5 OCTOBER 1929

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News of the Week Great Britain and the Soviet.

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THE most interesting event of the week has been the arrangement between Mr. Henderson and M. Dovgalevsky, the Soviet Ambassador in Paris, for the restoration of Anglo-Ruisian...

It is being objected by those who are opposed on

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principle to any restoration of relations that such a pledge is of no value. Very likely it is not ; it has several times been given and has always been broken ; but if Mr....

The Labour Party Conference.

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The Annual Conference of the Labour Party opened on Monday at Brighton. Nearly all the Government's statements of importance this week have been made to the Conference. No doubt...

LeWes. M. - Dovgalevsky _ called for . Mr. Henderson at

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the Dome at Brighton, where the Labour Party Conference was being held, and they .drove away .simultaneously motor-cars. In an announcement after the conversation Mr. Henderson...

EDITORIAL AND PUBLISHING OFFICES : 99 Gower Street, London, fV.C.1.—A

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Subscription to the SPECTATOR costa Thirty Shillings per antrum,. inachieilitgrtage; to any part of the world. The SPECTATOR is registered as a Newspaper. The Poatage on this...

It must be remembered that the Government are under an

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obligation to . get Parliamentary sanction before any of Mr. Henderson's proposals are put into effect.. We shall be surprised if most Members of Parliament do not admit that...

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The Labour Party Constitution The last business on Tuesday was

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a consideration of the proposed new Constitution for the Party. The Con- ference was obviously hostile to the proposal that there should be a new class of Associate Members who...

When questions were put to Mr. Thomas he chose an

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unpromising line of country in putting some of the blame for unemployment upon the Gold Standard and the rise in the Bank Rate. He neither made himself clear nor convinced his...

Miss Bondfield The next business on Tuesday was the debate

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on Miss Bondfield's policy at the Ministry of Labour which had been postponed from the previous day. In spite of an appeal from Mr. Lansbury, Mr. W. T. Kelly refused to withdraw...

He preferred, however, to talk of the " conquest of

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the country by the worker." If that means that the wage-earner must have better conditions, we whole- heartedly agree, but it might equally well mean that the wage-earner is to...

The Presidential address was delivered by Mr. II. Morrison, the

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Minister of Transport. He asked his audience to remember that he was speaking as President of the Conference and not as a Minister. We need 'not follow hini in detail, for he...

Mr. Thomas and Unemployment.

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The " star " speaker at the Conference on Tuesday was Mr. J. H. Thomas. He was rather ill at ease in dealing with unemployment, and his customary geniality withered before the...

There always seems to be this defect in Labour Party

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Conferences, that Presidential addresses bear very little relation to facts. This is true in a much greater degree than of the Conferences of any other Party. It is a pity ; and...

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Austria Herr Schober, who succeeded Dr. Streeruwitz as Austrian Chancellor

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last week, has secured what the Austrian people above all need—a short truce to rival political demonstrations. When Herr Schober took over the Chancellorship he had- no time to...

* *. * The Shearer Inquiry .

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It is impossible to summarize the tangled, inquiry whi . ch is being conducted by a Sub-Committee of the American Senate into the propagandist methods of Mr. William B. Shearer....

The Bank Rate On Thursday, September 26th, the Bank Rate

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was raised from 51- per cent to 61 per cent. As was expected there was some outcry from industrialists who said that all their schemes for developing business would be thwarted...

Egypt.

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On Wednesday Mahmud Pasha, the Egyptian Prime Minister, resigned. The Wafd had made his position impossible by refusing to join in any Coalition Govern- ment. It was only a...

Bank Rate, 6/ per cent., changed from 5f per cent.,

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on September 26th, 1929. WaiLoan(5 per cent) was on Wednesday 101; on Wednesday week 101* ; a year ago, 102 It ; Funding Loan (4 per cent.) was on Wednesday 821x.d, ; on...

The present experience has been no exception to the rule.

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This week the foreign exchanges have turned distinctly in favour of Great Britain. All the principal exchanges, including the French, show an advance. On Tuesday more than...

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The Political Situation at Home

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T HE present popularity of the Labour Government is one of the oddest of Time's revenges. For our part, we never supposed that when a Labour Government came into office for the...

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An American View of Naval Reduction N OW that Mr. MacDonald

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has taken the stage in the United States, it will be helpful to reflect upon the American point of view on naval reduction. Thus shall we better understand the difficulties. In...

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Europe Revisited

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III.—Vienna : The Dawn [Two years ago, the Spectator published a series of articles called " Europe after Twenty Years," recording impressions re- ceived during a tour through...

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The Reunion of Christendom

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IL—The Orthodox Point of View [The Archbishop Clermanos of Thyateira, who contributes the following article, is well known as a distinguished ecclesiastic of the Orthodox...

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Child-Birth and Mother-Death

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T HE article in the Spectator of August 31st on " The Health of the People" comes to hand simultaneously with various publications in America bearing upon what is perhaps the...

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Birds in a Rhodesian Garden

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D URING six weeks spent in bird-watching in Southern Rhodesia my early hours--from five or six a.m. to breakfast-time—were spent in the Bushveld away from sight of man, but...

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Dinner subscribers who are changing their addressee are asked to

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notify the SPECTATOR Office BEFORE MIDDAY on MONDAY Or EAca WEBS. The previous address to which the paper has been sent and receipt reference number should be quoted.

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Youth

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BY AN ELDER CRITIC. S OME few elder people who regard themselves as exceedingly tolerant, far seeing, and wide-minded, declare that the years have brought no essential cleavage...

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Correspondence

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A LETTER FROM EAST AFRICA. [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] • Sut,—Your correspondent, after a long time " in the blue," and a visit home, has had the opportunity of a tour...

Art

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THE CAMPDEN HILL CLUB. WALKER GALLERIES. Tim Walker Galleries, New Bond Street, are opening their autumn season with an exhibition of paintings, drawings and sculpture by the...

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A . Hundred Years Ago

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THE SPECTATOR, OCTOBER 35D, 1829. . A Rom/IN-nu OLD MAN An old man, residing in the - neighbourhood of Glasgow, lately found in a corner of his cottage a miniature of his wife,...

The Cinema

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SOME FILMS IN LONDON. IT is surprising and a little old fashioned that the English film version of Mr. Eden Phillpotts' The American Prisoner should open with two long...

Poetry

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The Pool TILE night is very still ; and quietly now Lie all those dark ephemera of thought Wherewith the busy day was occupied. Nought is his mind now but a gleaming pool...

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MR. BERTRAND RUSSELL.

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Arriving in New York last week Mr. Bertrand Russell delivered himself, through a receptive Press, of a characteristic attack upon American institutions, including the...

* *

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AMERICA AND THE TENTH ASSEMBLY. Concurrently with Mr. H. G. Wells' outburst against the League of Nations several American commentators were expressing the opinion that the...

BRITISH FILMS IN AMERICA.

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Recalling their own early trials, American film producers are not in the least surprised at the present troubles in the British film industry. Taking the field late and...

American Notes of the Week

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(By Cable) MR. MACDONALD'S VISIT. Messages from the King and from Mr. Baldwin and the attitude of the British Press and public when Mr. MacDonald embarked last week combined...

IMMIGRATION LAWS.

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More rigorous enforcement of the immigration laws is being attempted by the Immigration Department under the impetus of the Administration's desire to instil a respect for law....

THE SHEARER. CASE.

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It is puzzling to find an influential London correspondent of one important American paper cabling a protest at the prominence given to the Shearer case in the British Press,...

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For fishermen in general the season has been a complete

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failure ; though a few very big fish have been caught. It is odd that numbers of fishermen in very different streams have been struck by the unusual number of coarse fish. They...

A HARVEST FESTIVAL.

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The following is a reminiscence from the records of the best countryman I knew ; and I apologize to his shade for the doggerel: A HARVEST THANKSGIVING. " ' No set the walnut...

AUSTRALIAN PLAGUES.

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Australians sometimes claim that they have no native plagues : all are imported. This is not wholly true. _Mice and caterpillars (resembling our tent caterpillars) are certainly...

Country Life

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A FISH MIGRATION. The way of a fish in the sea and river is not the least of the Solomonic marvels ; . but we continue to penetrate new parts of the mystery. Some of the...

A number of these sea trout were marked in the

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Tweed ; and two of them have recently been tracked down. One was netted on the Norfolk coast and the other off the shores of Holland. The two examples are enough to prove that...

General experiences with fish during the year have been many

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and curious. Personally I saw the biggest catch of mackerel in my memory off the south coast of Devon a few weeks ago ; and at the same date the Cornish fishermen a few miles to...

THE HUMAN COUNTRY.

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That lively and most original quarterly The Countryman (published from Idbury Manor, Kingham, Oxford) contains an admirable discussion (all by women) on the relative values of...

APPLE-EATING BIRDS.

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In a very delightful letter from the head of an Oxford College I am taken to , task for expressing a certain surprise at the voracity of birds for unripe apples. My...

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Letters to the Editor

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[Letters of the length of one of our leading paragraphs are often m9re read, and therefore more effective, than those which fill treble the space. They should be written clearly...

HORSE TRAFFIC IN LONDON

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIRS It is with some hesitation that I attempt to write on so great a problem as the traffic question in London, a problem which is exercising...

REUNION

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—In discussions on Reunion the emphasis seems to be laid at the wrong end, for it concerns itself with results rather than with causes,...

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COMPETENT DIRECTORS

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—The point in your leading article on the Hatry Crisis, as to whether there exists as firm an insistence as there might be on the necessity...

THE NEW- HARVESTERS

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Each week I read with pleasure, which might be joined with profit were I not nearly on the point of becoming a nonagenarian, Sir W. Beach...

INTERNATIONAL EDUCATIONAL CINEMATO- GRAPHIC INSTITUTE [To the Editor of the

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SPECTATOR.] SIR,---T have read with great interest the article dealing With this Institute and the International Review, published in your issue of August 17th. We are only -...

BRITISH TRADE WITH CHINA

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—In the Spectator of May 18th, under the heading of '• Mr. Baldwin's Boldness," I have read the following :— " People naturally and rightly...

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THE DRUNKENNESS PROBLEM.

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—In my letter of August 10th I spoke of the convictions in Lerwick for drunkenness, as affected by no-licence. I stated that there used to...

. "TAUCHNITZ " . [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]

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SIR,—Your correspondent, Mr.- P. W. G. Gunn, implies that the " Tauchnitz " books are pirated copies of English novels, and that authors whose .books are included in this...

SHOOTING : A CONTRAST • [To the Editor of the

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SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Your recent articles on old country shooting and its consequent slaughter have been very interesting, as it is difficult for a man who has done any of it here...

LIFE'S LITTLE MISERIES [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sia,—I

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was delighted to read your contributor's article in your issue of the 21st inst., in which she notices that admirable and unjustly neglected book, The Miseries of Human Life,...

FUR FARM SLAUGHTER METHODS [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]

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SIR,—Your correspondents appear to assume that an animal killed by chloroform is killed quickly and humanely : what is the evidence for this ? The analogy of a human being...

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POINTS FROM LETTERS GALILEO.

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To judge the ease of Galileo fairly, it should be said that his condemnation arose chiefly from the very literal inter- pretation of scripture which from time to time has...

PRIVATELY OWNED WAGONS [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR - 1 Stn,—In

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the issue of September 21st Mr. A. E. Ritchie gave some very interesting but scarcely well-informed reasons for supporting his opinion that the standardization of railway wagons...

THE RELIGIOUS THOUGHT OF THE DAY.

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Extraordinary interest was shown in the " Defence of the Faith series of articles published in the Spectator early this year. Further articles interpreting the religious thought...

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LITERARY SUPPLEMENT

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TO spettator No. 5,284.] WEEK ENDING SATURDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1929. [GRATIS

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Izaak Walton

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The Compleat Walton. Edited by Geoffrey Keynes. (The Nonesuch Press. 3 guineas.) IT is time that a being, by Providence specially adapted with twelve bibliophilic senses, should...

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The Great Pretender

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Barrie : The Story of a Genius. By J. A. Hammel-ton. (Sampson Low. 1Gs.) IN an article in the Evening Standard, 11127, Mr. Arnold Bennett wrote " Impartial biographies of the...

A Romantic Movement

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THE history of Art is a history of revolts against the estab- lished order : of these periodical risings the successful and the salutary are those whose leaders truly believe...

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Criticism ex Cathedra

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The Profession of Poetry ; and Other Lectures. By H. W. Oarrod. (Oxford University Press. 12s. tid.) THERE is a vein of acidity in Professor Garrod's criticism. These lectures...

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Love in a Prison

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NEVER was such a romance as the Brownings' love-affair ! It-is incredible, yet it is true. The circumstances are prosaic in the extreme, prosaic to - the pitch - of absurdity....

Dam Ships and Others

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FOR a book to be introduced by Mr. H. M. Tomlinson and illustrated by Mr. Muirhead Bone of itself gives it an immedi- ate distinction. We recognize initially that such a book...

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A Great Advocate

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THE late Sir Edward Marshall Hall, with his eye-glass, his Roman features, his vehement eloquence, his air-cushion, smelling-salts and medicine-bottles, his great bulk and the...

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Animum, Non Coelum

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TILE subtitle, " From Group Consciousness through Indi- viduality to Super-Consciousness," sufficiently indicates that in his philosophy of history Mr. Heard wishes to stress...

North's Plutarch

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The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romanes Compared together by Plutarke. Translated out of Greeke into French by James Amyot: and out of French into Englishe by Thom0 North :...

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Is Philosophy Any Good ?

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ONE of the greatest and most pregnant philosophers of the Pragmatic movement is Professor John Dewey. His Experience and Nature, like other writings of the same school, is an...

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The Theory and Practice of Economic Laws

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An Outline of Political Economy : Political Economy and Soviet Economics. By I. Lapidus and K. Ostrovityanov. (Martin Lawrence, Ltd. 12s. 6d.) An Expert in the Service of the...

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Mr. Guedalla's Casual Jottings

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IN this volume of essays, in the preface, Mr. Guedalla would have us believe that the essays which he now gives us are accidents—casual jottings in notebooks, only later found...

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London: Printed by W. SPEAIGHT AND SONS. LTD.. 98 and

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99 Fettei Lane. EC. 4, and Published by THE Sracrsroa, LTD., at their Offices, No. 99 Cower Street, London, W.C. 1.—Saturday, Ociober 5, 1929.

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Some Books of the Week ERNEST RENAN was suave and

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delicate. He was marked by that air of worldly wisdom which a polite scepticism gives even to those who are most remote from practical affairs. Certainly he seems not to have...

The Competition

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LIFE'S LITTLE MISERIES. THAT we like to read of other people's sufferings is a common- place. That we like it all the more when the sufferers are ordinary men like ourselves,...

" I am no flatterer," says Mrs. Elton in Emma,

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and the Messrs. Townsend in the introduction to The Prince of Wales (Marriott, 10s. 6d.) make the same sort of avowal. But their performance belies their profession, and it has...

The publication this week of The Legion Book (Cassell, 21s.)

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will undoubtedly interest all readers of the Spectator. The book, in the preparation of which the Prince of Wales has taken a personal interest, is a collection of essays,...

Two days before her death Isadora was persuaded to begin

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writing her Russian experiences by her friend Mary Desti ; after three pages were written Isadora threw them into her friend's lap, saying : " Here, you know the rest of my life...

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Turning Things Over (Methuen, Os.), reprinted from Punch and the

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Sunday Times, are in Mr. Lucas's familiar style. Read collectively they give the rather unfortunate impression that-they were written for no particular reason, but to fill the...

In the revival of interest in the exploits of sixteenth

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century discovery the Spaniards have cut such a fine and grandiose figure that the Portuguese have not yet received their due share of attention. Their story is a parallel one,...

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Disraeli and His Women Friends

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WHEN Mr. Buckle was writing his Life of Disraeli he had access to the very curious letters which Disraeli wrote in his old age to his friends Lady Bradford and Lady...

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The Real Ramsay MacDonald

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James Ramsay MacDonald : An Authentic Life. By H. WHETHER or not it was a wholesome feeling in the past that there should be no lives written of living men, that sentiment has...

A Bold Plea

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a s the Church Failed ? By Kenneth Ingrain. (Philip Allan. 5e.) fa. 1st:mat has written a book of unusual interest. It is ne that the clergy especially cannot afford to...

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Loeb Classical Library

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'OF the seven new volumes of the admirable Loeb -Classical Library (Heinemann, cloth 10s., leather 12s. 6d. each), four are continuations of works already familiar from the...

A New Constitution for India The Dilemma in India. By

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Sir Reginald Craddock. (Constable. 15s.) • Tins autumn, on the eve of critical decisions about India's future, many of its would be grateful for a short cut to the points at...

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Fiction

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Satisfaction Guaranteed How Amusing. By Denis Mackail. (Heinemann. 7s. 6d.) THERE is a sprinkling of novelists, very wise in their genera- tion, the announcements of whose...

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TO-MORROW NEVER COMES. By R. L. Duffus. (Harrap. 7s. 6d.)—This

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is a very clever and vivacious comedy of a week's events in a Latin American republic, where love, politics, and business are inextricably tangled, and where, since life is...

MYSTERY OF THE OPEN WINDOW. By Anthony Gilbert. (Gollancz. 7s.

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6d.)—Though ingeniously con- structed, and although the identity of the murderer is difficult to guess until actually revealed, this exciting story yet leaves lu certain...

The Magazines In the Nineteenth Century the first article is

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a plea by Arthur Davies for the submission of the case of India to the League of Nations. He gives many reasons why this would be acceptable to the Indians, and produces a good...

COUCOU. By Evelyn Pember. (Constable. 6s.)—Pictures of hotel society, presenting

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occasional glimpses into various rooms at the same time, are among the fictional fashions of the moment, and we feel that Miss Pember has rather self- consciously imitated one...

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Sir George Arthur has painted a good portrait of King

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George V. (Cape, 10s.), but clouded his picture with irrelevant incidental detail of Mr. Lloyd George's recommendations of unsuitable persons for honours to His Majesty. On the...

Old narratives of travel are now deservedly popular. Two unusually

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interesting examples of this kind of literature will be found in Voyages to the East Indies : Christopher Fryke and Christopher Schweitzer, edited by Mr. C. Ernest Fayle...

Messrs. Eveleigh Nash and Grayson are bringing out a series

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of famous modern books, the first of which, Maeterlinck's The Life of the Bee, we have already received. These books are published in the same form as monthly magazines with...

More Books of the Week

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(Continued from page 465.) ANY indictment of contemporary society so sweeping in its assertions as that which Mr. Julien- Benda pronounces in his Belphigor (Faber and Faber, 7s....

Travel

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Caravan Holidays EmlAriany of us the word " caravan " matches romance, and the Sight of one, especially_ if it be of the brave old-fashioned sort (gay: paint without and bright...

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* * * * A PROMISING TRUST.

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The City and International Trust has very quickly reached an enviable position of financial strength and promise of increasing returns to its stockholders, for although only in...

BANKING IN AUSTRALIA.

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The Commercial Banking Company of Sydney has again published a - Very satisfactory report showing considerable progress in :business with an expansion in profits. For the year...

A Library List

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MISCELLANEOUS :-/ndia Under Wellesley. By P. 1 7 ,. Roberts. (Bell. 15s.) - 4 History of Nationalism in the East. By H. Kohn. (Routledge. 25s.) The Legion Book. Edited by Capt....

A GOOD PRECEDENT.

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The directors of the Staveley Truit have published a satisfactory report showing that dividends of a year -ago have been maintained at the rate of 6/ per cent:- on'-the Ordinary...

A SUCCESSFUL UNDERTAKING.

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A good financial statement has been published by the Mid-European Corporation, the annual accounts made up to July 31st last showing a profit for the year of 1120,461, as...

General Knowledge Questions Oun weekly prize of one guinea for

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the best thirteen Questions submitted is awarded this week to Edith I. Wathen, Welwyn Rectory, Hertfordshire, for the following :- Questions on Hagiology 1. What poet analyses...

Financial Notes

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WEAK MARKETS. MARKETS opened the current week in decidedly dull fashion, due mainly to the after-effects of the Hatry crisis in the previous week and the advance in Bank "Rate....