In his San Francisco speech President Truman gave a few examples of the work of reconstruction in Korea which has been going on with the minimum of publicity almost since the...

As we go to press—some thirty-six hours before the normal time, a result of the printing dispute—it is announced that the compositors have not, as it was hoped they would,...

The causes for Sir Stafford Cripps' resignation are fully understood and universally deplored. In the last year he has shown unmistakable signs of overstrain and no one can be...

On Monday the House of Commons canvassed inconclus- ively various measures to reduce the appallingly high toll of life on the roads. The country as a whole is slowly realising...

There is, Mr. Morrison pointed out in the House of Commons on Monday, interdepartmental machinery for keeping under observation the need for continuing in force the various...

W H ILE the North Atlantic Powers elaborate their far too leisurely plans for combating possible aggression on the continent of Europe Russia, the most probable promoter of...

Minister of Health's language. Not so long ago he was characterising the Conservative papers in this country as " the most prostituted Press in the world " (this application of...

Assembly, Mr. T. F. Cook, Mrs. Barbara Castle and Mr. G. H. Rogers, are back at Westminster, after sitting for three weeks in an Assembly which is likely to last for three...

have not read) called Helena. The' lady concerned was, I believe, a saint. The lady I have to deal with here was, I am afraid, rather otherwise, though her name is Helena too—or...

W HETHER Mr. Hugh Gaitskell succeeds or fails as Chan- cellor of the Exchequer—and I personally shall be sur- prised if he fails, formidable as the task is—he will quite...

the Mississippi, superior though the claims of the latter stream may be in other respects. But the tribute paid to the Test at the Fly-fishers' Club dinner by the retiring...

Sunday Times rather startles me by speaking of " propagandas," piling, to all appearance, plural on plural. He would reply no doubt that propaganda, plural in its Latin form,...

of hesitation, arguments and experi- ments, the Yugoslays have now streamlined and per- fected their dogma. Tito's original quarrel with. Stalin in 1948 was not, of course,...

Bs D. W. BROGAN A FTER the dad& of the scientific prophets in 1948, Mr. Osbert Lancaster showed a firm of pollsters sending out for a large crystal ball. No election in which...

By ELIZABETH HUNKIN A FOREIGNER acquainted with Soviet literature and accus- tomed to read the Soviet Press may wonder if the inhabi- tants of Moscow ever really relax, ever...

that Paris is at her loveliest when the chestnuts are in flower and the weeping willows planted below the quays stretch their tendrils towards the passing Seine. The month of...

WITH The Victorians Mr. Grigson completes his trilogy of period anthologies. Like the others, it includes both poetry and prose, but the prose is subsidiary; it helps to give us...

Anti-Communism in Practice The Coming, Defeat' of Communism. 12s. 6d.) By James Burnham. (Cape. " THE anti-communism of an individual," writes Mr. James (managerial...

A opop formula for making novels sell nowadays seems to be: Violence, plus Sex, equals Success. Mr. Glemser has his own way of tackling this formula. Unlike some others he...

The Immortal Lovers: Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Brim ning. By Frances Winwar. (Hamish Hamilton. ISs.) THERE must be fifty or more books in existence about the Brown ings. Even...

I wAs wandering along one of the green rides (disused mediaeval roads) that criss-cross the plateau of the Essex uplands above Saffron Walden, when I encountered a tree laden...

It will soon be time to take up some celery, after the first frosts have sweetened it. And parsnips too ; these lack flavour until the winter has touched them. Meanwhile a glut...

I knew Essex intimately in the doldrum days between the two world wars. It was then almost a derelict county, with farms and villages falling into rural slummery, and its...

" WORLDS IN COLLISION " SIR,—The Astronomer Royal had done me the honour of writing a review of Worlds in Collision (the Spectator, September 22nd). He des- cribes the contents...

Sm,—I have read the article in your issue of September 22nd by Mr. Hitchcock, of Tanganyika, about the problems of that territory. The writer says that to introduce the Kenya...

A COMPREHENSIVE exhibition organised by Mr. Ifan Kyrie Fletcher to illustrate the history of the British theatre from 1530 to 1900 will be on view at 7 Albermarle Street, W.',...

THEATRE Top of the Ladder. By Tyrone Guthrie. (St. James's.) THE note of self-pity which pervades this long, pretentious play evoked memories of Death of a Salesman. But at...

THE operatic season at Covent Garden opened on October 19th with a performance of The Flying Dutchman. This, without an obviously outstanding singer for the title role, was a...

September Affair. (Plaza. )—The Magnet. (Odeon.) LOVE and selfishness, we know, go hand in glove, but it is straining our powers of credulity too much to ask us to believe that...