NEWS OF EEK A GRICAILTURE .11 Air raids, 183, 234, 235, 281, 305, 329, 354, 407, 569 Alarm and alert signals ••• 259 Albania, Italy and Greece, 158; fighting in -• -. 597. 665...

D EVELOPMENTS in France inspire nothing but mis- giving and depression. Members of the Petain Govern- ment are vying with each other in their enthusiasm for capitulation, the...

The position of King Carol of Rumania is hard indeed. First he felt compelled to bend his policy to the Nazis by restoring the Iron Guard to favour, and next he has had to yield...

Russia's ultimatum to Rumania and the march of her troops into Bessarabia and Bukovina recall her action when she occu- pied eastern Poland last September. Then she was...

The Petain Government in France has not ceased to apply pressure to the Commanders in the French Colonial Empire, ordering them to accept the terms of the surrender. The...

Captain Cyril Falls, the Military Correspondent of The Times, has performed an important service in preparing his excellent pamphlet, Was Germany Defeated in 1918? (Oxford...

Mr. Wendell Wilkie, elected Republican candidate for the Presidency at the Philadelphia Convention on the 6th ballot by an almost unanimous vote, has still to make his speech of...

Japan, having taken full advantage of Britain's preoccupa- tion with the war to press her demands concerning supplies to China via the Burma Road and Hong-kong, is now stating...

the British attitude of mind has been revealed by a few critics in America who, observing the faint-heartedness of the Petain Government in France, have wondered whether there...

It has pleased the German High Command to announce the occupation of the island of Guernsey as a "daring coup de main" of the German Air Force. Why " daring " is not evident,...

children Overseas. He has worked hard to initiate his scheme and on the whole it was welcomed by the House. The Lord Privy Seal was compelled to intervene after a bitter attack...

small bill, increasing benefits and contributions to keep pace with the cost of living. He made no apologies in his maiden speech. Why should he? He knows his subject inside...

defend their departments or introduce bills. Mr. Morrison is perhaps a little too sure of himself, but he is ably supported by Mr. Harold Macmillan, who at any rate has a...

The text of the Purchase Tax Bill, issued last Tuesday, sets forth the operation of the Tax as already explained in Parlia- ment. It describes the articles which will be...

Postage on this issue : Inland 'id., Foreign and Imperial id., Canada id.

Our Parliamentary Correspondent writes: The House of Commons is uneasy and should be uneasy. As I write we await the statement from the Prime Minister and the subsequent debate...

The Ministry of Supply has come to fill the place it deserves in the public mind since the Withdrawal from Dunkirk. Mr. Churchill has candidly admitted the severity of the...

G REAT BRITAIN today is threatened with imminent invasion. An essential condition of its successful defence is the successful defence of Ireland. And of the successful defence...

Presidency, Mr. Wendell Willkie, and the present President hold almost identical views on foreign policy means that a situation which might have paralysed the United States for...

C ONFUSED as the situation is internationally, it is hardly less so at home. The treatment of friendly aliens is one obvious case in point. The Home Office is urged on one side...

truth about Marshal Balbo's death will probably never be known. The latest version, that his aeroplane was shot down by Italian anti-aircraft guns, opening fire on an imaginary...

of a shock to British newspaper readers, who first heard of it last Saturday, June 29th. But the local Jersey papers had long since published full reports of the sittings of the...

per cent. of the unemployed quartet of experts whose apparent super- fluity in the Government's eyes has more than once been remarked on in this column. Sir Arthur Salter was...

collaborator, whose influence with the French fleet will not be negligible. Though his name has been little known in this country the choice in fact lay between him and Admiral...

. an evacuee teacher how far away France was. The latter replied with laudable veracity, "I don't know." So the child tried another teacher. This time an estimate was ventured:...

By STRATEGICUS I F Hitler is to retain the time table to which he has so far adhered it may be that before these words are read the invasion will be upon us. It has been...

By D. W. BROGAN T HE character of the French Government is now beginning to appear. Under the cover of two great military reputa- tions the forces of class and personal...

By ROBERT POWELL F EW things are more amazing and distressing to anyone who has lived in a country under Nazi occupation than to find the unfortunate illusion still persisting...

By GRANT DEXTER Ottawa, lune Fr FIE Canadian people in the past month have been tested as never before. It is, perhaps, too early to assess the change which has come over this...

By KENNETH LINDSAY, M.P. A DMITTEDLY this war has taken more than one erratic turning, but for some reason best known to the hierarchy our evacuation policy has always been...

THERE was a high ship sailed the main, Masts to the stars sailed she : Not a wraith of foam 'neath her fi3urehead shone So still was the sea. Happier the landsman with care...

ARMOUR FOR CIVILIANS By CHARLES MORGAN I T has been said that since the collapse of France there has been a "hardening of opinion among our people "; the change would be...

4. Rebecca." At the Gaumont — Behind the Guns." Generally released. IT would be a pity if Hitchcock's translation to Hollywood were to be overshadowed by a star. Let it be...

THE THEATRE Thunder Rock." At the Neighbourhood Theatre. (38 Harring- ton Road, S.W.7.) - IT has been said in defence of the drama that each age, be it decade or century,...

SIR, —Japan is taking advantage of the situation in Western Europe to make more active advances against the possessions and interests of various Powers in the East. This action...

Sta,—Mr. Hilaire Belloc objects to my reference to Cromwell as "this Cambridgeshire farmer." He was a farmer just as Mr. Belloc is a writer and I am a lawyer. Mr. Belloc tells...

letters on these pages should be brief. We are anxious not to reduce the number of letters, but unless they are shorter they must be fewer. Writers are urged to study the art of...

Stit,—W. R. M.'s epigram in your issue of June 21st impels me to ask whether there could not now be a close time for snarling at absent intellectuals. About half a dozen of...

SIR,—I agree with the general views of Major-General Fuller expressed in his interesting article published in your issue of June 28th as to the possibility of amphibious tanks...

Snt,—A perusal during the week-end of many newspaper articles on the collapse of France makes it apparent that what I believe to be the real reason for that tragic disaster is,...

Sta,—In Czarist Russia, a regime so utterly disregardful of human suffering, the political exiles transported to Siberia were allowed to be accompanied by their wives. Not...

be called "beleaguered." -England has that free access-; yet Dr. Shackleton Bailey says We are-now -living- in a beleaguerectfortress."- It is, on the contrary, Germany and the...

Snt,—May I take exception to the heading in your correspondence columns "The Siege of Britain "? For a "fortress" to be besieged it must be surrounded by the enemy in such a way...

Sin,—You write : "there would seem to be no justification for the suggestions rather freely made in this country that the Government, (of Marshal Petain) is not constitutionally...

French disaster was "too few children" is literally true. On the eve of the Battle of France there were half a million less French soldiers under arms than at a corresponding...

B. C.'s " letter in your issue of June 8th regarding the Aliens Problem? The attitude adopted by the authorities is indeed one of intolerance, even cruelty. Indiscriminately,...

of French leadership without also remembering that the war effort of the French people has been immensely greater than our own. Fair-minded British opinion recognises the...

Sia,—While it is evidently true that the immediate cause of the collapse in France is "too few tanks and too many traitors," it is also true that there have for several...

Stn,—Your reviewer says Macaulay did not explain how the style of the author of Evelina degenerated into "the worst ever known among men," or how, as a Court official, Miss...

The most beautiful of the mallows, Abutilon vitifolium, was cut down but not killed by frost. It is an aristocrat among wall-shrubs. The soft green leaves are vine-shaped, the...

Sta,—I was surprised to see that Mr. Morgan in his article in last week's Spectator should make such an error as to write: "Sunday, June r6th, the day after the anniversary of...

Idle Land Between the war of 1914 and that of 1940 the acreage of land lost to cultivation in this country was very great. Much of this loss is also irreparable ; gravel pits,...

Sta,—Under the above heading Mr. H. E. Bates tells us, in your last issue, how he allowed a private soldier for three minutes to indulge In "casual blabbing of highly important...

My recent note on the pursuit of the cuckoo by smaller birds has brought the usual explanation: that the adult cuckoo so much resembles the sparrow-hawk that small birds attack...

stit,--It is hoped that in quieter times an authoritative life will be published of my father-in-law, the late George Lansbury. No date can be fixed for this, but if material is...

SIR,—Apropos of " Strategicus's " comments on Marshal Petain's apology, it is worth recalling a story told by Julien Benda in Un Regulier dans le Siècle. Someone asked General...

my education at a public school when the peace ballot, disarmament and the League of Nations were the dominant topics. Consequently 0.T.C.s were the exception rather than the...

all—there seems little need for three separate defence services—i.e. A.R.P., the special constabulary and L.D.V., whose members are l argely drawn from what is virtually a...

Food Production in Western Europe. By P. Lamartine Yates. (Longmans. Is.) THE recurring depressions in agriculture have prompted Mr. Lamartine Yates, working in association with...

Devonshire House in Regency Days READERS of Lord David Cecil's The Young Melbourne will remember his brilliant portrait of the Whig society which centred upon Devonshire...

The Pattern of Freedom. Chosen by Bruce L. Richmond. (Faber. 7s. 6d.) AN anthology cannot be reviewed. What underlies it is the compiler's method and the compiler's taste, and...

Miss OSBORN'S book, though not very long, would have been better if it had been shorter. The academic pressure which compels so many students in these days to inflate an essay...

The Development of Modern France : 1870-1939. By D. W. Brogan. (Hamish Hamilton. 21s.) THERE is a certain tragic appositeness in the appearance at the present juncture of this...

AT a moment when brutality, cynicism and corruption bestride the world more arrogantly than ever in human history, it is well, and refreshing, to find time to read in those...

John Gay. By William Henry Irving. (Duke University Press. $3.50.) IT is doubtful whethei Gay is a figure important enough, or even substantial enough, to be the subject of a...

By CUSTOS EVEN in these critical days markets have not lost their capacity for quick recovery. Not only has it been possible to stop the rot in equities which threatened the...

6d.) MR. STRACHEY has been unlucky ; this lively little manifesto is Sitzkrieg, not Blitzkrieg, literature ; and events both at home and abroad over the last few weeks have put...

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