Any elation that the Germans may.htie felt at Runcistedes suc- cesses in Belgium must ;have been offset by the defeats they have suffered in Hungary, anti the anxieti7...

S 0 1944 passes into 1945. Not so long ago mankind hoped, and not without reason, that the New Year would dawn on a Europe at peace. That has not happened, and current estimates...

The National Consultative Assembly in Paris lost no time in discussing and giving its approval to the Franco-Soviet Pact. General de Gaulle and M. Bidault threw fresh light on...

surprising that the Government should have decided on a new call-up which will make more men available for the Army—the total required being 250,000 men. It had become obvious...

Archaeology is not one of the sciences that we expect to see greatly advanced in time of war, least of all in 'a region actually threatened with invasion by a German army. But a...

by Lord De La Warr, in his recent mission to Addis Ababa, is a complete answer to mischief-makers who have tried to suggest that Britain was play- ing an Imperialist game in...

Harbour touched the Americans to the quick, but Pearl Harbour, far out in the Pacific, is the nearest point at which the conflict touched them dangerously, and that peril was,...

T HE British public heard with mingled feelings during their newspaperless week-end the surprising news that Mr. Churchill and Mr. Eden were in Athens. There can be nothing but...

restoration of our liberties will not break the bounds of reason. There 'are signs of a revolt against the idea of continuing the system of identity cards after the war. I...

is about the most heartless piece of selfishness I have heard of for some time. Justification for it was nil. The union leaders con- demned it. Railwaymen on the main lines...

or two, and one award which .ought to be included will not be, because the Prime Minister, who is responsible for these lists, cannot put it there. That is the award of the...

to be turning over a volume of Colonel Repington's diaries—covering the year 1921. It included a record of a visit to Greece ; one or two sentences would be no bad guide to...

I SUPPOSE that some day, when the position on the western front has been restored, some of the questions that present themselves so insistently will be answered. A healthy...

"Mr. Churchill is attempting to destroy E.A.M., which un- doubtedly represents the main part of the national movement of Greece, because he fears Communist influence in an area...

I desire to make it clear that the object of the fund, which, at the request of the Bishop of Gibraltar, has been opened in this column, is the erection in the restored Anglican...

By STRATEG1CUS R UNDSTEDT'S counter-offensive has not yet reached its climax. It has resumed its advance westward, after a slight pause to get its breath. When I wrote last...

By GORDON WATERFIELD A NEW Anglo-Ethiopian Agreement has been signed in Addis Ababa to take the place of the Agreement of 1942, by which Haile Selassie became Emperor once more...

By SALVADOR DE MADARIAGA T HERE is general agreement in Europe and among exiled Europeans on the 'fact that Great Britain must take a leading part in the reconstruction of...

YOUR loveliness so gay and so caressing turned all eyes towards you as you went your way. Your goodness conquered all hearts like the blessing of sunshine on a bright and...

By C. S. LEWIS T HE habit of takilig dramatic characters out of their setting and writing their biographies as if they were real people is not one which, as a critic, I can...

beloved of Government Departments, nor does it possess, either with the Cabinet or with public opinion, an authority comparable to that, for instance, of the Admiralty. It has...

of the Diplomatic with the Consular and Commercial Services will, once it has become fully operative, provide the country with a Foreign Service better adapted to modern...

to form a "Staff Committee" under the chairmanship of the Secretary of State, and that this Committee will succeed to the functions of Mr. Cordell Hull's old "Policy Committee....

The relation between the Foreign Office and public opinion offers a problem of a far less soluble nature. We have in the last few weeks had sad examples of the extent to which a...

El, I ; AROLD NICOLSON M R. CORDELL HULL retained his office for so many years that some of us have forgotten the inauguration ceremonies which any incoming Secretary of State...

WHAT a fine comedy this might have been if written by a master such as Oscar Wilde or even at the hands of the author of Blithe Spirit, but Mr. Terence Rattigan has failed to...

Review of the Year T.HE year's films are on the whole more interesting in the trends they reveal than in their intrinsic merit. For example, there can now be little doubt that...

concerto (in G, op. 44) has never achieved the popularity of his first, but here it is, well recorded by Moseiwitsch w:th the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, under George...

Members of the Forces on active service? Send your order and remittance to THE SPECTATOR, ListrrED, 99 Gower Street, W.C. z. The demand for THE SPECTATOR is far in excess of...

Snt,—Lord Winster's reply to Lieut. McQueen in correspondence initiated by "Captain, B.L.A. i " does little to strengthen the politicians' case. Our political system did little...

SIR, —Your article "Governments and Disorders" in The Spectator of December 8th is most opportune, and shows how distressing is the state of affairs in liberated countries. I...

the Soldier Thinks." Having been an Army chaplain and also . taken some part in Army education, I can at least speak for the things men have said to me and in my presence. There...

but I would like to add a sailor's weight to what the soldier thinks. My own experi- ence amply confirms the tale of cynicism and disbelief among service- men. If asked, I...

THE TROUBLE IN GREECE Sta,—My friend Mr. Fielden is so formidable a controversialist that it is really very comforting to know that he agrees with one. Let me take his points...

Sin,—To those with any sense of justice, the Prime Minister's speech has come as a terrible shock. This indeed is supporting Power Politics, which we are fighting this war to...

Sta,—In his unfriendly dig at the medical profession " Janus " makes two assertions which seem to be doubtful. Did "the patients" put this Government in power to introduce a...

Sta,—It is not surprising that a school book takes a year to write. Unlicis written by - a retired teacher, it must be a spare-time production. Theie . must be many...

Sut,—It is not surprising that the Inter-departmental Committee on Dentiitry should have come to the conclusion that a comprehensive dental health service should be provided to...

sm,—It is reassuring to find that Major Glover does - not desire the abolition of Lambeth Degrees. In fact, he admits that the reforms which he desiderates lie entirely within...

Sta,—The following is a true story (the names, of course, are fictitious):— Taylor and Williams, both A.B.s in a destroyer, had been school- Masters. Taylor came from a...

us we must look after about to,000 people—all good middle class. Among this cross-section of the population we have not come across 5o people who want a National Health scheme....

The Brenva Face of Mont Blanc Brenva. By T. Graham Brown. (Dent 25s.) ON the south-east side of Mont Blanc, there is a deep bay enclosed by the Peteret Ridge on the south,...

Germany Between Two Wars : A Study of Propaganda and War 7s. 6d.) IT was recently reported that a German civilian in Aachen, pointing to the devastation of his city, told an...

Elizabeth and Leicester. By Milton Waldman. (Collins. 12s. 6d.) Tun very readable book illustrates forcibly that " mutabilitie of for- tune " . bewailed by so many Elizabethan...

THE instinct of the chase is as old as love. Yet nowadays almost all of us, even those as impenitently devoted to shooting as; for instance, I am, are pricked by strange doubts...

New Chum. By John Masebeld. (Heinemann. 9s. 6d.) THE first term at school is always something of an adventure, and the experiences of a cadet, a "new chum," joining H.M.S....

IN his magazine New Verse, Mr. Grigson often used to insist that for poets "the world of objects is our constant discipline," or, as he says in the present introduction, the...

The Stranger. By Maria Kuncewiczows. Translated by B. W. A. Massey. (Hutchinson. 8s. 6d.) The North Wind of Love : Book One. By Compton Mackenzie. (Chatto and Windus. 10s....

• SOLUTION ON JANUARY 12th The winner of Crossword No. 301 is -Mrs. FREDERICK ROBINSON, Road, Oa/ord.

pl Book Token for one guinea will be awarded to the sender of the first correct olattion of this week's crossword to be opened after noon on Tuesday week, Yanuary 9th. Envelopes...

That unlovely and hard-bitten thing, the cabbage-stalk, whic announces to the nose the large amount of sulphur that it contains is a cause of trouble to many amateur gardeners....

sufficiently numerous. They are a tough fruit as is witnessed by their slowness to germinate. The berries sown this winter will not start growing till 1946; but happily they...

produced by the Council for the Preservation of Rural England. Personally, I find it difficult to be much interested in the form of preservation, perhaps because any such park...

it is, so far, the most comprehensive, if most detached, and the most thorough study of the poet. It is to be followed by a second volume, and the author's preface contains a...

is a useful book, for it contains material that does not appear in the few and incomplete studies of this Russian composer avail- able in English. It is perhaps all the better...

It is remarkable, and a sign of the times, that local papers, even in war-time, are finding more space for natural history ; but the western half of England excels the east in...

THE SPECTATOR VOLUME THE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-TH IRD,

2t GRICULTURE 518 Allied progress in France 117, 185, 209 AMERICA: Governor Dewey and Palestine, 2; Mr. Roosevelt nomi- nated at Democratic Convention, 25; his nomination...