M R. EDEN gave a just and sober estimate of the course of the war during its first seven weeks in his broad- cast talk on Wednesday. Herr Hitler, who initiated the war, has...

It is questionable whether Herr von Ribbentrop's Danzig speech deserved the compliment of a reply from the Prime Minister. It was obviously designed solely for consumption in...

From our own point of view the most serious aspect of the seizure of the American liner ' City of Flint' by a German warship is the revelation (doubtless no revelation to the...

Mr. Joseph Grew, the American Ambassador in Tokyo, was undoubtedly speaking with authority when he told a Japanese audience what America thinks of the proposed new order in the...

The Finnish delegation which left Helsinki for Moscow on Sunday evening left Moscow for Helsinki on Tuesday evening for fresh instructions, which suggests clearly enough that...

If there is a section of Afrikaan opinion in South Africa which is anti-British, there is none which is pro-German, said Colonel Denys Reitz on his arrival in England for the...

The Soviet Government is consolidating its gains in Poland and the Baltic countries. A plebiscite has been held in the two Polish provinces annexed to Russia, and the inhabit-...

So far is Germany convinced of the efficacy of blockade that she is now bent upon establishing a " Continental blockade " of her own against us and the outer world. Her trouble...

The statement made by Sir John Anderson last week about adjustments in the A.R.P. services has been followed up by a circular to local authorities from the Ministry of Home...

The Ministry of Agriculture under the experienced hand of Sir Reginald Dorman-Smith is fully alive to the need for intensive production of home-grown food from now on. Much that...

As if war had not already done enough to reduce the takings of small shopkeepers the Government has now stepped in with another Order which might have been de- signed to drive...

There are far fewer squads of new soldiers in evidence in all the towns today than there were at the corresponding period of the last War, nor is recruiting going on at the same...

Any temptation to pass adverse comment on the apparent inoffensiveness of that formidably offensive agent the ROyal Air Force in France may perhaps be tempered by the reflec-...

possible readers of The Spectator should place a regular order for their copy either with a newsagent or with the office of the paper, 99 Gower Street, W.C. r, since under...

W HILE major operations on the Western Front are non-existent, major operations at sea consist mainly of the silent pressure of the Anglo-French blockade on Germany, and nothing...

of the community which have -I- been so hard hit by the war as those whose members are concerned with the arts and certain other kinds of intellectual activity. The coming of...

over the tree-tops about fifty yards away, w ch a British fighter in pursuit blazing away at it. Nurse . : " If there's any more of this I shall take the children indoor

record of diplomatic failure, I am reminded that von Papen was responsible for the early stages of the talks that led to the Soviet-German Pact—and so to the alienation from...

inviting " members of the Naval Service," meaning, presumably, naval officers primarily, to submit to the paper for publication—subject, of course, to the Censor—against payment...

British flag is not waving against the will of the people in question, and where deeds of violence, robbery and lies do not mark the path of British Imperialism."—Herr von...

no doubt that, so far as the evacuation of school children is concerned, parents are the curse. I see from one of Monday's papers that on Sunday a number of parents, taking...

for reviving? In Surrey charcoal-burning, which had almost. if not entirely, died out, is being resumed in several wooded areas. But the native art has disappeared, in this part...

T HE statement in an American newspaper that Great Britain is considering recognising de jure a German Government, to be formed in London, and numbering among its members Dr....

have aroused some criticism, but there hardly seems ground for it. There is a cameraderie of the air as of the sea (you do not seem to get it in-the same way on land) and like...

more news and less propaganda from England, as we trust our rulers in the main and the population in the mass, and believe in their strength sufficiently to bear to hear bad...

respectable source : " Perth control has failed conspicuou ly to restrict the progeny of the Ministry of Information." * * * *

By SIR ARTHUR SALTER, M.P. [In a leading article in last week's SPECTATOR it was contended that while the Government itself could not with advantage issue any detailed...

By STRATEGICUS T O the vast majority of people the war seems at present unintelligible. They can see neither rhyme nor reason in the way in which it is being conducted. They...

Par UN SOLDAT FRANCAIS L ES jours qui ont precede la guerre, le tintamarre assourdissant des communiqués, des fausses nouvelles officieuses et des dementis officiels, qui nous...

*By DR. ADOLF KELLER H OW far shall or can a Church go with its country and nation? Shall it say: My country—right or wrong? Or shall it conserve a discriminative or critical...

By ROBERT POWELL T HE Blue Book and Final Report of Sir Nevile 1 Henderson have been enthusiastically welccmed as con- clusive evidence that Britain did everything possible to...

By H. E. BATES A LREADY the hot still days of September seem very far away ; the rooks have come away from the stubbles and break the evenings with great gabbles of alarm in...

By DR. T. K. DERRY (Headmaster of Mill Hill) HE canvas of Frith might have done justice to the T appearance of a London station on Evacuation Day, though no Derby Day ever...

PRIZES of book tokens for £2 2s. and £i is. arc offered for the best new and original Limerick verses or Clerihews, one line of which must end with one of the following words i...

By MARTIN CASTLETHORPE HE battalion marched out to its unknown destination at 4 o'clock this morning. The Colonel was informed of the intended move three days ago, but no one...

war has created. A thin yellow line of pacifism runs from the extreme right to the extreme left. You have the rich defeatists who foresee that whatever happens they will lose...

so thin. The whole life of the country has been dislocated ; our pleasures, our hopes and our relaxations have been curtailed ; the vast organisation which had been planned in...

about Mrs. Dukes is that she always knows. I had sat up late the other night discussing the probabilities of the coming war with three men who functions and experience entitle...

bears many honourable names. The motives of some of its supporters are Christian in the finest sense of the word. But it also contains the names of other people who have in the...

the Temple. My manservant having, with gay patriotism, joined the defence forces, it is Mrs. Dukes who comes in the mornings. As I shave I can hear her answering the telephone....

By HAROLD NICOLSON W HEN I was a civil servant I used to regard Parlia- mentary Questions as a method by which, at the expense of public time and money, the pushing politician...

" Nurse Edith Cavell." At the Odeon.—" French Without Tears." At the Plaza.—" 'Arf a Mo, Hitler." At various cinemas. MR. HERBERT WILCOX proceeds on his applauded course. As...

MUSIC HALL " The Little Dog Laughed." At the Palladium. Ma. GEORGE BLACK'S shows at the Palladium always present a good cross-section of the contemporary British character,...

An attempt, of which good results are expected, is being made to naturalise American quail in this country. In most years a few quail come over the Channel, nearly all of them...

It seems that the lament for wasted crab-apples is not justified in all districts. The fruit is sought by a few specialists all over the area, and is converted into jellies much...

The so simple plan of bidding farmers and landowners to plough up a portion of their grass and to sow corn calls for both curious and special knowledge and wisdom. For example:...

Some people object to all efforts at naturalisation ; and there are some grim examples of the harm that may be done. The rabbit and fox in Australia and the grey squirrel in...

In the neighbourhood where these American quail are at large, the so-called French partridge has been very much in evidence this year. It is in general a bad partridge year, but...

Disappointing Rabbits A small girl from London who is settling down agreeably in her new surroundings has had one grievous disappointment. She thought the country was a place...

Many anxious meetings have been held at golf clubs to decide whether it is a patriot's duty to abjure games and the cost they involve. A large number have shut down. In one that...

[Correspondents are requested to keep their letters as brief as is reasonably possible. Signed letters are given a preference over those bearing a pseudonym, and the latter must...

SIR, —In the light of past and present events in Russian politics, it appears highly astonishing to a student of history (aged 18) to hear from the pen of Mr. J. Werner Cohen...

Sta,—Your apparently studied and somewhat contemptuous dismissal of the constructive proposals of the Council of Action is not worthy of The Spectator. Viscount Cecil, in the...

lInt,—You may be interested in a few notes, based on reliable sources, on probable developments in Germany during the next few months. The will, power and opportunities of the...

SIR, —It is obvious that Estonian trade with England has been cut off by blockade in the Baltic during the last six weeks. Mr. Rothstein should have had no difficulty in under-...

SIR,—Some of your readers may be interested to know that at Birkbeck College it will soon be possible, in spite of the War, for a certain number of men and women still living in...

Sta,—May I call the attention of your readers to the position of old-established charities and the possible effect of the present crisis upon their work ? Most of them rely...

America in Midpassage. By Charles A. Beard and Mary IL Beard. (Cape. t8s.) OF living American historians, Mr. Beard is the dean ; not merely because he is one of the elders but...

Psychical Research Fifty Years of Psychical Research. By Harry Price. (Long- mans. los. 6d.) This is at once the most comprehensive and the most enter- taming book on the...

FOR a hundred years past a certain mystery has enveloped the historical remains of Mrs. Fitzherbert. It was known that there were certain jealously guarded documents at Coutts'...

THIS is a very distinguished essay on a subject which has already been largely ransacked, but not so largely that Miss Lascelles is unable to show how many subtle connexions...

Man's Estate. By Alfred M. Bingham. (Allen and Unwin. 125. 6d.) THERE is a nostalgic flavour about this courageous, honest and often entertaining book. It is partly an...

SIR ALFRED EWING was many things besides "The Man of Room 40,"—among them Professor of Engineering at Tokyo, Dundee and Cambridge and Director of Naval Education in Whitehall....

IN England the fact of a man being " good at games " carries with it a special sort of eminence. It is not so much the natural admiration for prowess of an athletic sort that...

Wickford Point. By John P Marquand. (Robert Hale. 8s. 6d.) THis reviewer can remember no American novel since The Great Gatsby which he has read with so much delight as...

By CUSTOS THESE are brave stock markets ; indeed some of the cynics dub them foolish. With a war still in its infancy, a 7s. 6d. income-tax—and possibly a higher rate—in early...

(Nichol- son and Watson. ios. 6d.) MR. THOMPSON has been American correspondent of the Daily Express for six years, and this is a selection of his impressions. He is at his...

By R. H. Mottram. (Appleton-Century. 12S. 6d.) THIS is a readable account of the more romantic side of the East India Company's work. Omitting much, and simplify- ing much else...

THIS short book is certainly the best biography of De Valera available. It is written from the point of view of a professed Republican, but without any sacrifice of the right of...

Green Grows the City is an account of how Mr. Beverley Nichols made the garden at the back of a house in Hamp- stead. It follows the formula of his earlier domestic chronicles....

MR. DESMOND can recollect with perfect certainty more than one previous life on earth, and he knows that other lives will follow his present existence. Although he makes some...

Hutch- ison and James Fitton. (Peter Davies. 78. 6d.) THIS is a facetious book about the relations of parents and babies. The illustrations (by Mr. Fitton) are unsubtle but...

of the London Passenger Transport Board which tells the full story of the dismaying fall in revenue which has played such havoc with the dividend on the " C " stock. During the...

It is good to see a company chairman taking up the cudgels on behalf of an improved Excess Profits Tax. A docile House of Commons acquiesced in the Chancellor of the Exchequer's...

mann. 8s. 6d.) THIS is a kindly record of the distinguished persons Miss Head has met, the meals she has consumed, the travels and purchases she has made, in the service of her...

TRINIDAD PETROLEUM DEVELOPMENT THE annual ordinary general meeting of Trinidad Petroleum Development Co., Ltd., was held on October 19th at River Plate House, Finsbury Circus,...

War Risk In- surance has brought to the front the position of those mutual pools which exist to give their members some measure of cover against war damage to their property....

PRIZES were offered for the best two lists of six rules to guide the conduct of ordinary people in war-time. This was a difficult competition to judge, because almost every...

NEXT WEEK M. Ratcliffe, The winner of Crossword No. 33 is K. Whiteieaf, Princes Risborough, Bucks.

The beggar admits his in- ability to get better (9). 5. Fatigued by dressing (5). 8. They get all bunched up (5). 9. What three of Browning's characters were doing (9). t. "...