T HE temptation to approach any pacific gesture by Russia with involuntary scepticism is strong, but must be resisted. Even the technique of prefacing a paragraph of...

Nothing in Mr. Morrison's statement in the House of Commons on Tuesday on the failure of the Paris talks calls for any modi- fication of the view consistently expressed in these...

The right degree of discipline for Borstals is not something that can be well laid down in writing. It depends on the character of the officers and the boys, and must vary,...

When Mr. Aneurin Bevan, Mr. Clement Davies and Mr. r Churchill successively a p pea l 1 for the issue of a White Paper on a particular subject, it . usf be concluded that the...

Compelled by public opinion, a very healthy opinion, to give ground in the matter of Tshekedi Khama, the Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations gave enough on Tuesday to...

The meeting of the Defence Ministers of the Commonwealth which has been held in London was arranged early this year, before the cloud on the Persian horizon was any bigger than...

A substantial section of opinion in the Labour Party seems determined, under the specious plea of equality of opportunity in education, to achieve equality by a deliberate...

T HE Persian crisis has been irrupting on the floor of the House of Commons day after day, and each time in a more forbidding form. It has brought Mr. Morrison to the...

Bath Abbey on Monday Lord Kilmaine, the Secretary of the Pilgrim Trust, made_ two distinct but associated points, both of importance. Discussing the problem of the repair of...

E VENTS in Persia arc moving rapidly towards a final break- down. In his statement to the House of Commons on Tuesday Mr. Morrison spoke of the evacuation of the Oil- fields as...

my district post office to claim a registered letter which had not been delivered owing to my house being closed at the week-end. Having got there, I naturally produced my...

peer and his son against the publishers of a reference-book which had erroneously stated that the peer had no heir has brought me a reminiscence—which I have not had the...

as the mutual regard and admiration in which we hold one another (how could he not admire me?) permits, insists that the borough for which he records should be spelt like that,...

the new complete Shakespeare which Messrs. Collins have published this week at 15s. The price is noteworthy, having regard to the quality of the. print, paper and binding ; the...

of the cricket year but of the Parliamentary year is the dinner regularly given, with great generosity, by Sir Stanley Holmes. National Liberal M.P. for Harwich, to the year's...

way things ire going in parts of the periodical world. It Causes regret more by reason of the paper's distant than of its recent past. Under Percy L. Parker, in the early years...

By MAX BELOFF* • Mr. Beloff, a Fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford, is author of, ornong other works, The Foreign Policy of Soviet Russia. p ROPHECY is a dangerous game, and the...

By D. W. BROGAN FEW weeks ago I said to one of my colleagues in Cam- bridge that I should be away in the week of June 18th because I should be at the celebration of the fifth...

By A CIVIL SERVANT I N the course of the last five in my income has increased from £350 to £900 a year, n each case after deduction of tax. During the same period my capital...

By an ASSISTANT MISTRESS , S TATISTICS can be notoriously misleading. and particularly so when used as a basis for an abstraction such as that created by the Minister of...

The Rails Run Over the Hill By GRAHAM DUKES (St. John's College, Cambridge) M ONO observant travellers between London and Cam- bridge, Elsenham Junction, set amongst the trees...

By HAROLD NICOLSON NV HEN I hear or read statements that the time has now come when we should carry out the " democratisa- tion " of the Foreign Service, I experience emotions...

CINEMA L'Ingenue libertine." (Cameo-Polytechnic.)—“The Lavender Hill Mob." (Odeon, Marble Arch.)—" Mr. Universe." (London Pavilion.) THE distinguished French authoress Colette...

The Tempest. By William Shakespeare. (Stratford Memorial Theatre.) MR. Michael_ BENMIALL and Mr. Loudon Sainthill, who respectively produced the play and designed the scenery,...

THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO at Glyndebourne on June 21st was 3 disappointment. Not only was there no outstanding voice, familiar or unfamiliar, but the whole performance lacked the...

(Vaudes ALWAYS think of the authors of His Excellency and Grand National Night as unusually reliable playwrights, but their new comedy is disappointing. " New" is possibly the...

Notable Documents From Private Archives. (Old Hall, Lincoln's Inn.) To one to whom it comes hard to find letters of even last week this exhibition of documents from private...

THR Festival sweeps on down Bond Street. The dealers, as ever, display unflagging diligence, while the Arts Council must be quite giddy keeping up to date with its transport and...

THE SPECTATOR readers are urged to place a firm order with their newsagent Or 10 take out a subscription. Newsagents cannot afford to take the risk of carrying stock, as unsold...

Set by John Usborne A prize of £5, which may be divided, is offered for an old English teacher's Poem of Revolt on "doing" either" The Lady of Shalott" or A Midsummer Night's...

Report by N. K. Boot The frontispiece to "Elephant Bill" by Lt.-Col. J. H. Williams shows a photograph of two elephants with the following caption : " A young male calf. about...

your issue of June 22nd suggests that he is already aware of the answers to the two points which "perplex and intrigue" him, and is really challenaing their validity. The crux...

by a Church of England rector. As a Catholic (or perhaps I should say a Roman Catholic, to avoid upsetting some of my Anglican friends I), I find it very hard to understand why...

Making Ends Meet Sta.—May I submit the following comments on the very interesting and forthright letter from Mr. F. Barber, which seems to me to raise issues of paramount...

make ends meet on incomes "beyond the wildest dreams" of the ordinary worker. (Incidentally, is, say, the figure of £500 really beyond even the tamer dreams of a family of...

the "working classes" (a completely meaningless and mischievously mis- leading expression, retained merely for the purpose of keeping alive class prejudice, since all of us have...

finished reading the third article in the series Making Ends Meet. and I have come to the conclusion your title is quite wrong: it should be How We Live In Luxury. How these...

SIR,—A former rector of St. George's, Mr. Haslam, a historical scholar, has left documents which are conclusive in their evidence that Princesss Pocahontas was indeed buried in...

SIR.—As one who has Professional connections with a number of building societies, some of which pay two and a half per cent, while others pay less, some of which are big while...

be very difficult to lower one's standard of living from one to which one has been accus- tomed, to that of the worker who was reared under it and 'has so far known no other-?...

to, but do not agree with, papers talking of "the necessity of reaimament," as, indeed, the Spectator does in referring to Mr. Jack Tanner's recent speech. I am getting used to,...

SIR.—In reply to Mr. Ensor, it is not mere " wishful thinkin g " that makes some of us refuse to re g ard war as inevitable, but the sense that, by adoptin g that attitude, we...

come in from the g arden. This is always a si g n that the summer wealth is about to flow. Already raspberries are ready for nettin g , and red currants takin g on that pallor...

in spite of the bad season durin g the flowerin g time. At the moment it looks as thou g h the dark cherries, such as Early Rivers, will be the more abundant. My own favourite,...

" CHERRY RIPE " will soon be the cry, for the orchards of Kent are fillin g up with the caravans of the nomad pickers. We hear bursts of hoarse son g , ar g uments at midni g...

8,a,—Janus's comments on the care of Jewish children in the East End of London contains one serious error. Many Jewish mothers in that area and in nei g hbourin g districts do...

hay-makin g is also in pro g ress. It is the first harvest of the year, and the most fra g rant. All holidays, all childhoods, all sweet idlenesses are comprised in that crushed...

law to public schools will be endorsed by many people's experience of seein g the leaven depressed by the dou g h. But cookery is also an art, and I have no doubt that bread...

our near orchard. One of them had a sick baby, and for the first week or two we were busy' telephoning for doctors, makin g arran g ements with the hospital, and then en q...

The Life of Joseph Chamberlain. :1. n.. IV: :901-1903. II ) IN 1915, six months after Joseph Chamberlain's death, Mr. L. S.._ Amery was asked to write the official biography of...

The Germans in Russia Dance of Death. By Erich Kern. Translated by Paul Findlay. (Collins. los. 6d.) Jr is just ten years since the German armies, killing and burning as they...

THE period of French musical history with which Mr. Cooper deals is of particular interest to musicians today ; for it preserved the continuity of a tradition during a time of...

AN anthology of this kind has been much needed ; the editor and publisher have rendered a service both to the student and to the general reader in collecting in a single volume...

Stephen Crane. By John Berryman. American Men of Letters Series. (Methuen. I is.) Tics is an admirable series, and Messrs. Methuen should be given all possible encouragement to...

A Celtic Miscellany. Edited and translated by Kenneth Hurlatone Jackson. (Routledge and Kegan Paul. 8s.) THE new beauties revealed in this generous selection of Celtic poetry...

THE. great Chinese poet Po Chil-i, the subject of L. Waley's last biography, found the works of his predecessor Li Po deficient in " feng " and " ya," which are to be...

THIS time, Mr. Nigel Balchin turns his quizzing-glass upon.a married couple. Jill has not enough to do, and so is apt to leave small things undone. James is considerate and...

NE 0 , c !ILE 119 PIL1A CIE C D L T E1P e 151141C ILI Im f 1 4 P • 01.44 E_ u E S/fill e c SOLUTION ON JULY 13 The winner of Crossword No. 630 is MRS. E. V. SEAR1GHT, Scout...

IA Book Token for one guinea will be awarded to the sender of the Ps, correct solution opened after noon on Tuesday week, Yuly 10th, addressed Crossword, 99 Gower Street,...

By CUSTOS • THIS is . 3 twilight for markets. Only a whisper - of peace in Korea has suddenly brought what was a background factor in the investment equation into much greater...