THE decision to hold a plenar y meeting of the Naval Conference next week fortifies an expectation that there will be some development to report which will be worth discussing....

very significant statement made by the American delegates in- London late on Tuesday night. They said that they had not in any way changed their position. The United States had...

French and British • Staffs before the War were taken by Frenchmen as implying the justice of the French claim to British help as a matter of course. Sir Edward Grey's repeated...

to the SPECTATOR cods Thirty Shillings per annum, including postage, to any part of the world. The SPECTATOR is registered as a Newspaper. The Postage-on this issue is : Inland...

for the past _week fulfilled the prediction that the relaxation of the qualifying conditions for-benefits under the New Unemployment Insurance Act would cause a considerable...

on the effect of taxes on prices has been written by a Sub-Committee of the General Federation of Trade Unions. The Committee says that however desirable it may be to secure a...

Indian Sugar Commission Was issued on Monday.. It calls upon- the Government to eliminate, in concert with other Powers, - the disturbing factors of high tariffs and subsidies....

'whereby any State may denounce the Convention sheilld one of its eo-signatories make " excessive or a,ggresSive increases in tariff duties. This may be, indeed; 'a. verl...

with the signature of three documents; A 54 Com- mercial Convention " (valid for a year in the first instance) which embodies the idea of the - interdependence of-Euro- pean...

in explanation of the Government's Bill for increasing the borrowing powers of the Unemploy- ment Fund from £40,000,000 to £50,000,000. The last Government fixed the maximum of...

high taxation which it entails we read with satisfaction a letter in the Times advocating the creation of some body like the French Budget Committee. We are inclined to think,...

at last be a settlement with Egypt we welcome the arrival in London of Nahas Pasha and his staff. Nahas Pasha comes unembarrassed by any pledges to the Egyptian electors. The...

Europa' on her maiden voyage across the Atlantic has beaten the per- formance of her sister ship the ' Bremen,' although the weather was by no means favourable. The German...

the revised Tariff Bill by 53 votes to 31. The Bill will do anything but achieve its original object, which was to close the famous " scissors," and correlate the prices of...

the new Tokyo which has been built on the 850 acres devastated by the 'earthquake. According to all accounts the new town, in spite of some imperfections and a departure from...

service in publishing in four articles the late General Primo de Rivera's own story of his Dictatorship. Opinions will differ as to the efficacy of some of his measures,...

Government and the North is coming at last. Yen Hsi- shan, firmly posted in Peking, has been joined, at least for the moment, by Feng Yu-hsiang, who has apparently not...

Signor Mussolini's purpose, which is in ironical . contrast with the Italian attitude at the Tariffs Conference, .to break down the local tariffS, or octrois, levied on produce...

The All-India Congress Committee left the decision about starting disobedience to Provincial committees and it is poisible that this involves another postponement of the...

of freedom. It is pleasant to remember the part played by Great Britain in assisting her to gain and to maintain that freedom. The establishment of the League of Nations in...

on March 20th, 1930. War Loan (5 per cent.) was on Wednesday 1031 ; on Wednesday week, 102 11 ; a year ago, 10111; Funding Loan (4 per cent.) was on WednesdaY 911x.d.; on...

T HE Naval Conference has not officially broken down, but it is as far as ever from being able to fulfil its original purpose of producing a Five-Power Agree- ment. Even if it...

Empire Trade and the World Background THE Board of Education has just published the results 1 of an enquiry into . the teaching in the schools of the • geography of the British...

T HE lull continues. Tributes by the leaders of the three parties to the memory of the late Lord Balfour, a desultory and inconclusive debate upon the Shops (Hours of Closing)...

T WENTY-ONE years ago a small fair-haired man, with an exceptionally big forehead and thoughtful eyes, wrote a book called The Great. Illusion. No one paid much attention to it...

[The Dean of Chester contributes this article to our series on Immortality.] T HE article on Biology in the Encyclopcedia Britannica recognizes three great orders of facts—the...

[COMMUNICATED.] T HE problem of East Africa still remains unsettled, though it is to 'be supposed that it is engaging the Government's attention. The respective merits of the...

[The following interview with Mr. Hem" , Ford was obtained eight weeks ago by Mr. John Dugdale, a former member of the Spectator staff, at Dearborn, Michigan. We find ourselves...

[Amabel Williams-Ellis, Mr. St.. Loe Strachey's daughter, has just returned from a visit to Russia. In this interesting article she describes how life on a communal farm struck...

[MvsicA.. Commnv Turr*s] THE musical comedy public is probably the least critical of all the groups of theatre going people. It is also the most voracious. It demands quantity...

[FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.] ths the world for centuries witnessed anything comparable to what is occurring in India to-day ? From his Ashram at Ahmedabad, where eighty...

The competition among the Glasgow steam-boats has been carried so far, that passengers have been brought from Belfast to Glasgow for 20. each. PERSONS OF DECENT APPEARANCE....

Ten million dollars to buy " happiness for mankind " was Set aside in New York banks some months ago under the provisions of the will of a New York • philanthropist. The sum has...

The campaign against unsightly billboards has been strengthened by support from the American Institute of Architects. Declaring that billboards have multiplied to a point where...

The Publication by the State Department 'of an exhaustive restatement of the Monroe Doctrine provides further evidence of President Hoover's desire to propitiate the...

The debate which resulted, during the week, in a modifiea. tion of the censorship powers entrusted to Customs clerks in respect of foreign literature was one 'of the liveliest...

The Senate has at last passed the Tariff Bill, which has been in the making fourteen months and been under con- sideration in the. Senate itself for nearly ten months. The...

(By Cable) THE Nitvitt, CONFERENCE. The demand which is now being Made' in some sections of the American Press, never conspicuous In its enthusiasm for the London Conference,...

Memories of Lord Balfour at Geneva THE fact that the Secretary-General and Deputy Secretary- General of the League of Nations should have made the journey. from Geneva to...

Certain incidents of observation during this spring have made me feel more acutely than ever before that we need a thorough reform of the dates of the close seasons. Let me take...

The scene of a strangely pathetic story of a Norfolk bird-lover is familiar to me. A dying woman lay in bed listen- ing day after day with ever enhanced delight to the song of a...

There is still time for gardeners and estate owners to fix up bird-boxes, though already the tits are popping in and out of certain holes and crevices where they mean to nest ;...

As to hares—in the Home Counties the earlier leverets were born this year, hi the first week of March. Coursing did not end till mid-March, when every doe that was still likely...

illustrated froin modern gardening. The most notable change in the art and practice of gardening of late years has been the freer use of seeds. I do not mean that herbaceous...

contra- dictory. The favourite hunting season almost coincides with the breeding season. Doubtless otter are vermin ; and now that fishing sites are sold at prices per foot that...

Many novels of the day proclaim the naturalist ; but I have never read one that showed quite such affectionate, faithful and even subtle observation as Wood Sanctuary, written...

The Principal of Somerville has been raising a protest against the abuse of floral decoration in Churches at Easter. Flaccid and fading flowers tied up in pitiful bunches to...

Many of these extracts from the hitherto unpublished Diaries of Robert Fulke Greville, shortly to be brought out in their entirety by Messrs.- John Lane under the Editorship of...

SIR,—Your correspondent, Sir Charles Spencer, asks :—" Is there any evidence of the peasantry of India having been more virile at any previous time in history ? " There is...

THE SITUATION IN INDIA [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sm,—The question has been asked in your columns what the British Government has done to better the position of the...

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sia,—Neither Earl Grey nor the Principal of Brasenose really meets my point. Earl Grey tells us that under the Sponsor Scheine—which is not the...

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—We know that the British Commonwealth is now passing through one of the greatest crises in its history, and the fact that it is an...

SIRS Mr. Lennard's criticism as to the possibility of an ordinand in training changing his mind and no longer desiring to seek Orders appears to have bern duly met by Earl Grey,...

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—I am prompted to these reflections by two incidents, widely separated in time and distance. In the first place, when I was in Budapest. I...

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sia,—Perhaps some of your many humanitarian readers may be interested in what is being done for animals by the Govern- ment of Albania. In 1928...

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] have read with the very deepest interest and appre- ciation the symposium under this head which has been appearing in your columns for...

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sin,—The Spectator is always sympathetic to good causes, and I should like to tell your readers - of a work which is being done by the Prison...

Sur,—A. short time ago a lady from the Western American States, who was writing a series of travel books for children sent to Ireland for photographs to be used as illustrations...

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Slit,-My attention has been called by our Entomological Section to an article which appeared in your journal on March- 1st under the title "...

TIIROUGII every sort of trouble Joe Hanged tough and stubborn on. Nine times they said he'd have to go, And twice that he was gone. Good sense was what he'd never learn,. But...

Sra,:—May I thank you, on behalf of other readers out here, as well as myself, for the steady and consistent attitude in defence of the rights of animals, shown in your...

MOTHERING SUNDAY. Twenty-five years ago a few people, including myself, made an effort to revive the custom of observing Mothering Sunday (the fourth Sunday in Lent), a custom...

its Dutch setting is ably defined and illustrated in General Ilertzog by L. E. Neame (Hurst and Blackett, 180. The author, a well-known South African political journalist, has...

comparatively young man he had reached the highest post in the greatest striking force of the greatest war in history. He owes nothing to his birth, of an honourable but in no...

Daily Herald, has written an attractive and discerning book in Paris in Profile (Cayme Press, 12s. 6d.). To write of Paris one should be a poet, an historian and a connoisseur :...

books most in demand at the Times Book Club have been Dur.NG. the past month the books most in demand at the Times Book Club have been FrerroN :—Red Wagon, by Lady Eleanor Smith...

with tier upon tier of strange sculptures, some graceful, some grotesque, in apparent confusion, yet linked by an underlying plan and symmetry, so the All-India Special Number...

Tan Editor of the Spectator offers a prize of £5 5s. for the best County Story. Stories must not exceed two hundred words in length. The Editor reserves the right to publish any...

Flood (Kegan Paul, 5s.), recalls the flood legends preserved by various peoples, notes that the only real parallel to the story in Genesis is the Babylonian tale, and then...

Com- petition" will be found on pages 539 and 540.)

TnE late Captain W. B. Whall wrote some of the best books in existence about seamanship and navigation. In the book before us he tried his hand as a historian and it cannot be...

The Atonement in History and in Life Essays edited by the Essays in Christian Theology. By Leonard Hodgson, M.A. (Longmans. 9s.) THE BISHOP OF CHELMSFORD tells us in his...

fully or so' simply expressed as in this entrancing auto- biography. The very name of its author evokes brilliant, ever-changing but unforgettable pictures of that most vivid of...

Myths of the Origin of Fire. An Essay by Sir James Frazer. (Macmillan. 12s. 6d.) WE are so accustomed to the safety match that we can hardly conceive of an age which did not...

" HALF the world is agog over the reported engagement of Camera." So began an article in a prominent daily paper. One hopes that the statement was grossly exaggerated. It is...

21s.) IN the office of the little hotel at Springfield. Illinois, the future President of the United States was writing out his luggage labels : " A. Lincoln, White House,...

Britain and the Baltic.' By Major E. W. Poison. Newman. (Methuen. 10s. 6d.) MAJOR E. W. Porsoisr NEWMAN is, appropriately, 6, gallant rash. _ It reqUireS gallantry, not to say...

Before going abroad or away from home reader. are advised to place an order for the firzerimoa. The journal will be forwarded to any address at the following rates :- One Month...

From Toulouse-Lautrec to Rodin : with some personal im- pressions. By Arthur Symons. (The Bodley Head. 15'.) THESE essays, written at different times over a fairly long period...

Escape. By Francesco Nitti. (G. P. Putnam's Sons. 10s. 6d.) IN July and August last the civilized world was roused to interest in the methods of the Fascist Government by the...

Paddle or Plunge 78. 6d.) IT is fatal for the artist to write a true story before he has so completely reimagined and reintegrated his material that it has become untrue. A...

Gloria ! She was so young and so beautiful and so rich—no wonder every man she met fell in love with her, or at any rate asked for her hand in marriage. But Gloria was not the...

a lucid and attractive volume on The Economic Life of the Ancient. World, translated by Mr. M. R. Dobie, for Messrs. Kegan Paul's remarkable series on "The History of...

(Hodder and Stoughton. 7s. 6d.)—That Mr. Simons does not expect much from his readers is shown by the following extract from his preface : " People who do not write novels and...

We Going ? " and " An Economic Reformation," to which we have already referred, the March issne of the Round Table (Macmillan, 5s.) contains the best available reading on all...

little more courageous, a little cleverer and slightly less disillusioned than most independent young women to-day, but, for all that, she is a very real person. What she...

lectures on social and political ideas for which King's College, London, has become noted. This volume, Social and Political Ideas of Some Great French Thinkers of the Age of...

(Continued from page 532.) Mr. Augustine Birrell has celebrated his eightieth birthday by publishing a new volume of literary essays. In Et Cetera (Chatto and Windus, 7s. 6d.)...

The Council of the Royal Empire Society have begun a noble undertaking by the publication of the first volume of a catalOgue of their library, which contains more than two...

Oun weekly prize of one guinea for the best thirteen Questions submitted is awarded this week to Miss M. Machines, Gelt Hall, Castle Carrock, Carlisle, for the following :-...

and with a fine independent flourish, by offering us a collection of Victorian Verses for Young Persenii -under the title of When Grandtnamma Was Young, illustrated with...

prize of five guineas for the most enter- taining or illuminating comment on the Italian ! pictures, or .any anecdote referring .to them, which has been overheard at Burlington...

notify the SPECTATOR Office BEFORE MIDDAY on MONDAY or EA0 if WEEK. The previous address to which the paper has been sent and receipt reference number should be quoted.

on this page articles and notes which may help our readers in their plans for travel at home and abroad'. They are written by correspondents who have visited the places...

1. The flag displayed from naval hospitals and vessels in qtzaran. tine.-2. Promotion to the rank of Cardinal in the Roman Catholic Church.-3. At Washington ; the President of...

1 - 1? H. von Miicke. (Philip Allan. 7s. 6d.) Heredity in Live Stock. By Christian Wriedt. (Macmillan. 7s. 6.1.) India. (A Reprint from the Special India Number of the Times.)...

- The Hamburg South American Line announce that they have placed an order for two new motor-vessels of the • Monte dace, the first of which is to take her place in the regular...

With reference to the Irish Travel Notes published on page 450 of our issue of March 15th, the London Midland and Scottish Railway Company draw our attention to the fact that...

FIRM MARIKE'rS. THE main features of the Stock Markets have been pretty well covered in the articles in the preceding column, but it must not be supposed that the improvement...

The report of the British Insulated Cables, Limited, was a distinctly good one, and at the annual meeting it was shown that the profit for the year was £685,980, as compared...

At the meeting of the V.O.C. Holding Company, held last Monday, interest largely centred in the statement by the Chairman with regard to a scheme for effecting a conversion of...

At the recent annual meeting of the United Kingdom Provident Institution Mr. Walter Runciman had a good story to tell of the company's progress. This, indeed, had been indicated...

The Rise in Investment Stocks A FORTNIGHT ago in these columns I felt justified in taking a favourable view of . the outlook . for gilt-edged securities. I did not expect,...

New high records of profits were achieved during the past financial year by John Barker & Co., the gross profit being £1,744,339, against £1,728,646 for the previous year, while...

Although the Annual Report of the Employers' Liability Assurance Corporation shows that the final profit surplus was not quite so high as in the preceding year, the figures were...

What Bradshaw is to the railway traveller, so the Stork Exchange Official Intelligence is both to the stockbroker and also to the investor in public securities. It is a little...

The latest report of Liptons, Limited, would seem to show that the company is now reaping the fruits of the recent reconstruction of capital and general reorganization. Profits...

The report and accounts for 1929 show that the net new business for that year was £7,891,661, as against £8,148,370 for 1928. The premium income rose from £3,280,798 to...

In view of the encouraging results of the past year, it is not surprising that the directors of Pinchin, Johnson & Com- pany should have decided to increase the capital, a...

Some three years ago the profits of the British Portland CementManufacturers, Limited, showed a rather serious decline, but, in 1927, there was a good pull up, which has since...

The London Life Association continues to progress, and last year the new business was £2,927,608, but in spite of this good result the expense ratio was less than 5.6 per cent....

- For the information of those who may wonder what is the conhexion between Australian gold shipments and the crisis through which that country is now passing, it may, perhaps,...

Presiding at last week's meeting, in the unavoidable absence of Lord Melchett, Mr. F. A. Szarvasy was able to give an encouraging report to shareholders of the Ainalgamated...