Air DALADIER'S broadcast speech on Wednesday IVI • evening was admirable in tone and substance. He was entitled to speak with confidence of France's recovery and her present...

of siege, Madrid surrendered on Tuesday, though its defences were almost impregnable. Though the Nationalist troops entered the city unopposed, Madrid cannot be said to have...

to the dangerous situation created by Germany's expansion, in the north-east via Memel and the south-east via Slovakia. The Polish army has been partially mobilised, industry...

fiscal plan by which the immense expenditure demanded by the Reich's political adventures is to be financed. In essence the plan is simple. The Reich has exhausted the...

in Bucharest, is greeted in Berlin as a triumph of commercial diplomacy ; to triumphs of such a kind this country has no objection and is even prepared to encourage them, as a...

decided to bring the Territorials to war strength, 170,000, and then to double their number, was received with general approval in the House of. Commons, and will be equally...

Overseas Trade, arrived in Moscow on his trade mission last week and ended his talks with the Soviet representatives on Monday. His principal task was to present the British...

last week a: the conclusion of a trade agreement between Great Britain and India was premature, for though agreement was in fact reached provisionally the Indian Legislative...

inevitable by public opinion in Lithuania, has brought about the resignation of the Mironas Cabinet and the formation of a Government of national concentration. Its most...

at once be taken as a challenge to the Prime Minister's personal prestige. It is a sad commentary on the changes which Parliament has undergone during the last five years that...

has been very meagre. Mr. Oliver Stanley showed to his best advantage when he introduced, on Monday, the Cotton Industry Reorganisation Bill. All the Lancashire Members seemed...

necessary the measures for the relief of British shipping which Mr. Oliver Stanley announced this week. Whilst, however, the British Mercantile Marine will be able to play a...

flying-boat ' Cavalier,' between New York and Bermuda, is attributed by the Air Ministry's Inspector of Accidents to icing in the carburettors of all four engines. When the '...

the begin- ning of the week the House continued to be restless. Members, who had been in contact with their Divisions, reported the strongly expressed desire of their...

T HE Prime Minister cannot—and does not—affect to be ignorant of the severe strain which his continued silence regarding international developments is imposing on both the...

I N the House of Commons on Monday Mr. Noel Baker reminded the Lord Privy Seal that it was now six months since the Munich crisis revealed that this country was utterly and...

a riposte to the B.B.C. broadcasts in German, provokes pertinent reflection on the value of the freedom of the Press. In Germany the British broadcasts are listened to eagerly,...

is bound to make Americans more implacably anti- Nazi than ever. And for a very good reason. There are certain to be living today as good citizens of the Union tens or hun-...

R UMOURS of Cabinet disagreement multiply, in spite of the Prime Minister's repudiation of them, with Sir John Simon's name prominent. If conscription is under discussion it is...

civilisation I think it is necessary to our spiritual health that we should throw off our ordinary clothes."—The Archbishop of York last Saturday. The word " ordinary " seems...

of the Criterion, leaves this country without a single literary journal better known than the paper in which the Mercury has been merged. The Mercury in its twenty years of...

of Mr. R. S. Hudson's tour in Eastern Europe, but it seems clear already that he has achieved not less but more than he aimed at. What was hoped was that he would be able to...

A Wet Sheet and a Flowing Bowl " The whole ship is so arranged that no pagsenger need at any time be more than 20 feet from a bar."—The Times,

one-sixth of the earth's surface, are slightly less than those of Den- mark."—Daily Telegraph Moscow correspondent.

By ELIZABETH WISKEMANN N o situation could be more confused or more ironical than that in which Hungary finds herself after the German occupation of Prague. The wildest rumours...

By SIR RONALD DAVISON r E Camps Bill, which now lies before Parliament, pro- mises 5o national camps. That is not a sensational number, but none the less the Bill may well be...

By W. J . ROSE T HE mask is off, if ever there was one. The Nazi threat to all neighbours of the Reich is undisguised. Those who divined this truth earlier, and the Poles were...

By H. C. A. GAUNT (Headmaster of Malvern) T T has become a fashion to speak of the League of 1 Nations with contempt and even amusement. In the midst of distress, danger, and...

By 11. POWYS GREENWOOD O N the Sunday before the " liquidation " of Czecho- Slovakia I attended the ceremony of the Day of Re- membrance for War Heroes in Berlin, and heard...

By GEORGE EDINGER 1" E NGLAND'S a pretty good country, ain't it?" asked the Surveyor a propos of nothing in particular. " What's that? Oh, England," said the traveller in...

By H. E. BATES T WO of the earliest books I remember reading are Culpepper's Herbal and, new every year, Toogood's Catalogue of Flowers and Vegetable Seeds. In those days...

By BERNARD DARWIN N EXT Saturday is the day of the Boat Race, an event probably possessing this unique distinction, that it excites more people who know nothing about it than...

THE SPECTATOR, MARCH 30, 1839. The Duke of Wellington has left town for Strathfieldsaye, with a waggon-load of plate and sauces, besides sundry cooks and foot- men: so it is...

By GEORGES DUHAMEL I it su ffi cient to conquer the world once in order to enjoy 1 the fruits of that conquest for ever ? I asked myself this last spring as I walked through...

By ALEXANDER REID A LL morning, under a sun small and red as a tomato, the tattie-pickers worked in the long field that ran between the railway and the road. All the fourteen...

answered, " and what action has been taken since ? Birmingham was but a manoeuvre, or at best a momentary gesture of pique. I beg you not to be so sentimental. Take my advice....

of the Workers' Educational Association at Swindon. That was indeed worth while. There can be no doubt at all that the W.E.A. is fulfilling a great public service. To many...

buzzed around me like mosquitoes. There was some- thing else that he said. He said, " The British people will endure anything except discomfort." That was another mosquito. I...

By HAROLD NICOLSON y HAVE found it sad, during the past days, to observe so I many men of property writhing and wriggling in the net of circumstance. No metaphors can be too...

Each fresh Hitlerian annexation is (after the first shock of numbed amazement) explained away as " not nearly so serious as it seemed at first." When the hurricane cloud of doom...

such spineless materialists produce, not only upon the morale of this country, but upon opinion abroad. Few foreigners know us sufficiently well to understand that, because a...

WHAT IS WRONG IN BELGIUM ? By MARC SOMERHAUSEN I N October, 1936, foreign correspondents streamed in to Brussels to watch the " March on Brussels " which M. Leon Degrelle had...

A little while before going to the West Indies I complained on this page that the dictionaries had not done justice to the rural as well as ecclesiastical word, slype. A...

The folk of Trinidad have doubtless an eye for beauty, but these flaming trees were imported from the continent of South America and the neighbourhood of the Equator for...

In almost every country that you visit (unless it is quite primeval, like the forests of Brazil) many of the trees that you most admire, and perhaps regard as most...

temperate climes! But there are analogies. Yeoman service is the best service all the world over. In Jamaica, for example, the negroes, or for that matter the West Indians, are...

Trinidad grows one rare tree that virtually defied all efforts at reproduction. The seeds would not germinate, the cuttings would not root, and of the few layers that developed...

Spring (official) opened last week " with even more than its usual severity " ; but almost with its usual, and yet always new, pleasantness. The phenologists with their curious...

[Von einem deutschen Korrespondenten] JEDERMANN kennt wohl Prag, die Herzstadt Europas, mit seiner altesten deutschen Universitat und jilngsten deutschen Garnison die Stadt des...

4, Professor Mamlock." At the Film Society. Tins magnificent film is a contribution to Western morality which should make even Blimps revise their opinions of the Russian...

[Correspondents are requested to keep their letters as brief as is reasonably possible. Signed letters are given a preference over those bearing a pseudonym, and the latter must...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—Could not your reference to what Sir Thomas Holland has called the " Mineral Sanction " be pressed upon the Governments of the democratic...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—Many of us believe that German public opinion, which is not allowed to be articulate, is not solidly behind the Nazi Party in many of the...

SIR,—You are very generous in giving, in your columns, much space to Anglo-American relations. You have many friends on this side of the Atlantic who share your anxiety that no...

SIR,—OUt of the events of this unpleasant month three minor, but not wholly unimportant, points call for attention. They are all concerned with the presentation of news in this...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] Sra,—Mr. Harold Nicolson, in your issue of March 24th, writes of the sunshine stimulus put out by Downing Street the week before the rape of...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—I feel that I ought to make some reply to the note in your last week's issue on the story of Lord Morley and the Daily News in my book A...

HEAD [To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR, I am very sorry to have offended the generous American lady who is the donor of the " Prix Mrs. Will Gordon " by my article, " What I...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—In a speech made this week the Minister of Labour is reported as having said that " truth is greater than propa- ganda." Although...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—I have been a regula- Leader of your journal for the past year or more, crid I have found that nearly every one of its viewpoints have...

SIR,—In his review of Tourney to a War, by W. H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood, which you published on March 24th, your reviewer, Mr. Evelyn Waugh, asserts " poetry has always...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—The Criminal Justice Bill seeks to abolish flogging while at the same time retaining the death sentence. I find myself wanting to retain...

SIR,— Hats off to Evelyn Waugh For calling Mr. Auden " a public bore "I A little bit more Of that sort of thing And maybe those poetical Will get less metaphysical And...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—Mr. Bonamy Dobree in his review of R. W. Chambers' latest book causes some hagiographical confusion. The saint he has in mind, when in...

Wisden's Cricketers' Almanack (Oliver Warner) 539 Government of a Metropolis (R. C. K. Ensor) . 54 0 Who Is For Liberty? (W. T. Wells) ... 540 James Ramsay MacDonald (Wilson...

Who is for Liberty ? By Hugh Ross Williamson. (Michael Joseph. los. 6d.) THE answer which Mr. Williamson gives to his own question is not an encouraging one: it is, shortly, "...

History of the London County Council, 1889-1939. By Sir Gwilym Gibbon, C.B., C.B.E., and Reginald W. Bell. (Macmillan. 2 I S.) THESE books survey much the same scenery, though...

The Life of James Ramsay MacDonald (1866-1919). By Lord Elton. (Collins. 18s.) To a generation which remembers Ramsay MacDonald chiellti as a tired, rather incoherent man...

Population and Fertility. By D. V. Glass and C. P. Blacker. (The Population Investigation Committee. 3s.) THE population question may be recommended as an excellent anodyne for...

IN the study of public finance, as Professor MacGregor says in his Introduction, " questions of theory and principle are greatly enriched by being set in the framework of...

THE Duke of Wellington was not more exposed to authors than the modern schoolmaster to critics, yet a recently-voiced complaint—that they are unable to read balance-sheets--has...

(Routledge. Iss,) POLAND is one of the least-known countries of contemporary Europe, and Pilsudski has been the most prominent and influential figure in her history since the...

Danton's Death. By Georg Buchner. Translated by Stephen Spender and Goronwy Rees. (Faber. 7s. 6d.) Tins extremely remarkable and " modern " play has waited a hundred years for...

F OR the strategic, political, and economic facts about the position in South-East Europe there is no book to compete with GRAHAM HurroN's Danubian Destiny (2nd Printing, 7s....

\V E have already brought to your attention PATRICK WiirrE's remarkable story of a murder in Australia, Happy Valley (2nd Printing, 8s. 6d. net), which is selling strongly. The...

which is naturally swayed towards his own class and colour, should turn from being the benevolent dictator of the colony into the obedient tool of business interests." Is there...

O N Rumania there is no better book than D. J. HALL'S record of his life among the peasants, Romanian Furrow (the "o" spelling is strictly the correct one), recently reissued in...

The French Dictionary O UR full-page announcement a month ago gave full details of Harrap's Standard French and English Dictionary, which is now completed by the publication of...

' 7s. 6d.) EVERY house has its Cinderella, and the house of literature is no exception. Today, it is the essayist who never gets a look-in while the thick-volume step-sisters...

(Heinemann. los. 6d.) By the Wayside. By Harry Tighe. (Heath Cranton. 7s. 6d.) MR. GUBSKY was born a Russian, and, in spite of his ac- quired British nationality, where writing...

7s. 6d.) The Case of the First Class Carriage. By Carol Camac. (Peter Davies. 7s. 6d.) The Whispering Ear. By Clyde B. Clason. (Heinemann. 7s. 6d.) A LIST containing such...

All right-minded people like picture-books, and Mr. Kouwenhoven has compiled an admirable one (Harper's, 125. 6d.) from the files of Harper's Weekly. Perhaps the very merits of...

The Keeshond, Wolf Spitz, Grand Loulou—or even Over- weight Pomeranian, if you would prefer the name used by Queen Victoria for her champion Windsor Marco—first made its mark...

PROPAGANDA TECHNIQUE IN THE WORLD WAR By Harold D. Lasswell This is undoubtedly a suitable time for the reprint of Propaganda Technique in the World War (Kegan Paul, zos. 6d.),...

Mr. Cecil Roth is a careful and thorough researcher, with a wide knowledge of the Jewish background ; but in The Magnificent Rothschilds (Robert Hale, I2S. 6d.) he has put his...

When Sir Frederic Kenyon published his well-known book on the history of the Bible in 1895, it became at once a standard authority. But so much has been discovered about the...

This .book (Oxford University Press, 6s.) is a compendium for the common reader who does- not know Greek. The Apology, Crito, and Phaedo are supplied in translation (mainly...

Naples is the least known of all the great Italian cities. Its importance in the history of Italian art has not been generally recognised and many of its treasures have never...

and cold and clear. It was exactly like a Christmas card come to life. It was the sort of night that demanded lighted candles and red apples and carols. Thank heaven there were...

travellers in the world but, practically alone in the world, we are deprived of constant and intimate contact with other nations by that narrow strip of sea. Our cars, from the...

seem likely to, the roads within their practical compass are limitless or at least bounded only by choice. And in this connexion it is worth remarking how very little a...

other time is a tour abroad an essential thing, not necessarily at the sacrifice of exploring one's own country but, if you like, as an additional means of learning about the...

Last year more people than ever carried their cars to the Continent. Every inch of accommodation by all routes across the sea was taken for months on end, and this year it seems...

The Greatest Joy of All There is nothing the possession of a car gives us to com- pare with that boundless freedom of the roads of the world which we call touring—a drill phrase...

It is time to be getting ready for that tour. The best months for travelling to the South of Europe are April, May and June, before the crowd of strangers descends upon the...

One of the unforgettable experiences of beginning your tour in France, one which can never fail to impress you, is the perfectly inexplicable fact that while you may land at...

SPRING TOURS AND CRUISES Tan steady increase in popularity of Norway. Sweden, and Finland of recent years is already making itself felt for the 1939 holidays, and there is no...

By CUSTOS IT is now a case of pull devil, pull baker in the stock market News from the political front is obviously disturbing, and frankly I cannot blame investors who make up...

It requires very little reflection to see why 1938 was bouni to be a difficult year for banks operating in the Ea'i. Commodity prices were moving irregularly downwards, volume...

It is an ill wind . . . Even the chilling blast from Central Europe has brought a welcome accession of business to London bullion brokers, the air lines running between the...

THE NATIONAL BANK OF INDIA, LTD. SATISFACTORY RESULTS THE ordinary general meeting of the National Bank of India, Limited, was held on March 27th in London. Mr. R. Langford...

RECORD OUTPUT THE ordinary general meeting of the British Aluminium Company, Ltd., was held on March 28th at Winchester House, Old Broad Street, E.C. Mr. R. W. Cooper, M.C.,...

ERICSSON TELEPHONES RECORD TURNOVER AND PROFIT Tim annual general meeting of Ericsson Telephones, Limited, was held on March 29th at Kingsway Hall, London, W.C. Mr. T. Kirkham...

say the least of it, in China and Japan, the chairmen ' s surveys at the annual meet- ings have held out hopes of a modest improvement in India. Mr. R. Langford James, at the...

HALIFAX BUILDING SOCIETY INVESTORS and depositors in the building societies will study the speech of the chairman of the Halifax Building Society chiefly to obtain...

After their sharp rise in early March home railway stocks have come in for a good deal of profit - taking in the last few days and prices have fallen well below their recent "...

I see that Sir Malcolm Stewart took a cautiously hopeful view of the profit for cement companies at the annual meet- ing of British Portland Cement Manufacturers. One of the...

ADVERSE CONDITIONS THE eighty-fifth ordinary general meeting of the Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China was held on March 29th at 38 Bishopsgate, London, E.C. Mr. A....

HALIFAX BUILDING SOCIETY ASSETS OF NEARLY £129,000,000 CONTINUED PROGRESS BRIG.-GEN. SIR E. N. WHITLEY'S SPEECH THE eighty-sixth annual general meeting of members of the...

Mr. T. Kirkham, who presided at Wednesday's meeting of Ericsson Telephones in the absence of Sir Harold Wernher, had a highly encouraging account to offer the shareholders. In...

of British Insulated Cables was one of cautious optimism. At the moment the company has a satisfactory balance of orders, and indications up to a week or two ago were that a...

'while the non-ferrous metals, copper, tin, lead and zinc, have their normal ups and downs as the trade of the world grows or shrinks, one of the outstanding features of the...

treated its shareholders well, both as regards the amount of information it provides and the clarity with which it is set out. It is no mean task to draw up consolidated...

Radiation, who manufacture gas stoves, fires and heating appliances, have felt the effects of higher raw material and labour costs during 1938, and have not recouped themselves...

BRITISH INSULATED CABLES , LIMITED SATISFACTORY RESULTS IN A YEAR OF FALLING PRICES INCREASED EFFICIENCY SIR ALEXANDER ROGER ON THE SITUATION THE forty-third ordinary general...

of Crossword No. 3 is Mrs. T. R. Thom!' - A 75 Herga Court, Harrow.

[A prize of a Book Token for one guinea will be given to Ow sender of the first correct solution of this week's crossword puzzle to be opened. Envelopes should be marked...