B Y contrast with the'alarms of a fortnight ago the situation in Czechoslovakia may justly be described as:tranquil. On the nature of the alarms, and the lessons to be drawn in...

confirms the impression that the Japanese failed to turn their advance on Suchow into a complete rout of the Chinese armies. Indeed, the Chinese are reported to have recaptured...

has almost justified the belief that some of the so-called foreign volunteers in Spain may some day be withdrawn through its agency. At any rate the British plan whereby io,000...

the labour disputes in Jamaica became less promising on Tuesday, when there was a renewed outbreak of strikes and rioting. Police and troops had to be called out, and some...

in progress in Poland to secure greater support for the Government bloc, especially from the Peasants Party which represents Poland's agricultural masses. The same reason which...

the Prime Minister's statement in the House of Commons on Wednesday on the question of conscription in the event of war. Sir Thomas Inskip, letting drop forty-eight hours...

the welter of resolutions and amendments on which the National Committee of the Amalgamated Engineering Union deliberated on Tuesday, the final decision reached was that the...

the J) 6,000,000 credit granted to Turkey, the full terms of which were published last week. The Export Credits Guarantee Department is to guarantee Turkish purchases of...

motion on Monday to call attention to the need for closer co-ordination between the various defence departments and the civil departments in their appeals for voluntary...

meticulous survey that Parliament has yet heard on the subject of Air Raid Precautions. The emphasis which he laid upon the policy of dispersal was bound to raise acute...

of Commons on Monday, Mr. Morrison, the Minister of Agriculture, promised to institute a departmental enquiry into the imposition and recovery of penalties by the Agri- cultural...

result of the infrequent alliances between Labour and Fite Gad, Mr. de Valera's Government was last week defeated in the Dail by one vote, and Mr. de Valera promptly embarrassed...

House of Commons has not been long in showing Sir Kingsley Wood the difference between the Air Ministry and the Ministry of Health. The debate on the Committee stage of the Air...

As our Parliamentary Correspondent shows in an adjacent column, Sir Samuel Hoare's speech in the House of Commons on Wednesday indicated that more progress than was generally...

tension can only be got 1 through in safety," writes Lord Samuel in a peculiarly valuable article in the current issue of the Nineteenth Century, " there might well come about,...

T HIS week all civilised men have once again been appalled at the massacre of defenceless civilians by attacks from the air ; but there is still no sign of any serious attempt...

dis- cussing the censorship in Germany, points out that, while the daily papers are disciplined with an iron hand, some of the weeklies and monthlies have developed a technique...

S O Sir Maurice Hankey is leaving his distinguished and pluralist position in Whitehall to become a Director of the Suez Canal Company. (But nearly not. If he had not stepped...

me with having called Scotland a backwater because I spoke of Mr. Walter Elliot as " returning from a backwater " to the Ministry of Health. I did nothing of the kind—and have...

rather ill-paid profession, which owes its attractions to other 'compensations —such as long holidays and the nature of the work itself. But the High Mastership of St. Paul's,...

Captain Ramsay, M.P., for example, is reported as having asked the Prime Minister on Monday the singular question whether " in granting visas to Members of Parliament to visit...

people have read with considerable interest of Herr Hitler's plans for the mass- production of what is described . in headlines as " A £5o car." But is it a £50 car? Here the...

Sir Samuel Hoare says 275,000,000 sandbags are on order. There could be no more suitable indoor work for convict-prisons than the production of part of them, and it would have a...

he had never been to the. Derby he had once come rather near it, for he had actually passed through Derby station in the train while the race was being run. Paws.

February, over the procedure for dealing with the cases of political prisoners, and the consequent resignation of the two Ministries, came as a complete surprise to the whole...

By VISCOUNT SAMUEL [This is the first of three articles in which Lord Samuel records some of the impressions gained during his recent visit to India] I HAVE in my memory a...

put in the forefront. Although it is being brought into operation gradually, in a few districts at a time, revenue from liquor is being lost which can ill be spared, and it is...

is dear : up to the present, and so far as it has been brought into operation, the new Constitution is successful. ' The sombre prophecies of incompetence, disorder and...

By ROGER CLARKE E VERYONE knows that the golden road to a well-paid and dignified job lies through a Public School. And every parent who has tried to send his son to a Public...

By R. F. SCOTT T HE Sanitary Inspector has strong grounds for claiming to be the oldest of all local government officials. The aedile, who, in the days of the Roman Republic...

By W. V. EMANUEL T HE granting of Lio,000,000 worth of British credit to Turkey is a matter of more than financial importance. It is an economic transaction that has several...

By A BARRISTER-AT-LAW [This is the fourth of a series of articles on conditions in the principal careers open to boys and girls from public and secondary schools. Next week's...

By BERNARD CROFT T HE advertisements for the ideal 'busman's holiday have already begun to make their annual appearance. In his brief moments of spare time the parson's...

THE USE OF LEISURE IV By PETER DONNELLY [The writer, whose age is 24, is a labourer in a steel-works] T HEY have started a school now to instruct young men in love-making ;...

[So far as space permits questions from readers, particularly those arising out of articles in THE SPECTATOR, and dealing with fact, not opinion, will be answered on this page...

110D2A v. HE NLEIN From A CZECH CORRESPONDENT Prague, May 29th. To understand recent events in Czechoslovakia, it is necessary to realise one fact clearly ; after the...

MUSIC Verdi's Te Deum and Requiem Mass EVER since Hans von Billow, outraged to the depth of his German soul nurtured upon the " three B's," and blinded at the time by the...

" Doctor Rhythm." At the Plaza—" Convict 99" and " The Catch of the Season." At the Tivoli THE case of Bing Crosby is a sad one. Personable, not without a sense of humour,...

[D'un correspondent parisienj LA rehabilitation est a la ma.le. L'histo:ien moderne joue volontiers le role de terre-neuve ; it repeche la reputation d: personnages honnis au...

Furrin Art THE old battle between the Realists and the Superrealists seems to be breaking out again. A series of debates, organised by the Artists' International, the Group...

Trees and Development The best, perhaps, of all our writers on the FAT] sh countryside, once asked me to find him a cottage. The only essential that he demanded was that it must...

A pleasant country walk was saddened by a spectacle that met the rOede_strian at a point where the path, undefined by any hedge or fence, crossed a tilth. The picturesque sight...

The chief lure for the tit and most other birds is the pea-nut. Indeed, the owner of the cottage has such a beliei in this class of food that he has written a little monograph...

little Paradise for birds, lives a great tit that has attained to unusual courage or friend- liness. A daily exhibition is given of a particular act of friendly courage. The...

of Asia by Mr. Kingdon Ward, the blue meconopsis, now known as betonifolia, seemed to many of us the very loveliest of all flowers. The OPar blue of the wide petals, the golden...

migrations of those butterfly-like birds, the humming-birds, have been put on record in a beautiful and witty book just published in the United States. Yet more, surprising...

[Correspondents are requested to keep their letters as brief as is reasonably possible. The most suitable length is that of one of our " News of the Week " paragraphs. Signed...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—When, having spent several winters in one of the less- known of our West Indian islands, I read such statements as " the causes of the...

SIR,—The article by B. L. Jacot gave a glowing account of the work being done at Holloway. No one who knows anything of the attitude of the Holloway authorities will question...

Sm,—Your motoring correspondent is not convinced that any speed limit is effective. He is either ignorant of facts or wilfully blind to them. Mr. Alker Tripp, Assistant...

May loth, the writer on motoring appears to have overlooked the fact that the severity of accidents must be largely proportional to the energy of the vehicles involved. The...

to multiply indefinitely instances where authors have felt themselves to be influenced unconsciously. Indeed I doubt whether any imaginative writer can rely for inspiration on...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR, — Mr. Saywells' letter concerning the King's situation in respect of the Anglo-Irish Agreement is very informative, but even as he puts...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] Sm, — To the list contributed by Miss Gibbes may be added the names of two Muhammadan poets and two Christian women. A famous Egyptian...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR, —If the Czechoslovak question is, as popularly supposed, an instance of the clash between democratic and authoritarian ideals, I would be...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR, — In the joint interest of motorists and pedestrians the House of Lords Select Committee on Road Accidents might usefully round off its...

H. W. Heckstall-Smith in your issue of May 27th, I would suggest that there is a ." something else " in what constitutes a full Christian faith. This " else " embraces all that...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR, —Mr. Acheson Best was good enough to draw attention to the publications of "Friends of Europe" in his letter on the above subject, in...

a comment on one of the many points raised by Septuagenarian in his letter ? In his words on the Virgin Birth is he not being misled by that trap for the unwary—the " argument...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] Sra,—I had hoped that I had answered the query of Mr. Heckstall-Smith by anticipation. Is the following more succinct ? (x) George would be...

[To tke Editor of THE SPECTATOR] Snt,—The question as to who was the prototype of Thomas Atkins has long been a subject of speculation. The story commonly accepted associates...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—The paragraph in your last issue relating to the law of libel is very opportune. The present civil law of libel is not founded on a...

[To the Editor of 'THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—A Scientific Film Group of the Association of Scientific Workers was formed over a year ago to encourage the growth of good...

May 20th Mr. Walter Allen said : " But the problem of proletarian leisure is radical to our society. It cannot be solved by any palliatives ; the efforts of the B.B.C. and the...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] Sta,—The motto " God's Providence is my Inheritance " belongs, according to Burke's Peerage, to the Earls of Cork and This family is closely...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—May I correct a slip in my review of Mr. Tiisley's First Things First? " . . . his own point of the superiority of expensive education ....

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,-1 adopted and adapted to my own interests the method of " Rending with a Background," suggested by one of your writers a year or so back. I...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—As there is a real danger of Wordsworth's birthplace at Cockermouth being demolished and its site used for a ' bus station would you be...

[To the Editor of THE St.Ecrarotti SIR,—Professor E. L. Woodward, in his excellent article on Mr. Gladstone (The Spectator, May 20th), remarks : " Mr. Gladstone could make...

• • • • • • • • • Peace with the Dictators ? (Prof. C. K. Webster) W. H. Auden (Frederic Prokosch) The Life of Jules Cambon (E. L. Woodward) .. The War in...

Selected Poems. By W. H. Auden. (Faber and Faber. 3s. 6d.) IT is a good thing to have poetry popular and modish once more, and to have a poet whose new poems, even when they...

The Life of Jules Cambon. By Genevieve Tabouis. Translated from the French by C. F. Atkinson. (Cape. i5s.) FOR some years before the Great War the French Embassies in London...

AMID the welter of books, pamphlets and articles about Spain which pour from the presses on all sides (some of them con- tributions of permanent worth but more of them, to be...

The Green Fool. By Patrick Kavanagh. (Michael Joseph. los. 6d.) NOTHING is easier to describe than a commonplace auto- biography, few things more difficult than a good one. The...

READING the many books about Nazi Germany, now about Nazi Austria, which are being published, I have sometimes thought that the large proportion from Jewish sources ought so to...

I Caught Crippen. By ex-Chief Inspector Walter Dew. (Blackie. Its. 6d.) MAGISTRATES' clerks are an unpopular race. It is their job to be officious without the chance to be...

War and the Christian. By C. E. Raven. (Student Christian Movement Press. 5s.) CANON RAVEN'S own views on the subject he discusses in this volume are well known. He is one of...

By KATE O'BRIEN 8s. 6d.) Shadows Around the Lake is the English version of La Riche Miraculeuse, by Count Guy de Pourtales, a novel which has been awarded the prize of the...

forest of this kind is private property for whoever enters it and each owner knows its peculiar beauties better than anyone else. You can wander in it for a day, for an hour,...

it did a good deal I did not expect it to do and did it very well, also because it is certainly the model of all I have known in a good many years which I consider the best and...

little over 14-litres c pacity, rated at 14 and taxed at to guineas, the weight (crucial item) 254 cwt. It is about normal in its class, but it 'goes like a car of greater...

it suffers -a good deal in high summer from its far too numerous admirers who come in many coaches but (mercifully) mainly to the same places and always for the day only, it is...

The Shrinking World I am not at all sure that I welcome the latest announcement from the R.A.C. to the effect that, encouraged by the popu- larity of the Monte Carlo and R.A.C....

admittedly is, reduces the dwindling earth still further. There are far too many cars in it anyhow, whether you meet them in Surrey or Saigon, but there must still be a few...

By W. R. AYLING SOME amateur photographers seem to find it difficult to understand how and when to use a filter over the lens. It will perhaps simplify matters for them if it...

LORD SAMUEL in the Nineteenth Century defines " The Choice Before Us " as one between defiance of the dictators and a sincere attempt to tome to terms with them ; he himself...

ODHAMS PRESS SUCCESS OF THE WATFORD UNDERTAKING THE eighteenth annual general meeting of Odhams Press, Ltd., was held on May 26th in London. The Rt. Hon. Lord Southwood of...

HITLER has held off but all has not been quiet on the Western Holdings front. It is as if some imp of frustration had set his face against any sustained recovery in markets. Or...

MARKS AND SPENCER, LIMITED CONTINUED SUCCESS OF THE STORES MR. SIMON MARKS ON THE COMPANY'S FURTHER DEVELOPMENT INCREASING SEARCH FOR HIGHER QUALITY GOODS STAFF WELFARE THE...

RUBBER QUOTA SURPRISE THE International Rubber Regulation Committee went further than the market generally anticipated in reducing the quota for the third quarter of 1938 to 45...

For a good example of a capital reconstruction scheme which, although very severe, is also just, examine the William Beardmore proposals. This old-established Glasgow engin-...

G. Hay delivered on Wednesday to the shareholders of United Sua Betong left no doubt as to the difficulties which confront the rubber industry. It will (Continued on page 1039)...

BEECHAMS PILLS, LIMITED RECORD PROFIT MR. PHILIP E. HILL'S SPEECH THE tenth ordinary general meeting of Beechams Pills, Limited, was held in London on May 26th. Mr. Philip E....

UNITED SUA BETONG RUBBER ESTATES PROFITS OF RUBBER PRODUCERS PRODUCTION COSTS IN MALAYA THE OIL PALM INDUSTRY MR. J. G. HAY'S VIEWS THE twenty-ninth annual general meeting of...

Year after year with an almost monotonous regularity, Marks and Spencer, the chain store proprietors, continue to show increased profits and to extend their business. The...

industry is faced this year with higher prices for newsprint, so that Lord South- wood's review at the meeting of Odhams Press last week must be regarded as encouraging. While...

already experienced recession in their industry, which is the manu- facture of batteries, electrical and radio equipment. Mr Magnus Goodfellow announced at Wednesday's meeting...

Industrialists who have a large body of small investors interested in the companies they manage have long been familiar with the advantages which can be derived by mobilising...

Last year was difficult for issuing houses who, in addition to their capital issue business, are also large holders of securities. In view of these difficulties Sir Follett...

By ZENO IA prize of a Rook Token for one guinea will he given to the sender el the first correct solution of this week's crossword puzzle to be opened. liswelopes should be...

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