NEWS OF THE WEEK ABSENTEEISM Abyssinia ... 502 African bases and Vichy ... 122 Agriculture : workers' wages, 458, 502; effect of the new call-up ... 570 Air war, the, 50;...

While the world waits for Mr. Roosevelt's Independence Day speech it has had the opportunity of considering unusually out- spoken utterances by two of the President's Cabinet...

M STALIN'S broadcast on Wednesday night was com- . pletely candid regarding Russia's losses of territory. Fortunately she has plenty of that to lose. So far, according to M....

The case of the oil-tanker Scheherazade ' is disturbing. This French vessel, bound from the United States for Casablanca, in French Morocco, was detained by the British naval...

No one can doubt that on a short view menace pays in international affairs. Sweden has afforded the latest example of that. Lamentably deficient in the independence of spirit...

General Sir Archibald Wavell stands so high in the estima- tion of the public that his transference from the Middle East to the Command in India has naturally caused...

The appointment of his successor, General Auchinleck, must be considered in relation to yet another appointment— that of Mr. Oliver Lyttelton to be a Minister of State repre-...

Information about important international arrangements for the conservation of food was given by Mr. Greenwood in the House of Commons last week and in two White Papers...

The petrol-cut is a matter of public importance, for in spite of the number of cars laid up millions of people are still dependent on motor-transport of one kind and another....

The Royal Air Force has displayed in the past week activity unprecedented in its history. In accordance with Mr. Churchill's declaration it has been bombing enemy territory by...

T HE appointment of Lord Beaverbrook to be Minister of Supply in succession to Sir Andrew Duncan comes at a moment when action taken on the home front may turn the scale in the...

Oxford —Mr. Asquith—is dead. But I am glad he did not live to see a wnter he so unreservedly admired as he did Mr. P. G. Wode- house broadcasting from a German radio-station,...

existence of another Spectator—published in the Gold Coast. A quota- tion from it which reaches me consists of an obituary-notice. It is not as recent as I could have wished,...

E STIMATES of the duration of the war have no excessive value; psychological and other incalculable factors play too large a part for reliable prediction to be possible. But...

sition to any thought of American co-operation with an administration which he stigmatises in damning language, interest me a good deal, for they recall a conversation I had...

the egg-order is a gigantic blunder which Lord Woolton will still have to have the courage to cancel. That it will result on a large scale in the killing of laying fowls for...

MISS MERCY ARYELE LOMOKO OF ACCRA. Late Miss Mercy Aryele Lomoko of Accra, whose blessed and happy memory shall never be in oblivion, and whose intelligence of demise faltered...

CRITICAL DAYS IN RUSSIA By STRATEGICUS rp HE struggle in Russia is approaching a crisis. Much of 1 the German week-end report can be discounted. If, as has been asserted, the...

By PETER MATTHEWS A VISIT to Berlin in April, 1939, gave me an opportunity of discussing with a German friend of many years' stand- ing the development of German policy towards...

By T. E. UTLEY A BOUT a century ago, when the great question that agitated political discussion in England was whether or not the Corn Laws should be abolished, there developed...

By GRAHAM GREENE A LREADY they seem to belong to history—those tourists of the 3o's ; they have the dignity and the pathos of a period, as they gather, the older ones in...

By PHILIP HEW W E are not, on the whole, an inspiring lot, those of us who are sitting in the shade in this war ; though it is not from any fault of ours that we are here. Age...

THE wise man, sunlight dappling his hair, Sat in the rising grass. A million fingers Caressed his feet, took greenhold of his chair. His disciples spoke together ; " If he...

I do not recall ever seeing a word in praise of railway-flowers ; not the flowers of the country-station, but of the cuttings. In early spring the primroses in the south were as...

Wildfowl Inquiry It is a fairly long time since I was able to give any news of the International Committee for Bird Preservation. Perhaps I hardly need to say that this war has...

like brown-golden wine, and the fish were not biting well. They were walking on the water. All evening you could see this happening. Wherever the water-lilies were thick enough...

SOMETIMES Death tires of all the old and tattered Souls that stand thronging at his dark iron gate, Of eyes lack-lustre and of limbs scar-shattered, Aims for a child and lets...

There are several methods of saving tomato-seed. The best I have seen is also the simplest. Fruit is taken from selected plants (I have seen a plant of Plumpton King recently,...

4 , Western Union." At the Gaumont.-- , . I Wanted Wings." At the Plaza and the Carlton. Western Union is a title that conjures up so many romantic vistas of American life that...

Bessarabia .is not only irrelevant but essentially mistaken. It seemed probable at the time and now is perfectly obvious that each " aggres- sion " on the part of Russia was...

Stet,—Mr. Angus Watson draws attention to the need for the fullest safeguards " when the war is over " to ensure that " at no future date will this nation be a party to selling...

" PLANNING THE WAR" Sut,—The review of my book, Planning the War, by Strategicus, your brilliant and knowledgeable contributor, published in your issue of June 27th, is so...

SIR, —In your leading article in your issue of June 27th commenting on the German invasion of Russia you state that the Government of the U.S.S.R. deserves no sympathy and that...

Sm,—Under the heading " Slaughter on the Roads," The Times sum- marises the position as follows: " The figures of fatal casualties on the roads are becoming extremely serious....

Sm,—My letters usually criticise something or somebody! Today I feel strongly inclined to write in support of " Janus's " remarks on the inequality of paper-rationing. However,...

issue of June 27th it is stated that paper is allocated not in respect of a particular publication but to a publishing house in respect of all the periodicals it produces. I...

28 Orchard Court; Edgware. G. G. HETHERINGTON. [Because it would very seriously strain the eyesight of many readers. —En., The Spectator.]

where a civil question, even from a poor soul, is so civilly answered," and may He reward Mr. Comfort with many, many editions of his poems. As he has taken such courteous pains...

been the text for this controversy. I am never quite clear about differentiations between rhyming prose, verse, " poems " and poems ; to talk of good poetry and bad poetry is...

" A Headmaster " has expressed what is in the minds of many who wistfully and a little anxiously observe the genesis of a new youth movement in this country. In his article "A...

Sm,—In your issue of June 27th " Janus " writes: " In this authority's view the Russian military communiques are likely to approximate in reliability to our own rather than to...

Sta,—I would like to correct an impression given in my notes of June 27th on the Iceni estate at Surfleet. The sentence " its 1940 sugar-beet returns were 27 per cent. above the...

Sut,—The China Medical Aid Committee appeals for assistance to carry on its work. For four years China has held out against the aggressor and war has produced devastation and...

Sta,--I sign myself as under and not by my name, because I believe that mine, with my family's, is an ordinary case, probably similar to that of most of those who took part as...

Snt,—Re the article " Restraints on Parliament " in your issue of June loth in which it asks " whose is the responsibility for the failure to warn the country of the German...

TRUTH is not only stranger than fiction. It can also be far more dramatic. The story of King Leopold as told by M. Cammaerts, who has based his account on documentary evidence...

Russia's New Army The Red Army Moves. By Geoffrey Cox. (Gollancz itSs.) THIS book has a particularly topical appeal, since it gives in careful detail the story of the first...

THE main thesis of this book is that Britain has departed from her old refusal to discriminate in law upon grounds of race and colour. Dr. Leys argues that the colour-bar is...

From Dunkirk to Benghazi. By Strategicus. (Faber and Faber. Ins. 6d.) THE most interesting pages in this very interesting book are those that deal with the collapse of France....

Folios of New Writing : Spring 1941. (The Hogarth Press. 5s.) MR. JOHN LEHMANN'S half-yearly miscellany of verse and prose is now in its fifth year, and it is obvious that the...

The Poetry of Matthew Arnold. A Commentary by C. B. Tinker and H. F. Lowry. (Oxford University Press: I2S. 6d.) ARNOLD'S poetry was escapist. It arose, as the authors of this...

MR. ALEX. COMFORT, a young Cambridge undergraduate, who is also a poet, has now written a novel. No Such Liberty is the .history of a young German refugee who came to England in...

By CUSTOS AFTER so rapid an advance markets were bound to pause for a breather. News from the Russian front has provided an adequate excuse. If prices were really dependent on...

Corporation, Ltd., was held on June 25th, at 95 Gresham Street, London, E.C. 2. The following is an extract from the statement of the chairman (Mr. J. R. Govett) circulated to...

KEPONG (MALAY) RUBBER ESTATES THE thirty-sixth annual general meeting of Kepong (Malay) Rubber Estates, Ltd., was held on June 30th at the Abercorn Rooms, Great Eastern Hotel,...

CABLE AND WIRELESS (HOLDING) CONTRIBUTION TO WAR EFFORT THE twelfth annual general meeting of Cable and Wireless (Holding) Limited was held on June 30th in London. the Rt....

FINANCIAL STRENGTH MAINTAINED THE annual general meeting of the " Shell " Transport and Trading Co., Ltd., was held on July ist in London, the Rt. Hon. Viscount Bearsted, M.C....

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

JULY 18th SOLUTION ON The winner of Crossword No. 119 is R. N. Currey, 3 Beverley Road, Colchester, Essex.

ODHAMS PRESS LIMITED DIVIDEND INCREASED TO 7 : 1 PER CENT. THE twenty-first annual general meeting of Odhams Press Ltd. was held on June 26th at the Connaught Rooms, Great...

I• AT the forty-first annual general meeting held on July znd the chairman, Lord Luke, said: Ladies and Gentlemen: As stated in the report, there was a further improvement in...

CABLE AND WIRELESS LIMITED (THE OPERATING COMPANY) DIVIDEND OF 4% SIR EDWARD WILSHAW'S REVIEW THE twelfth ordinary general meeting of Cable and Wireless Limited the Operating...