Events in China seldom move as rapidly as the headlines suggest that they may, but it does seem that a decisive phase is being reached in the increasingly one-sided civil war....

A S Sunday's municipal elections in the Western sectors of Berlin draw nearer, uproar grows in the Soviet sector with all the care- fully graduated spontaneity of a Nazi putsch....

Only once during the past six months have British and American policies on Palestine drawn close enough to be almost identical ; this was when, immediately after the publication...

After a bout of rumours and denials, it is now claimed that the differences of view which are holding up the completion of the four-year plans of the Marshall aid countries are...

The attitude of this country and the Dominions towards an tire which, by repealing the External Relations Act, is in process of cutting the last thin thread which binds her to...

The Central Office of Information is the ghost of the Ministry of Information sitting disowned upon the grave thereof. It has some of the staff, some of the functions, and some...

As the General Election draws nearer the chances of treating coal production as a question of et‘onotnic organisation grow smaller. Coal, like steel, is being transferred from...

T HE fog which has paralysed the life of Britain during the week has swirled around the towers and penetrated the endless corridors of Westminster. Perhaps it has had its effect...

Faced with the task of deciding "on what lines marriage guidance as a form of social service can be most advantageously developed in England and Wales if assisted by Exchequer...

The annual report of the University Grants Committee, which was published on Tuesday, deals naturally with much the same problems as were discussed by the chairman of the...

T HAT the new National Service Bill would be given its second reading last night by an overwhelming majority was a fore- gone conclusion. It was searchingly criticised—or rather...

danger of being trapped in this world by its moral adolescents. Our knowledge of science has clearly outstripped our capacity to control it. We have too many men of science ;...

appears in the current' issue of the Cambridge lournal. The writer, Mr. R. Bassett, of the London School of Economics, sets himself to shatter, and does most effectively...

Tribunal and what lies behind it is likely to have on Labour's electoral pros- pects is being much discussed. It can clearly not be answered till the findings of the Tribunal...

were rightly withheld in this case), decided by Mr. Justice Pearce in the High Court on Tues- day, combines with the recent action of Baxter v. Baxter to make some...

experience, but he seems to have lapsed strangely from his normal objectivity in some public references he made this week to Russia. "Let us try a new approach," he suggested,...

By E. GOLD, F.R.S.* g GREAT mist and a darkness fell upon them so that they could not see," wrote John Bunyan, and the boy said, "Are we not yet at the end of this doleful...

By EDWARD HODGKIN T HE Government's proposal to let the State run the public houses in the new towns has put the cat among the pigeons—the pigeons, reading from left to right,...

By D. R. GILLIE O N November 27th the C.G.T. miners' strike committee called off the strike which had been in progress for 57 days. The strike committee claimed to be sounding...

By W. H. EDWARDS VV HILE the economic experts in Western Europe and the United States are congratulating themselves—sometimes perhaps a little unduly—about the "miracle" worked...

By EDWARD MONTGOMERY O NCE upon a time, in those far-off days when Russians, Americans and British were all fighting Hitler together and Russians and Westerners were being ever...

TO "THE SPECTATOR"? LV71.P.MPORIFPARIIMORIMPPARMITIORMRHINVOILINIRWRMICIROUX 52 weeks. 26 weeks. Subscription rates for Gt. Britain and Over s. d. s. d. seas by ordinary...

By S. C. ROBERTS (Master of Pembroke College, Cambridge) N exhibition recently held at the Grolier Club, New York, is a reminder that few authors have been so gradually, yet so...

By HAROLD NICOLSON O N December 3rd, 1874, Mr. Winston Churchill received his first mention in The Times newspaper : he was four days old. It is curious to reflect that a...

THE THEATRE "The Cherry Orchard." By Anton Chelchov. (New.) ONE of the points that emerges, as we watch the uprooting of the Ranevsky family, is how comparatively shallow...

"Call Northside 777." (Odeon, Marble Arch.) " Red River." (Plaza.)—" Here Come the Huggetts." (Dominion and New Victoria.)—" Scott of the Antarctic." (Odeon, December 30th.) IN...

A VERY clever production by Mr. Peter Glenville, staged sumptuously but not without whimsicality by Mr. Cecil Beaton, does much for a revival which in less practised hands might...

A lady again and again found the clay bars of her gas stove broken ofl for no apparent reason ; but one day she saw her cat, which of course loved to sit in front of the fire...

that great and lively authority on words, that our literary language is, or should be, constantly refreshed by absorption of rural speech. Racy rural words are very numerous. A...

Williams's Riders to the Sea, in a concert performance at the Central Hall, on November 26th, and Hoist's Choral Symphony, at the Albert Hall, on the 27th. These works are...

the excellent County Garden Produce Central Committee (fathered by the Ministry) appears a sort of potted account of the work of Mr. Rollo Myer as a country parson. It is all...

the Americans, a very narrow taste in vegetables ; ,and even if delectable rarities are seen in a shop no one will buy them. And we narrow the use of severaL One of these is the...

and diarists to refer to the catkins of the hazel nut, which indeed are wont to anticipate the spring by a wide interval. But there are a number of other bushes and trees which...

external examinations demands, will be onerous, and will call for hard thinking and skilful planning The imposition of a minimum age before which no candidate will be allowed to...

Tonbridge has indicated the acute difficulties that will arise in the schools unless the Minister of Education modifies his decision that no candidate will be allowed to take...

Sra,—If my letter deserved Colin McDonald's imputation of intolerance, I am sorry for it. I was not trying to uphold "Communist claims to perfection," but simply to question the...

Sta,—The plans agreed upon by Britain and U.S.A. for the future of Eritrea cannot but cause consternation to anyone who knows that country. The scheme looks as if it had...

versus School, I regret that some inaccuracy crept into my quotation of the figures issued by the Northern Universities Joint Board. Quoting from memory, I stated that 46 per...

specialised" sixth-form work ? I am in charge of boys reading history for the Higher Certificate Examination. In addition to history they take another main subject, usually...

one will have been misled, by the prominence which you gave to it in your issue of Noirember 19th, into supposing that The New "New Deal" represents the - facts, or can even be...

Stit,—I am writing in the hope that the most fruitful use for a house and grounds in the heart of the English Lake District may occur to one or more of your readers and that...

Sm,—Regarding the remarks in Country Life in The Spectator of November 26th, I gather from a practical dowser with a unique record for the successful location of underground...

SIR,—The plight of the Arab refugees in the Middle East, now more than half a million, is well known to your readers. The Acting Mediator recently pointed out the danger, with...

Sm.,—It seems hardly necessary - to say that I had no intention of affront- ing Mr. Elwin personally, either in the title or in the substance of my review. Nor did I suggest...

Sta,—We may not yet comment on the conduct of certain people involved in the Inquiry at Church House, because it is still sub *dice; but the conduct of the British public in the...

To meet the wishes of the Postmaster-General during the Christmas rush, alterations In subscribers' addresses must reach THE SPECTATOR, 99 Gowisr Street, London, W.C.1, by the...

The Beastly British THE form of nausea which overcomes Mr. Wilson when he writes about the British is easier to understand than to diagnose. Perhaps it is some social or...

The Great Tradition. By F. R. Leavis. (Chatto and Windus. 12s. 6d.) - HOWEVER much one may differ from Dr Leavis—and why should anybody want a book with which he wholly agrees...

B:smarck and the Creation of the Second Reich. By F. Darnistaedter. (Methuen. 21s.) FOR close on ten years out of the forty-eight of this century we have been at war with...

Men in the Pits. By F. Zweig. (Gollancz. 7s. 6d.) FROM time to time in the past few years there have been attacks on British miners for not working hard enough. There have also...

BRITISH EAST AFRICA is about eight times as big as Great Britain, or roughly the size of Western Europe. Its total population, of the order of 13,000,000 includes some 200,000...

The Life and Death of Benjamin Robert Haydon, 1786-1846. By Eric George. (Oxford University Press. 215.) THE present revival of interest in English Romantic painting is an...

Ciano's Diplomatic Papers. Edited by Malcolm Muggeridge ; translated THIS is the translation of the Mondadori publication entitled L'Europa verso la Catastrofe to which a...

The Bachelor of Arts. By R. K. Narayan. (Eyre and Spottiswoode. 8s. 6d.) Miss TOWNSEND WARNER has been criticised and is likely to be criticised again for the fact that in her...

[A Book Token for one 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 14th....

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The Artamonov Business. By Maxim Gorki. Translated by Alec Brown. (Hamish Hamilton. 6s.) THIS new translation (one of the excellent Novel Library series) of Gorki's best-known...

P. D. F. Tennent's lbsen's Dramatic Technique, published by Messrs. Bowes and Bowes, was wrongly stated to have been published by the Cambridge University Press.]

By CUSTOS IT is a significant commentary on the current positon in the stock markets,. that while prices are conspicuously firm a considerable number of brokers are complaining...