NEWS OF THE WEEK A GRICULTURE Albert Hall Antiques Arabia Asia .. BALKANS .. 257 And Parliament, 231 ; Party Manners .. 394 Belgium : Return of King . i..eopold, 101 ;...

Plenty of fatuous accusations have been bandied backwards and, forwards in the course of the cold war, but usually they are unofficial and can be ignored. Some notice, however,...

For one moment, towards the end of last week, it looked as if the Radical leader, M. Queuille, would succeed in establishing a Government held together by the external pressure...

I N less than two months the Schuman Plan has been reduced from a proposal for the single control of the coal and steel industries of France and Germany to an obscure argument...

The statement that shipping under the flag of Panama (the total population of that estimable republic at the last census was 622,576) now occupies fourth place in world...

There was a time when Smithfield was the place where th citizens of London watched the burning of martyrs. Now it the place where market employees devise tortures for Londoner...

The larger West Indian territories have for some time been moving in the direction of self-government. The whole question of co-operation under the guidance of the Colonial...

The Trades Union Congress, which has never liked the idea of a national wages policy, dropped even the pretence of having one last week, when the standstill arrangement which...

The law of leasehold is admittedly in a tangle. That is why a ommittee was appointed in 1948 to propose amendments to it. he Committee's final report, published on Tuesday, does...

dragging prelude to the Korea debate. The North Korean aggression, we are told, hastened the formation of the already defunct Frencn Government anu it has certainly produced a...

the eneral public, the miners, and even the Board itself with a sense f helplessness, the only consolation for each class must be that t has only itself to blame. British coal...

T HE Korean war will soon be entering its third week. Important as the military operations are, and vital as is the necessity of bringing them to a close as soon as 'possible,...

to Dusseldorf because the 56-inch safety strap would not meet round his waist, would seem to be not inaptly named. JANUS.

may be something of that behind the ascription to Bertrand Russell, speaking in Sydney, of the assertion:- " I believe we are already in the initial stages of a third world war...

the House of Commons is one of the most agreeable events of the Parliamentary year. This year—last Monday—the guest of the evening was Sir Pelham Warner, the new President of...

recently made reference, and which has lately figured at question-time in the House, the Central European Observer, is of some interest. It would appear to be a Communist...

Humphrey lait Friday raises issues of considerable interest ; as the case is going to appeal I must confine myself to stating them. A Lloyds underwriter ordered from a dealer a...

I applied to the suggestion, made in the House of Commons by a Conservative member (and promptly repudiated officially on behalf of the Conservative Party), that an atomic bomb...

By PETER FLEMING W ARS generally start with, among other things, a good deal of terminological claim-staking, in which the aggressor often secures, for what it is worth, a...

most urgent health problems in Great Britain at the present moment is the lack of institutional facilities for the treatment of tuberculosis. Indeed, the position is so serious...

By PROFESSOR ANDRE DUPONT SOMMER * T HE incomparable treasures found in a cave near the Dead Sea by a Bedouin in the spring of 1947 are beginning to emerge. After two reports...

ByR. H. CECIL I HAVE often thought that every newspaper report on the pro- gress of a strike should either begin or end with a summary of its causes ;, fifty words would do....

By GEOFFREY HOLDSWORTH p ft ESCA-A-ADO! " cries a burly woman, who marches down the street in the early morning, on her head a basket of fish but lately in the sea, in one...

The Lunatic and the Clown By RICHARD MAYNE (Trinity College, Cambridge) It is a familiar commonplace that laughter is often as not the first cousin to fear. Sometimes the fear...

by undergraduates from any university or university college in Britain, should be as nearly as possible 1,400 words in length. There are no restrictions as to subject-matter,...

By HAROLD NICOLSON T HE philosopher should be as indifferent to material mis- fortune as Diogenes, the son of Hicesias. His self-sufficiency should be so robust as to render...

Three Husbands." (New Gallery.)—" Montana." (London Pavilion.)—" Winchester ' 73 : (Odeon.) Three Husbands is the less adroitly written answer to that excellent film A Letter to...

THEATRE cc Gaslight." By Patrick Hamilton. (Vaudeville.) THIS intelligent melodrama revives well. The sly, cruel tricks with which Manningham sets out to undermine first his...

SUBSCRIPTION RATES ORDINARY EDITION by post to any part of the World AIR EXPRESS By Air to nearest Airport and then by ordinary mail. Canada and United States ... South st...

of love world, power, fame, honour, chivalry, loyalty and friendship all blown away like an insubstantial dream ; one thing alone left living—longing, longing unquenchable, a...

THE DEATH OF PEEL PEEL constructed a party for the special purpose of teachin g the " conservative " g enius of En g lish statesmanship how to reconcile itself to advancin g...

THERE was a bird all summer san g , win g in g its five white notes. - There was a bird all summer long singing the one bright song away, la ti la fe ray. It san g in the...

POSSIBLY interest in James Joyce the man has been heightened by the very success of his personal policy of " silence, exile and cunning." But whatever the reason the interest...

Set by Peter King When Hamlet was performed in its natural setting at Elsinore, an insensitive spectator was annoyed by the noise of swallows and steamships. A prize of £5,...

THE SPECTATOR readers are urged to place a firm order with their newsagent or to take out a subscription. Newsagents cannot afford to take the risk of carrying stock, as unso:d...

Report by Marghanita Laski tCompetitors were asked to produce a " Woman's Hour" for the Third Programme consisting of a scheme of six items, modelled on the " Woman's Hour "...

SIR, —I happened the other city to pick up a copy of the Spectator of June 6th. and noticed the letter from Maung Mating on " Realities in Burma." In his letter he says he...

SIR,—No observant student of international affairs could possibly fail to notice that this question, asked in your issue of June 30th, has still to be answered. Whilst the...

The Enugu Riots SIR,—It is curious that while the recently published report of the com- • mission which enquired into the riots in Nigeria attracted considerable attention,...

amusing article A Barbarous Rite. All animals-lovers will feel grateful to him for his valiant championship of their faithful friends, the dogs, and may these potent words do...

SIR,—I would beg a little space from you in order that rmay answer Lord Dunsany's challenge that no logical argument can be brought forward in favour of the docking of dogs'...

of describing detective novels as " thrillers." Strictly speaking, the work of Miss Agatha Christie and others comes into a very different category. Thrillers, in the strict...

I SUPPOSE that the most beautiful wild flower in the English list is the wild rose, now in great splendour, yet there are, I think, few flowers about which less is generally...

six,—Miss Sackville-West can probably date her manuscript book a little more closely, for it was Dr. Thomas Burnet who described the post- Diluvial world as a " rude lump " and...

sold to Mr. Richard Crosby. The business proceeded no further, and in 1809 one of Jane Austen's brothers secured the return of the MS for £10, the amount which Mr. Crosby had...

Among the several public schools that have made a name as homes of natural history are Gresham's School, Holt, and Bradfield College. The latter has just celebrated—in a very...

SIR.—You have from time to time, almost alone amongst responsible editors, permitted attention to be called to the harsh and often brutal treatment given to homosexual people....

SIR,—The high indignation of your R.P.O. champion seems to be built on air, on thin air. The Spectator, in its wisdom, disapproved of its readers' vindictiveness by awarding me...

SIR,—May I applaud Mr. Sacheverell Sitwell's graceful English and choice of theme. We forget that the quickest, safest way to bring pictures from Italy (say) to England was...

Most living things in our island have their ups and downs, their numbers varying often greatly from year to year ; but with our birds the ups of late years have been much more...

A great gardener in his new but rich nursery spoke with zeal of the value of grey foliage ; and as he walked round plucked a spray or two of statice and various artemisias and...

L ADY HESTER STANHOPE kept a milk-white horse in her stable in readiness for the Messiah, and was for ever scanning the mountain tops, impatiently but with confidence, for signs...

Memoirs of King Abdullah of Transjordan. (Cape. 1 Es.) SINCE his birth in Mecca sixty-eight years ago, King Abdullah of Jordan has been deeply engaged at the centre of Arab...

Cricket History IN compiling a history of the Gentlemen and Players matches, Sir Pelham Warner has essayed a task which I should imagine was very much to his taste. He was the...

Prisons. By Aldous Huxley. With the "Carceri " Etchings by G. P. l'iranesi, and a Critical Study by Jean Adhemar. (Trianon Press: Faber. 32s. 6d.) THIS fine edition of the...

THE first of the fourteen volumes projected for this History of United States Naval Operations in World War ll was reviewed in these pages two years ago. It recorded events in...

With A Feather On My Nose. By Billie Burke with Cameron Shipp. (Peter Davies. I 25. 6d.) THIS is a story without a beginning. As soon as Miss Billie Burke set foot upon the...

THE historian Fronde, who had no use for Pole, declared that " between us and the old English there lies a gulf of mystery. . . . They cannot come to us, and our imagination can...

Thackeray: A Reconsideration. By J. Y. T. Greig. (Geoffrey Cumberlege. tn. 6d.) THIS well-written, well-informed book is not a biography of Thackeray. We must carry on still...

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IA Book Token for one guinea will be awarded to the sender of the first correct wlution of this week's crossword to be opened after noon on 1 uesaay week, 7.4. 18th. 6 7 4 5...

these hundred or more short passages from the works of Jalalu'l- Din-Rumi, the thirteenth-century Persian who has the reputation of being one of the world's great poets. They...

MISS WATERHOUSE'S introduction is informative in the best sense, and would serve as a suitable short initiation into the joys of reading Anglo-Saxon literature. It is vitiated...

I HAVE long thought Phyllis Bottome one of the most competent and readable of that large body of competent and readable women writers we are fortunate to possess in England,...

By CUSTOS WITH the dismal exception of gold shares markets are standin3 to to the Korean buffeting surprisingly well. Prices, admittedly, have yielded a little ground in...