The First Health Centre By Dr. STEPHEN TAYLOR IT is a strange commentary on our system of public administration that the first health centre to be opened in Britain since the...

Morello Cherries There is still time to put in Irtjit trees. The comnring mo atI is a good one where the soil is norniallk heavv. Mrilo- cherries are an excellent cover for...

Price on a Tail Years ago, when thre-shin' \\as going on in the stack \ ard. I \\xas interested in the pr-ice of rat-tails. One kon0hi gCt a penny (or mas it twopence ?) for a...

Law and the Poor SIR,-Now that we have the National Health Service and all that goes with it, we are rather inclined to assume that the toiling masses have complete social...

Weather Prophets Weather-forecasting is donc for us by the ridio these dai s. Even in remote places it is the customn to turn on the radio to hear whether it will be wet or...

Running for the Presidency SIR,-Thc characteristically few well-chosen words in which President Coolidge signified his decision gave rise to a riddle which had a great success...

COUNTRY LIFE Busy as the farmer and cottager are at times. they have to face the problem of disposing of rubbish that cannot be consumed or destroved by fire. As many old tins...

Public School Awards SIR,--The proportion of awards gained by our public and grammar schools at Cambridge, whereby Janus weighs the pros and cons of homework, must by...

Governors-General SIR,-I sympatnise with Janus when he says that it would be a pity if the tradition of Domrinion Governors-General from Great Britain is finally abandoned, but...

Hibernating Wasp Moving the curtains on the bedroom wflindo\, I distur bed a quCen wasp and instinctively I killed her. I forget thc number of young wasps that hatch from the...

Fiction From Here to Eternity. By James Jones. (Collins. 18s.) All Souls. By Ruth Tomalin. (Faber. 1 2s. 6d.) In Vallombrosa. By David Mathew. (Collins. 1Os. 6d.) The...

Music in the Cinema Composing for the Films. By Hanns Eisler. (Dobson. 12s. 6d.) THE congeries of experts that assembles in a film-studio for the production of a new b'...

MARGINAL COMMENT By HAROLD NICOLSON M Y attention has been called to an interesting brochure, written by Lady Bath, illustrated by Mr. Cecil Beaton and published by the...

BOOKS OF THE WEEK The Two Carlyles Thomas Carlyle: The Life and Ideas of a Prophet. By JulMan Symons. (Gollancz. 21s.) Necessary Evil: The Life of Jane Welsh Carlyle. By...

Glorious John Dryden: Poetry, Prose and Plays. Selected by Douglas Grant. (Hart-Davis. Reynard Library. 25s.) THE most immediately striking thing about Dryden is his...

African Federation The communique issued regarding the recent London talks on Central African Federation says extremely little, and what it does say is not reassuring. 'The...

Sacrifice in the Schools The economies in the educational system announced by the Minister on Tuesday are deplorable, but so is the country's financial situation. One thing is...

The Nigerian Experiment Nigeria found itself last week decked out with an almost embarrassing supply of constitutional equipment. The Colony has now to run (and be run by) a...

Balkan Bastion? If all the recent diplomatic moves around the southern fringe of the Iron Curtain could be added up, their sum would undoubtedly represent something valuable to...

A Pause to Use The ditenite in Egypt continues, and by now conditions in both Cairo and the Canal Zone are as nearly normal as possible in view of the events of the last few...

SIR.-Dr. Percy Dearner's opinion on the subject of faculties has been invoked by Mr. Fielden. Mvay I also set forth from The Parson's Handbook some of his views with regard to...

The Vanishing Farm-horse SIR,-I was much interested in the article The Vanishing Farmn-horse, as I have bred and trained several Suffolk-punch cross-garrons. The garron is too...

Travel in Switzerland SIR,-Surely you take an unnecessarily gloomy view of the reduction in the tourist allowance. I agree that £25 is too little for a reasonable visit to...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Schuman Plan Queries SIR,-'fr. Hamilton Kerr's article on French and German feelings about the Schuman Plan shows what might be expected-apathy or...

The Creed of the Church SIR,-Enough work has been done in recent years on the subject of the creeds for your correspondents to strike an oddly archaic note when they write of...

By Candlelight qTR-Mr- Richard Fielden in his letter dealing with the number of I candlesticks on the Holy Table, writes: " It is of supreme importance that that discretion...

Force to Back the International Court ? I SIR,-To me there appeared one very serious defect in the pronouncements following Mr. Churchill's conversations with the President on...

Voluntary Work in Hospitals Two years ago the National Council of Social Service, with the support of King Edward's Hospital Fund for London, decided to promote an enquiry into...

AT WESTMINSTER The King's death brought Parliament to a sudden stop. In the Commons Mr. Churchill, postponing until another day, a formal tribute to the late monarch, -ave...

Unemployment Scare ? What lesson is to be drawn from the fact that in last week's economic debate Mr. Harold Wilson referred to a danger of unemployment in the consumer goods...

Floreat Salopia ! By DEREK HUDSON " Rex Edwarde, te canamus Pee-um Funda-torr-em . . . T HE boys of Shrewsbury School launch into the school song with gusto, and at the end...

Mr. Bevan's unusual and rather pontifical " statement" on Mr. Butler's Health Service proposals cannot entirely be characterised, in the words of one of his leaders, as "...

The appointment of Mr. Donald MacGillivrav to he denutv High Commissioner in Malaya unider General TeImpler is being sharply criticised by civil servants in Malaya. who think...

Everyone, I think, is uneasy at the prospect of old-a1ef pensioners, with their 26s. a week, or 40s. for a nmarried pair, having to pay Is. for every prescription they need,...

With New College. Oxford. erectinm a statue bv Enstein in itq ante-chapel and King's. Cambridge, conmmissionina Mr. Henry Moore to execute three panels for an altar-piece, no...

A broadcast whih Mr. Hoover seems to have given in the United States last week provides an instructive study in valuations. I fancy I noticcd a lini or two on it in some...

The effect of the decision of The Times to increase its price from 3d. to 4d. seems likely, rather oddly, to be that the editor of that august journal will be able to say to...

A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK T HE Prime Minister's tribute to the King can hardly fail to be deeply moving. Mr. Churchill is more easily moved than is commonly recognised. and his...

ART WITH the Hundred Years' War the feudal ages came to a violent end and the Renaissance reached the Atlantic seaboard ; with the re-emergence of France arose a national...

MUSIC IT is a melancholy reflection that, two years after the century has reached its middle point, there should be a place in our musical life for a Society for Twentieth...

The Story of the Pilgrim's Progress. By John Bunyan. A simplified Version by Ronald Fuller. With illustrations by Biro. (Chatto & Windus. 5s.) IN the course of last century...

Lancelot Andrewes. By Florence Higham. (S.C.M. Press. To read the lives of good and wise men brings into the mind a sense of quietude and of grateful coolness, the sweet...

Shorter Notices Lord Randolph Church.lI. By the Rt. Hon. Winston Churchill, M.P. (Odhams. £1 Is. Od.) FEW better biographies have appeared in the last half-century than Mr....

Ireland's Abbey Theatre, a History, 1899- 1951. Compiled by Lennox Robinson. (Sidgwick & Jackson. 30s.) THE Abbey is perhaps the most famous ' little " theatre in the world;...

CINEMA Secret People. (Odeon.)-The Model and the Marriage Broker. (Leicester Square.) Faddija. (Continentale.) I AM not absolutely certain-one so rarely can be in this...

The Happy Time. Adapted by Samuel Taylor. (St. James's Theatre.) IF VOU take it seriously-and parts of it are meant to be taken seriously -this is a play written in defence of...

CONTEMPORARY ARTS THEATRE The Firstborn. By Christopher Fry. (Winter Garden.) THE play has been revised into more effective theatrical shape since its production at...

INTERNATIONAL ATMOSPHERE SINCE he took office as Foreign Secretary last October, Mr. Anthony Eden has managed to include in every public statement, and most markedly in his...

An Ullstein Returns By REGINALD PECK Berlin SOMETHING like a shiver of apprehension passed through the publishing houses of Berlin when the impending return of Ullstein was...

Colette on Animals Creatures Great and Small. By Colette. Translated from the French by Enid McLeod. (Secker & Warburg. 12s. 6d.) ''A frequenter le chat on ne risque que de...

Apprenticeship to Ballet Dance to the Piper: Memoirs of the Ballet. By Agnes de Mille. I (Hamish Hamilton. 18s.) ALTHOUGH I have never met Agnes de Mille, Dance to the Piper...

Hitler's Comeback By TANGYE LEAN M OST of us will probably forget about Hitler before we have got to know him. The name floats at the back of our minds like the memory of a...

FINANCE AND INVESTMENT By CUSTOS As I write the King's death has cast its heavy shadow over markets. After its first shock the City will doubtless register its recognition...

KING GEORGE VI - AN APPRECIATION By JOHN GORE T HE gift of prophecy. if it exists, is rare. The diaries of Queen Victoria and of King George V (then Duke of York) under the...

Bird's Eye View of Art T The Artist at Work. By H. Ruhemann and E. M. Kemp. (Penguin Books. 8s. 6d.) THIS little book of 72 pages, a shade larger in format than the Penguin...

The Polish Officer Joseph Conrad. By Oliver Warner. (Longrnans. lOs. 6d.) CONRAD was twenty when he stepped for the first time on English soil in 1878. The steamer' Mavis,'...

A STRICKEN PEOPLE N OT the people of these islands only. Everywhere through the wide spaces of the Commonwealth, in every continent, not least among those dark citizens of the...