A century ago it was Great Britain that came best out of the Scramble for Africa. Already installed at the Cape, she took a large part of Eastern and Central Africa and although...

Points of honours Charles Moore N o doubt it would be priggish to ask what the New Year and Queen's Birth- day Honours are supposed to be for. Almost no British institution is...

UK Eire Surface mail Air mail 6 months: £17.25 1R£17.25 £20.50 £26.50 One year: £34.50 1RE34.50 £41.00 £53.00 Cheques to be made payable to the Spectator and sent to...

T went to Rome for the New Year in the 1 hope of being cheered up, but both the Pope and the President of Italy did their best to dampen the spirits. 'The threat of nuclear...

Year of hope Auberon Waugh W e want men and women of all ages and in all walks of life to set their hopes high and to carry them through into reality... We want people to...

Christopher Hitchens Washington A the inauguration of President Andrew Jackson in 1828, there was such vulgar jubilation that contemporary observers (especially the partisans...

David Carlton I am unusual among Britishers in being a long-standing admirer of the late John Foster Dulles. Consistent with that posi- tion, therefore, I find myself pleased...

Harry Eyres Barcelona C ince Joan Miro died in Palma, Majorca on Christmas Day, columns and col- umns of print have been filled here with tributes to the Catalan artist who...

A. M. Daniels O nce, in the course of my less than distinguished medical career, I found myself in Cape Town with only five pounds in my pocket. I had spent a month in the...

Richard West F ewpeople know or care that 1984 is ` International Anti-Racism Year'. In honour of this event, Ken Livingstone's Greater London Council has banned from its...

Alan Gibson T he Roman came to Rye and out to Severn strode, but he did not get much beyond it. The Severn is a stubborn river. It seems to have decided long ago that it was...

Orwellian overkill Paul Johnson uestion: what are the two most tedium- inducing syllables in the English lauguage today? Answer: 'Or-well'. As 1984 approached, and finally...

Mr Gladstone's birthday must be a day of tribulation. The practice of ,pelting him with telegrams and letters of congratulation seems to us a very in- humane one, and not really...

Ideas for Mr Redwood Jock Bruce-Gardyne O n Tuesday, to the immense relief of all Spectator readers, Mr John Redwood took up the baton from Mr Ferdinand Mount. The relief of...

emigres' she has met because 'it is history that millions of them fought for and work- ed for the Nazis during the war'. It is true that millions of Slovaks, Croats and, in...

Sir: Pace Mr Wade Smith (Letters, 17 December), the Queen is Sovereign of other realms than the United Kingdom. When lecturing coast to coast under the auspices of the...

Sir: I am currently compiling for the Bodley Head a book of letters to Bernard Shaw from members of the general public. A wide variety of letters will be included: re- quests...

Sir: Nina Tuckman (Letters, 10 December) compares a separation of the Soviet Union into its constituent nationalities and republics with the division of the United States of...

of the Elgin Marbles, if the British Government is prepared for a modest ex- penditure and a very small risk. For centuries, literature has differed from other arts in that...

Buying marbles Sir: H. E. the Greek Ambassador and the British Committee for the Restitution of the Parthenon Marbles (Letters, 17 December) wish to dismiss my arguments in...

Towards a new union Colin Welch L ast week I described briefly the very liberal Europe, limited alike in area and function, which was envisaged and launch- ed by Adenauer, de...

The Higher Cannibalism P. J. Kavanagh O Beloved Kids Rudyard Kipling (Weidenfeld £10.95) RudyaRudya rd Kipling detested curiosity about rd private lives of authors; he called...

Anthony Blond Saladin in his Time P.H. Newby (Faber and Faber £10.95) A l-Malik al-Nasir Salah al-Din Abu 1-Muzaffer Yusuf ibn Ayyub ibn Shadi (Saladin) was a jumped-up Kurd...

Bel Mooney The Europa Biographical Dictionary of British Women Edited by Anne Crawford, Tony Hayter and others (Europa Publications £27.50) W henever a women breaks new ground...

Lewis Jones A Minor Apocalypse Tadeusz Konwicki (Faber & Faber £8.95) Ana P. I.I. Magdalen (World's Work £7.95) The Dream of a Beast Neil Jordan (Chatto/Hogarth £6.95) Mortal...

Caroline Moorehead The Exile: A Life of Ivy Litvinov John Carswell (Faber & Faber £10.95) T he condition of exile is seldom a con- tented one; the memoirs of those forced to...

Francis King More Collected Stories V. S. Pritchett (Chatto & Windus £12.50) C oming on V. S. Pritchett's More Collected Stories after his Collected Stories is like coming on...

Companion of Honour John McEwen - 1 - am of mind to go blackberrying which it is a pity to do alone One should always have companions for fruit-picking:- So choose them...

Lost and found Giles Gordon Peter Pan (RSC: Barbican) Oliver! (Aldwych) Special Occasions (Ambassadors) w hen Wendy (Katy Behean, gawky) is telling a bedtime story to the...

Po-faced Richard Ingrams I t is customary at this time of the year for critics to look back over the year's pro- grammes and single out those which they think deserve special...

Red terror Peter Ackroyd Gorky Park (`15', selected cinemas) 6 T always wanted to meet an American,' 1 says Mr William Hurt, an American actor playing a Russian policeman in...

Rover's return Jeffrey Bernard T took myself away from the well beaten ltrack last week and dilly-dallied in Chelsea for a couple of days. It's well known that the Kings Road...

Winners Taki or once I was rather sad to see the year go the way of Lebanon. 1983 wasn't such a bad year when I look back. It had a roller coaster kind of effect on me, with...

December P.J. Kavanagh Luxor N ot the usual notes from Glos. but this time a word from the banks of the Nile. I am always impressed by exotic datelines in this magazine and,...

No. 1302: All together, boys! Set by Jaspistos: A son g , please (maximum 16 lines), for dele g ates of EEC members to sin g at their g atherings in order to promote unity and...

Jaspistos reports: Competitors were asked for a surprisin g account, by a very minor historical character involved for a short space of time with a celebrated person in a...

Chequered flag Raymond Keene F irst past the post in the 5th Chequers Competition was Mrs S. Haslam of 24a Trede g ar Road, London E3, whose speedy answers earned her a total...

A prize of ten pounds will be awarded for the first correct solution opened on 23 January. Entries to: Crossword 639, The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WC1N 2LL. 1 2 3 4...

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Three former directors of the Central 1 Intelligence Agency recommended the withdrawal of US forces from Lebanon. A report from the Pentagon, on the death of 241 US Marines in...

STAUFFENBERG by Joachim Kramarz and 'Chariot of Fire' by E.E.Y. Hales. Box No: 362SB, The Spectator, 56 Doughty St, London WC1N 2LL. SANDEL by Angus Stewart (Panther 1970). BW,...