single spies but in battalions.' The battalions of troubles marching towards the Government were not just those trying to leave the Army, although eighty- two servicemen have...

T HE unemployment which has been spreading in the North of England is likely to increase rather than diminish during the next two or three years. It is something which has been...

( T is not the least important consequence of President de Gaulle's victory in the French elections that the question of a European nuclear deterrent should once again be the...

A BOOKLET, Equality of Rights between Races and Nationalities in the USSR, by I. P. Tsamerian and S. L. Ronin, has come out under the Unesco imprint. It is quite simply a piece...

rr HE reorganisation of State and party in the 1 USSR is yet another of those shake-ups by which the leadership hopes, each time, to find the solution to glaring failures in...

From SARAH GAINHAM BONN HE Spiegel affair has turned into a govern- ' ment crisis the solution of which is only made possible, not easier, by the withdrawal of Defence Minister...

From CHANCHAL SARKAR NEW P l i L C HINA'S powerful thrust through the Hi,, 1 . 3. layas, Eastern and Western, has left In u13 1 with a dire military problem, but her unria t...

From DARSIE GILLIE PARIS A PARTY with 229 deputies is such an unheard- of thing in French history that the ad- ministration of the French National Assembly has difficulty in...

in jeering at the 'Come-to-Sunny-Britain' type of advertise- ment that portrays us abroad as simple seven- teenth-century folk who have the haggis piped in to dinner each...

But, said the Minister, a political initiative of this sort would have little value unless accom- panied by brisk political effort at other levels. He complained, specifically,...

Last week I criticised the Observer for suggest- ing that the International Commission of Jurists, whose report on the lamentable state of Iaw in Dr. Castro's Cuba had just come...

H OW freely do ideas flow inside a Govern- ment? Once Ministers are appointed they often seem to become so compartmentalised that it is difficult to believe that many ideas ever...

Anti-Semitism still exists in this country, and it is loathsome. The World Jewish Congress is now fully convinced there is an international movement, with influence as worrying...

By ANGUS MAUDE WHEN I left for Australia in April, 1958, I VY was the only politician of any party who was on record as having expressed a conviction that the Government would...

By STEPHEN FAY T HE most frightening fact about unemploy- ment this winter is that the Government cannot do much more than relieve its worst excesses. Further short-term...

By MARIE BATTLE C RRISTMAS comes at a bad time of the year. The weather is usually abominable. Very seldom in this country do we see a white Christ- mas, with crisp cold air...

Davis Chilly Fever Geoffrey Cannon Quis Custodiet ? Ralph Harris and Arthur Seldon Lay Theology Mrs. Monica Comerford, William Horbury Company Directors R. J. Rees Palindromes...

the worse off for having no national Paris-Match or Der Spiegel?' asks Malcolm Ruther- ford; and then goes on to assert that if anyone does, he shouldn't. I do, and I'd like to...

in vain, that I fully appreciate the many talents of Murray Kempton. It would be a sad day at our house if his voice should suddenly, by some miracle, dis- appear from the many...

unease at the changes made by 'liturgists.' He is, however, misleading when he says he sees it stated that 'representative Anglican clergymen withhold their assent' to the...

not be taken in water. The Ger- mans who make it may not know much about food, but they know a lot about drinking, and Underberg should be drunk neat and fast in a shallow glass...

we must also be critical of misleading critics of a dvertising, and of misleading commentators on books. Although it is not clear whether Leslie Adrian's comments constitute a...

Sia,—Mr. Hedley Shepherd's article 'In Praise of Company Directors ° should certainly do something to cheer up these downtrodden and undervalued heroes of our times. Will he...

are interesting, but they become alarming when he claims to speak for many (pre- sumably thinking and educated) Catholics. Mr. Waugh is well known for his deep love of the past,...

of your literary readers know any besides 'Madam I'm Adam,' Able was I ere I saw Elba' and `Roma tibi subito motibus ibis atnor,' will they please communicate with me or let me...

lately,' writes T. R. Creighton (Spectator, September 28) 'must recognise that Sir Edgar's easy-going contented natives are , almost to a man, in the remote rural areas now as...

am now completing research for a fresh study of the Camden Town murder which result e d in the trial of Robert Wood. I would be most grate - ful if any of your readers with...

Sir,—At last we know the truth: Leslie Adrian is the bearded lady! J. A. BUCKLO Shebbear College, Bea worthy, North Devon

,SIR,--Mr. Bull's analysis of mixed motives behind the insistence on international inspection as an essential ingredient of any test-ban treaty leads one to wonder if...

SIR,—Some one hundred years ago it was under stood that a cognac which was darker than an - other was so because it had been matured longer in oak casks. artificially, by the...

Something Rotten By DAVID CAIRNS THE reaction of the critic who groans at having to turn out to hear Brahms and Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov when he would much rather be...

All That Glisters By BAMBER GASCOIGNE The Alchemist. (Old Vic.) THE enraging experience of The Alchemist, by Sir Tyrone Guthrie, subsides slowly. Even now, four days after the...

Coming of Age Kid Galahad. (London Pavilion, 'U.') ONCE upon a time, and not so very long ag o either, Elvis Presley was the sexy beatnik in person, a poor-girl's Kerouac, sore...

The Tate Gallery By NEVILE WALLIS This is apt to be forgotten when gossip-writers extol the Director's enterprise. There is no doubt, indeed, that his instinct for public...

Perverse Prophet By JOHN DANIEL D OSTOEVSKY was understandably an embar- rassment to the Stalinist regime. Now. in the T haw, the final volume of his letters has been...

To review Robin Skelton's admirable edition of Synge's poems as though it were contempora r Y is justified, I think, not merely because it sets a standard but because most of us...

work, is a didactic entertainment designed to raise blood pressure. The one indisputable element in the novel is the craftsmanship. Mr. Raven's well- oiled prose transports the...

Prohibition : The Era of Excess. By Andrew Sinclair. (Faber, 42s.) THE establishment of prohibition in the United States in 1920 was a grim example of coercion on an immense...

I've found to say: But when you start recording it You've got to tone it down a bit. Kingsley Amis's series of poems, The Evans Country, which appeared in the Spectator of May...

The State of the Church BY ROBIN DENNISTON V ERY few people know about the Church of England. There are fewer than 20,000 professional clergy, fewer than 6,000 non-profes-...

C ongregationalism in England, 1662-1962. By R. Tudur Jones. (Independent Press, 63s.) A Future for the Free Churches? By Christopher Driver. (S.C.M. Press, 7s. 6d.) THE author...

ALL four of these books are desi g ned for those known as 'the g eneral reader,' or sometimes 'the ordinary reader,' althou g h the Annotated Bible has in mind also 'the...

The Church and the Nation: Six Studies in t he Anglican Tradition. By Charles Smyt h ' (Hodder and Stou g hton, 18s. ) MOST of the histories of the European sixteenth century...

Letters from a Traveller. By P. Teilhard de Chardin. (Collins, 25s.) Teilhard de Chardin: Scientist and Seer. By C. E. Raven. (Collins, 25s.) Letters from a Traveller is what...

The Sense of the Presence of God. By John Baillie. (O.U.P., 30s.) Love Almighty and ills Unlimited. By Wilda is the chief end of man? Those who are unable to find the answer to...

BY BERNARD BERGONZI N a letter written in 1935 Hilaire Belloc re- I marked, The Old Testament part of the Pales- tine story has been greatly overdone and is thread- bare.' These...

IN days gone by no one thought of introduc- ing the Bible to children by easy stages; the toddler sat at a table with his elders and with them he listened to father reading...

By NICHOLAS DAVENPORT IT was wise of the Chancellor to send his official spies to the private conference held recently in London on 'Taxa- tion and the Common Mar- atzz ket,'...

By CUSTOS E Qum(shares have run into a bout of selling --the present rush of new issues is partly responsible—and the gilt-edged market has re- turned to favour. This was...

Chez Gee-Gee By ELIZABETH DAVID If the Minister of Transport has his way and succeeds in abolishing the few surviving horse- drawn commercial vehicles in the City of London...

M R. GARFIELD WESTON, chairman of Associated British Foods, has once again confounded his competitors by reporting a record level of profits for the year to March 31, 1962....

LESLIE ADRIAN posals during the present session of Parliament. The idea is that estate agents should be regis- tered compulsorily and that a registration coun- cil should...