the Italian THE of the man who is patently driving Italy to her ruin is a bold diplomatic stroke. Appeals to peoples over the heads of their Governments are rarely successful....

There should be no surprise if the movement of the war in Libya grows slower than in the opening days of the lightning advance. The miracle is that an army which started from...

Circumstances could not be more unfavourable to an offensive than those which the Albanian mountains present now that winter has arrived in all its severity. The Italians in...

If it took some time even in Britain to get up full steam in the organisation of war industry, it is not surprising that in non-belligerent America there should be some delays...

The curtain has not, as these words are written, been raised on the drama which to all appearance is being enacted at Vichy. Various confident versions of what is happening...

No greater compliment could be paid to the United States than to send as Ambassador to Washington the man who has been Foreign Secretary for nearly three years, who is fully...

The statement of the German Foreign Office spokesman on Saturday that his Government would regard the handing over to Britain of German and other ships in American ports as " a...

The titular spokesmen of the Church of England and the Free Churches of this country have shown wisdom as well as broadmindedness in taking as the basis for their statement of...

be welcomed on most sides. Mr. Churchill is absorbed, as Defence Minister, in the major strategy of war on many fronts and at different levels. Surprises await the unwary at...

have listened to almost every speech he has made during the last six years and I can never remember him speaking before from a single sheet of note-paper. The reason was soon...

to long-term production planning for agriculture and shipbuilding. He cannot personally supervise these vital domestic problems. But he gave a broad hint that he realised their...

Our Parliamentary Correspondent writes: The Prime Minister and Mr. Lloyd George closed the short session before the Christmas recess with further tributes to Lord Lothian. As...

Mr. Eden and Lord Cranbome resume control of the Foreign Office and Captain Margesson at last is given a department instead of a party to run. The Foreign Office and the Army...

it has been necessary for " The Spectator " to go to press on Tuesday instead of Thursday. There may also be some delays in distribution. Readers will understand that in such...

It is one thing to use every power of persuasion to induce parents to keep children away froin the danger zones, and another thing to compel them. All who appreciate the strong...

It is of the utmost importance that the right men should be chosen to be officers in the Home Guard. The distinguished retired officers who have been appointed to act as...

W E have reached the second Christmas of the war, and we are keeping it with what heart we may. No confidence in the rightness of our cause is lacking, nor has doubt emerged...

the Prime Minister as to the cause of Lord Lothian's death. The answer was as unsatisfactory as it could well be—and as it was bound to be. According to the British Embassy in...

I read in one quarter. Hardly an alarm-clock to be had even now, I hear in another. What an appalling vision con- fronts us of millions of bearded Britons, or British beavers—...

of Dr. H. A. L. Fisher, but I understand (not, let me hasten to add, from the person most concerned) that the gap will be filled in the coming New Year's Honours by an award...

T HE appointment of Lord Halifax to Washington will leave everyone content—except perhaps Lord Halifax himself. There can be no doubt that acceptance of the post of Ambassa-...

a small volume, invaluable to amateur debaters, entitled Pros and Cons, designed to prime you with unanswerable arguments on which- ever side you chose of a number of...

Governor and the Kabaka (the native ruler, who has recently attained the mature age of six) of Uganda, on the fiftieth anni- versary of the signature of the treaty he negotiated...

on the unsatis- factory situation in air-raid shelters due to the lack of the necessary authority by shelter-marshals comes (I do not claim post hoc ergo propter hoc) the issue...

By STRATEG ICUS WHETHER Bardia will be our Christmas present or not there are several grounds for reassurance in the conduct of the cam- paign in the Near East. The Italians...

By IL V. HODSON "Not by treaties or agreements, but exclusively by force, Great Britain built up a vast Empire." WHOSE are the words of Adolf Hitler, and there is much reason...

By JOHN HAYWARD O NLY a Saintsbury could do full justice to the immense compilation of names and dates and titles which the Cambridge University Press, after many years...

By L. B. NAMIER P OLITICAL democracy requires party-organisation for its work. Occasionally it had to work without them, and the results were peculiar and instructive. In...

By DEMETRIOS CAPETANAKIS G REAT BRITAIN and Greece have always understood one another when freedom was in question. On this subject they speak the same language. It cannot be...

By DAVID WINSER , I T is always very dark in hospital at night, unless casualties are being brought in. The passages are lit only by oil- lanterns, which might be as old as the...

NOT in the sound of water, the air's noise, The roar of storm, the ominous birds, the cries, The angel here speaks with a human voice. Stone into man must grow, the human word...

Living in the Country Anyone going to live in the country is at once confronted by problems which never arise in the town: water supply, light, drainage, neighbours who are...

improvement or variation of the sugar-pea, itself little grown in this country, makes its appearance in the current seed catalogues. The plant is semi- creeping, with spreading...

" The Thief of Baghdad." At the Odeon--- All This and Heaven Too." At the Warner. The Thief of Baghdad was so long in the making that it had to be very good in order to live up...

we may know the number of hours of sunshine given by a summer that was a dream of temperate loveliness—the land looks in splendid condition. The young blades of wheat are a...

somewhere in England that " this branch (i.e., the N.F.U.) deplores the attitude of complacent self-satisfaction displayed in the House of Commons with regard to agricultural...

[In view of the paper shortage it is essential that letters on these pages should be brief. We are anxious not to reduce the number of letters, but unless they are shorter they...

idealism, a crime of which few, alas! today are guilty. But his suggestion that the chief cause of the present war was a lack of realism can scarcely be substantiated. After the...

Sitt,—I wonder whether those of your correspondents who write so glibly about the replanning of London realise that Londoners as a whole will wish to live after the war in...

Sta,—In a country in which nearly all the principal towns have some history behind them, a city is apt to be regarded as something static. Most of them have a nucleus of more or...

returns to his insistence on the urgency of a statement of our war aims, in spite of the Prime Minister's well-considered decision. But this time he feels the statement should...

Sut,—" Janus " gives an all-too-common instance in which the price asked for certain property to a firm compelled to evacuate rose in a short time from £.9.a300 to a final...

Sm,—I am happy to reply to the letter of Mr. W. A. Wells, published in your issue of December loth, in regard to the deductions to be drawn from our export and re-export figures...

Sta,—Mr. Hewlett's perplexities over " ringing grooves of change" were solved in advance by the poet himself. In a note to the Eversley edition, Tennyson wrote: " When I went by...

StR,—It should surely not be forgotten that Scott, in his Waterloo (1815) and Paul's Letters to His Kinsfolk, showed deep interest in the climax of the Napoleonic War. Also that...

Sta,—Mrs. Williams-Ellis's plea in The Spectator of December 13th for " selective evacuation " deserves every encouragement. Her view that some of the machinery of evacuation...

SIR, —I should like to draw the attention of your readers to the question of education in the Forces. Doubtless many will have seen frequent references to this matter in the...

SIR,—Your correspondent, Mr. R. H. Morgan, is concerned with facts about milk prices. Here are some for him. He may be able to remember, as many of us do, when milk was...

sut,—It is one of the drawbacks of the historical methods of Messrs. Graves and Hodge that instead of relying on their researches, one is forced to rely on memory. Unless my...

An Anatomy of Inspiration. By Rosamond E. M. Harding, Ph.D. (Heller. as. 6d.) Tins is a modest and sensible work on a fascinating but obscure subject: the psychological nature...

Man's World PROFESSOR LANCELOT HOGBEN, in one of his witty diatribes against those scientists who confuse science and religion together, once went out of his way to...

The Decline of Religion. By Cecil P. Martin. (Allen and Unwin. Jos. 6d.) TEN or fifteen years ago Professor H. G. Wood published a book with the title Why Mr. Bertrand Russell...

MR. MAURICE HEALY has written a book after Professor Saintsbury's heart, and I doubt if there is any compliment which would please him more. Stay Me With Flagons is really a...

Introduction to Proust, His Life, His Circle and His IVork. By D zrrick Lean. (Kegan Paul. 12s. 6d.) IT is eighteen years since Proust died and the bright young men of today...

IN the remote-seeming days of leisurely and somewhat gluttonous Christmas holidays it was an easy reviewer's gambit to commend volumes of short stories as a mild intellectual...

THE difficulty with Pope is that he was so tremendously, so rigorously of his own age. If we read him today with pleasure, it is chiefly because, in this period of distracted...

South-East Africa, 1488-1530. By Eric Axelson. (Longmans. iss.) THE Republic of Portugal has lately been celebrating the 800th anniversary of the foundation in 'Lao of the...

By CUSTOS MARICETS are quiet, but they are good underneath. Invasion talk, plus the normal holiday influences, are inhibiting would-be buyers, and I doubt whether we shall see...

NATIONAL BANK OF SCOTLAND PROFITS WELL MAINTAINED THE 115th annual general meeting of the NatioLal Bank of Scotland, Limited, was held at the bank's head office on December...

SOUTH WEST AFRICA COMPANY DISTRIBUTION OF 10 PER CENT. THE annual general meeting of the South West Africa Company, Limited, was held on Friday, December 20th, at 2 London...

BARCLAYS BANK (Dominion, Colonial and Overseas) RECORD DEPOSITS THE fifteenth ordinary general meeting of Barclays Bank (Dominion, Colonial and Overseas) was held on December...

CONSTABLE, HART AND CO. INCREASED PROFITS THE thirty-sixth annual general meeting of Constable, Hart and Company, Limited, was held on December 1 7th, at &Axton Hall, London....

EXPANSION OF UTILITY UNDERTAKINGS INCREASED PROFITS ADDRESSING the shareholders of First Garden City, Limited, on December 27th, Mr. Eric Macfayden, M.A., J.P., after paying a...

CARRERAS, LIMITED PROFITS EXCEED £2,204,000 THE thirty-seventh annual general meeting of Carreras, Ltd., was held on December loth in London. Mr. Edward S. Baron (chairman...

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[A prize of a Book Token for one guinea will be given to the sender of the first correct solution of this week's crossword puzzle to be opened. Envelopes should be marked with...