31 MARCH 1950

Page 1

PLAN WITHOUT PLANNING

The Spectator

W HEN the Government's Economic Survey, the main planning document of the year, falls as flat as does the Survey for 1950, some explanation is needed. The Government's...

Page 2

ate Government's Defeat

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The Government has suffered an earlier and a heavier defeat than anyone seriously expected. It is not, of course, a resignation matter. The Conservatives are not to be credited...

Outrages in Bengal

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The effective suppression by the Pakistani authorities in East Bengal of the communal disturbances which flared up in February contrasts unfavourably with the failure of their...

Blackmail or Bargaining ?

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The Minister of Food's use of the word blackmail to describe the Argentine Government's methods of negotiation was justifiable if not tactful. The immediate consequence of his...

The European Constitution

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There is no sense in keeping the constitution of the Council of Europe exactly as it is now, and it is to be hoped—rather against the bulk of the evidence—that the Committee of...

Whitehall and Seretse

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Nothing Government spokesmen say, and they do little but say the same things over again, is calculated to rally public opinion in support of their action in regard to Seretse...

Page 3

A Larger " Spectator ff

The Spectator

Circumstances have made it possible slightly to increase the size of the Spectator from today. More space will be given to Letters from Readers, a new feature, " Books and...

A discussion at the Royal Society on Monday- in some

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sense brought to a head discussions on technological education which have been occupying some space in the columns of The Times of late. The need of industry for the best...

A NYONE who has heard much of Mr. Churchill and has

The Spectator

his ears attuned to his varying moods and styles knew within ten minutes of his rising that he was launched on one of his great speeches. Not, it must be admitted, a speech that...

More Dirty Work at the Docks

The Spectator

Every day the evidence accumulates that new disturbances at the London Docks are being deliberately prepared. Not one of the excuses being given for an interruption of work will...

Page 4

GERMANY AND THE WEST

The Spectator

Te HE tone of the foreign affairs debate in the House of Commons on Tuesday was set almost exclusively by Mr. Churchill, and a most admirable tone it was. The only defect was...

Page 5

A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK

The Spectator

T HE controversy about Alan Wood's book, The Groundnuts Affair, both in the House of Commons and in the columns of The Times, is getting too complicated for most people to...

It was suggested elsewhere in this paper last week, in

The Spectator

a comment on the Lord Mayor's Thanksgiving Fund, that one possible objection to the plan for collegiate hostels in Mecklenburgh Square was that it made for an undue segregation...

Studying a booklet published by Soviet News and containing reports

The Spectator

of speed's delivered at the recent Soviet Union elections (such as they were) by five leading figures in the Union, I have been interested to observe the various Russian...

The most outrageous reference to Professor Laski's death comes from

The Spectator

the notorious Colonel McCormick. " Mr. Laski died at a very early age," the proprietor of the Chicago Tribune is reported as saying, " in a country with socialised medicine. He...

If there is one thing more than another for which

The Spectator

the popular papers should be scourged it is the space they give to a personage styled by the papers in question Gorgeous Gussie. This lady, I gather, plays tennis on public...

Page 6

Kingship in Belgium

The Spectator

By EMILE CAMMAERTS The members of the Congress could not foresee that a day would come when the King, as Commander-in-Chief, might think it his duty to take a certain course of...

Page 7

The War and the People

The Spectator

By Professor BARBARA WOOTTON T HE rule that we embark on every war with preparations appropriate to its predecessor is not quite infallible. Forecasts of air raids in the...

Page 8

Malayan Background

The Spectator

By DAVID REES-WILLIAMS* T HE activities of the terrorists in the Federation of Malaya, with the attacks on military and police, the shooting of civilians in cinemas and trains,...

Page 9

Progress in the Sudan

The Spectator

By EDWARD ATIYAH 0 NLY someone who knew the Sudan in the past and revisits it today after a few years' absence can appreciate the measure of its recent progress. True, when one...

Page 10

To the Seas Again

The Spectator

By A. K. QUILTER I T is one of the hardships of this life that, when one has sufficient knowledge to enjoy a particular sort of existence, the oppor- tunity has invariably...

Page 11

UNDERGRADUATE PAGE

The Spectator

Cherry Blossom Election By HUGH GAUNTLETT (Balliol College, Oxford) HEN I came out from voting on February 23rd the sight of a sprig of imprudent pink blossom suddenly recalled...

Page 12

MARGINAL COMMENT

The Spectator

By HAROLD NICOLSON P ROPAGANDA, as other forms of human excitation and incitation, is subject to the law of diminishing returns. There always comes a stage at which the...

Page 13

BALLET

The Spectator

" Summer Interlude." (Sadler's Wells.) MICHAEL SomEs's ballet was warmly acclaimed when it was pre- sented at Sadler's Wells on Tuesday night. The audience was showing its...

CONTEMPORARY ARTS

The Spectator

THEATRE "Detectiva Story." By Sidney Kingsley. (Princes.) To compare (as I see somebody has done) this American play with the British film called The. Blue Lamp seems to me...

CINEMA

The Spectator

"On the Town." (Empire.)—" Young Man of Music." (Odeon.) —"Appointment with Danger." (Plaza.) On The Town is a musical which makes no. pretensions to be anything else. It has no...

Page 14

Revived Pheasants

The Spectator

One of the few small indications of recovery from the tyranny of war is the new permission accorded to farmers and landowners to rear pheasants if they want to. Not a very large...

COUNTRY LIFE

The Spectator

IT may almost be claimed on behalf of the town, or at any rate the suburb, that it is more eloquent of the spring than the country. Whole streets are lined with species of the...

In the Garden

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All gardeners are flooded with catalogues, many of them illustrated in most gorgeous colour. One claims that its bulbs and the rest are cheaper because the expense of coloured...

MUSIC

The Spectator

THE bicentenary of the death of J. S. Bach falls in July of this year, but the festival celebrations by the Bach Choir have naturally enough taken the form of performances of...

Bird Victims

The Spectator

Those who go down to the seaside in holiday times will not; I fear, find any improvement in the dispersal of oiL The refuse still makes some bathing beaches on the West Coast...

Vanished Denizens

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How the denizens of an area vary through the generations! I read this week an appreciation of the Fens by Charles Kingsley who picked out as typical of the district the great...

Page 15

THE SPECTATOR

The Spectator

SUBSCRIPTION RATES Postage on this issue: Inland & Overseas lid.; Canada (Canadian Magazine Post) Id. / / e t wee ` ks f re o 2 7 6 3 10 0 4 2 0 3 0 0 4 2 0 5 0 0 2 12 0...

Spectator Competition—No. 13

The Spectator

Set by Guy Kendall MR. HERBERT - READ, in his book on Wordsworth, expresses the opinion that the poet's abrupt flight from France in 1793 was due to the fact that he was in...

SPECTATOR COMPETITION—No. II Report by R. Kennard Davis

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A prize of £5 was offered for a poem in twelve lines beginning :- Bravely in my garden grow Drangea (high) and Belie (low) . . . The opening couplet had been flitting about the...

Page 16

Health Costs

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SIR,—As a near neighbour of yours and as administrator of the largest teaching hospital group in London, I cannot let Dr. Piney's cheap sneers in your issue of March 17th at...

The Flying Sauce-boat

The Spectator

SIR,—During our five months' lecture and reading tour in the United States, Sir Osbert Sitwell and I could not, obviously, meet every citizen of that great nation. We were...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

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Mr. Stassen's Granny SIR,—Sir Heneage Ogilvie, in the Spectator of March 17th, describes an article on the British National Health Service recently published in an American...

Page 18

Sta,—Mr. Felvus Walker misapprehends the position. There is no desire

The Spectator

" to deprive any churchman of his right of final appeal to the Crown in ecclesiastical causes." It is the nature of the court through which that appeal should be made that is at...

44 You Have Waked Me Too Soon "

The Spectator

Sta,—Mr. Harold Nicolson was surely hardly fair to the humanity of our great teaching hospitals. I have recently had to spend six weeks in a public ward in a North of England...

S1R.—I was glad to see that most of those who

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wrote to Mr. Harold Nicolson about their hospital experiences after his review of Denton Welch's book raised " the familiar complaint that they are roused from their uncertain...

Russia's Pre-war Foreign Policy

The Spectator

SIR, —I am sorry that Miss Elizabeth Wiskemann, for whose own writings on pre-war diplomatic history I have elsewhere expressed my unquali- fied respect and admiration, should,...

The Church and the State

The Spectator

Stn.—May I suggest that we should be strictly accurate, even when we revive a controversy of nearly a quarter of a century ago ? Certain details appear to have escaped Mr....

Page 20

Seretse Khama

The Spectator

SIR,—In your note on the Seretse Khama affair you say that a British Commonwealth that demanded segregation of black and white would have no justification for existing. You seem...

Road Transport Under Nationalisation

The Spectator

SIR,—In the Spectator of March 17th Mr. H. D. Walston says, amongst other things, that the Socialists nationalised long-distance road transport, not to safeguard the interests...

The Poetry of Mr. Fry

The Spectator

SIR,—Occasional adverse criticism of one who is on the top of a wave of popularity and success is probably a healthy and salutary thing both for the man himself and for his...

The Upkeep of Cathedrals

The Spectator

SIR,—As reported in The Times of March 20th, the Dean of Winchester is, it seems, of the opinion that the State might fairly be asked to help in preserving the fabric of some of...

“ Annuals"

The Spectator

SIR, —In your notice Roy Hay's Annuals, which we have just published, is described as a " reprint." Experienced gardeners will know that a special- ised book of this nature,...

Captain Cook

The Spectator

Sul.—The Hakluyt Society, with the support of the New Zealand Govern- ment, is preparing a complete edition of Captain James Cook's journals of his three great voyages to the...

"t h e *spectator " March 30th, 1850 LORD JOHN RUSSELL has

The Spectator

announced the Ministerial intentions with regard to the future of the Royal Academy, leaving the larger question of a suitable National Gallery unstated. The Royal Academy,...

Page 21

BOOKS AND WRITERS

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I N the preface to his new History of England* the Chichele 'Professor of Modern History at Oxford refers to J. R. Green's Short History of the English People, which • first...

Page 22

Reviews of the Week Stone-Age Voyage The Kon-Tiki Expedition. By

The Spectator

Thor Heyerdahl. Translated by F. H. Lyon. (Allen and Unwin. 1 2S. 6d.) FRIDTJOF NANSEN would have greeted the author of this book as a brother. Like the long drift of the Fram '...

Prophet of No Doom

The Spectator

Modern Arms and Free Men. By Vannevar Bush. (Heinemann. los. 6d.) THE subject of the next war has been bedevilled by orators. It is going to take years for the ordinary man to...

Page 24

Leviathan

The Spectator

British Broadcasting : A Study in Monopoly. By R. H. Coase. (Longmans, for The London School of Economics. r 25. 6d.) THE B.B.C. is the most famous broadcasting organisation...

Page 26

Nonsensical Eden

The Spectator

University Slang. By Morris Marples. (Williams & Norgate. ios.) You might have expected " varsity slang "—if you had never been to the university. The " varsity match," yes ;...

Page 28

Younger Bach

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Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments. By C. P. E. Bach. Translated and edited by William J. Mitchell, (Cassell. 3os.) THIS is the first complete En g lish...

The Pleasures of Egotism

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" Qu'est-ce que le moi? le n'en sais rlen. le me suis un Jour reveille sur retie terre ; je me trouve lied un corps, a un caractere, d une fortune. Puis-je m'anzuser vainement a...

The Age of Johnson m

The Spectator

HERE are thirty-six short essays presented to Professor Tinker, who retired from teachin g at Yale in 1945. Inspired by his exemplary scholarship, they are written almost...

Page 30

Fiction

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A Voice Through a Cloud. By Denton Welch. (Lehmann. los. 6d.) published as fiction, but is, in fact, autobiographical. .Thirteen years before his death Denton Welch had left...

The Salvage of Italian Art

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Florentine Art Under Fire. By Frederick Hartt.. (Princeton University Press : Oxford University Press. 365.) THE most remarkable fact that must, I think, strike everybody who...

Page 33

" THE SPECTATOR " CROSSWORD No. 575 (A Book Token

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for one guinea will be awarded to the sender of the first correct 5iiution of this week's crossword to be opened after noon on Tuesday week, ,gl ril 11th. Envelopes must be...

SOLUTION TO CROSSWORD No. 573 SOLUTION ON APRIL 14 The

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winner of Crossword No. 573 is Edward Graham Guest, Esq., Newbattle Terrace, Edinburgh.

Page 34

FINANCE AND INVESTMENT

The Spectator

By CUSTOS IN face of a Budget which, at best, seems likely to be only slightly less disinflationary than its predecessor it was not to be expected that the latest Economic...