W ITH Germany dissolving in cataclysm and chaos, the San Francisco Conference (about whose fortunes the new Ger- man Foreign Minister, Cdunt Schwerin von Krosigk, shows him-...

S O the last act of the stupendous drama is played out. Hubris is followed relentlessly by Ate—overweening arrogance by inevitable doom. There is something tragically terrible...

and Mussolini was a journalist before he became a politician. The only time I met him was as a professional colleague. He was reprisenting his paper and I mine at the Cannes...

By STRATEGICUS H IMMLER'S offer, made a week last Wednesday, introduced a new factor into the outlook, and Doenitz's public assumption of control does not necessarily remove...

By MAVIS TATE, M.P. When I visited Buchenwald, I saw in the first but I entered— which had been hastily arranged as a temporary hospital by the Americans—human bodies which...

By BRIGADIER STEPHEN H. LONGRIGC S IR KINAHAN CORNWALLIS has resigned his position as H.M.'s Ambassador in Baghdad, after four years' service there, and is reported homeward...

By CONSTANCE REAVELEY I N discussing the future of British villages, the volume Country Planning (a new edition of which has recently been published); prepared by the...

By H. D. WALSTON N a recent debate in the House of Lords, Lord Listowel is re- I ported in Hansard as having said that " our dairy cattle . . are riddled with disease." (He...

By HAROLD NICOLSON S HAKESPEARE, in Henry IV, compared rumour to a pipe or flute " blown by surmises" and so easy to m.anipulate:— " That the blunt monster with uncounted...

" Le Dernier Milliardaire." At the Academy.----" The Fifth Chair." At the London Pavilion " Son of the Soviet East." At the Taller. THE revival of Rene Clair's Le Dernier...

"Perchance to Dream." At the Hippodrome.—" Desert Rats." At the Adelphi. DESPITE the understandable distrust of experts inevitably acquired in time by all intelligent people,...

ART I HAD the impression that a number of eminent English printers were weeping in corners, at the National Gallery, on the day I visited the exhibition there. I felt that they...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Sin,—The recent revelations do not perhaps add much to what was akeady known of the horrors of the Nazi concentragon camps. The British White paper,...

Sitt,—As a Slovene from Trst, who was ignominiously tried and im- prisoned by the Italian authorities for a never-committed crime under applause; and wild satisfaction of...

Snt,—At my age I don't think I should be a success as a miner, but I could name a score of other occupations that would attract me even less. When the John Dunns reach the years...

SIR, —Mr. Ajibola wishes to refute Mr. Henson's statement. that the majority of Nigerians live in villages accessible only by tracks through the forest or bush. He endeavours to...

letter in your issue of April 20th with regard to the Nazi concentration camp at Buchenwald. It has since appeared that this is but one of many, but certainly one of these camps...

of the horrors of the concentration camps can be easily discounted. Every single German was frightened to death to be put into such a camp. The Germans did not conceal the...

Sw,—Many of your readers arc in your debt for your characterisation of Dr. Maclntyre's defiance of Parliamentary usages, with its humiliating sequel. Doubtless you will agree...

SIR,—I wonder how many of your readers know that gifts of non- perishable food, clothing and other necessities can be sent to, and are gratefully received by, The Royal...

sm,—I n The Spectator of April zoth, I see ;hat, in 'commenting on the voluntary service people might do in helping reconstruction, " Janus " says: " The work of Children's Care...

SIR,—May I support the admirable article of Miss Irene Ward on " The Needs of France." She makes two constructive suggestions: firstly, the appointment of a Minister - of...

Sin,—Captain Nevile Wallis's tribute to General Sir Frederick Pile is well deserved. I can endorse it because many years ago I had the honour and privilege of " instructing "...

Sta,—May I add a detail or two to " Janus's " remarks in your issue of April 27th about the founding of St. Paul's Anglican Cathedral at Malta? Queen Adelaide, widowed by the...

IT is traditional in the village 'calendar that the first gooseberries should be gathered for Whit Sunday, and often the innocents have to be murdered to maintain the record....

SIR,—Sir John Anderson in his Budget speech offers some consolation to the wage-earners of this country by suggesting a relief in the reduction of income-tax at some later date....

LONG ago, when forth from Egypt Came a people saved and free, All creation hailed the marvel, Rock and river, sky and sea: Jordan fled, the mountains trembled, Heaven and earth...

The Claims of Candour The Yogi and the Commissar and other Essays. By Arthur Koestler. (Cape. 10s. 6c1.) AGAIN and again in reading this absorbing, disturbing and mad- dening...

• My Father in China. By James Burke. (Michael Joseph. 15s.) Tins book constitutes a remarkable achievement. Primarily the biography of a man whose development as a missionary...

Citizen Tom Paine. By Howard Fast. (John Lane. 10s. 6d.) A GREAT deal of the best fiction is based on the observed of persons known to the author, including the life of the auth...

Louis The Sceptical Chymist Trenchard More. (Oxford University Press. 21s.) . IN its renaissance after the long inactive period of the Middle Ages, science drew strength from...

Call the Next Witness. By Philip Woodruff. (Cape. ,8s. 6do The Visitor. By Carl Randau and Lemke Zugsmith. (Gollancz. 5s.) IN a brief note Mark Aldanov, author of The Fifth...

winner of Crossword No. 319 is J. A. BRENDON, ESQ., England's Side, Queen Camel, Yeovil, Somerset.

one guinea will be awarded to the sender of the first correct 'solution of this week's croisword to be opened after noon on Tuesday week, May .1 sh. • Envelopes should...

Tedious and Brief. By James Bridle. (Constable. los.) Tins is a book of collected scraps, to be read scrappily at odd moments here and there. Mr. Bridie frankly confesses that...

A NEW literary periodical deserves a welcome, especially when of such excellent quality as is the first number of Orion, a new review, edited by Rosamund Lehmann and C. Day...

bv CUSTOS HAVING appropriately celebrated what is well recognised as a con. structive Budget, the stock market is now showing fresh signs of hesitancy. At the current level of...