believe that the pro- tracted Moscow talks are at last nearing a satisfactory conclusion. The two outstanding obstacles were till recently understood to be Russia's desire for...

IIIIHE British declaration on British policy in China has I done its work in clearing away the obstacles to a dis- cussion on the local situation at Tientsin. That discussion is...

situation created by the British declaration at Tokyo on which comment of our own is for- tunately unnecessary. There have been some censorious critics of the declaration in the...

declining birth-rate has now given rise to a "Family Code" which is expected to be promulgated next week. Its main purposes are to stimulate child-bearing and to encourage a...

dismissed from his post as Military Governor of Andalusia as a result of an indiscreet attack on the Burgos Government, and he is now believed to be under supervision. He is...

ways announced by Sir Kingsley Wood this week, on the 3oth anniversary of Bleriot's flight across the Channel, is to be welcomed both for its practical results and as a sign of...

the Government's ability to carry the Prevention of Violence Bill, framed as an instru- ment against the I.R.A. terrorists, through the House of Commons without serious...

Hudson has figured so conspicuously in the past week has caused a stir for which there is no visible warrant. Mr. Hudson, as Secretary to the Department of Overseas Trade, and...

Council's Commit- tee on Nutrition in the Colonial Empire makes depressing reading ; its conclusions may be summarised crudely by say- ing that dietetic conditions in the Empire...

and amenable Ministers as Sir Samuel Hoare and Sir Donald Somervell were in charge of what is commonly called the I.R.A. Bill. Sir Samuel's exposition of the I.R.A. plans...

Opposi- tion, the Hudson affair would have resulted in a first-class Parliamentary row. All the ingredients were there. But strangely, after Mr. Chamberlain's statement, the...

the House in the Colonies. There is no doubt that there is a feeling of considerable alarm as to conditions in many parts of the Empire. Mr. Chamberlain's announce- ment that,...

Times this week Mr. Keynes returns to the problem of Treasury borrowing to finance rearmament, and especially to the importance of maintaining a low rate of interest. He points...

not be in- creased by the decision of the British Medical Association in conference to refuse to approve the administration by midwives of an anaesthetic or analgesic (nitrous...

with Japan, and the revelations of the Hudson-Wohltat conversation brought the House back on Monday prepared for excitements. The Prime Minister made his statement about Japan...

a map of Europe appears on p. 164.

the British and Japanese Governments, and read by Mr. Chamberlain to the House of Commons on Monday, is a vague and perplexing document, and least satisfactory where it is most...

THE Report issued by the Cinematograph Films 1 Council this week is of double interest, for it is necessarily concerned with two questions of major im- portance to the British...

or eight years ago by Cambridge undergraduates of histrionic inclinations, may now be regarded as an estab- lished institution. One evidence of that was that last week, for the...

the many " news-letters " which those who desire to know the views of some individual or group on current events have offered to them weekly. I think I should add one to the...

A CURIOUS little incident, throwing an instructive light on the success with which Cabinet secrets could be kept thirty years ago, is related in Mrs. Masterman's new life of her...

Sir George Gater to the Colonial Office, with the rumoured proposal to import a number of other " outsiders " to the upper ranges of the Civil Service, has, like most con-...

to read Mr.—or, as I should now say, Dr.—P. G. Wodehouse as a means of perfecting their English. That seems to me quite shocking advice, and I speak as a Wodehouse devotee....

the German State Railways go on inviting us all to "Germany, The Land of Hospitality." We are a land of hospitality too—for thousands of Germans for whom Germany's rather...

the great oarsmen of—I was going to say this generation, but actually it was almost the generation before last, for Eyre was 91 when he died last Saturday, and he began rowing...

By SIR EVELYN WRENCH ri HIS article is being written in the free air of Sweden, 1 after a twenty-fifth visit to Germany, the object of which was to ascertain at first hand, if,...

By DOROTHY F. BUXTON [" Pastor Schneider, of Dickenschied, has died at Buchenwald concentration camp, where he had been confined for 21 years."—The Times, Ply 24th] W HEN...

By MAJOR B. T. REYNOLDS T HE Territorial Army is a force whose whole tradition is based on the voluntary system. In the past twenty years, when war appeared a remote...

B GR A.NT DEXTER I T is as nearly certain as anything can be in politics that there will be a General Election in Canada this fall, probably about the middle of October. The...

By DR. DAVID THOMSON T HERE can be few English words more ambiguous than the word "Nationalism," and none more dangerous in its ambiguity. Yet it is used in political...

By DR. W. B. SELBIE TN his address to Convocation at the close of the academic year, the recently retired Senior Proctor spoke of the effect on Oxford life of political...

By BERNARD DARWIN N O class of persons has a greater capacity for making us feel malignant and revengeful than those who quote, especially if we have ourselves a weakness for...

in this country can be divided into two main cat- egories, not necessarily coincident with party affiliations. In the first category are those who believe that it is possible...

this particular Parteitag shall be a festival of peace. Although he does not like keeping his promises, he does like keeping his prophecies. The Fiihrer is well aware that...

Minister's * closest supporters be displaying such uneasiness? If my analysis be correct, the Government have behind their dual policy the great mass of all thinking and...

the anxious support of these two main categories of educated opinion. Yet it will require consummate gifts of leadership if he is to ride two such nervous horses at the same...

By HAROLD NICOLSON MHE News Chronicle published recently a diagram show- ]. ing the fluctuations in Mr. Chamberlain's popularity since the signature of the Munich Agreement....

methods of Dr. George Gallup or by those of Mr. Tom Harrisson, does not lay claim to scientific precision. It is evident that the 53 per cent. registered by the British...

AS OTHERS SEE US [To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] Sig,—I have had on numerous occasions during the past few weeks to ascertain the views of various foreign nationals on...

OPERA Pastoral-Comical THERE is no famous composer of whose music so little is known in practice as Alessandro Scarlatti, and nowadays not a great deal is to be heard of...

"Le Drame de Shanghai." At the Academy.—" The Re- bellious Son." At the London Pavilion. IT would be funny, of course, if it wasn't Pabst: if we could forget Kameradschaft,...

[D'un correspondant parisienl LE journaliste devrait se garder d'anticiper sur les evenements. Son role d'historien au jour le jour eat suffisamment ingrat sans y ajouter celui...

The History of Art THE fifteenth International Congress of the History of Art meets in London this week. It is a rign, one may hope, that this branch of study is at last being...

most excellent Naturalist? Calendar will again be published. Meanwhile the Committee has just published its fifth annual memorandum, which may be had from Miss Barclay Smith,...

to discover an old English bee or two. Different varieties of bee have different qualities. The fashion for the Italian bee has prevailed in some strength for a good many years,...

Good work is going on, thanks chiefly to this International Committee, in Europe as well as in the Americas and the West Indies. We have just passed a protective Act for duck...

It is the season for the shears. The majority of flowering shrubs are best pruned after flowering, and it is imperative to deal with many of the hedges, especially the most...

Some pleasant and valuable co-operation among workers in many nations goes smoothly on, whatever the political tension. Among such good companions are a group of naturalists—...

in the realm of birds, Mr. A. W. Seaby, has been turning his attention of late to four-legged animals. He follows in the steps of Millais, who discovered a genius for depicting...

"More Light" A lament reaches me from a small and rather isolated village in Essex concerning the absence of light. The electric com- pany refuses altogether to bring...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] Snt,—In the course of your comments on the North Cornwall by-election you gave some advice on the duty of politicians to realise their...

[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...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—A revolt within the Conservative ranks at last! For months it has been an open secret that a considerable propor- tion—no outsider...

last week entitled "The Premier's Critics," while you are good enough to admit that it would have been "profoundly unfortunate" if the electors of North Cornwall had not...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] Stit,—In view of the nature of the criticisms made by Lord Lloyd of my article on the British Council in Europe, I should be very grateful if...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] Sra,—Might it not help to understanding—or, at least, to the avoidance of misunderstanding—if we confined the use of the phrase...

SPECTATOR] Sta,—I was aware when writing on the State of Franco Spain that an Italo-Spanish Trade Pact was, in Mr. Wise's words, "apparently on the point of being concluded,"...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—The answer to a question raised by "Janus" last week is clear. All transactions involving the payment of La and upwards should yield the...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—In the issue of The Spectator, No. 5,794, of July r4th, 1939, under the caption of" A Spectator's Notebook," on page 42, I noticed in the...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—The following is a quotation from a Report of the U.A.B. for the year ended October, 1938, under the heading "Instructional Centres ": "A...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] Sta,—May I be allowed to comment on the concluding para- graph in the article "Germany's Misgivings," by Robert Powell? The Turkish eviction...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] Ste, — I am so hearty an admirer of Mr. Harold Nicolson's weekly page that perhaps I may be permitted to observe that his theory of garden...

PAGE Russia—Friend or Foe? (E. H. Can) 151 Charles Masterman (Wilson Harris) 152 Light Out of Darkness (Honor Croome) 152 The Anglo-Saxon Tradition (D. W. Brogan) 1 53...

TEN years of a man's life is a long time, and one would like to praise their one tangible result. But the fact remains that what Mr. Hatry's book contains of real value could...

THOUGH Charles Masterman died no longer ago than 1927, at only 54, he belonged to what is almost a past political genera- tion. For in spite of his brief reappearance as Member...

A History of Socialism. By Sally Graves. (Hogarth Press. 5s.) De mortuis, they say, nihil nisi bonum. Socialism in Europe, if not yet definitely a corpse, is certainly moribund,...

IN his latest book, Mr. Catlin displays a rather unbridled appetite for quotations, not many of which are novel and not all of which are helpful, but one quotation does express...

WE are mod on the dust-cover that by means of a "detailed analysis of the most outstanding poets of our time," Mr. Philip Henderson "shows how each in turn, despairing of...

The Trail of Opium. By Margaret Goldsmith. (Hale. 12S. 6d.) THE Sumerian ideograms of 4000 B.C. spoke of opium as "the plant of joy." The Papyrus mentioned it as a remedial...

By FORREST REID MR. HAMPSON has always been interested in problems of form. From Saturday Night at the Greyhound on, each of his novels keeps austerely to a predetermined...

ALLIED BAKERIES INCREASE OF CAPITAL APPROVED THE fourth annual general meeting of Allied Bakeries, Limited, was held on July 20th at Winchester House, London, E.C. Mr. W....

STOCK markets are still the plaything of international politics and it is hard to see how there can be any change in this position in the near future. Most City people now take...

Mr. Robert E. Dickinson's speech at this week's meeting of the Standard Bank of South Africa is a comprehensive survey of the African trading conditions. He made it clear that...

Ever since its formation in 1935 the Amalgamated Road- stone Corporation has demonstrated a healthy earning capacity. Net profits have, in fact, risen during the four- year...

Lord Essendon made it clear at the annual meeting of Furness, Withy and Company that last year's fall in profits from just over L620,000 to L5o5,121 must be attributed to a...

STANDARD BANK OF SOUTH AFRICA SOUND POSITION THE 126th ordinary meeting of the Standard Bank of South Africa, Limited, was held on July 26th at Southern House, London, E.G....

FURNESS, W1THY AND CO. SHIPPING CONDITIONS THE forty-eighth annual general meeting of Furness, Withy and Company, Limited, was held on July 26th at Furness House, London,...

Allied Bakeries is one of those undertakings in the phase of rapid expansion. Since it was formed as a public com- pany in 1935 it has pursued a policy of acquiring other busi-...

AMALGAMATED ROADSTONE CORPORATION INCREASED OPERATING PROFIT THE fourth annual general meeting of the Amalgamated Roadstone Corporation, Limited, was held on July 2oth in...

McDOUGALLS TRUST YIELD Fluctuating wheat prices create a difficult trading environ- ment for flour millers but many of these undertakings manage to achieve a remarkable...

THE sixth annual general meeting of McDougalls Trust, Limited, was held on July 20th at Thames House, London, E.C. Mr. Kenneth A. E. Moore (the chairman) said that the past...

FRANCOIS CEMENTATION DIVIDEND OF IS PER CENT. AT the 19th ordinary annual general meeting of the Francois Cementation Company, Limited, held on Friday, July 21st, in London,...

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

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the preference and ordinary shares of the Francois Cementation Company are fully confirmed by the annual accounts. For the year ended March 31 net profits rose from £28031 to...