6 SEPTEMBER 1924

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On Tuesday the Prime Minister left London for Geneva, and

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his speech to the Assembly of the League of Nations will be made after we have gone to press. The French Prime Minister, M. Herriot, is also at Geneva, and we heartily welcome...

On Tuesday a pamphlet unreservedly condemning the Treaty was issued

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from Liberal headquarters. The Liberals are therefore committed to a break with the Government on this subject, although no doubt they will want to pass the Irish Bill before...

With all the will in the world to condemn nebulosity

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in treaties, and with a mistrust and dislike equal to those of anybody else for Russian Communism and all its ways, we cannot help saying that in our judgment the Liberal Party...

Mr. MacDonald recently gave short shrift to the pro- posed

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Treaty of Mutual Assistance upon the drafting of which the Asseinbly had spent much time. It must not be forgotten, however, that there is an American project which may possibly...

NEWS OF THE WEEK.

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R UMOURS of a General Election before the end of the year are growing. Last week we mentioned that the local organizations of the Labour Party had been warned to be ready by...

EDITORIAL AND PUBLISHING OFFICES :

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13 York Street, Covent Garden, London, W.C. 2. A SUBSCRIPTION to THE SPECTATOR costs Thirty Shillings per annum, including postage to any part of the world.

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Unfortunate China is once again suffering from catastrophes, both man-made

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and natural. Two of the Tuchuns, or Provincial Governors, are preparing to fly at each other's throats, and their conflict is only too likely to involve the two great factions...

The Trade Union Congress opened at Hull on Monday. The

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President, Mr. A. A. Purcell (one of the unofficial Labour Members whose intervention at the last moment saved the Russian Treaty for Mr. Ponsonby), warned the Congress that the...

In the course of his statements before starting for Geneva,

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Mr. MacDonald gave a good example of his close touch with realities when he emphasized the importance of meeting the demand for Security. To many people the word " Security "...

On Tuesday the Congress decided to extend the powers of

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the General Council. In future the Council is to be regularly informed of all negotiations between trade unions and employers and is to take the initiative when negotiations...

An admirable letter by Lord Cave in the Times of

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Tuesday presented the constitutional aspect of the Irish Bounday question with all the force of its writer's legal learning and political sincerity. Lord Cave admits that the...

Last Saturday the London Pact giving effect to the Dawes

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scheme was formally signed. The German repre- sentatives would have signed even if the Reichstag had not voted in favour of the Pact, but in the Reichstag debate on Friday,...

When Mr. Purcell went further into Russian affairs he trod

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even more dangerous ground. He advised that Labour should take every opportunity, " dignified or otherwise," to bring every Trade Union the world over within the four corners...

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The future of Wembley is in the balance. The authori-

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ties of the Exhibition are evidently anxious to open it next year, but the Dominions do not see their way to co-operate, at any rate on the present basis. There is apparently no...

The sudden death of Mr. H. W. Massingham on Wednes-

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day, August 27th, must bring to the readers of the Spectator a sense of very personal loss and sorrow. It is true that it is only a little more than a year ago that Mr....

The Labour Government made its silliest decision when it gave

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leave to the Society of Druids to bury the ashes of one of its members at Stonehenge. It seems probable that the ancient Druids had about as much to do with Stonehenge as had...

* * * The strike of fruit porters at Covent

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Garden drags on. The employers and merchants are still finding plenty of ways and means of conveying their goods to the retailers without the porters, and the men are therefore...

Any comment of ours as to the merits of the

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dispute would be worthless while the case is, in effect, sub judice, but a welcome feature of the strike has been that, unlike so many others, it has not seriously...

But now all these plans are made futile, and we

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can only feel some consolation in the fact that the Spectator provided one of the means for Mr. Massingham to address his public. His earlier career has been recalled in the...

We mentioned recently, not for the first time, the flow

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of skilled artisans to America. It was a pleasure to read in the Westminster Gazette of Friday, August 22nd, a statement, which we hope is well substantiated, that many of these...

Bank Rate, 4 per cent., changed from 3 per cent.

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July 5th,1923. 5 per cent. War Loan was on Thursday, 1011 ; Thursday week, 1011; a year ago, 101*. Eti per cent. Conversion Loan was on Thursday, 77 &; Thursday week, 77* ; a...

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TOPICS OF THE DAY.

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THE LATEST STEP AND THE NEXT IN INDIA. B ENGAL has gone the way of the Central Provinces and the Swarajists for the time being have suc- ceeded in their policy of obstruction...

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THE LAST CHANCE FOR THE LEAGUE.

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I T can hardly be doubted that the session of the Assembly of the League of Nations which opened at Geneva on Monday will settle, one way or the other, the fate of that great...

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IS UNEMPLOYMENT INEVITABLE ?

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T HE masa causans of this article is a very interesting book,* and a very sincere book. If it is not a very conclusive book, that is, perhaps, more the fault of the subject than...

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THE SOUTHERN RAILWAY IMBROGLIO : AN INTERPRETATION.

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(FROM A CORRESPONDENT.) T HE Press, London and local—every section of it, daily and weekly—has, for over a month, been brimming full of loud complaints and objurgations against...

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CHARM AND CHARMINGNESS.

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C HARMINGNESS is not charm. It is something much less rare and perhaps newer. There are surely more charming people than ever there were, but with charm in any true sense of the...

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BOOK COLLECTORS' NOTES.

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THE BOOKS OF THE "NINETIES." (This is the sixth of a series of monthly articles intended to interest book collectors, and having special reference to the work qf the First...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

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THE CAUSATION OF CANCER. [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] think I can best serve the propaganda which your paper is spreading with so much success by sending you the account...

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—My appeal in the

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Spectator has brought me a number of valuable letters, most of which confirm my theory that cancer is due to chronic poisoning and vitamine starvation. A retired printer has...

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PROTECTION AND THE SOCIALIST GOVERNMENT.

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR, — In the Spectator for May 17th you were good enough to publish a letter, in which I ventured to make the suggestion, based upon certain...

PRESIDENT COOLIDGE AND MR. DAVIS.

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—As a subscriber to the Spectator for more than twenty years and a diligent reader thereof, I wish to protest for many other American...

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"RUSSIA AND COMMON SENSE."

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—In your article, " Russia and Common Sense," which appeared in the issue of August 16th, you very correctly suggested that the...

INTERNATIONAL DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS FOR PEACE.

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sin,—It is not generally known in Great Britain that there is in France a powerful and organized body of opinion drawn, not from Communists or...

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]

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SIR,—In view of the British Labour Government's determina-. tion, supported by Mr. Lloyd George, to appoint, in defiance; of Ulster's emphatic protest, a Boundary Commissioner...

MICHAEL COLLINS AND THE IRISH TREATY.

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sin,—You say that Collins publicly disavowed having absolute independence as his aim when he accepted the Treaty. In the Dail debate on the...

VOCAL TRERAPY.

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR, —Last year you were good enough to insert an appeal from me on behalf of Vocal Therapy for shell-shocked patients. It is now six years...

IRELAND AND THE EMPIRE.

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—To those of us who are old enough to remember the intense excitement which followed Mr. Gladstone's conversion to Home Rule the present...

THE BOUNDARY PROBLEM.

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sm,—With reference to the note appended to my letter in last week's issue of the Spectator, should like to say : (1) That after a careful...

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STYBARROW CRAG, ULLSWATER.

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[To the Editor of the SrEciwroa.] SIR,—I note, in your issue of last week, a letter from a correspondent re Stybarrow Crag, suggesting that the nation should acquire it, in...

THE LATE SIR ALFRED SMITHERS.

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—In the passing of Sir Alfred Smithers the country has lost one of a type of man that has made England what she is. Starting from the...

POETRY.

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TORCHBEARER. I SAW your hands lying at peace at last, and I thought of Helen's hands that were not lovelier than these, yet live in all men's minds. And I thought " Beauty is...

WHY MARS DID NOT SIGNAL!

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[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—No better example of the absurdity and wastefulness of our financial system could be given than the energy and expense involved in...

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BOOKS OF THE MOMENT.

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THE FATAL COUNTESS. [COPYRIGHT IN UNITED STATES BY New York Times.] The Fatal Countess and Other Studies. By William Roughead. (Edinburgh ; W. Green and Sons. 10s. 6d. net.)...

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BOOKS.

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THIS WEEK'S BOOKS. THE two outstanding books of this week are the largest and the smallest. The smallest is Dr. Schiller's Tantalus, or The Future of Man, published by Kegan...

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THE EVOLUTION OF MAN.

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Essays on the Evolution of Man. By Elliot Smith. (Oxford University Press. 8s. 6d.) PROFESSOR ELLIOT SMITH is well known as one of the rare men who, like the late W. H. Rivers,...

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TWO BOOKS ON INDIA.

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India : a Bird's-Eye View. By the Earl of Ronaldshay. (Constabe. 18s. ) Indian Politics. By J. T. Gwynn. (Nisbet. 12s. 6d.) THE British public is commonly accused of crass...

The Philosophy of Grammar. By Otto Jospersen. (Allen and Unwin.

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12s. 6d. net.) IT seems a pity that the old controversy whether thought or speech came first no longer figures among the primary topics of philosophic debate, for even though it...

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FICTION.

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KATHERINE MANSFIELD. Something Childish. By Katherine Mansfield. (Constable. 6s.) KATHERINE MANSFIELD was at heart a sentimentalist ; but her experience was so varied, her...

COMPASSION AND COMMON SENSE.

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A Century of Work for Animals : a History of the R.S.P.C.A. 1824 - 1924. By Edward G. Fairholme, Chief Secretary, and Wellesley Pain, Editor. (Murray. 7s. 6d.) The Protection...

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No child could object to this guide, which is sufficiently

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friendly to be trusted and provides enough background to prevent the headache often contracted during aimless wandering. The book is more or less a menu. with eight well- chosen...

SHORTER NOTICES.

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Wembley is only one, thoug h to-day the most conspicuous, sign of the Empire's self - consc iousness. This book is another ; and we suspect that the vision of Wembley led to...

crime, in which he delights, and attempts to interest his

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readers in a business romance. Although his accomplishment as a story-teller can never be questioned, it must be acknowledged that he seems rather more at home when dealing with...

AN ARCHITECTURAL PILGRIMAGE IN OLD MEXICO. By A. C. Bosom.

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(New Work : Scribner.) Those who have been beguiled into the right frame of mind for the full appreciation of the Rococo by reading Mr. Sacheverell Sitwell's Southern Baroque...

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F1 NANCE-PUBLIC & PRIVATE.

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[BY OUR CITY EDITOR.] SOME LIFE INSURANCE VALUATIONS. [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—In a recent issue of the Spectator I referred to the considerable rise which had...