In a speech to peasant leaders last week, M. Kalinin, President of the Supreme Soviet, dwelt on two factors affecting the Soviet Union's attitude to the outside world. The...

It is difficult to agree with Sir Arthur Salter that all the means are available to save the distressed countries of Europe, especially Germany, from starvation and disease in...

T HE hope that tlae French elections woul of all three of ' he successful p ult in a Government is likely to be realised. In conversations with neral de G e, M.'Schumann, the...

After over three months of work, the executive committee of the Preparatory Commission of the United Nations has now approved a final report containing recommendations and...

There are signs that the dock strike, now in its fifth week, has reached a critical stage, and hopes that the dockers may resolve the crisis in favour of returning •to work....

The Government's announcement that a research establishment is to be created to investigate the uses of atomic energy will provoke more inquiries than it answers. Is research to...

Mr. Churchill having declared in the course of the debate on the Address in August that " the national ownership of the Bank of England does not in my opinion raise any question...

I T is on the whole satisfactory that Mr. Attlee should be going to Washington to see President Truman ; it is entirely satisfac- tory that if the meeting is to take place Mr....

that he had not received any formal representations from Egypt about a revision of the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936. But that he has received informal representations, and that...

naval Governors of Malta, I am reminded that one naval Governor—it :s suggested the only one—was known to fame mainly because his secre- tary for some ten months was no less a...

introduced his Budget last week, was strangely and superfluously militant when sponsoring the Bill for the nationalisation of the Bank of England on Monday. This, quite clearly,...

T is a pity that there should have been a difference of opinion I between the Prime Minister and Mr. Churchill on so ceremonial an occasion as the Vote of Thanks to the Armed...

VII lived during the brief period in which he figured as an undergraduate), is an impressive sight, with its immense row , of white crosses, each with its bare name, date and...

Boyd Orr to be the first Director-General of the new Food and Agriculture Organisation, for no man has done more to spread the gospel which has been translated into action first...

By GORON WY REES O N returning to England after several months' stay in Germany, one is increasingly impressed with the fact that even in defeat Germany still constitutes a...

By SIR WILLIAM BARTON I NDIA'S problem at the moment is economic. Two and a-half million peasant soldiers will soon be returning to their villages on demobilisation ; there...

By D. L. LIPSON, M.P.* ANY Jews, of whom I am one, deny that the Jews are a nation and oppose the agitation of the Zionists to set up a ewish State in Palestine. We regard...

By H. D. WALSTON A S more and more people take an interest in agriculture so the controversy over artificial versus natural manures becomes more widespread. Unfortunately the...

By EDGAR ASHWORTH I a speech in the House of Commons a few days ago the Foreign 1 Secretary emphasised the seriousness of the European situation, and stated that unless some...

GIuEF encompasses the heart as water fits closely to a ship's adventurous prow vocal against the ribs of ocean's daughter tracing the plough's self-confidant furrow. Grief fits...

By ALFRED C. BOSSOM, M.P. N OW that open hostilities in Europe have practically ceased, the United Nations are gradually setting in motion the machinery necessary to forge what...

and friendly visitor is his realisation that since the war the British people have become socially, even socialistically, minded. The old sumptuous discomfort " of English life...

which he derived, that he did not examine whether this sense of unity might not be based upon fictitious expectations. He did not face the problem of what happens to a people...

of today reflected in the mirror of a foreign mind. A week or so ago that gifted journalist, Monsieur Jean Queval, revisited England after an absence of six years. He has...

intelligence, underestimates our practical difficulties. It is true that our men of property have accepted the loss of their incomes with good grace and good humour ; they...

By HAROLD NICOLSON N OW that foreign visitors are beginning one by one to creep back to London, it is interesting to observe the effect which our great city makes upon them...

At the Odeon.—" Johnny Angel." At the Tivoli. Two soldiers are resting in a tent. One is reading from a travel booklet on Burma ; about the blue skies, the sunshine and the...

FROM tie Philharmonic String Quartette led by Mr. Henry Holst and various similarly named combinations of first-rate instrumentalists, formed originally for the purpose of...

IN my view John Minton's landscape drawings, in pen and wash, could be placed beside work in a similar medium, by any artist working in this country today without giving pride...

to be sent overseas. This will enable copies of The Spectator to be forwarded to friends of our readers, both civilians and those in the Forces, in any part of the world, except...

R. Driver, in your Paper on October 19th, 1 945, may I, as a Palestinian Jewish Serviceman, reply to the author? The first statement that I consider misleading is that the Jews...

Stat,—" Janus " should be congratulated by all lovers of freedom of the Press for his timely, though polite, warning against what is sometimes called " Trustification of the...

SIR,—Mr. Frederick Willis in his reply to Lord Kemsley's letter puts in very moderate terms the case against the extension of newspaper com- bines. I am willing to believe that...

Snt,—Mr. G. R. Driver's article is intriguing, and with much of his premises we shall agree. The Jews have acquired the land with the best potential value and have undoubtedly...

friend of Ethiopia to agree at one and the same time with Brig. Longrigg about Eritrea and Palestine ; and I feel moved to record my complete agreement with his letter in your...

THE LIE-DETECTOR Sta,—Dr. Ashworth Underwood's detached and judicial article on the above subject will do. good service if it calls attention to the manifold dangers of some...

SIRS I should like to thank Mr. Scorer for one of the few practical suggestions for refuse disposal which I have encountered in some three years' campaigning on that subject....

SIR,-" Janus " mentions the controversy raised by the hydro-electric schemes at present projected in Scotland and specifically the threat to two of Scotland's finest rivers, the...

Stit,—Having just returned from internment in Singapore I am in a position to appreciate the excellent article entitled " Singapore" by Mr. Swanston in your issue of September...

Sta,—I should be very grateful to you for publishing this answer to Mr. Cyril 0. Jones's letter which appeared in your issue of October 12th under the title of " Bretons and...

" A Spectator's Notebook " last week you referred to the phenomenal sales of Dr. Trevelyan's English Social History and to the 83} tons of paper devoted to this publication by...

red squirrel, which has suffered com- plete eclipse in some places and partial in others, is returning. They have just appeared in a garden in the very suburbs of a small...

A RAGING wind is to a great many birds like a rough sea to a small boat. They are definitely afraid of it. Some long-tailed birds, conspicuously the pheasant, quite refuse to...

above? A very great part of the 15 million a day spent during the war was not only completely unproductive for the purposes of puce but actually spent to be blown up in the air...

Sut,—I should like to make one comment on Mr. W. G. Moore's interest- ing article, " The B.A.O.R.'s Views," in your issue of October 12th, which arrived recently. Mr. Moore...

A large number of botanists appear to be particularly interested in recent discoveries of three sorts of pimpernel—red, blue and pink. One writing from Cheshire reports the...

One does not expect crisp criticisms of a Budget from a countryman ; but I heard the following on the morrow of Budget day : " So they've taken off the tax on refrigerators but...

S IR, —I agree, of course, with your rejoinder to Mr. F. A. Heaton's exasperated letter on " Spending and Having." But I have found that an effective method of explaining to...

The moving tale of another mammal (which is certainly quite as numerous as ever) reaches me from a country rectory. By the side of the road was seen a jerking tin, and as such...

Six,—There may be persons who like listening to crooners, although I have never met one. On the other hand, I have known many people whip would cheerfully assist me in...

is the vegetable marrow, which is still producing fruit as well like the out-of-door tomatoes. Raspberries also are in very full flower with a few fruits. In the flower- garden...

SIR,—In order to celebrate the passing of the Family Alkiwance Act, a reception is being given to Miss Eleanor Rathbone at Grosvenor House, Park Lane, W. 1, on Tuesday, November...

IN the first eighteen months of the war Sir Evelyn Wrench travelled with his wife 12,000 miles in North America, crossing the continent three times and, on many platforms,...

Prophet Turned Bishop Church and Leadership. By F. R. Barry, Bishop of SouthwelL (S.C.M. 8s. 6d.) THOSE of us who realise the immense urgency of the time and have been looking...

THE surface texture of Dr. Maclean's book is gracious and mellow. With humorous and affectionate eyes he looks back on his boyhood on the Braes of Skye—the exploration of the...

THERE are not so many books on personal religion by Cabinet Ministers that we an afford to disregard one when it comes. For it is personal religion pure and simple that is the...

Ill Fares the Land. By C. McWilliams. (Faber and Faber. 12s. 6d.) THE trouble with novels that set out to awaken our social consciences is that, once the excitement of reading...

Drums Under the Windows. By Sean O'Casey. (Macmillan. 15s.) THOSE who, like myself, have not read the first two instalments of Mr. Sean O'Casey's serial story of his life, may...

Cannery Row. By John Steinbeck. (Heinemann. 7s. 6d.) HERE in Tales from Gogol, newly translated from the Russian, are six stories with an introductory essay by Janko Lavrin mad...

Come to Dust. By Robin Maugham. (Chapman and Hall. 7s. 6d.) MR. MAUGHAM was a tank officer in the Western Desert, and this account of his experiences has considerable historical...

HERE we have a concise account of the history of Iceland, and its present position, in 48 pages. It is well done and doubly interesting to members of a highly urbanised nation....

Subscribers are reminded that notification of change of addres' should reach the office of The Spectator seven clear days before the alteration is to take effect.

THE RUBBER POSITION THE thirty-seventh ordinary general meeting of Harrisons and Crostield, Limited, was held on October 3oth in London. Mr. H. Eric Miller (the chairman)...

RALILE0 TIN I. E IT E 41 L N 0 r , 5 MR §TYLf, AN 0 ItOmEDIA Airs 4MIL L W 015 I vi LE CE •114 RA Allillk All Rill R siOISS s its . AizIDIT I „,, s 4 „ T A 14 ANA itNtATED...

IA Book Token for one guinea will be awarded to the sender of the first correct solution of this week's crossword to be opened after noon on Tuesday week, November 13th....

ALLIED INDUSTRIAL SERVICES HIGH LEVEL OF PRODUCTION THE eleventh annual ordinary general meeting of the Allied Industrial Ser- vices, Ltd, was held on Friday, October 26th, at...

15% CUSTOS CRITICISM of the Bank of England Nationalisation Bill in the House of Commons debate has been directed very properly, not at the the financial compensation...

MR. J. ARTHUR RANK'S STATEMENT THE eighteenth annual general meeting of Gaumont-British Picture Cor- poration Ltd. was held last Monday at 142-15o, Wardour Street, London, W....