No one seriously supposed that Mr. Mackenzie King would fail to win the Canadian General Election, but there was general expectation that the immense Liberal majority,...

W HILE the war in the field still hangs fire the diplomatic war increases in intensity, but with no more visible results than the other. The interview between Count Teleki, the...

The moment appears to have come when the puppet- government of Mr. Wang Ching-wei, which the Japanese have striven so laboriously to bring into being, will be presented to the...

The Finns reject the Russian statement that a Finnish defensive alliance with Norway and Sweden would be directed against the Soviet Union and so a breach of the peace terms ;...

During the last week the British Navy has proved that .t can successfully carry on war against enemy shipping or_ . in waters that the Germans have hitherto thought safe. Ti-,...

Germany is using every means, political and economic, to extend her influence in the Balkans and increase the supplies which they can send her. Though every Balkan capital has...

There are signs that the activities of the Indian National Congress are making any agreed solution of the Indian problem remote. At its meeting at Ramgarh last week the Congress...

German diplomacy will be almost as hard put to it to drive a wedge between the Allies and Turkey as between Britain and France ; for our association with Turkey rests upon...

busier man than the public, or a large part of the Press, seems to realise. The amount of work which his constituents expect of him is constantly increasing. He is the universal...

In an article on another page Mr. Seebohm Rowntree reviews a book that is of immediate importance—Feeding the People in War-time, by Sir John Orr and David Lubbock. Its...

There is now available ample data relating to the problem of evacuated school-children, and it ought before this to have been the subject of scientific investigation on a wide...

has tended to decline. When the Blitzkrieg failed to materialise, and boredom descended upon legislators and the public alike, the Government Whips were able to set about...

Our Parliamentary correspondent writes : In September last a moribund House of Commons—its days were already numbered—came suddenly back to vigorous life. This new and unwonted...

in increasing further the steadily rising circulation of the paper are asked to read the notice on page 461 of this issue. Their co-operation in the manner there suggested would...

A T some of the Easter Conferences of sectional Labour organisations of one type and another there has been some plain speaking about the war. At the Co-operative Party's annual...

I N M. Reynaud's broadcast address to the French I people even an English reader can detect the note of authentic leadership—that of a man confident of the resolution of France,...

the Select Committee of the House of Commons on Publica- tions and Debates Reports at which Commander King-Hall attempted in vain to convince his fellow-members that Hansard...

T HIS week's American mail has brought me a variety of letters and cuttings which throw some light on the extra- ordinary medley of forces playing on public opinion in the...

diverted, or are meant to be, by aphorisms allegedly Oriental and epigrammatic in form and prefaced by the mendacious affirmation, " Confucius say." Now I see a London daily...

should bring comfort to an Anglo- Canadian friend of mine who used years ago to be seriously concerned about St. Pierre and Miquelon. I doubt whether anyone except...

of the number of the beast it has been pointed out that a variety of results would be obtained by a judicious mani- pulation of figures. I was not unconscious of the fact, and I...

the Minister of Transport recently intimated that some financial assistance might be forthcoming for them. Accord- ing to Mr. George Cadbury the canals are in such a bad way...

By STRATEGICUS T HE Sylt raid, which was at first so warmly welcomed, is likely to produce dissatisfaction in the end. No one can criticise the .exploit in itself. It was...

By OUR PARLIAMENTARY CORRESPONDENT S INCE the outbreak of war Mr. Chamberlain has main- tained, and even strengthened, his hold on the House of Commons. It is an astonishing...

By PROFESSOR LIONEL ROBBINS T HE problem of Federation, for me, is essentially a European problem. I do not believe in the practic- ability of Mr. Streit's federation of all...

By ERW IN D. CANHAM R ATHER astonishing things have been happening in American presidential politics since the 1940 sweep- stakes were last summarised for Spectator readers....

By DR. EDGAR STERN-RUBARTH T HE Prussians are not Germans ; but Hitler, the Austrian of dark extraction, is the arch-Prussian, fanatical and exclusive in his Prussianism to the...

By B. SEEBOHM ROWNTREE I T has always been true that " an army marches on its stomach." If men are to fight well they must have adequate supplies of the right kind of food. In...

(Died March 30th, 1840) By BONAMY DOBRkE "III HE DANDY" is a vague term to which the French have tried to give direction, and it conveys some sort of notion which they at one...

By PETER HILL W E are not, as a general rule, invited to shoot with our local aristocracy. Whether it is something thought to be lacking in our antecedents or our address,...

0 situ., still, still As I stand here, for one more moment a golden shudder Glides over the landscape. It runs up over the hill And pours its noiseless cataract over the maple...

task. He has lived many years in France, and is rightly regarded by the French as one of our outstanding writers. He is intimate with all classes of the French population, and...

that the great French anglophile of the past were concerned with one aspect only of English civilisation, and were inclined to falsify proportions. Voltaire and Monte- squieu...

relations between the British armies in France and the French soldiers and civilians with whom they come into contact. I sometimes wonder whether the British public, or even the...

language. It is always irritating to be unable to speak or understand a foreign language, and human beings are apt to become loud and angry when faced by incomprehension or...

pay. Apart from the fact that the rates of pay are different in the two armies, the French have an admirable system known as the " pecule," or regimental savings-bank, under...

By HAROLD NICOLSON I WAS speaking in Paris at the Sorbonne last week on the subject of Anglo-French misunderstanding. I pointed out that it was not surprising that after eight...

our contacts with the French genius. Most British intellectuals have a good knowledge of French letters, art and architec- ture, whereas in France only a small group of...

" Drums Along the Mohawk." At the Gaumont.—" The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex." At the Warner.--- March of Time No. 11. JOHN FORD, who made The Informer and Stage...

MUSIC Listening In THERE has been the usual outbreak of complaints that seems to be the inevitable reaction to the B.B.C.'s handling of any special occasion. The particular...

is worth preserving, any scheme introduced to deal with the present difficulties must be thorough and lasting. If the present deliberations result m no more than a patching up,...

[Correspondents are requested to keep their letters as brief as is reasonably possible. Signed letters are given a preference over those bearing a pseudonym, and the latter must...

Sia,—Mr. Lee-Browne's letter in your issue of the isth is interesting, and I do not think I disagree with him. To say that social classes can be more easily mixed at the...

SIR, —I have rarely read two articles that showed a finer appreciation of the thinking of another people than those on America by Erwin D. Canham and Harold Nicolson in your...

SIR,—Canon Barry shows himself a most kind and sympathetic critic towards a little book with which he could not be expected to agree. I write not to controvert any of his views,...

SIR, —The restitution of the Iron Guard in Rumania is a highly disturbing event. Whatever may be the reasons under- lying the decision taken by the Rumanian Government and...

SIR, —When an Englishman uses the term " England " where the whole island of Britain is obviously intended, we Scots, being tolerant, merely shrug our shoulders and, while...

SIR,—In The Spectator of March t5th, " Janus," commenting upon the banned area of Scotland, states that talk on this question is being a great deal over-done. As a resident in...

SIR,—Your second article on Federal Union emphasises by implication how curiously remote the overwhelmingly compli- cated problems of federation are from the particular problem...

SIR, We have just finished our waste paper collection ; it cost nothing, and we have got 35s. with which to provide comforts for our soldiers, so we thought perhaps our experi-...

SIR,—In my article on the French invasion of 1797, considera- tions of space prevented me discussing in detail the legend of the red-cloaked women of Fishguard, but as Mr....

Snt,—Mr. Osborn, I regret to say, imports personal prejudice into his reply. He would like to blame transport for the failures of town planning. But let this pass. His own...

women's share in defeating the French invasion of Pembroke in 1797? Some thirty years later my father, with horse and gig, was travelling South Wales for his firm's business in...

SIR,—It is appalling that such a story as " The Loony " can appear in The Spectator. Surely " an enemy hath done this "—out of the blackness of some poor deplaced heart it must...

natural and proper. What grim results have ensued from the introduction of the rabbit, fox and blackberry, not to mention the sweet briar, into Australia! In England we have...

on Mr. Igor Vinogradoff in your columns. As a former student of Mr. Vinogradoff's, may I assure Mr. Golubrikoff that there is nothing " stereotyped " about his historical...

Mr. Gerhardi's The Romanovs, Mr. S. P. Golubrikoff attacks me for my ante- cedents, as the son of that " very stereotyped " historian, the late Sir Paul Vinogradoff. I am...

Darwin did for the earth worm; and if some recent upheavals in my garden arc a true measure, one mole must excel a thousand worms in its capacity for raising soil. I doubt...

of the article in last week's Spectator, " The War and Easter "? I consider this one of the finest things you have ever published. It ought to be quoted and re-quoted. There is...

Spring Then and Now How very little the form of the welcome to spring has changed in the last two thousand years or so! The fact occurred to me a week or more ago as I watched...

my unqualified admiration of the open-minded, essentially and commendably English attitude of this journal, which, after printing an ill-disguised but hardly plausible attack by...

the " mystery island " of Skokholm are flourishing and thought Likely to flourish. The little birds that had been t.sed for scientific experiment have got their liberty and are...

StR,—My review of Pinocchio in your columns last week contained a reference to Mr. Walt Disney's " talented staff of gangsters and animators." I hasten to assure Mr. Disney and...

Finland Fights. By H. B. Elliston. (Harrap. 155.) IN an engaging preface, Mr. Elliston explains that he has often been tempted in the past to write a book about his journalistic...

Liberal Socialism The Economics of Socialism. By H. D. Dickinson. (Oxford University Press. 8s. 6d.) SOCIALIST and individualist economics parted company in the mid-nineteenth...

The Beginning of the Third Republic in France. A History of the National Assembly (February-September, 1871). By Frank Herbert Brabant. 'Macmillan. 25s.) THE publication in...

The Illusion of National Character. By Hamilton Fyfe. tWatts 8s. 6d.) THE illusion of national character provides Mi. Hamilton Fyfe with a promising and highly topical subject....

Science and Everyday Life. By J. B. S. Haldane. (Lawreec e and Wishart. 5s.) JULIUS CAESAR and Tacitus were, most people would agree, man for man at least the intellectual...

Miss KAY Bout is distinguished from her generation of American writers in that her talent is of the rich and passionate kind which can be an embarrassment as well as a...

Watkins, and Victor Abramson. (Brookings Institution. $15. Tins volume, the first of a two-volume survey of the relations between Government and business, offers to the reader...

Science Today and Tomorrow. By Waldemar Kaempffert. (Nicholson and Watson. los. 6d.) PoPutAa science books aie always heartening reading ; any- way, something is going forward...

the part of most historians. Either they have treated it as a reverent child, in a pre-Freudian age, was supposed to treat the memory of his sainted grandfather or, in more...

Unishevsky. (Hurst and Blacken. 7s. 6d.) WHEN Kirov was assassinated Lieutenant Unishevsky, who had just completed his training as an aviator in the Red Army, was unwise enough...

any question in Christendom—what is to be the attitude of the Christian pledged to a higher morality towards a world where a lower standard of morality prevails? What, in other...

Tins is a jolly little book which the author must have greatly enjoyed writing. One reads it with one haunting discontent— that it is not illustrated, preferably by Strube. For...

on British Railways that it is light reading, but eminent writers such as Father Ronald Knox have admitted finding it as fascinating in its way as a good detective story ; and...

one inch from your own snug, familiar indentations in the arm- chair at home. Reach for Hansard, and you're made free of the matchless verbal tourneys at Westminster—yourself...

of certain persons to mitigate the tedium of railway travel by improvising dialogues calcu- lated to intrigue their fellow passengers. Prizes of book tokens for £2 2s. and £i...

1. What Mr. Maxton said to Mr. Gallacher at the Moffat Hydropathic? 2. What Miss Ada Hayes, of Edmonton, is going to do with 25 circus ponies and 2 donkeys? 3. How much the...

for the most entertaining publishers' blurbs designed to advertise either Hansard, Brad- shaw, or the London Telephone Directory as a book for general reading. This competition...

Winding up the railway meeting season, Mr. R. Holland- Martin, chairman of the Southern, wisely refrained from traversing the ground already well covered in the speeches of the...

For a long period before the war the British Aluminium Company had shown that its business and its profits were following a rising curve. I imagine, therefore, that last y ear's...

EASTERN BANK A SATISFACTORY RESULT THE 30th annual general meeting of the Eastern Bank, Limited, was held on March 27th in London. Sir James Leigh-Wood, K.B.E., C.B., C.M.G....

By CUSTOS WITH another week's revenue collections still to be announced it is already certain that Sir John Simons estimate in his first war budget last September will b e...

SOUTHERN RAILWAY COMPANY MR. ROBERT HOLLAND-MARTIN'S SPEECH THE annual general meeting of the Southern Railway Company was held on Wednesday, March zoth, at Southern House,...

Assurance Society suffered a setback in its new business last year. The net amount of new assurances fell from £1,836,395 to £1,232,696 and total premium income was about...

SCOTTISH EQUITABLE LIFE ASSURANCE SOCIETY THE annual general meeting was held in Edinburgh on March 21st, 194o. The Right Honourable the Earl of Stair, K.T., D.S.O., Pre-...

earnings are expanding are only too conscious of the certainty of a setback after the war and others whose earnings position fully justifies a capitalisation of reserves prefer...

As a primary producing country India is likely to benefit from war conditions. Evidence of improvement which has already taken place was forthcoming in Sir James Leigh- Wood's...