T HE knot which had developed in the negotiations for a German settlement now seems likely to be loosened, if not quite removed. The military governors having given the...

which spent an active and productive week-end at Brussels, is, of course, an unofficial body, but since it can claim that its efforts galvanised the Governments into creating...

- The statements by two Communist leaders, M. Thorez in France and Signor Togliatti in Italy, to the effect that Communists would support any .Russian army which might enter...

The defeat of the limited Bill for the prohibition of the hunting of stags, otters and badgers and the coursing of hares and rabbits ; by the unexpectedly large majority of 214...

Legitimately exhilarated by the South Hammersmith election result everybody who is anybody in the Labour Party converged on Shanklin last week-end to be copiously photographed,...

After Egypt, it is the turn of Transjordan and the Lebanon to discuss armistice terms with Israel. In the case of Lebanon there should be no great difficulty in reaching an...

Yugoslav intervention in the Austrian treaty talks now being con- ducted in London has so far proved a waste of time. This, of course, was very far from being unexpected, and...

While the debate on the Air Estimates in the House of Commons on Tuesday gave ample opportunity for discussion of the supersession of Mr. d'Erlanger as Chairman of British...

The fact that the Post Office made a profit of L19,500,000 in the financial year 1947-48 is calculated to give more satisfaction to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who will no...

I N the House of Commons this has been Private Members' week. It is true that both Mr. Tom Williams, the Minister of Agricul- ture, and Mr. Manningham-Buller from the...

I T is a little surprising that Mr. Mayhew's unfortunate statement to the effect that British recovery is now complete should have been resented primarily by certain Americans....

Eton at the end of the summer half, should succeed to the Provostship left vacant by the death of Sir Henry Marten was no doubt in the natural order of things ; at any rate it...

case of Professors at Oxford and Cambridge and some—but not all—other universities is to be dealt with on a basis of justice. That has happened in a roundabout way. The...

Shanklin were mitigated by selections from the Minister of Education's inexhaustible repertory of anecdotes. I shall be surprised if this was not one of them: As two men were...

T HE air is still thick with political rumour, all of it pure specula- tion and very little of it intelligent speculation. The story that Labour would go for a snap election if...

on Tuesday rather startled his audience by observing: " I have had a long and not very distinguished career. Perhaps that is because I was a war- baby. I was born during the...

for 1949—takes occasion to recall that at the time of its first issue, in 1869, the national income was £75,000,000, income tax 5d. in the £, and the total of the National...

heard of the small number of aeroplanes needed to serve the travelling public of the world adequately. And the emotion does not wear off. In the debate on the Air Estimates in...

been turned in the past week, is not only one of the Labour Party's intellectuals but one of its (fairly numerous) men of means. Aged thirty-three, and unmarried, he is the son...

RESEARCH IN THE COLONIES By LORD BAILEY O UR newspapers have lately given much publicity to the dis- covery of a drug which it is hoped will protect cattle from the disease...

By R. H. NIXON ,,ll AD Mohammed Ali concentrated his efforts on the discovery of the Nile Valley up to its sources, and on conquering the immense territories through which the...

By EDWIN REYNOLDS I T is not easy to convey in words the precise effect of the Victorian wall-paintings in the Palace of Westminster. Critically con- sidered, the best of them...

THE SPECTATOR readers are urged to place a firm order with their newsagent or to take out a subscription. Newsagents cannot afford to take the risk of carrying stock, as unsold...

By HANS ALBERT KLUTHE W HEN I was leaving Frankfurt to spend ten days in Britain, a British officer said to me : " You will see that you can live better in defeated Germany...

By A. D. C. PETERSON M Y researches into Modern Language began with the Sixth Form's essays. Each boy was writing on a chosen subject, and they asked me to get some modern...

MINDS UNDER TEST By PATRICK RAMSAY (Jesus College, Cambridge) /11 WICE a week about a score of young men and women, I summoned to undergo a test of " personal qualities," take...

grounds of merit, but it would be satisfactory if writers from other universities would enable the monotonous recurrence of Cambridge names to be avoided.—Ed., Spectator.]

By HAROLD NICOLSON L ORD JOWITT is a popular Chancellor. On ceremonial occasions he represents with fitting grandeur the dignity of his high office ; but once divested of his...

Forest." (New Gallery and Tivoli.)—" Edward My Son." (Empire.)—" The Blue Lagoon." (Gaumont and Marble Arch Pavilion.) THE adaptation into a screen play of Miss Marjorie...

The Unquiet Spirit By Jean-Jacques Bernard. (Arts). IT was perhaps inevitable that this revival of M. Jean-Jacques Bernard's muted and wistful little play should seem in the...

IDEAL HOME EXHIBITION The Ideal Home Exhibition is, of course, only partly concerned with ideal homes. From kitchens to kitchen gadgets to foodstuffs is a reasonable sequence...

THIS year the Government quietly raised the ban on the import of works of art for sale. Three West End galleries have so far been conspicuous in grasping the opportunities...

ON February 26th the Bach Choir and the London Philharmonic Society, conducted by Dr. Reginald Jacques, performed Mozart's Requiem and Walton's Belshazzar's Feast at the Albert...

ENGLISH BOOKS AND TRINITY LIBRARY Snt,—There can be no dispuing that Janus and Sir Stanley Unwin have logic on their side in claiming that there is now an anomaly in the...

SIR, —I expected that the Ministry of National jnsurance would try to shift the onus for its conduct upon my mother or her representatives, but not that its Chief Information...

SIR, —Mr. Wise asks whether when Eritrea is united to Ethiopia "we are to expect a new wave of homeless refugees." Certainly not. On returning to Ethiopia in January, 1941,...

SIR,—My attention has just been drawn to one Janus who is allowed, it seems, to use the columns of the Spectator for the purpose of implying, falsely, that anyone who is...

Sta,—Your placing of Mr. Knight-Bruce's letter at the head of your correspondence columns means, perhaps, that you invite someone to fall for it. Accordingly, here goes. The...

Sta,—Your Cambridge correspondent of February 25th seems to question Sir Philip Mitchell's sense of history and asks: " Where were the Masai when land rights were being...

SIR,—You refer in an editorial paragraph to my letter to The Times claiming that Fermanagh, Tyrone and Armagh had voted in a majority against remaining in the United Kingdom....

SIR,—Perhaps I may be allowed, as the one who started the correspon- dence in The Times and elsewhere on the plight of Letcombe Bassett, to make a brief comment on Mr. Victor...

in different parts of England! During a whole fortnight spent in the Cumberland Lakes some of us saw exactly four sorts of birds, after leaving the gulls and jackdaws of the...

(Bell and Sons. 10s. 6d.), Mr. Franklin, the learned author, gives an account of the thirteenth- century manor " with its dovecotes, fish-pond and vineyards." How is it that all...

the north-west is of the rabbits. In several farms known to me they were numerous enough to be a nuisance three years ago. Today, though no measures have been taken against...

SIR,—The answer to your correspondents, J. H. C. Brooking and R. E. Martin, is quite obvious. There were two Kiplings: one of them was the great master of the short stories,...

two varieties that might have a wider vogue: a white daphne and a white Stylosa iris. Neither to my taste is a rival to the purple-flowering sorts ; but they are a pleasant...

the effect with which Mr. Bonham-Carter credits them in his article, The Small Village? This village, with a permanent population of slightly over 300, is within two miles of a...

THERE is seldom much poetry in 'the doggerel of the weather prophets (though old Tusser gives evidence of an occasional spark), but a couplet just introduced to me for the first...

SUBSCRIPTION RATES Ordinary edition to any address in the World. 52 weeks L1 10s. Od. 26 weeks 15s. Air Mail to any Country in Europe 52 weeks L2 7s. 6d 26 weeks £1 3s. 9d....

IT seems to be generally understood that Mr. Thurber's books are funny. It is, I imagine, also generally understood that Shakespeare's tragedies are tragic. There is little need...

Yeats-Brown Francis Yeats-Brown (1886-1944). By John Evelyn Wrench. (Eyre and Spottiswoode. 15s.) THOUGH he was continually trying to persuade the world of some- thing,...

The Autobiography of Benjamin Rush : His Travels Through Life together with his Commonplace Book for 1789-1813. Edited with Introduction and Notes by George W. Corner....

On Seeming to Presume. By Lawrence Munn. (Faber and Faber. 8s. 6d.) THE Mediterranean summer is a more prolonged season of English poetry than the indigenous winter. The...

The Reign of Queen Victoria. By Ikctor Bolitho. (Collins. 16s.) THE title of Mr. Bolitho's new book is not happy. The book is not so much about the " reign " (which usually...

Staffordshire. By Phil Drabble. (Robert Hale. 15s.) Tans volume in the County Book Series is packed with interest. The author has a deep knowledge of the county and its people,...

Studies in the Public Records. By V. H. Galbraith. (Nelson. 6s.) TIME was when the format of a book gave some indication of what a reader might find, or might be deluded into...

THOSE fashionable suggestions that the novel as an art form is dead will remain academic as long as it keeps to its proper task, the interpretation of life. Life changes and...

OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, greater son of an immensely popular father, was born in 1841 and served for twenty years as a judge of the Massachusetts Supreme Court. Transferred at...

IA 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, March 15th. Envelopes...

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By CUSTOS Wrrifoifr any solid support markets are following their traditional course in a period of economic readjustment—a gentle slide. Although there is no serious pressure...