heartsearching in Britain, and both the Daily Mirror and the Chairman of the Conservative Party have sounded warnings about our demo- cratic system. The Daily Mirror sees the...

A FTER MORE THAN a fortnight, the French crisis ceded its place in the headlines. Day after day the situation had raced on, frequently leaving hour-old news stretched cold and...

FRIDAY, JUNE 6, 1958

By DARSIE GILLIE Paris WHEN the Spectator appears General de Gaulle should be en- let gaged in one of the most difficult operations of his life in Algiers. To General Salan's...

D URING May a further gain of £45 million brought the gold and dollar reserves up to £1,085 million, their highest point since Septem- ber, 1951. This includes some borrowed...

On June 12 five by-elections take place, at Argyll, Weston-super-Mare, Wigan, St. Helens and Ealing South. This miniature General Elec- tion (or monster Gallup Poll, depending...

By MICHAEL ADAMS Beirut W ITH the Lebanon insurrection in its fourth week, the stalemate persists. The Oppo- sition has already won a considerable victory by defeating what was...

to criticise the catering arrangements at Glyndebourne, comparing them unfavourably with the music. I fear that this year there has been a further decline in standards. Last...

been profoundly disturbed at heart by the third degree methods which sheer necessity obliged him to use in order to wipe out the cells and so save hundreds of other inno- cent...

I SEE MR. DUNCAN SANDYS is offering ten to one that there will be enough voluntary recruits by 1962 to end conscription. Taken! Or, rather, I would take his offer if I thought...

By PAUL TABORI . . . Our prison was a school; about twenty of 'us were crowded into a medium-sized room. C. T. was one of us. He was a 'gentleman,' a citizen of Europe, a...

Sunday Pictorial for publishing a series of articles purporting to be the confession of Donald Hume to the murder of Stanley Setty in 1949: the Daily Sketch. Hume was found not...

be the symbolic meaning (let us earnestly hope that it has one) of the hearty little coming-out party enured at the end of every apprenticeship in the barrel-making industry. At...

got?' Stalin dismissed de Gaulle as of no military account. News Chronicle, May 21. 'Aires nous, le ddluge'—the cry of the Pom- padour as the Revolution loomed ahead. . . ....

By GEORGE SCOTT IAKE me, take me,' said the drunk. 'Take me.' T He reeled against the camera. It was 4.30 p.m., Wednesday, in the main street of Reykjavik, capital of Iceland. A...

By CHRISTOPHER HOLLIS T AM, I hope, a tolerant man, and indeed ready Ito tolerate not, only the uncommitted, who for that reason flatter themselves that they are broad- minded,...

By STRIX N China if a man wishes to find out what you I are called he asks: 'What is your honourable surname?' and you reply 'My humble surname is Fu' (or Chang, or whatever it...

First and Last Things By ALAN BRIEN IT has been alleged against nine- teen-year-old Shelagh Delaney's play A Taste of Honey that she has written down the first thing which came...

JUNE 8, 1833 THE despotic Governments of Germany appear to be again alarmed at the spread of Liberal opinions among their subjects. The Prussian students at the colleges of...

Figures In London, Mr. Wald stays on the fifth floor at Claridge's, with a TV set turned off, and a large bottle of Vichy water within reach. Swarthy, stocky and slightly...

Apology for Comedians By JOHN BRAINE MY Uncle Andrew, the man who -11 11 remarked of the H-bomb that - someone was going to get lamed with that thing, has a formula for good...

Nights of Bath By KENNETH GREGORY `BEAU NASH is dead,' according to the Bath Labour Party slogan. But non-partisan visitors can still look • about them and give thanks for...

Reality Blows In By ISABEL QUIGLY I HAD a feeling (I might be more impersonal and lordly and say `one had a feeling,' but maybe no one had but me) that The Key (`A'...

Frozen Foods By LESLIE ADRIAN Recently, experiments have shown that bread wrapped in waxed paper can be kept fresh in a refrigerator for as long as three weeks; and ob- viously...

The Floor That Moved By MILES HOWARD HE New Yorker had an excellent article I lately on the case of a lady with vertigo. One evening, as her husband came in with the drinks...

SIR,—May I reply jointly to the three letters which appeared in the last two issues of the Spectator con- cerning my article on President Benes? I am at one with Sir Geoffrey...

the formation of a new society? It is called the Homosexual Law Reform Society, and • is concerned to work for the implementation of the Major recommendation of the...

The Princess and the Archbishop Randolph S. Churchill Homosexual Law Refonn A. E. Dyson Archbishop Makarios and the Lambeth Conference Rev. E. ,Benson Perkins The Failure of...

SIR,—Bernard Levin really cannot be allowed to get away with the show of sweet reason which he has carefully adopted over Mr. Blom-Cooper's excellent reply to his attack on...

SIR,—Pharos in 'A Spectator's Notebook' appears to think that Makarios the ecclesiastic can be dis- sociated from Makarios the politician. This is a dualism which cannot be...

accepted Leslie Adrian's challenge to define the true nature of the fluoride to be added to our drink- ing water. The reason is understandable; it would Tissue v ery damaging to...

SIR,—I am writing a biography of Sir Flinders Petrie. If any of your readers have information concerning him or possess letters from him I should be grateful if they would get...

SiR,—On behalf of the student society concerned specifically with preserving the character and tradi- tions of St. Andrews University, I wish to protest against the article...

relevant to the issue which really con- cerned your reviewer : what can be done to make the courts (juries as well as judges) aware of the change s that have taken place...

did inadvertently leave a little clue, to wit, '2 Hare Court, EC4,' which has enabled me to track down this gentleman, starting, I must confess (or should I say Temple, EC4...

A Question of Standards BY W. W.. ROBSON T HESE two books* represent a new view of the history of the American novel, a view which is becoming more and more influential....

IN the absence of audible protest, it must be assumed that the literary public is reasonably satisfied with Mr. Raymond and the whole tradi- tion of weekly wit with which he...

The House of Lords in the Age of Reform, 1784- 1837. By A. S. Turberville, edited by R. J. White. (Faber, 50s.) THE late Professor Turberville began his studies of the House of...

The Angry Decade. By Kenneth Allsop. (Peter Owen, Ms.) MR. KENNETH ALLSOP is a journalist—which is something of a dirty word in intellectual circles today. It suggests a...

So this is how it stands : a lout Can hawk, and gather up his phlegm And, grinning, spit it in my face As I walk by; and all without . The fear of censure or disgrace. His...

Letters of a Russian Traveller 1789-1790. By N. M. Karamzin. Translated and abridged by Florence Jonas. (O.U.P., 30s.) POOR Karamzin! He set out with the most fright- ful...

NEVER, perhaps, has there been as much popular confusion about pay, rewards, and profits. Inconsistencies and illogicalities abound. American workers do not envy, and certainly...

The Country Clergy in Elizabethan and Stuart Times 1558-1660. By A. Tindal Hart. (Phoenix House, 2I s.) DR. HART'S book covers the first century of the independent existence of...

Elderly Delinquents WHAT strikes you first about The Delinquents is its curious parenthetic style. The author, Anthony Bloomfield, has the habit of introducing words and...

Of Thee I Sing By BERNARD LEVIN W HEN the shadow of McCarthy lifted from America, the sounds of celebrating reached clearly across the Atlantic. But the quality of the laughter...

The Bitter Glass. By Eilfs Dillon. (Faber, 15s.) Mohawk Valley. By Ronald Welch. (O.U.P., 12s. 6d. Illustrated.) Warm° for children is in transition, reflecting changing...

Children Under Arms. By Shirley Murrell. (Hodder and Stoughton, 12s. 6d.) The Barque of the Brothers. By Hans Baumann. Illustrated by Ulrich Schramm. (O.U.P., 12s. 6d.) Three...

Fairy Tales. By Hans Christian Andersen. Vols. 1, 2 and 3, World Edition. (Edmund Ward, 12s. 6d. each.) Hans Andersen's Fairy Tales. (Dent, 10s. 6d.) The True Book About Nelson....

Tistou of the Green Fingers. By Maurice Druon, translated from the French by Humphrey Hare. (Hart-Davis, 15s.) Father of Railways. By 0. S. Nock. (Nelson, 10s. 6d.) Some Time...

The Story of the Nursery. By Magdalen King- Hall. (Routledge and Kegan Paul, 28s.) The Young Rider Through the Ages. By Dorothy Margaret Stuart. (Harrap, 12s. 6d.) Jennie. By J....

By NICHOLAS DAVENPORT THE process of enlarging and improving the statistical service of the Treasury was begun by Sir Stafford Cripps, who once confessed to me that, on the...

By CUSTOS S IR JOHN Eworr's firmness towards Mr. Frank Cousins was reflected by the firmness this wec i , of the gilt-edged market. Its recovery enabler Birmingham to issue a...

1 Sin -- AY return—by request from Erin? (4 - 4) A dormant sprout (6) 9 Ch ange before getting liable to get wet (8) 10 Cli m 12 bed and lost the plates! (6) r ugs) , sets...

ACROSS.-1 Pickle. 4 Trickled. 9 Orally. 10 Coniston. 12 Petition. 13 Fiance. 1' Reel. 16 Coat of mail. 19 Silver ring. 20 Abet. 23 Instep. 25 Minister. 27 Proverbs. 28 Morose....

D UNLOP RUBBER has produced an excellent report for 1957 and has restored the ordinary dividend rate to 14 per cent, which, in 1956, was cut to 10 per cent. In the first half of...

SPECTATOR COMPETITION No. 431: Set by Barbara Smoker By analogy with the naming of race-horses, competitors were asked to invent a set of three literary titles, each stemming...

Robert Browning once rhymed 'Manchester' with qutundies stir' and, I believe, 'homunculus' with 'Tommy-make-room-for-your-uncle us.' This week competitors are asked for not more...