30 NOVEMBER 1945

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Communism in the State Department

The Spectator

The resignation of Major-General Hurley as United States Ambas- sador to China throws an interesting light on American policy. He complains that his assistants from the State...

Broken Promises

The Spectator

The passages on Greece in Mr. Bevin's speech in the Foreign Affairs debate last Friday, together with Archbishop Damaskinos' withdrawal of his resignation as Regent, give hopes...

NEWS OF THE WEEK

The Spectator

A T a mass meeting of Conservatives in London on Wednesday, Mr. Churchill blew the first blast of the trumpet in his party's campaign against what he called "the incompetence...

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Italy in Confusion

The Spectator

The resignation of Signor Parri's Government is a misfortune for Italy. It will be difficult, if not impossible, to find anyone else who commands such widespread popular support...

The Progress of U.N.O.

The Spectator

The United Nations Organisation has started the last stage of its journey towards finality well. The Executive Committee of its Pre- paratory Commission drew the plan of the...

Austria, the Soviet Union, and Democracy

The Spectator

The elections in Austria have given an absolute majority to the catholic and agrarian People's Party, with the Social Democrats a near second and the Communists an also ran....

Disorders in Palestine

The Spectator

The situation in Palestine is serious, and may become even more serious unless the appeal to violence is abandoned. Even though we have large forces concentrated there, the Jews...

Follow the Leader

The Spectator

Whatever else the Nuremberg trial may decide, it has already made it perfectly clear that at no time was Hitler ever deterred from war by any higher motive than expediency....

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BRITISH FOREIGN POLICY

The Spectator

I T is long since a more notable debate on foreign affairs took place than that which engaged the House of Commons on Thursday and Friday of last week. While its outstanding...

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A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK

The Spectator

T HE announcement that the official life of Mr. Lloyd George —or, to be strictly accurate, Earl Lloyd George—is to be written by "Mr. Malcolm Thompson, for many years on the...

Three weeks ago I ventilated in this column a suggestion

The Spectator

(not my own) regarding honour to General Eisenhower, that "some beau- tiful and historic house might be subscribed for and presented to the National Trust, with some or all of...

A suggestion in a letter in The Times regarding the

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headquarters of the U.N.O.—the United Nations Organisation—shows consider- - able imagination. It has been tentatively, but by no means finally, agreed that the headquarters...

What private organisation gives the citizens of this country the

The Spectator

greatest opportunity for the most innocent and permanent of pleasure? . After looking at the exhibition this week at the National Gallery, I am inclined to think the verdict...

The diversity of Lord Horder's interests is a standing marvel.

The Spectator

In The Times of Tuesday I see him announced as about to address the Incorporated Association of Architects and Surveyors on "House Abatement "—and since The Times is never...

British foreign policy may be well-conceived or ill-conceived—my own conviction

The Spectator

is that it is well-conceived—but no one can com- plain that Ministers are not taking it seriously. Last week is a case in point. The Prime Minister was finishing in Canada the...

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YUGOSLAVIA REFLECTIONS

The Spectator

By EMRYS ROBERTS, M.P. I HAD the good fortune to be the Liberal member of a group of 1 Members of Parliament wbo have just made a fortnight's visit to Yugoslavia. There were...

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THE GRAND INQUEST

The Spectator

By SIR ERNEST BARKER I T was on November 27, 1295—or 65 0 years ago on Tuesday of this week—that what has been called "the Model parliament" met, heard the King's request for...

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ONE HOLLYWORLD

The Spectator

By PHILIP CARR T HERE are still many people who can remember the first shows of moving photographs in London, about the year 1900. They were views taken from the front of a...

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JAPAN IN DEFEAT

The Spectator

By THE RT. REV. BISHOP HEASLETT II ERE in England it is not easy to fit together and frame a con- sistent picture of what is happening in Japan as gathered from the despatches...

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SCIENCE AND MAN

The Spectator

By GORDON MILLER T is impossible to survey this great crisis of our civilisation and I to read the continents of all shades of responsible opinion with- out feeling that the...

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SEA-PIECE

The Spectator

GREEN, lank-haired boulders lolling on monstrous shoulders— the rock ledges, limpet-starred the tide has bared. A herring gull with curved, lethal beak ; a kittiwake uttering...

PSYCHOLOGIST AND .PRIEST

The Spectator

By THE RIGHT REV. STEPHEN NEILL M OST people are dimly aware of the extent to which our genera- tion suffers from mental instability and psychological overstrain. Various...

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It is thus irksome for any essayist to be obliged

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from time to time to write about subjects which, from their very nature, refuse to assume any but the most ungainly patterns. I am conscious that my article this week, in that...

In so far as essays and criticism are concerned, I

The Spectator

should recom- mend any returning prisoner to read Horizon, New Writing, Day- light, and the old CornhM, which, under the editorship of Mr. Peter Quennell, is taking on a new...

MARGINAL COMMENT

The Spectator

By HAROLD NICOLSON A LL essayists seek to give to their productions a certain symmetry of form. I have been abused by my friends on the giound that my Marginal Comments begin...

What, therefore, about the books themselves? Here comes my catalogue.

The Spectator

Under the heading of Poetry I should place the follow- ing eleven books as indispensable for any person who wishes to know what, during these atrocious years, our older and our...

There have also been many admirable books published upon politics

The Spectator

and the social sciences, and notably the following : —Bernard Shaw : Everybody's Political What's What (Constable). Freya Stark : East is West (John Murray). Sir William...

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THE CINEMA

The Spectator

Days of Hope. At the Academy.—Diary for Timothy. For future release. —Brief Encounter. At the New Gallery. THE images which remain in the mind from Days of Hope are the best...

MUSIC

The Spectator

Purcell and Britten. THE 250th anniversary of the death of Henry Purcell was celebrated by the B.B.C. with three broadcasts, and by an anonymous body, whose motive force on the...

ART

The Spectator

Sir William Nicholson and French Drawings. At Roland, Browse and Delbanco Galleries.—Portraits. At Wildenstein's. THERE is not so much difference between the paintings - of Sir...

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Siat,—Your correspondent Sir Henry Bashford raises the question of the

The Spectator

appeal of a non-credal Christianity to the youth of this country. May I add four things that I, have found: 1. That the removal of these difficulties, by scrapping the Creed,...

In 1928 the Church of England revised its Prayer Book,

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and it is to the Prayer Book that the ordinary man rightly looks to discover what the Church demands of its members. If Sir Henry Bashford will study the 1928 Prayer Book he...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

The Spectator

YOUTH AND THE CHURCHES Sta,—The questions raised by Mr. Barker's article under the above heading and by Sir Henry Bashford's letter in your issue of November 23rd are of...

SERVANTS OR SLAVES?

The Spectator

Sta,—In her heartening and spirited reaction to your remarks, is not Nurse Morley confusing the literal with the figurative, and opposing individual experience and subjective...

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MR. ERVINE RETORTS SIR, —Mr. Sean O'Casey, who prefers to live

The Spectator

in this country rather than in his shoddy, back-street Republic, gives, in your issue of November 23rd, a perfect example of the lopsided and fallacious statement which Eireans...

LABOUR AND INDIA

The Spectator

SIR, —Would you allow me to reply briefly to the letter on November t6th in The Spectator under the initials of" T. S.," in which the writer criticises some of the points raised...

STUDENTS AND CONSCRIPTION

The Spectator

Stx,—We are gradually hearing something of the tremendous handicap which the students, returning from their war service, now have to try to overcome. I hope it is appreciated...

THE RELEASE OF STUDENTS SIR, —The penultimate note by "Janus" in

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your issue of November 23rd calls attention to a subject which seems—from a personal experience— to merit further ventilation. The Government statement of July 28th, 1945,...

ERITREA AND ABYSSINIA SIR,—Suggestions have appeared in your columns and

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elsewhere that the hill country of the late Italian colony of Eritrea should be transferred to the Sudan, and that only the low-lying lands, mainly desert, and the inferior port...

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RUSSIA AND EASTERN EUROPE

The Spectator

Sta,—In his article on "Russia and Eastern Europe," Mr. Hugh Scion- Watson makes some statements which should not pass without comment. And so, for instance, when discussing the...

A STUDY OF WAR

The Spectator

Sul„—In your " Notebook " last week you describe as a "suggestive idea" the proposal that there be "a serious official—or failing that, an unofficial—inquiry into the causes of...

SARDINES AND TIN-OPENERS

The Spectator

Snt,—By his questions in the House on November ztst, on the subject of keys for sardines, Mr. Boothby did a valuable service in emphasising that sardines are best eaten with...

RUSSIA AND ATOMIC ENERGY

The Spectator

SIR,—May I suggest that your interpretation of Mr. Molotov's recent reference to atomic energy as a reply to General Arnold's prediction of United States atomic armament is...

ONE FOR JANUS

The Spectator

SIR,—Your contributor " Janus " must indeed be short of topics when he can descend to the anonymous malice of his "Missing Word Competition." It is difficult to conceive what...

BY AND LARGE

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SIR,—In reply to Mr. Morison's inquiry, I think that a ship is (or was) said to be sailing "By the wind" when her course made an acute angle with the direction in which the wind...

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COUN'TRY LIFE

The Spectator

MANY inquiries that reach us from would-be farmers suggest that very inadequate publicity has been given to the Government training scheme, which is open to both men and women....

LATIERCOST'S ABBEY

The Spectator

Sm,—Mr. Wilfrid Roberts is mistaken in calling Lanercost a Cistercian Abbey. It was a priory of Augustinian or Black Canons. — Your obedient servant, H. P. HART. The Rectory,...

In My Garden It is often asked whether the leaves,

The Spectator

the rather untidy leaves, of the lovely winter iris may be shorn. I have seen this week flowers from plants heavily cut (so as to get rid of accumulated snails) and some...

A Maternal Hunter

The Spectator

Here is an unusual example of the way in which a sort of matetnal instinct may quite overcome the hunter's cruelty. An excellent sporting spaniel, whose chief sin has been an...

THE ORDER OF MERIT

The Spectator

SIR, —In Mrs. Cole's excellent biography, Beatrice Webb, she states that he Order of Merit was reserved for "the superior sex." This is not accurate, as Miss Florence...

Beak versus Oak It has long been surprising that the

The Spectator

woodpecker prefers oak, the hardest of our woods, for tunneling, and the bird often selects healthy trees. A yet more surprising example is worth recording. Some ten years ago...

Will it be Warm ?

The Spectator

Is there any hard evidence that the weather conforms to the famous cold and hot spells outlined by Buchan? So far as my own tests go his cold spells, especially that from the...

MUSEUMS AND ART GALLERIES

The Spectator

SIR, —A pleasing sign of the return to normality is the re-opening of the National Museums and Art Galleries. It seems rather unfortunate, however, from the point of view of the...

.dg IF THE WORST COMES TO THE WORST" your note

The Spectator

in The Spectator of November 9th you refer to the suggestion that the phrase should really be—" If the worse comes to the worst," and you add—" Perhaps it should, though I have...

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Closed Doors

The Spectator

Huis Clos. Piece en un Acte. By Jean Paul Sartre. (Horizon. 12s. 6d.) WE should be grateful to Horizon for making M. Sartre's play avail- able to us in England. For M. Sartre...

BOOKS OF THE DAY

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Applied Aesthetics A Coat of Many Colours. By Herbert Read. (Routledge. 8s. 6d.) THE journalism and occasional writing of twenty years of Mr. Read's work as a critic is...

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Songs in the Theatre

The Spectator

Songs and Lyrics from the English Playbooks. Edited by Frederick S. Boas. Decorated by Hans Tisdall. (The Cresset Press. I5s.) A COLLECTION of songs from the English playbooks...

Islands of Example

The Spectator

Inheritance of Dreams. By John Drummond. (Faber. 10s. 6d.) "THIS book is to be different—just straight me and you. . . . I will tell everything—concealing nothing." So begins...

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War-Time Cambridge

The Spectator

Letters from Cambridge, 1939-1944. By A. S. F. Gow. (Cape. 10s. 6c1. ) MR. Gow was till a year or two ago a tutor at Trinity, the author of one or two erudite classical works, a...

Fiction

The Spectator

The Building of Jalna. By Mazo de la Roche. (Macmillan. 9s. 6d.) • THE house has long been useful to the novelist as a Symbol for family life, by describing it he can indicate...

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MANY people in Belgium, Denmark. Finland, France, Holland, Norway and

The Spectator

Sweden are anxious to know more about what is happening in world affairs and particularly the British view on the subject. Unfortunately the blocking of currency . in most of...

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"THE SPECTATOR" CROSSWORD No. 351 [A Book Token for one

The Spectator

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, December nth. Envelopes must be received not...

SOLUTION TO CROSSWORD No. 349

The Spectator

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FINANCE AND INVESTMENT

The Spectator

tci CUSTOS WHATEVER misgivings the City may have concerning some of the Government's financial projects, Mr. Dalton has left no room for doubt that he is a strenuous advocate of...

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COMPANY MEETING

The Spectator

ROYAL BANK OF SCOTLAND THE annual general court of proprietors of the Royal Thank of Scotland was held at Edinburgh on Wednesday, November 28th, 1945, His Grace The Duke of...