26 JUNE 1959

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A NUMBER of contributors have been offering articles in defence

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of Latin, since Pharos praised Oxford—prematurely, as it turned out—for abolishing it as a compulsory subject for entrance. Their defence is usually based on three main planks,...

ONE of the most dangerous as well as one of

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the silliest beliefs held about Defence today is that tactical nuclear weapons could safely be used in the event of minor hostilities breaking out anywhere between East and...

THE report on Help for the Arts made by Lord

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Bridges' committee to the Calouste Gulbenkian foundation is a refreshingly clear-headed document, heralding the entry of a large new private patron into the field just at the...

A s there was never any prospect that the Foreign Ministers

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would achieve anything at Geneva there need be no alarm over their decision to adjourn. These conferences can only be justified as a way of making it just that little bit more...

THE Irish showed a nice sense of the fitness of

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things by voting Eamon de Valera into the Presidency but refusing to vote themselves out of Proportional Representa- tion. But the issue of PR versus the straight vote is...

PRINTING DISPUTE Until the printing dispute is settled the Spectator

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will be appearing in the present altered format and with a reduced number of pages. We regret that some regular features will have to be suspended for the time being; others...

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Going it Alone

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By PETER BENENSON I N February, 1960, the island of Cyprus is due to take its place in the world as an indepen- dent Republic. Even if its population were homogeneous and...

Summer Solstice

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By MICHAEL ADAMS CAIRO TN the good old days of imperialism you could I reckon on a spell of peace and quiet in the Middle East between the end of June and the beginning of...

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Russian Public Schools

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By DESMOND DONNELLY, MP MR. KIIRUSHCHEV has announced that he aims to have two and a half million pupils at Soviet boarding schools by 1965. This news, in itself, will dazzle...

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Commentary

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The New Criminals IN the Lords debate on road accidents Lord Goddard recalled a motorist who : . . . in broad daylight drove bang into a railway crossing gate, and then fought...

En Voiture

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By PAT MILES I MPROVIDENT travellers, we had a night journey before us and no seats booked and now at the beginning of the run, though the train was still half-empty, there was...

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In the Coffee Bar

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It was as if all the people sitting on the narrow chairs Among the plants with large tropical leaves Were very patiently waiting their turn for an interview ; As if they...

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Films

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Out of the Bag By ISABEL QUIGLY SOMETHING turned up in British films this year that has taken a long time to come. It wasn't a film to beat all its predecessors, or a new...

Opera

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Borderline Cases By DAVID CAIRNS As I suggested last week, the irony of Cos) fan tutte (put in its simplest form) is that, as sometimes happens in life, the wrong people marry...

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Television

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Give Sunday a Break By PETER FORSTER HAVING watched with rapt and reverend attention the last two editions of ABC's religious programme for teen- agers, The Sunday Break, I...

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Consuming Interest

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Roses all the Way By LESLIE ADRIAN Having recently come across an instance of husband who not only sent his wife a bunch f spring flowers through Interflora, but etually got...

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Books

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The Temptation of Sir Anthony By IAN GILMOUR 7 HE problem set by the career of Sir Anthony Eden is how the competent and skilful statesman of the thirties, forties and the...

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Somebody Loves Us

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HAVING myself been ticked off for writing a book on Japan after only eighteen months there, I was amused to find that Mr. Chaud- huri's study of Britain followed a five weeks'...

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Fuming for England

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Northcliffe. By Reginald Pound and Geoffrey Harmsworth. (Cassell, 42s.) ULCERS and alcoholism are said to be the occupational diseases of the journalist. Add megalomania, and...

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Wolfe's Clothing

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The Visited. By Joan O'Donovan. (Gollancz, 15s.) . Some Came Running is so long that I wondered at first whether to save half for next week's review. Dave, an oafish ex-writer...

Professional Investment

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By NICHOLAS DAVENPORT OCCASIONALLY i n my post comes a letter asking what sort of investment policy the 'professionals' are now pur- suing. The bull market has now been going...

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SI - 11,—In his review of my book, A Peer Behind the

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Curtain, Mr. Ronald Bryden appears to suggest that Pasternak was used by the Western powers as a 'cold war propaganda windfall.' However that may be, it is unfair to imply, even...

SIR,—Recently I had an opportunity to put this question to

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an ex-Chancellor of the Exchequer: 'Is there any point now in the travel allowance regulations?' He replie 'Absolutely none but the Treasury boys ha always considered furs and...

Letters

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SIR,—Mr. F. Bowen Evans and Dr. Carl Bode, in replying to my review of The Young Rebel In American Literature, have thoroughly mis- interpreted what I wrote. I certainly did not...