30 JULY 1954

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A Base Going Cheap

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During the last stage in the negotiations over Suez, the Egyptian Press described the British as haggling like a peanut vendor.' But as things have turned out, the ultimate...

RETURN TO BARBARISM

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T HE letter of apology which the Chinese deputy Foreign Minister sent on July 26 to the British Chargd d'Affaires in Peking began with an expression of rejoicing at ' the easing...

No. 6 5 7 9

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Scotching the Separatists

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As the result of a long and skilful campaign of agitation on the part of apparently moderate nationalists and, Home Rulers, a Royal Commission on Scottish Affairs was appointed...

Hope for Air Defence

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A military correspondent writes : aircraft are obsolescent, their numbers are far too few, and large sums—they will be very large, and frightening to the Treasury—must be laid...

Admiral North

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Perhaps Lord Salisbury imagines that his speech in the House of Lords on Monday disposed once and for all of the affair of Admiral Sir Dudley North. If so, he is mistaken. The...

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Coventry Sets a Fashion The Socialist city council of Coventry

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considered that in the era of the hydrogen bomb it was a waste of time and money to carry on with the civil defence committee. And so they did away with it. But if their gesture...

Too Old at 65 One way to tackle the problems

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of old age is to try to make political capital out of them, as Dr. Summerskill did in the commons last week. Another is to make a real attempt to nd the answer. The proper...

AT WESTMINSTER

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T HE approach to the summer recess, which begins this week-end, has piled troubles upon the Government. The Suez agreement with Egypt intensified public and private activity in...

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THE SIREN SONG

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O NE of the most potent causes of wars is the desire of man to believe what he wants to believe. Tell him he needs more room, or tell him that the way to keep the peace is to...

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Likee Humble Pie ?

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, Although it is already almost smothered under subsequent developments, the most remarkable single facet of the Hainan in risis was the Chinese apology to the British...

Hainan in the Old Days

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Several decades have passed since the British Consulate on Haitian Island was closed down. A friend of mine, who served as Consul there, was once required by the Foreign Office...

The Stiff Upper Lip

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The vile weather got into the headlines of most of the papers on Tuesday morning. Rain Spoils Everything,' said the Manchester Guardian succinctly. The Daily Express had ' Rain...

A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK

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U NITS of the Chinese Air Force have been stationed on Hainan for a long time; and for a long time air-liners of eevdal nationalities have flown daily past the south coast of...

Pas Touche

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In its annual report for 1953-54 the British Travel and Holidays Association says that the British Press devoted about 15,000 column inches to its efforts during the year. This...

At It Again

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A Territorial infantry battalion is to have new colours presented to it on the last day of its annual training. The ceremony is to take place at X, the unit's county town, to...

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China and America

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By RICHARD ROVERE New York I N the dusty aftermath of the Geneva settlement, it is possible to sec only the bulkier of the problems it raises for the United States....

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The Abdication Story to Date

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By GEORGE CURRY The author of this article is a British historian, now working cit the University of South Carolina, who has made a special study of the abdication of Edward...

A REVIEW COMPETITION

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The Spectator is making an experiment, which may lead to the introduction of a new feature. From time to time readers will be invited to submit reviews of forthcoming books. A...

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By STRIX A . LL human animals seek power. From

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the sleepy child, fighting a rearguard action against its allotted bed- time, to the old, old man who could usefully, but will not, disclose the terms of his will, we all, all...

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Regimental Lore

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By BERNARD FERGUSSON HE other day, in the Depot of a certain illustrious Low- land regiment, I encountered an old friend. He was dressed as a corporal; I have seen him in...

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THEATRE

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ONE of the most difficult problems for the author of a realistic play comes when he has to treat of matters lying outside his own experience. The first act of Ludovic Kennedy's...

CONTEMPORARY ARTS

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PARIS FESTIVAL • THE choice of play which confronts a troupe visiting an international festival of the drama, is a double one. One solution, to show an example of the theatre...

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CINEMA

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Them! (London Pavilion)—Susan Slept Here (Gaumont). MONSTERS, human or animal, three dimen- sional or flat, seem lately to have taken over almost uninterrupted tenancy of the...

TELEVISION and RADIO

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THE form of the 'feature-programme' on sound radio (a verbal picture in the colours of many voices of an actual or imaginary occasion) is the only purely nova and original...

ART

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DUTIFUL Reader: There seem to be more styles in the galleries than I can ever remember. Myself: True enough. The post-war generation of students is almost the first in thi§...

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SIR.—Your title is apposite, for there is already a disposition

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to forget. Tired by an anxious and exhausting session, the Conser- vative Party, which has not shown up well in this affair, seems ready to regard a painful incident as closed...

SIR,—Let not the minor and perhaps tem- porary change in

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landownership policy obscure the worth of Crichel Down to rank with Runnymede, Hampden and Archer-Shee. Let the prospects of the Minister who has' restored the sadly tarnished...

Letters to the Editor

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REMEMBER CRICHEL DOWN m,—There is one lesson—not the most tmmediate but, I think, the most important 4–of the Crichel Down affair to which I would like to call attention. Many...

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THE GRANGE, FULHAM SIR,—The reception accorded my friend John Betjeman

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in his attempt to gather information for his appearance at the put* enquiry on the proposed demolition of 'The Grange, Fulham, is of a piece with the consistent arrogance of the...

AN UNNECESSARY EVIL SIR,—It was very disturbing to read the

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letter by Managing Director' under this heading and my heart started to bleed for the unfor- tunate depressed class of company directors. The flow of blood so caused was quickly...

SMOKING, STATISTICS AND DEATH SIR,—One of your best readers calls

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me tp account for maltreating Calverley's ' Ode tO Tobacco.' My humble request for pardo It was sacrilege. I did misplace Jones an Smith—I did write ' Here's to thee, Bacon...

THE PANEL SIR,—Doubtless Strix is right to associate panel with

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saddlery, although my dictionary derives the word from pannus, a rag: pannu$ has its place in medicine as a pathological formation in rheumatoid arthritis. In law, however, the...

TRUTH AND THE DYING StR,—Mr. Maurice Cranston finds my argu-

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ments utterly unprofessional.' I am not sure what he means by this. Perhaps he should look to his own professional standards and read with more care the writings of those he...

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Country Life

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THE old method of hay-making—with hand- rakes and little ricks of hay set about the field to be alternately drenched with rain and dried by the sun—was wasteful in every way. It...

A prize of £5, which may be divided, is o f fered

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for the most surprising, interesting, or amusing 'Earliest Recollection,' which may be personal and genuine (but so far unpub- lished) or pure fiction, fathered on any prominent...

Dog Days

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Everyone who has fished regularly knows the dead days of July and August when trout go off their food, or to be correct, when they, will no longer rise to the fly with the...

Old W. met me on the road. He was carrying

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a bundle of hazel rods that, from their length, I knew must have come from the heart of a particular copse. He stopped and mentioned that he had been planning to get sticks for...

Vegetable Care

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He Thought He Saw : .

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The usual prize was offered for a six-line poem on the lines of Lewis Carroll's verses in Sylvie and Bruno beginning: 'He thought he saw .. . On this occasion he thought he saw...

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Born Yesterday

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(for Sally Amis) Tightly-folded bud, I have wished you something None of the others would: Not the usual stuff About being beautiful, Or running off a spring Of innocence or...

Parting

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One shy smile (love or shame?), Then my name, Like the last drop to slip Off the delicate lip Of a fair Attic cup At the cottabus game. C. A. TRYPANIS

Compton Mackenzie

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D URING the Twenties it was the agreeable custom of Leonard Rees, who had been editing the Sunday Times for about a quarter of a century, to give an occasional dinner at the...

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Pride of Ownership

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By GORDON WILKINS HE motoring writer is often regarded as a pampered individual who rides free of cost in the world's best cars and has little conception of how the poor live. A...

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SPORTING ASPECT

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International Horse Show By C. H. BLACKER S OMEWHERE down in the floodlit arena a bell rang. Nobody said, ' Seconds out—time,' but the tension could not have been greater if...

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BOOKS OF THE WEEK

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Nal.M.■•■■••••■•• Diplomatic Buffoonery By EMANUEL LITVINOFF T HE same quality of farce that exists in insanity is also present in tyranny, and the grotesqueries of oligarchs...

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Latin Made Hard

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The Latin Language. By L. R. Palmer. (Faber and Faber. 45s.) THIS is the first English attempt at a full-length portrait of the Latin language for half a century. In that time...

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The Metropolitan Police

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Scotland Yard. By Sir Harold Scott. (Andre Deutsch. 16s.) SIR HAROLD Scone who was Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police from 1945 to 1953, has dedicated this book to the men...

Men Below Zero

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uman Behaviour in the Concentration Camp. By Elie A. Cohen. (Jonathan Cape. 18s.) ELDOM can an anthology have been devoted to anything quite so e rrible as the events related...

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Joys of Literature

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Lonely Pleasures. By Daniel George. (Cape. 15s.) ANTHOLOGIES are supposed to be out of date at the moment but a self-chosen George anthology deserves to be always in fashion....

Shakespearean Approaches

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Talking of Shakespeare. Edited by John Garrett. (Hodder and Stoughton with Max Reinhardt. 20s.) Tins book could very easily have become a sort of Light Programme version of the...

Liberty in Ireland

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The Freedom of the Press in Ireland, 1784-1841. By Brian Inglis. (Faber & Faber. 25s.) The Freedom of the Press in Ireland, 1784-1841. By Brian Inglis. (Faber & Faber. 25s.)...

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New Novels

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o Pale Galilean. By Paul Roche. (Harvill. 10s. 6d.) MR. ROCHE writes about the possession of a young English priest in an Italian seminary by a satyr from the Campagna. In the...

Profile of Brithin

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A Book of British Profiles. Complcd from the Observer by Sebastian Haffner. (Heinemann. 16s.) PROFILES are the sequins that glitter briefly on the expendable fabric of newspaper...

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The Analysis of an Obsessional. By R. W.

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Pickford. (The Hogarth Press. 21s.) THE author of this book, although a doctor twice over, is not a medical man. As a practising psycho-analyst, who wishes to communicate his...

Manuel de Falla. By Jaime Pahisia. (Museum Press. 15s.) Tins

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is the English translation of a book that appeared in Spanish seven years ago. The author is a Catalan composer, now settled in the Argentine, and his friendship with Falla...

OTHER RECENT BOOKS

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Winterstoke. By L. T. C. Rolt. (Constable. 16s.) Although the Darleys had made a practice of planting coppice wood, the rate of regene- ration of the depleted woodlands could...

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Company Notes

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By CUSTOS ANOTHER set-back has been seen in the stock markets—this time on the Chinese incident—but it was again noticeable that selling dried up on the fall in prices. This may...

FINANCE AND INVESTMENT

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By NICHOLAS DAVENPORT WE read frequently in the newspapers of cuts being made in American petrol prices but when I come to fill up my car at the filling station I am confronted...

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• • • • III III 11111 111 •• • • • • • lil • • • 11111 • 111111 • 111111 iii• • • • • II III • M 111 •• • •• • • M IM I • Woe week, .4 signs[ and addressed: tossw ,rd 793....