27 FEBRUARY 1953

Page 1

The Naumann Affair

The Spectator

That a British Q.C. retained on behalf of a German. a neo- Nazi or not, arrested by the British Occupation authorities. should be refused permission to visit his client in...

SCOPE FOR THE CHANCELLOR

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But beyond the sphere of budgetary arithmetic there lie the larger and more vague issues of general financial policy which year by year have a greater influence on the...

Page 2

Pit by Pit

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The central operation in the new campaign to improve coal production is to be a systematic examination, pit by pit, of the reasons for the present failure to reach either a...

The Resumed Assembly

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The resumption of The adjourned Assembly- of the United Nations at New York arouses neither- hopes nor fears, nor even any great , intensity of interest. M. Vyshinsky has...

Tito Wagging the Dog ?

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The news that the text of the treaty of friendship between Greece, Turkey and Yugoslavia has been initialed in Athens may be more unreservedly welcomed than Marshal Tito's...

Belgium's Problem

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There is no reason whatever why the British public should become more disturbed than the Belgians themselves over the dispute about the position of King Baudouin. The Belgian...

Page 3

AT WESTMINSTER

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T HE Chancellor of the Exchequer is on top of his job. Mr. Butler himself told the House so on Tuesday and it is comforting to have the assurance, for the Chancellor and the...

Double Shift

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Double day shift working, which was advocated by the Minister of Labour at a conference held by the Cotton Board last week-end, may well be extended. The more progressive...

Skeletons out of Cupboards

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The Government's decision to use the Coronation as an occa- sion for granting a general amnesty to men who deserted from the armed services during th% last war is a sensible...

Page 4

HALF-DEFENDED EUROPE

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T 0 say half-defended is in fact an exaggeration. The grave words used by the German Chancellor at Rome on Tuesday on " the tragic disparity " between the forces of east and...

Page 5

The House of Commons is still awaiting with lively interest

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the answer to Mr. W. M. Vane's postponed question on the slightly deliberate journey (reputedly at two miles an hour, though I find that a little hard to credit) of a 30-ton...

A SPECTATOR 'S NOTEBOOK

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T HERE seems likely to be a fairly lively discussion on the desirability of a certain element of non- professional representation on the proposed Press Council. The Royal...

When the Lord Chief Justice declares, as he did on

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Monday, that " once the magistrate [Miss Sybil Campbell] had convicted this woman she was functus officio" more questions than those of law are raised. Gender. gender ! It has...

Should every Cromwell be depicted with all his warts ?

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It is a nice question. Should you, for example, write of a politician, in whom, after all, intellect and character have more relevance than physical qualities: " a man so modest...

It is hard to say where the present political generation

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dates from, but it is safe to say that most of its members knew little of Francis Hirst, though his last book, a volume of reminiscences, was published as recently as 1948. But...

But there is one even more important question regarding a

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Press Council. That is what precisely the scope of its activities is to be. It is all very well to say that it will consider only complaints from the persons affected. Is it to...

Page 6

The Canadian Dilemma

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By DESMOND E. HENN S INCE they have not as yet been made the recipients of Marshall Aid, it is more than a little surprising to discover that Canadians have reacted quite as...

Page 7

The Perfect Reviewer

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By R. A. SCOTT-JAMES A UTHORS of books have always been held to be the legitimate objects of criticism; but not so, to the same extent, the reviewers of books in the periodical...

The Spectator

Page 8

The Dead Humanities

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By PETER GREEN F OR the last fifty years apologists of the classics have been stubbornly fighting a protracted rearguard action against the inexorable advance of 'science. The...

Page 9

St. Valentine's Crackers

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By SIR IiLBWELLYN 'WOODWARD San Francisco. F EBRUARY 14th. The date is important; it is the feast of St. Valentine, but it is also the Chinese New Year, anyhow in the sequence...

Page 10

Andes and Antarctica

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By GEORGE BRINSMEAD T HE trans-Andine journey undertaken by General Peron on his visit to General Ibanez in Chile 'revives many memories. The route by which the Argentine...

Page 11

je avettator, februarp 26t1), 1853 THE wintry weather, with its

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ice and deep snow, has been attended with much inconvenience, and in some cases with loss of life. . . . All the Parks were crowded on Sunday, with sliders or skaters or by...

UNDERGRADUATE PAGE

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Leon By Z. J. ROZYCK1 (Banjo! College, Oxford) E ON was a Jew. That was why he came to live with us at our suburban house in Warsaw. P never knew his real name. I never wanted...

Page 12

MUSIC

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Hindemith and Bruckner. THE Royal Philharmonic Society's concert at the Festival Hall on February 18th was conducted by the Hamburg conductor Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt. Visiting...

THEATRE

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" The Way of the World." (Lyric, Hammersmith.) THE more faultless a play, perhaps, the more difficult a job there is for the producer. The Way of the World is a very nearly...

CONTEMPORARY ARTS

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CINEMA The Star. (Odeon, Marble Arch.)—April in Paris. (Warner.) —Above and Beyond. (Empire.) Miss Berms DAVIS, as far as I am concerned, can do no wrong; but in-her latest...

Page 13

The Old Fourposter

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or the Frustrations of Modern Verse Now newly-posted, late-arrived, unknown, Each poet joins his regiment alone. Strange buildings in the dark he then explores But cannot find...

The Editorship of the " Spectator "

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The Board of the Spectator wish to place on record their deep appreciation of the distinguished service that Mr. Wilson Harris, whose editorship terminates on March 31st, has...

ART

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Girtin, Rembrandt's Pupils and Others. IT is a happy coincidence that brings so fine a loan exhibition of "poor Tom" Girtin's watercolours to Messrs. Agnew's (in aid of the...

Page 14

SPECTATOR COMPETITION No. 156 Report by John Barlow

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Prizes were offered for groups of four "Short-Clerihews." on a variety of public figures. The "Short-Clerihew" has two lines (not necessarily consecutive) consisting of one word...

SPECTATOR COMPETITION No. 159

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Set by Margbanita Laski According to 'the New Yorker, Sir Arnold Lunn collects "phrops" which are phrases that say the exact opposite of what they mean. He gives as examples...

Page 15

Sporting' Aspects

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Shady Mr. Holmes By J. P. W. MALLALIEU j OHN H. WATSON, M.D., was clearly a bad lot. His father, I suspect, was a heavy drinker, I know that his elder brother died of drink,...

Page 16

The Teeth and the Gums

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Ste,—This society, which has as its chief object the study of the teeth in relation to their supporting structures, gum and bone, both in health and disease, would like to ask...

"The White Knight"

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S1R, —In his review of my book, The White Knight, A Study of C. L. Dodgson (Lewis Carroll), Mr. Derek Hudson reveals himself as the old-fashioned type of English Carrollian. C....

Bach on the Piano

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Sta,—Your correspondent who is so certain that Bach should be played only on• a harpsichord or a clavichord, and not ever on a pianoforte, hardly meets your music critic's...

SIR,—The baroque brigade are entitled to their preference for harpsi-

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chord and clavichord for Bach; they are not entitled to tell the rest of us that Bach's keyboard music "cannot be played on the piano." Over-sentimentalised ; rhythmically...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

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Learning to Spell . Sut,—You are incorrect in saying that the young children taught to read English when re-spelt with the present alphabet but used only alphabetically will...

Page 18

Sul,—The Bishop of Bristol in his timely article asserts that

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the com- munication and interpretation of the Christian faith in terms which speak to the conditions of industrial and professional life must in large measure he the work of men...

A Bishop and Two Others

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SIR,—It seems to me unfortunate that Janus should so often disfigure his interesting and lively columns with brash and impulsive utterances. Many of us no doubt held widely...

Who are the Laity ?

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SIR,—The Bishop of Bristol's article on the laity in the Church would have been more helpful if he had defined who constituted the laity. Is he thinking of those who make at...

Identification and Arrest

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Sut,—Janus has rendered a public service by calling attention to the unlawful practice of the police in charging persons with crimes after they have been identified. As the law...

An Irish Incident

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SIR,-1 have only just seen Mr. Inglis' article on Ireland in your issue of February 13th. I do not think he has given a very good account of the "incident " at the....

SIR,—You are right that in the Bishop of Birmingham's book.

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The Rise of Christianity, " there was really not much to disturb the orthodox unduly," but it is both incorrect and unfair to say he had " some defect of temper which caused him...

Central African._ Federation

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Sift,—The Ifeport covering the White Paper (Cmd. 8753) makes this categorical statement: " If this Scheme should be rejected, the United Kingdom Government would see no prospect...

Page 20

Old Shotguns My old shotgun became an ornament years ago,

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and recently, just to make sure, I took out its firing pins. Although I shot a great deal with it when a boy, it is not to be trusted now, for it has those old- fashioned...

Cheeseparing

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SIR,--I think that it would be generally accepted that when there is a public demand for the Government to exercise economies in their expenditure, a certain section mill make a...

Pike

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Pike are probably one of the oldest of the freshwater fishes of this country. More legends are told about them than any other fish, and they have certainly helped to obtain a...

Early Sowing

The Spectator

Sow parsnips in a well-manured patch; put ip carrots where the soil is light, plant artichokes and. sow brussels - Sprouts and leeks in frames or under cloehes. Pick a bright,...

Flocks of Birds

The Spectator

This winter I have seen only small numbers of redwings, but a few years ago they came In large flocks, and many died where they sheltered in laurels and yews. The same cold...

The Broads and the Floods

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SIR, — We have received so many enquiries from people who are evidently under the impression that the Broads area was badly affected by the recent tragic flooding on the East...

Sta,—My limited experience of the W.E.A. may be of interest

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to your readers. During the last season they were active in a South Eastern small town, there was a series of lectures on economics given by a very red Socialist. When 1...

COUNTRY LIFE

The Spectator

SNOW on the mountains can be seen for a great distance. Nearly twenty miles away from where I stood, I could pick out crags I knew, rock-faces and shoulders along a valley that...

Pictures of Rudolf

The Spectator

Snt,—I should not dream of criticising Mr. Mallalieu's record of sporting events, but, in the interests of bibliographical accuracy, it should be noted that the entrancing...

Page 21

BOOKS OF THE WEEK

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The Young and the Old Renoir ON the dust-cover of the Phaidon Renoir one reads : " The present edition contains nearly all his masterpieces in large-size reproduc- tions, many...

"We Have Been So Happy" ,

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The Brontë Story. By Margaret Lane. (Heinemann. 21s.) Iliatte have been some human beings whose lives give all we need from art, the wonder, the agony, the transcendent release...

Page 22

Counter-Espionage

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HERR Gisices has made an important contribution to the bibliography of Resistance from an unusual point of view, that of counter-espion- age. He was responsible for frustrating...

The Novelist's Methods

The Spectator

Time and the Novel. By A. A. Mendilow. (Peter Nevill. 15s.) ANYONE who has ever been concerned with Ph.D. theses knows how much luck there is in the original choice of subject....

In next week's "Spectator" Rex Warner will review "Thomas Hughes"

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by Edward C. Mack and W. H. G. Armitage; Jocelyn Brooke "Memories" by Desmond MacCarthy; and J. G. Lockhart " Winston Churchill: The Era and the Man" by Virginia Cowles.

Page 24

Sailing : Pleasure and Business

The Spectator

No Distress Signals. By Winifred Brown. (Peter Davies. 15s.) YACHTING expeditions seem destined these days to fall into three parts ; first, a decision to break away from the...

Page 26

The Impregnable Rock

The Spectator

THERE are many reasons why, in the popular mind, the Bible should be assumed to be discredited ; that is one of the unexamined dogmas which form the secular climate of opinion....

TVvelfth-Century Crusades

The Spectator

WITH the second volume of his crusading trilogy Mr. Runciman securely establishes his right to retell an often-told story. The policies of the Near East are seldom easy to...

TO ENSURE REGULAR RECEIPT OF

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THE SPECTATOR readers are urged fo place a firm order with their news- agent or to take out a subscription. Newsagents cannot afford to take the risk of carrying stock, as...

Page 28

Fiction

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The New Town. By Mervyn Jones. (Cape. 15s.) The Vintage. By Ursula Keir. (Collins. 10s. 6d.) SECOND novels do not always come off. The novelist, temporarily exhausted in the...

The Good and the Clever

The Spectator

Hannah More. By M. G. Jones. (Cambridge University Press. 27s. 6d.) HERE is a workmanlike book on a" first-rate subject. Not that Hannah More emerges from these scholarly pages...

Page 29

Solution to Crossword No. 717

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rams offinrem RIO c1S117111 EirIC11119110 1111 s M CI CI M 14_0 1 , c K IDIECIMO N ILM ri min g El 13 El PI , B7 CI 13 red1213lIr 14 0 10111Tho A13 91 V110110121 13 11SEIRM 13...

THE "SPECTATOR" CROSSWORD No. 719

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[A Book Token for one guinea will be awarded to the sender of the first correct solution opened alter noon on Tuesday week, March 3rd, addressed Crossword, 99 Gower Street,...

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FINANCE AND INVESTMENT By CUSTOS MEASURED by the number of

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markings, Monday was the busiest day in the Stock Exchange since February 25th, 1952. Indus- trials and gold shares were the most active groups ; but most of the dealings in...