL BASIS [To the Editor'

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of the- SPECTATOR.] SM,—Five per cent. used to be the social reformer's Utopia. At' Letchworth the First Garden ' City, 'Ltd. has ' actually carried the' idea into ' reality,...

THE . LOSS OF THE `. TITANIC '

The Spectator

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Recently, when reading in Mr. J. G. Lockhart's Peril of the Sea his vivid account of the shipwreck of - the ` Titanic ' and the loss of...

HOMECROFTS AND THE SLUI1I

The Spectator

• • • [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—May I extend an invitation to any of the societies now engaged on the housing of the poorer workers, to look out for families who...

THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND LAWN TENNIS [To the Editor of

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the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—The attitude of the large . Public Schools toward lawn tennis shows in most instances, from recent replies t o inquiries on the subject, a marked repugnance...

THE' LEADING CIVILIZED COUNTRY - IN THE WORLD ?

The Spectator

[To the'Editor of the SpEcrAron.] Sza,—One frequently sees references to France as the leading civilized country of the ' world. Although I suppose it is impossible to indict a...

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THE OXFORD MANNER

The Spectator

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sra,—I should be very much delighted to hear if any of your readers' can lay their fingers upon what ingredients constitute the " Oxford...

FAIR PLAY FOR WOMEN

The Spectator

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIB,—No one can deny the difference in the size of the field now open to women, compared to that of the middle of the last century, but the...

YOUNG-CARRYING BIRDS

The Spectator

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,- ? -Your article " Young-Carrying Birds " (Spectator, December 22nd) interests me very much. I should like to tell you of something I once...

A PLAN TO AVOID RAILWAY ACCIDENTS

The Spectator

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sra,—So many railway disasters seem to have been due to failure to see signals owing to bad weather conditions, especi- ally fog. May I...

HUMANE SLAUGHTER

The Spectator

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sur,—I write with reference to a letter in your issue of October 13th by Mr. Paddison, in which he advanceshis opinion that compulsory...

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THE BLACKBIRD'S WARNING

The Spectator

[To the Editor of the Spzeraroa.] SIR,—It may interest your correspondent in the Spectator of January 19th that a sparrow-hawk roosted every night for over two months last...

Poetry

The Spectator

The Hope of a Caged Lark (To M. A.) ONCE I sprang from emerald grass Straight to a sapphire sky. Now am I caged ; My feet are on a mournful turf, My head's pressed near a...

POINTS FROM LETTERS A STATESMAN AND A MOUNTAIN.

The Spectator

In reference to Mr. Bassett Digby's interesting article, Names That Live On," in your issue of November 10th, perhaps it might be noteworthy that among the group of mountains...

A Hundred Years Ago

The Spectator

TEE " SrscreToa," JAN - timer 24Tir, 1829. THE LARGEST NEWSPAPER. The Times of last Monday surprised its readers by appearing on their breakfast-tables in a sheet of paper...

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Dean Inge says in the brief autobiographical notes prefixed to

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his new volume of reprinted essays, Assessments and Anticipations (Cassell, 7s. 6d.),that Mr. Asquith in appointing him 'to the Deanery of St. Paul's in 1911, expressed the hope...

Some Books of the Week

The Spectator

IN undertaking to translate Du Dandysme et de George Brummell, by Barbey D'Aurevilly (Peter Davies, 42s.), Mr. D. B. Wyndham Lewis set himself a peculiarly difficult task—so...

Mr. Bruce-Graeme, in The Story of Buckingham Palace (Hutchinson, 24s.)

The Spectator

tells us its history from the day when it was a silkworm farm to the day when it is the first house in the. land. The book is written in a delightful and readable style, and has...

their annual battle of wits last autumn, the, public learned

The Spectator

with interest that the great co-operative societies had no small part of the milk business. Many people began to wonder whether the co-operative movement could not do more for...

Mr. Philip Norman is the leading expert in London topo-

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graphy and archaeology, and known to some as the Chronicler of the West Kent Cricket Club. Now, as one of the first Ramblers, he has written an account of the origin and early...

• Most of the poems in In a Green Shade,

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by George Montagu, Earl" of Sandwich (Elkin Mathews and Marrot, 5s.), are pleasantly and refreshingly, amidst the cacophonic screechings of numerous very free versifiers, in...

The Competition

The Spectator

THE Editor offers a prize of five guineas for the best answer in three hundred words to the question, " Why I shall or shall not travel by the Channel Tunnel ? "—if and when it...

The Spectator

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Vanity Fair

The Spectator

An Ambassador of Peace : Pages from the Diary of Viscount D'Abernon (Berlin, 1920-1926). Vol. : From Spa (1920) to Rapallo (1922). With Historical Notes by Maurice Alfred...

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Coat-Pocket Books

The Spectator

Human Nature in Politics, by Graham Wallas; Life of Char- lotte Charke, by Herself ; The Ghosts of Piccadilly, by G. 8. Street. (Constable's Miscellany. - 1s. 6d. each). OF the...

William Blake

The Spectator

'roost/vs WRIGHT, who is well known as our chief authority on Cowper, has. ventured into many other tracks of biological study. Those who have read his lives of Daniel Defoe,...

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An Epic of the War

The Spectator

THERE are moments when one feels that the War was not fought in vain, and one of them is undoubtedly that of turning over the list Page: of 'A Fatalist at War,' 'A hook so...

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Two Portraits of Napoleon

The Spectator

Tins pSychological study of Napoleon contains many brilliant passages, but as a whole it will impress the ordinary reader as a contradictory, ecstatic, and at times incoherent...

Rembrandt and Vermeer

The Spectator

An Introduction to Dutch Art. By R. H. Wilenski. (Faber and Gwyer. 25s.) Vermeer the Magical. By E. V. Lucas. (Methuen. 5s.) Twci things ought to be observed at once about Mr....

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Fiction

The Spectator

New and Old Crescendo. By Ethel Mannin. (Jarrold's. 7s. 6d.) Cement comes carrying a singular and startling prestige. For in this novel a post-revolution author describes a...

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A WEST INDIAN PEPPER-POT. By Lieutenant-Colonel T. R. St.-Johnston. (Allan.

The Spectator

10s. 6d.}-The Administrator of St. Kitts is well known as a writer on West Indian problems. Here in a lighter mood he strings together thirteen 'short Stories, mostly reflecting...

General Knowledge Questions

The Spectator

Ova weekly prize of one guinea for the best thirteen Questions submitted is awarded this week to Miss M. I. Ogilvie, 85 Canynge Square, Clifton, Bristol, for the following :-...

A Library List

The Spectator

misem.,A.0.:-Parrots and Parrot-like Birds in Avicub lure. By The Marquess of Tavistock. (F. V. White. 15s.) - The Golden Gospel. By Gabriel Scott. Illus- trated by Arnold...

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London apart, few cities in Great Britain have been written

The Spectator

about so copiously as Edinburgh from the point of view of architecture, surroundings, and romantic history • but of the ecorioniic gro*th of the city, Of its institution al...

Many times have we noticed the appearance of War histories,

The Spectator

both of regiments and divisional, but never as yet that of a medical unit. It is therefore with peculiar pleasure that we greet in Mr. Fetherstonhaugh's No. 3 Canadian General...

The second and enlarged _edition of 4_ Dickens' Dictionary (Simpkiii;

The Spectator

Marshall, " Chnbists of a most interesting"' introduction by Mr. Alex. J. Philip, a synopsis of the works of Pickens chronological -order, the Dictionary proper, and - it new...

A man who early formed the habit of keeping hot-and-hot

The Spectator

notes of people, things and scenes which impresiedlim, and a man, wh6; lac Sir Walter Hearn, has spentivierity-five years as Bristish - COrikril in various European -...

Mr. Lewis Spence in his book Mysteries of Britain (Rider,

The Spectator

10s. 6d.) is anxious to prove that we have our own native mystical traditioni and have no need to go elsewhere for metaphysics or occultism. Druidism, he considers, is as true a...

More Books of thee Week (Continued from page 127.).

The Spectator

Every lover of London and everyone who cares-for brilliant draughtsmanship, •will be delighted with A Landon Iverie (Macmillan) 25s.)—a- title - which obscures the -fact that it...

* * * *

The Spectator

The German passion fog' writing histories is dauntless. Messrs. Harrap have now sent us Carl Kohler's A History of Costume (18s.) translated by Alexander IC; nallas and edited...

In last week's Spectator the price of Mr. Namier's The

The Spectator

Structure of Politics at the Accession of George III, published by Messrs. Macmillan, should have been given as 30s. net and not 30s. each volume. - • -

Prof. Hendrik van Loon makes very high claims for the

The Spectator

originality of Multiplex Man, or The Story of Survival Through Invention (Cape, 10s. 6d.) ; but his thesis is not so novel and revolutionary as he considers._ None the less he...

Mr. J. C. Squire has consulted his own taste in

The Spectator

his new anthology of parodies, Apes and ParroLs (Jenkins, 6s.) ; and he has included nothing which did not in fact amuse him. Parodies are apt to be distressingly dull when...

Answers to Questions on - " . The Pilgrim's Progress"

The Spectator

(Parts 2) 1. When on sight of the Cross_his burden had loosed from off his shoulders and fallen into the mouth - of the sepulchre and he had. been greeted by the three Shining...

Page 34

Finance—Public and Private

The Spectator

Mr. McKenna's Speech THE balance sheet of the largest bank in the world, with very nearly £500,000,000 of assets, is bound to be something of an enigma, even to the...

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NATIONAL PROVINCIAL BANK.

The Spectator

. An.. excellent balance sheet is presented by the National . Provincial Bank, the figures showing an increase of nearly, £17,000,000 in Deposits at £290,310,253, while the...

AUSTRALIAN LEASES.

The Spectator

The Australian pastoral companies who have contributed so much to the wealth of Australia, through their development of the sheep farming industry, are still exercised regarding...

• Financial N otes NEW ISSUE REseurs.

The Spectator

lkiirnouon the Commonwealth Loan was only Subscribed to the 'extent of 16 per cent: by the public, underwriters having to take - up 84 'per cent., while the Wakefield Loan was...

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Motors and Motoring

The Spectator

Simpler Gear-Changing MANY designers in their efforts to popularize Motoring, and . kai gain a wider field for their markets, are paying heed to simplification of...