T HE war in France has ended—significantly enough the last military communiqué to be issued recorded French suc- cesses in the Alps against the uniformly unsuccessful...

To attempt a synthesis of American opinion at the present moment is as absorbingly interesting as it is bafflingly difficult. With the Presidential campaign now well under weigh...

Meanwhile the President is displaying both reticence, dexterity and resolution. He has let it be known, or rather recalled, that the United States does not propose to recognise...

In the changed situation in the European Continent Russia remains an inscrutable force in the background. It is certain that she does not regard with equanimity the rise of...

Turkey continues her mobilisation. She is still a " non- belligerent," as Dr. Saydam, the Prime Minister, emphasised on Wednesday, but is fully conscious of her...

Opinion is moving in Northern Ireland—as illustrated in the debate in the Belfast Parliament last Monday—towards an attempt to heal the differences between North and South...

The capitulation of France has produced two immedi, reftilts in the Balkans. The spectacle of Europe in the meltir pot has made the dissatisfied countries hasten to stake out fl...

Italian propagandists in Egypt last week were trying to stir up mischief by a rumour, reported in the Press, that the British were urging Egypt to declare war on Italy. That...

man in the right place. He talks in plain English and is not tainted with the aloofness which too often surrounds junior Conservative Ministers. He is well supported by Miss...

of small debates on Bills from different Departments. There are ten junior Ministers on the Front Bench, fifteen other Members in the House, and nine visitors in the...

The offers from the United States and the Dominions to receive British children for the duration of the war have been gratefully accepted by the British Government, which has...

on the new Overseas Reception Board and on Agricul- ture, nor is there any serious diminution in the number of questions put to Ministers. In a word, Parliament is essential ;...

The disaster in France has had immediate repercussions in Cie Far East. Just before the surrender of the Bordeaux Government the French Ambassador in Tokyo accepted Japan's...

Our Parliamentary Correspondent writes : —These lines are written between two secret sessions, one on Home Defence held last Thursday and one on the Ministry of Supply, which...

The civilian population of this country is now keyed up to await whatever attempts the enemy may make to attack our homeland from the air. Already last week preliminary raids in...

T HE capitulation of France is complete. There is no room for illusion about that. Nothing would be gained, and a great deal would be lost, by resort to any kind of...

history from evacuee children. For example: " Coo, no wonder the old sow's so big, with all those little ones blowing

American business man (whose wife happens to be English) was settled very happily in a Home Counties village. When the war broke out he offered the village a field for the...

EPLORABLE though the decisions taken by the Govern- ment of Marshal Petain are, there would seem to be no justification for the suggestions rather freely made in this country...

Government as a broadcaster. He may drop some of his final g's—do not many of the bluest-blooded do the same?—and accentuate personnel in the second syllable—but why not?...

Siegfried's new book on the Suez and Panama Canals. In 19o2, when the American Senate was sharply divided on the vital question of whether the projected Atlantic-Pacific water-...

a good many parents in connexion with the possibility of the migration of children to the Dominions or the United States. Only this week I had a letter from a frequent con-...

be observed " If the Invader Comes " is admirable except for one paragraph which has started a note of query in other minds than mine. It is the one on parachutists. "...

By STRATEGICUS HE gravest item in the settlement which, in Marshal T Petain's words, was made " in honour as between soldiers " and which General Keitel suggested 'shows that...

By MAJOR-GENERAL J. F. C. FULLER T HOUGH it may seem strange, nevertheless it is a fact that the first tank operation ever planned was naval in character: it was to use the...

By OUR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT I T must be expected that the condition known as shock will be present, in a greater or less degree, in a very consider- able proportion of...

By KENNETH INGRAM O NE of the more valuable experiences which the war has given us is that, particularly in these latter weeks, it has forced us to live by faith, or at least...

By H. R. JUKES I BOUGHT three things new—a house, a dog, and a whistle. I had to have a dog. In our village, unless you own a dog you are not quite—well, quite. The whistle...

THE UNITED POWERS By CHARLES MORGAN N EARLY a fortnight has gone by since the British Govern- ment offered to the French a Pact of Union with ourselves. Paris had fallen. In...

The Importance of Ensilage Here in England, apparently in contrast to the rest of Europe, the grain harvest promises to be excellent. But hay will be thin and of poor quality....

is extremely simple. Soft cuttings of unflowered shoots, four or five inches long, should be potted now. Well syringed, they will root in a light compost in three or four weeks....

is under the same obli g ations and has the same powers as a member of His Majesty's Forces ; when off duty these powers relapse. Recently I gave a lift to a private soldier in...

One of the most interesting materials for ensilage is brewers' grain. Unlike green forage, which may be ensilaged in small quantities day by day, g rain must be ti g ht-packed...

White squirrels had often been reported in the neighbourhood ; in one copse, many years ago, they were said to have made a colony. It was not until these notes were about to be...

THEit€ is a nice distinction between the " primrose path of dalliance " and the " primrose way to the everlasting bonfire." The former phrase, though disapproving, allows for...

Sm,—The offer of Union to France came too late for adequate com- ment in your last issue. Already it has faded into the background. I should like, however, to make one point....

Britain is concerned exclusively with two possible attacks from the East. Although a short reference to a thrust from the West—vid Ireland— is mentioned no account is taken...

Sta,—We are now living in a beleaguered fortress, against which an opponent flushed with victory on the fields of France is free to con- centrate all his destructive energies....

[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...

other intellec- tuals have seen fit to go to America. They say so, in well-managed words strongly scented with self-righteousness and rationalised malice. In my village women...

week emphasises the way in which the civilian populations of Holland and Belgium unwittingly helped the enemy by taking to the roads, flying from their shattered towns, seeking...

the views expressed in Mr. Basil Wright's excellent article on the film situation in your last week's issue. Without losing heart at the almost skilful evasion of simple...

could hardly commit us to so revolutionary and incalculable an arrangement for all time "—so you refer with a disdainful shudder to the proposal of an immediate Anglo-French...

Oliver Cromwell in your issue of June 14th, does less than justice to the Protector's social position. He calls him a fanner. As a fact the Cromwells were one of the great...

SIR,—You need have no fear of the loyalty and support of your readers, nor any doubt of their appreciation of your difficulties. It is not the size or appearance of the plate...

" The Magic Flute " at Sadler's Wells THE revival of Mozart's The Magic Flute last week brought back into the repertory of the Sadler's Wells Opera a great masterpiece and one...

SIR,—My attention has just been directed to your suggestion that conscientious objectors might well be asked to hand over to some good cause such as the Red Cross any excess...

SIR,—The issues before the British people seem clear, and can be put in few words. r. Defensive warfare will not bring victory. No doubt British morale under air bombing will...

what we feel towards the Dominions' troops now amongst us? Also about the offers of hos- pitality and care for British rhiltiren made by the Governments of the Dominions and the...

SIR,—When I heard that Mr. L. S. Amery had become Secretary of State for India and Burma, I was at first afraid that his attitude to the country of his birth would be...

SIR,—Having studied La Fin de notre Slide d'apres Nostradamus, by Maurice Privat, published last year, I was interested in the article by James Laver which appeared in your...

the difficulties created by the paper shortage and to say that I should continue my grateful enjoyment of The Spectator even if it became reduced to two pages. With all good...

Feeding the Nation in Peace and War. By George Walworth. (Allen and Unwin. 18s.) THE history of Britain's Agricultural Marketing Schemes provides one of the most instructive...

Pictures of the East A Winter in Arabia. By Freya Stark. (Murray. i6s.) ONCE again the rapidly growing British "Oriental " public is placed in debt to Faraya, who by A Winter...

THIS book consists of a series of impressions of the year 1936, the last of the years previously surveyed by Mr. Guedalla in The Hundred Years. It is a little unfortunate for...

The Statecraft of Machiavelli. By H. Butterfield. (Bell. 6s.) IN common with most influential political thinkers, Machiavelli failed to evolve a political philosophy which was...

THE American of the title is neither a mere expatriate nor a simple tourist ; she is a New Yorker correspondent of long stand- ing and experience, as witty, well-informed and...

Japan in China. By W. H. Chamberlin. (Duckworth. 38. 6c1.) THIS is a masterly little book, embracing in less than 1so pages grouped into five chapters nearly all the main facts...

Makeshift. By Sarah Campion. (Peter Davies. 8s. 6d.) Untimely Ulysses. By Vincent Brun. (Cape. 8s.) Embezzled Heaven. By Franz Werfel. (Hamish Hamilton. 88.6(1.) The Last Man....

The Diary of Fanny Burney. Selected and edited by Lewis Gibbs. (Everyman's Library. 28. 6c1.) MAc.Autivy, deluded by an effect of candour and of startled innocence, thought of...

IN Exit Prussia: A Plan for Europe, Dr. Stern-Rubarth revives a practice popular during the last War of dividing Germans into two categories : the " good " Saxons, Bavarians,...

D. H. Lawrence and Susan His Cow. By William York Tindall. (Columbia : Oxford University Press. 18s. 6d.) SUSAN was a cow which D. H. Lawrence owned in Taos and to which he...

edition. (Longmans. cos.) THE first edition (5927) of Dr. Gooch's invaluable guide to the literature of the last War contained 214 pages. The fourth edition now issued runs to...

(Methuen. 8s. 6d.) MR. MEDLICOTT'S review of twenty very troubled years is lucid, accurate, and commendably free from bias. Unlike some writers on the subject, he takes account...

By CUSTOS ONCE again the Treasury has launched a large-scale borrowing operation with remarkably little fuss. In a happier environ- ment I should have expected another issue of...

notorieties—Dr. Johnson, Swinburne, President Roosevelt, Mr. Churchill, Dr. Goebbels and Signor Gayda—choosing an appro- priate pet and justifying their choice of each in a...

THE twenty-ninth ordinary general meeting of The Zinc Corporation, Ltd., was held on June 25th in London. Viscount Home (the chairman) said that while the outbreak of war...

The winner of Crossword No. 68 is the Rev. R. W. Lowry, 84 Storeton Road, Prenton, Birkenhead.

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 narked...