31 DECEMBER 1948

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Murder In Egypt

The Spectator

The threat of violence is never far below the surface of Egyptian politics. The last two Prime Ministers to be assassinated, Ahmad Maher Pasha and Mahmoud Fahmy Nokrashi Pasha,...

NEWS OF THE WEEK

The Spectator

T HE six-Power agreement on the control of the Ruhr industries, which was published on Wednesday, has at least one merit which has not been conspicuous in most of the post-war...

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The Anti-Red Cardinal

The Spectator

Many people who should know better—Hungarians among them— have been making guarded attempts to excuse the arrest of Cardinal Mindszenty, the Primate of Hungary, on charges of...

Busman's Half-Holiday

The Spectator

Whether or not the London busmen press to the striking point their claim for payment at time-and-a-half for Saturday afternoon work—and no decision has been made at the time...

The Home and the Child

The Spectator

The . Archbishop of York's emphatic statement on the place of the home in the life of the nation is both necessary and opportune. His discussion of the subject in his Diocesan...

Twilight in Nanking

The Spectator

Neither the trend nor the tempo of events in China shows much sign of altering. The Kuomintang regime is an unconscionable time collapsing, but this can hardly be ascribed...

The Negeb Fighting

The Spectator

During recent weeks the Zionists have had two main objects ; to kill the Bernadotte Report once and for all, and to get control of the Negeb. The first object they have already...

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THE INDONESIAN TANGLE

The Spectator

I N the matter of Indonesia the Security Council is wrestling with a singularly intractable problem. It is so intractable that after months of ineffective negotiation the Dutch...

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By an odd chance I picked up a second-hand copy

The Spectator

of Michael Roberts's most notable book, The Recovery of the West, a fortnight ago within a day or two of its lamented author's death. Michael Roberts was well-known to readers...

A SPECTATOR 'S NOTEBOOK

The Spectator

T HE King's broadcast on Christmas Day I thought quite the best he has done. The simple and unaffected human note that marked it throughout was something different from anything...

It may be logical that when the Christmas holiday takes

The Spectator

the form of three consecutive days, a considerable proportion of the nation (including miners particularly and the Civil Service still more par- ticularly) should heltr itself...

I must express my gratitude to readers of this column

The Spectator

who have sent me altogether just Lroo for the children at the orphanage at Kuala Lumpur in Malaya whose head, Mr. A. M. Blake, was killed by terrorists as he was preparing...

E. M. Forster reaches his seventieth birthday this week, a

The Spectator

fact which stirs grave apprehensions in his admirers. His health, to the best of my knowledge, is excellent ; someone, if not I, will doubtless salute both his eightieth and...

It is pointed out by a student of this column,

The Spectator

in reference to a paragraph last week, that if Easter is fixed for the second week - end in April, Whit Sunday will fall not at the end of June, as suggested, but of May. I have...

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SELLING IN AMERICA

The Spectator

By A. C. M. SPEARMAN, M.P. y HAVE recently attempted to form an opinion about the future developmedt of trade between the United Kingdom and the United States. I studied the...

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THE VANISHING DRUNKARD

The Spectator

BY R. H. CECIL „D RUNKENNESS has gone out of fashion," said a Royal Com- mission on Licensing in 1931. " Excessive drinking in this country," it added (meaning by that...

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HALF-OPEN CITY

The Spectator

By C. M. WOODHOUSE L AST month it was reported that the Thessalian town of Karditsa had been occupied by Markos's rebels, under the command of a man who used to be called...

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CENTRAL AMERICA

The Spectator

By GEORGE BRINSMEAD T HIS is the dry season in the Central American tropics and, therefore, the shooting season. From time to time during the past year our newspapers have...

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FROM SCHOOL TO ARMY

The Spectator

By E. E. A. WHITWORTH, Headmaster of . Tonbridge t4i HAVE never heard anybody defend conscription for the sake 1 of conscription." This was •said by Mr. Eden in the recent...

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PLAIN-CLOTHES POSTMAN

The Spectator

By ALAN DONNELLY For the first day or two you are conducted over the delivery round. Then, on the third morning, your instructor finds you a G.P.O. bicycle, sees that your bag...

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BENE DISCESSIT

The Spectator

By Lt. Col. BERNARD FERGUSSON I T is trying to rain: the dirty, mucky drizzle of the Ruhr. Some of the Jocks have ground-sheets over their shoulders, and some haven't ; for...

POET-MOUNTAINEER

The Spectator

(In memory of Michael Roberts) A MOUNTAINEER is dead. He was a man Who turned at will, and with the same delight, From Alpine summits to the steeper height . Of the mind's...

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MARGINAL COMMENT

The Spectator

By HAROLD NICOLSON T HERE have been many articles this week, and in newspapers of varying levels of education, upon the subject of Christmas cards. Dr. Cyril Joad, in one of...

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CONTEMPORARY ARTS

The Spectator

ROUND THE PANTOMIMES THERE are a number of experiences to which, so common wisdom asserts, it is better to be exposed early in life than late—measles, for instance, or calf...

THE CINEMA

The Spectator

" Elizabeth of Ladymead." (Carlton.)—" William Comes to Town." (London Pavilion.)—" Hazard." (Plaza.) IT is usual at this time of year for film critics to look back down the...

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ART

The Spectator

THE first exhibition of the Institute of Contemporary Arts, nearly a year ago, was modestly entitled Forty Years of Modern Art. For their second venture, also held in the...

MUSIC

The Spectator

" Cinderella." (Covent Garden.) MY heart sank when the curtain went up on Frederick Ashton and Robert Helpmann as the Ugly Sisters, embroidering and quarrelling over their...

CHRISTMAS COMPETITION

The Spectator

BELOW are printed the answers to the Christmas Competition pub- lished in The Spectator of December 24th :— I. a. Yarn-spinning machine invented by Samuel Crompton. b. Slang...

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Leicester Lakes " Fortunately for the bird watcher many migrants

The Spectator

are water birds, such as various ducks and waders." That cheerful statement comes from a naturalist in Leicestershire, which one would scarcely select as a watery shire ; but it...

Casts, The eccentric warmth of mid-December has assisted one branch

The Spectator

of science. That nocturnal subterranean creature, the earthworm, which kept Charles Darwin busy in his old age, has seldom been so busy in winter. Worm-casts are so many and...

TO DEAN INGE LECTURING ON ORIGEN

The Spectator

Listen, all of you, Listen, all of you, This way wisdom lies, To reconcile with the simplicity of God His contingent pluralities. Oh, the wise man sat in his chair, And oh, the...

COUNTRY LIFE

The Spectator

BEFORE the warmth departed the specialists at Kew and such places (if there are any such places) estimated that the plants affected by a warm winter are five weeks in advance of...

Badger Wanted A rather plaintive plea was issued the other

The Spectator

day by a naturalist who wanted someone to provide him with a young female badger. The plea was from that most excellent of field centres at Flatford Mill, famous as the home of...

Postage on this issue : Inland, lid.; Overseas, ld.

The Spectator

In the Garden In all this talk about a new

The Spectator

method of gardening — no digging, "mud and mysticism," compost starters and such — one more or less novel fact seems to emerge : sawdust is an admirable mulch that presently is...

YOUR NEW YEAR G117:

The Spectator

WHY NOT A SUBSCRIPTION TO "THE SPECTATOR"? 32 weeks. 26 weeks Subscription rates for Gt. Britain and Over- I s. d A ,. d. seas by ordinary mail 1 10 0 15 0 Air Mail to Members...

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SIR,—Mr. J. H. Shackleton Bailey, in his letter on the

The Spectator

above subject in The Spectator of December 24th, fails to deal with the origin of the Franco regime in Spain. He conveniently omits the basic fact that Franco's regime is purely...

DUTCH ACTION IN INDONESIA .

The Spectator

SIR,—A parallel to the controversy in Indonesia may be found in this country. Conservatives do not regard Socialism as any safeguard against the menace of Communism and view...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

The Spectator

Ste,—Although I agree with most of the comments of Mr. Rust and Mr. Dowling on the subject of university awards, Mr. Rust seems very con- fused on one extremely important...

PAINTING AS A PASTIME

The Spectator

Sm,—I wonder what authority Mr. Adrian Hill has for saying most of Constable's masterpieces were painted on the spot ? As far as I remember, all the evidence in Leslie's life of...

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TRIBUNAL OPINIONS

The Spectator

Sist,—I am prompted by your " Notebook " in The Spectator of December 24th to express polite amazement that you, whose observations are usually so perceptive, should have been...

IN DEFENCE OF MR.

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am sorry if our going " all genteel" in prefixing "Mr." to the names of our distinguished, but untitled, contributors caused a ripple of unease in the enjoyment of Christmas by...

THAT LEG-BYE

The Spectator

Sta,—Janus probably has more right than I—a mere rabbit in my playing days—to criticise the M.C.C. victors of the Durban Test Match. Yet might I suggest that, in his comment...

MISUSED WORDS

The Spectator

Stn,—We invariably read that people have been "conscripted." The verb is to conscribe ; the nouns, conscription and conscript. A doctor prescribes, or gives a prescription....

JOURNEY AND GOAL

The Spectator

SIR,—Doufeurs de Voyage (p. 831) in The Spectator of December 24th —the opening sentence. Did Stevenson really say this, or was it that " it is better to travel hopefully than...

WHOM

The Spectator

Sta,—Here is a sentence from The Spectator of November 22nd, 1935. " Perhaps after the storms have swept by and the aeroplanes crashed into one another and wireless jammed...

WHAT IS DUTCH LIKE ?

The Spectator

SIR,—I appear to have put, quite unwittingly, a ferocious cat among the pigeons. I had hoped, by specifying in my original letter that the translation of the line from Hamlet...

Snt,—Regarding the suggested disuse of " whom," may I ask

The Spectator

by who a lead can be given? To who, to wit to who of the " cultured " authorities, can we appeal to boo whom, and to boom who?—Yours truly, A Woon-Owl..

THE KAISER IN ENGLAND

The Spectator

SIR,—Commenting on the reputation of the German Emperor William II, Mr. Harold Nicolson states that at Queen Victoria's funeral " pale and solemn he had walked behind her coffin...

ADOPTION AND THE FAMILY

The Spectator

SIR, —We are continually hearing and reading that the great need of the moment is for the strengthening of Christian home-life in this country. Recently the Brains Trust again...

LEVEL CROSSINGS

The Spectator

Sin,—Your correspondent, Dr. A. E. Moore, has raised a very serious issue, but could he not be persuaded to strengthen his case by stating how many persons, during his long...

THE PRINCE

The Spectator

Sm,—The Times, in its account of the recent Royal Christening, twice ' referred to the infant Prince as "it." Surely this is not a respectful method of describing the second...

THE NEED FOR CONSCRIPTS

The Spectator

Sta,—Letters in this series are nearly always written by persons falling into one of three classes :— (1) The elderly retired officer (" what the lad needs is discipline ")....

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BOOKS OF THE DAY

The Spectator

The Heritage of Keynes The New Economics : Keynes' Influehce on Theory and Public Policy. Edited by Seymour Harris. (Dobson. 30s;) Tim impact of Keynes upon economic thought...

" Quite the Little Poet . . .

The Spectator

John Keats. An Introduction and a Selection by Richard Church. (Phoenix House. 8s. 6d.) THE simultaneous publication of three new books on Keats gives a valuable endorsemen‘to...

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Masson

The Spectator

Andre Masson and His Universe. By M. Leiris and G. Limbour. (Editions des Trois Collines, Geneva-Paris, and Horizon, London. £2 2s.) IN this country Masson is known almost...

The Writer's Craft

The Spectator

Why Do I Write ? By Elizabeth Bowen, Graham Greene and V. S. Pritchett. (Percival Marshall. 6s.) Writers on Writing. Compiled and edited by Walter Allen. (Phoenix House. 15s.)...

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The Population of West Africa

The Spectator

THE death of Dr. R. it Kuczynski last year was a sad loss for demography, and a particularly serious loss for the demography of the British Colonial Empire. Since 1937 Dr....

Orchestra, Dance, Song

The Spectator

The Orchestra from Beethoven to Berlioz. By Adam Carse. (Cambridge : W. Heiler. 30s.) The Waltz. By Mosco Cartier. (Max Parrish. 6s.) German Song. By Elizabeth Schumann. (Max...

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Fiction

The Spectator

• To head a review with a novel which time has already tested may be thought unfair to the novels that come after. All reviewing is unfair in this sense, when books which were...

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SOLUTION TO CROSSWORD No. 508

The Spectator

'IR , 0t:t4 1:10 I r'El H 5 0C A-1.:JE INt e.cN i I i+10.4), ITAIT ASTIR 1 _ 1.1e4iVPIAir4 R!N TiAil itsiEblilGiL:A.S 5 A A•A s • a ▪ :vow NEENri ALay ingiptivi, ° . 8...

" THE SPECTATOR " CROSSWORD No. 510 [A Book Token

The Spectator

for one guipea will be awarded to the sender of the first correct solution of thir week's crossword to be opened after noon on Tuesday week, Yanuary 11th. Envelopes must be...

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FINANCE AND INVESTMENT

The Spectator

By CUSTOS FOR the majority of investors 1948 has been a reasonably satisfactory year. True, it has not yielded spectacular •results in the shape of capital appreciation—the...