28 MARCH 1947

Page 1

MOVEMENT AT MOSCOW

The Spectator

T HE outcome of the Moscow Conference, which is expected to end by the middle of April, is still unpredictable, largely because of the procedure adopted. Short-term measures and...

Russia as Wrecker

The Spectator

Whenever Anglo-Russian relations or Russia's relations with the rest of the world appear to be improving, some intolerably irritating or provocative act by a Russian...

Page 2

The Illogical French

The Spectator

By universal consent, Indo-Ohina is a subject which splits the French people from top to bottom and makes and unmakes French Governments. By common sense it is nothing of the...

Homeless Children and Home Office

The Spectator

The belated announcement made by the Prime Minister on Mon- day regarding the application of the Curtis Report was entirely satis- factory. The concentration of all...

Farmers and Floods

The Spectator

Farmers are not the only sections of the population whose financial losses from snow, frost and flood in the past two months have been very heavy ; town-dwellers have in some...

The American Case Develops

The Spectator

One thing was always clear about President Truman's historic message to Congress on the subject of Greece and Turkey and that was that this ,tep was not tightly taken....

Page 3

Waiting for the T.U.C.

The Spectator

The silence in which the General Council of the T.U.C. does its work of considering the report of a sub-committee set up a month ago on the questions arising from the fuel...

AT WESTMINSTER

The Spectator

M ONDAY'S debate on export and import trade was perhaps related to the main economic debate, but distantly enough in point of time to have an individuality of its own. It was an...

The B.B.C. Enquiry

The Spectator

No one who takes the trouble to study carefully the report presented by Sir Valentine Holmes on the investigation he has conducted into allegations made against employees of the...

Page 4

TRADE TARGETS

The Spectator

F EW subjects have been so hag-ridden by doctrine as inter- national trade. The fact that, desirable as it is as an ideal, world free trade has never existed and is obviously...

Page 5

I am very glad that the Home Secretary, as chairman

The Spectator

of the Government committee dealing with war-histories, has given his blessing to the proposal put forward by Mr. E. H. Keeling, M.P., for an official history of AngIO-American...

"' We are dying in peace, innocent as we are.

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We shall all appear at the Judgment Seat one day. We believe that the Merciful Father, who rules everything in truth, will sooner or later prove our innocence.' Opoku Afwenee,...

When a Bill which is expected to get its second

The Spectator

reading this week becomes law the Government will have the opportunity of improving substantially, or continuing to deface, what are perhaps the most notable dozen acres in the...

A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK

The Spectator

C ONVERSATION with the members ok the Soviet delegation now in England is singularly interesting. The delegates come from various parts of Russia and only one of them speaks...

Spurious reputations, it will generally be agreed, should in the

The Spectator

interests of truth and honesty be discouraged. That consideration might properly be commended to the attention of various societies, some learned, some more or less learned,...

When the names of the Royal Commission on the Press

The Spectator

were read out by Mr. Attlee on Wednesday the general impression left was one of bewilderment, the question " Who are they? " about several members of the Commission mingling...

There appears to be not the smallest foundation for the

The Spectator

suggestion which a morning paper is disseminating that Mr. Bevin is likely to leave the Foreign Office to become " planner-in-chief " to the Government. The story is scouted in...

Page 6

SEMI-CRISIS IN FRANCE

The Spectator

By D. R. GILLIE Paris F RANCE'S still-born Cabinet crisis is a very grave symptom of her political situation. She has not so much avoided a political crisis as shown she cannot...

Page 7

PAX AMERICANA

The Spectator

By GUNTHER STEIN I T was to be an age of peace and plenty and unprecedented pro- gress, Americans had hoped ; but overnight, to their bewilder- ment, it was proclaimed the new...

Page 8

THE EXTRA SCHOOL-YEAR

The Spectator

By GUY BOAS* A PRIL 1st having been finally fixed, rightly or wrongly, for the raising of the school-leaving age from fourteen to fifteen, a new situation faces most of the...

Page 9

CYPRUS AFTER FIFTY YEARS

The Spectator

By KENNETH WILLIAMS T O the not often posed question of whether the island of Cyprus is in Europe or in Asia not many Britons are able to provide an answer based on certitude....

Page 10

AFTER PENICILLIN

The Spectator

By J. GORDON COOK "Sergeant Harold Holden, of the Cambridge Borough Police, covered the 74 miles from Staines to Cambridge in go minutes with a packet of the drug streptomycin,...

Page 11

THE ROAD ARMY

The Spectator

By M. P. BIRLEY M UCH has been heard during the past few weeks of transport difficulties and of impassable roads ; little of the men who in the last resort have to cope with...

Page 12

MARGINAL COMMENT

The Spectator

By HAROLD NICOLSON A NYONE who has had experience of public speaking or lecturing will agree with me that, whereas the limits of human under- standing are strictly confined,...

Page 13

ART

The Spectator

WHAT Hiroshima was to the political structure of society the advent of Cubism was to painting. Never was demolition on such a scale achieved by so few in so short a time. An...

CONTEMPORARY ARTS

The Spectator

MUSIC - THIS last week we have had two of the great masterpieces of the eighteenth century, Bath's St. Matthew Passion and Mozart's Magic Flute, the one dating from the...

the Cubist revolution not occurred. The more assured is Jankel

The Spectator

Adler, whose absolute mastery over his medium may be seen in a series of small tempera studies for Kafka's works, on view at Messrs. Gimpel Fils. The sense of trembling on the...

THE CINEMA

The Spectator

" Temptation Harbour " (Warner).—" The Trouble • with Women " and " Seven Were Saved." (Plaza). Temptation Harbour is, as far as I know, the first attempt to put a Simenon...

Page 14

ON THE AIR It is, thank heaven, no part of

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my business to express any opinion on the content of t he talks which Mr. Attlee and Mr. Eden gave last week. I am Concerned with them merely as broadcasters, and as...

SEA SHELLS (Edwardian Piece)

The Spectator

CLEARLY, as in the cameo pinned at her throat below the whale-boned collar of lace, I see her now with myself, a child, intent on our ct.rious, dumb pursuit, our two heads...

Page 15

MAGISTERIAL REFORM SIR, —There are many shades of opinion on this

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matter, and not all will agree with Mr. Howard Price. In choosing new magistrates intelli- gence and a judicial attitude are not the only points to be considered. A magistrate's...

THE COLOUR BAR SIR,—A correspondent 6,000 miles away is at

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a disadvantage ; but I hope you will let me reply to Pat Sloan on South Africa and U.N.O. in your issue of January 31st. Your correspondent accuses me of justifying the colour...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

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THE NURSING CRISIS should like to make a few comments on the article, The Nursing Crisis, in your issue of March 14th. I have' been intimately connected with the nursing...

SIR,—Reading Dr. Somerville Hastings' article on The Nursing Crisis I

The Spectator

was struck by the understanding with which the situation was viewed. According to Dr. Hastings the main problem is to recruit more nurses. Surely a great deal cculd be done with...

Page 16

THE TOURIST IN BRITAIN

The Spectator

Sta,—In your issue of March 14th, Professor D. W. Brogan puts forward views on " tourism " which are, I think, a little misleading in certain aspects of the question, although...

A CONFUSED PROGRAMME ?

The Spectator

SIR, —The first paragraph in your News of the Week for March 21st referred to " the cloudy aspirations and confused programme of the Conservatives " in June, 1945. Mr....

SIR,—News of the Week for March 21st opines that the

The Spectator

Government may be in the fourth form in the school for economic planning, but the Opposition remains in the third. Having regard to the melancholy history of the past few months...

AN IMPERIAL WAR MEMORIAL

The Spectator

SIR,-Mr. Harold Nicolson made an admirable suggestion for an Imperial War Memorial in your issue of March 14th. All over Britain now people in villages and towns are planning...

OUT OF DATE ?

The Spectator

SIR, -1947. "Luxury." A hateful word.—Yours truly,

A GLEAM IN THE BLACK-OUT

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SIR,—The attached letter from a German scholar to whom parcels of food have been sent from this country may be worth quotation in view of the spirit that pervades it.—Yours...

SIR,—In his Marginal Comment of March 14th Mr. Harold Nicolson

The Spectator

revived the question of the proper display of the beauties of St. Paul's Cathedral. He calls on the Minister of Town and Country Planning to prepare, if he is not already doing...

Page 17

More Trees On the subject of trees a wise petition

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to U.N.O. has recently been acknowledged ; and is to be discussed at their summer meeting by "the Men of the Trees." It runs thus: " That, realising in face of the present world...

A PARCEL OF BOOKS Sts,—The letter of Mr. M. P.

The Spectator

Buxton in your last issue is timely. There can be no greater service to university professors in Germany than to supply them with some of the more important books that have been...

A Dutiful Queen

The Spectator

On the second of the days of thaw, as I was cutting wood, a queen wasp appeared to take advantage of the material. Presumably she had only just come out of hibernation, but had...

An Old Giant

The Spectator

At the time when the gales toppled over the elms I happened to saw through an elm that had fallen years earlier. The diameter of the trunk was about two feet six inches and the...

COUNTRY LIFE "Elms have collapsed in the Christchurch meadows and

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the Botanic Gardens are a lake." Such a particular lament is a commonplace: wind and flood co-operated in ruin over most of the island. No place is under more general threat...

THUMBS DOWN OR UP ?

The Spectator

Six,—I am afraid Janus is wrong. Thumbs down meant death. The alternative was Pollice conpresso favor indicabatur, i.e. approval (of the defeated gladiator) was shown by...

• ' Postage on this issue Inland, lid.; Overseas, Id.

The Spectator

LA FOCE Sui,—In his recent article, Mr. R. S. Jenkinson

The Spectator

did excellent service in a worthy cause. Before and after the rise of Mussolini, I made frequent prolonged visits to Tuscany, staying on occasion at the home of a descendant of...

To ensure regular receipt of The Spectator, readers are urged

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to place a firm order with their newsagent or to take out a subscription. Newsagents cannot afford to take the risk of carrying stock, as unsold copies are non-return- able....

In ,My Garden That golden stuff. March dust, will be

The Spectator

more precious than ever—and scarcer, and till it appears sowing is severely handicapped. While such humble flowers as the aconites showed extra large and cheerful flowers...

" THE GUARDIAN " AND MR. CHURCHILL Sig,—As an old

The Spectator

Manchester man and a respecter of the tradition of the famous Manchester Guardian, I am amazed, as is Janus, at the recent almost vicious and unfair attack on Mr. Churchill....

Page 18

Toughness at Moscow

The Spectator

WHEN General Martel, with all the prestige of a former Commander of the Royal Armoured Corps, went out to Moscow in April, 1943, to take charge of the British Mission, he found...

BOOKS OF THE DAY

The Spectator

The Eccentricity of Textbooks IT seems hardly necessary to add to the two pages of press hyperbole which the publishers (following familiar text-book custom) include in this...

Page 20

The Restless English

The Spectator

The Traveller's Eye. By Dorothy Carrington. (Pilot Press. 18s.) THE writer of this learned but diverting study of English travellers abroad from the Renaissance to our own day...

Criticism and Faith

The Spectator

The Rise of Christianity. By E. W. Barnes. (Longmans. 15s.) IT is not many weeks since a great historian, who is also a great churchgoer, expressed to me his dismay at the...

Page 22

Annals of the Village

The Spectator

"The camera looks at things with a fixed stare and can give all the documentary evidence—the pattern cf the wall-paper, the orna- ments on the mantelpiece, the position of the...

Page 24

Private Enterprise, Inc.

The Spectator

Big Business. By Peter F. Drucker. (Heinemann. lOs. 6d.) No pigeon-hole is the right shape and size for Mr. Drucker ; like Mirabeau, he makes short work of formulae. His End of...

South American Music

The Spectator

Music of Latin America. By Nicolas Slonimsky. (Harrap. 12s. 6d.) THIS book comprises the most informative collection of data pub- lished up to now about Latin-American music and...

Page 26

Shorter Notices Britain and Her Export Trade. Edited by Mark

The Spectator

Abrams. (Pilot Press. 15s.) IF the need for more exports has yet to capture the public imagin- ation, the reason may be that one of the canons of publicity has been ignored. It...

Short Stories

The Spectator

IN The Tailors' Cake we find the Kafka influence assimilated so that it has become part of the nerves and sinews of a new body. That is as it should be. M. Devaulx's world is...

Book Notes

The Spectator

Counts announce a fictionised biography of Rachel, the great French tragedienne who took both Paris and London by storm a hundred years ago. Daughter of a Jewish pedlar, Rachel...

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66 THE SPECTATOR " CROSSWORD No. 418

The Spectator

[A Book Token for one guinea will be awarded to the sender of the first correct solution of tilts .veek's crossword to be opened after noon on Tuesday week, April 8th. Envelopes...

SOLUTION TO CROSSWORD No. 416

The Spectator

xi t RaNo g • • • O 1T A 11 01111 B I.'" A 12 --- ;G E n sic 11 N s 14111[11111 SOLUTION ON APRIL 11th The winner of Crossword No. 416 is ERNEST CARR, Lynton, Taylors...

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FINANCE AND INVESTMENT

The Spectator

By CUSTOS THOSE of us who looked for an early counter-offensive to stem the decline in the gilt-edged market have not yet seen our expecta- tions fulfilled. At times the...