30 JULY 1942

Page 1

RUSSIA'S ORDEAL

The Spectator

T HE war in Russia has reached a phase critical in two senses. The danger that the Germans may cut Russia off from half her food and four-fifths of her oil is imminent, and such...

Page 3

SECOND FRONT PROBLEMS

The Spectator

T HE so-called second-front demand raises much more serious questions than a great deal that is lightly talked and written about it would suggest. It has divers champions,...

Page 4

A SPECTATOR' S NOTEBOOK

The Spectator

N OW and then a book is published whose influence on contem- porary thought is immediate and manifest. That, I predict, will be true of the volume (not yet published here) in...

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DANGERS AND OPPORTUNITIES

The Spectator

By STRATEGICUS C HINA has kept a defiant flag flying for five years, and Russia has so far maintained her threat to the German power by driving her hardest bargain in the sale...

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WHAT AMERICA EXPECTS

The Spectator

By PROFESSOR D. W. BROGAN A S the war news gets worse there is a natural reluctance to discuss the nature of the peace settlement or the nature of the precautions to be taken...

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TOO MANY SHOPS ?

The Spectator

By G. L. SCHWARTZ The Retail Trade Committee set up by the Board of Trade is now busily formulating proposals for the closing down of shops, and in both the second and third of...

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PRISONERS AND CAPTIVES

The Spectator

By EILUNED LEWIS O NE of the petitions of the Litany gathers together a small company of oddly assorted people, bound to each other by their common peril. All that travel by...

Page 9

MARGINAL COMMENT

The Spectator

By HAROLD NICOLSON I WAS talking the other evening to two men upon the future of 1 British politics. Neither of them was a politician, but each of them was eminent in his own...

Page 10

THE CINEMA

The Spectator

4 ' Always In My Heart." At Warners.—" The Male Animal." At the Regal. IN Warner productions the family is almost always musical. Scarcely a moment passes without one member or...

THE THEATRE

The Spectator

" Othello." At the New Theatre.—" King Henry IV," Part 1. At Raynes Park County School. IT will be a thousand pities if the Old Vic Company's production of Othello is limited...

MUSIC

The Spectator

Political Symphonies LAST week's Promenade programmes were unusually rich in interest. Among the novelties were two new symphonies by Benjamin Britten and Alan Bush, both of...

Page 11

StR,—It is surely a pity that Mr. Peter F. Wiener

The Spectator

should think he furthers the effort to bring in a better world by discrediting the attempt t o secure co-operation with whatever decent elements there may be in Germany. The...

ALLIES INSIDE GERMANY

The Spectator

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR ta,—With reference to the letter " Allies Inside Germany " published in he Spectator on July 17th, 1942, the organisers of this exhibition would . ke to...

THE NEW LAISSER FAIRE

The Spectator

Sta,—Mr. Seebohm Rowntree's article on ." The Manager's Function " raises questions of a deeper kind, to which neither he nor Mr. James Burnham appear to give any consideration....

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THE FORGOTTEN PARENT

The Spectator

SIR,—Mr. Roger Clarke's article contains so many near truths, and so many glimpses of the obvious dressed up as profundities (e.g., " compul- sory education...

BOYS AND THE PITS

The Spectator

Sta,—A chairman of the Miners' Lodge connected with a large colliery in South Wales' wroteto me the other day and said that not a single boy under 15 had entered the employment...

LORD'S CRICKET GROUND

The Spectator

SIR,—May I encroach on your space to answer my critic R. N. ? A poem should be judged on its merits as poetry, not as a small work of reference. Surely, " Lord's Cricket Ground...

18 B.

The Spectator

SIR, —May an old reader of The Spectator, and an old lawyer, record his regret at your mild benison on the above regulation? (s) Under it the Home Secretary is at once (a)...

PERCENTAGE OF CHURCHGOERS

The Spectator

SIR,—Your correspondents who hav written on the subject of the numbers of adherents to the Churches in this country omit, I venture to say, an important factor. Allow me to...

Page 13

Dick Sheppard

The Spectator

FEW religious teachers in our own day have more deeply moved the heart and conscience of England than Dick Sheppard. If any- one could have converted London to Christianity he...

BOOKS OF THE DAY

The Spectator

A Comic Classic Monkey. By Wu Ch'eng-en. Translated from the Chinese by Arthur Waley. (Allen and Unwin. I2S. 6d.) LovEEs of poetry have for long been indebted to Mr. Arthur...

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The Historian's Mind

The Spectator

Conflicts. By L. B. Namier. (Macmillan. 8s. tkl.) THE difference between the historian and the historiographer should be so obvious as to need no new emphasis. Yet in these...

Realpolitik

The Spectator

MR. GELBER wrote some years ago a solid, useful, academic book on The Rise of Anglo-American Friendship. It is possible that his studies in that field showed him the close...

A Proust Friendship

The Spectator

Marcel Proust : Lettres a Une Arnie. Recueil de quarante-et-une lettres inedites adressies I Marie Nordlinger I899-1908. (Editions du Calame, Manchester. LI Is.) A scAftcrrt of...

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Littl e Victims

The Spectator

English Children. By Sylvia Lynd. (Collins. 4s. 6d.) THIS addition to the " Britain in Pictures " series is a charming, ele- gantly ironic little sketch of the history of...

Fiction

The Spectator

Nobody's Darlings. By Margaret Iles. (Gollancz. 9s. 6d.) Grand Opera. By Vicki Baum. (Bles. 8s. 6d.) The Three Bamboos. By Robert Standish. (Peter Davies. 9s. 6d.) , Northern...

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" THE SPECTATOR " CROSSWORD No. 177 [A Book Token

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for one guinea will 63 cwarded so, the sender of the firs: correct s olution of this week's crossword to be opened liter noon on Tuesday week. Envelopes •houll be received not...

SOLUTION TO CROSSWORD No. 175 SOLUTION ON AUGUST 14th

The Spectator

The winner of Crossword No. x75 is K. M. DEXTER, Esq., r55 Mag- len Road, Exeter. '

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COUNTRY LIFE

The Spectator

_ IT will be a pity if some real use is not made of the almost un- precedented crop of nuts and, in rather less degree, of walnuts. Bushes of Kentish cobs and filberts are even...

FINANCE AND INVESTMENT

The Spectator

By CUSTOS RAIL, stockholders have good cause for satisfaction with this year 's interim dividends. Fortified by the knowledge that a fixed ne t revenue is assured under the...