Progress on Austria Sudden unexpected symptoms of agreement between the Four Powers' deputies have reminded a forgetful world that discussions for an Austrian peace treaty have...

E.R.P. in Practice The passage of the European Recovery Programme into law was as free from parade and pretentiousness as the speech with which Mr. Marshall launched it at...

New Mandate Look If it is speedily accepted by the United Nations, the American 15-point plan for trusteeship in Palestine may conceivably avert absolute chaos there. It is...

Finland and the Kremlin The length to which the Russo-Finnish negotiations have been spun out, together with various Press messages from Helsinki, have indicated that the...

TAXATION AND OUTPUT SIR,-Mrs. Honor Croome in her article in your issue of March 26th says, "But whether many business-men or professional workers actually throw up the chance...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR " 1931 " SIR,-The year 1931 was of such importance in the period between the two wars that I would ask permission to comment on certain of the statements...

"POWER BEHIND U.N.O." SIR,-May I be ailowed to voice a protest against the attitude so well. exemplified in the opening paragraph of your article Power Behind U.N.O. ? In...

SIR,-Your timely and well-reasoned article on Power Behind U.N.O. deserves a world-wide welcome. The best remedy for the misuse of the veto in the Security Council is surely...

FIRST THINGS FIRST By LORD VANSITTART SOMEONE said at the outset of the French Revolution: " A new idea is afoot in the world-happiness." The events of the past I50 years have...

FINANCE AND INVESTMENT By CUSTOS True to City forecasts, Sir Stafford Cripps has introduced a real'stiBudget. It is realistic in both the economic and political sense in that...

Skorter N\T~Jices Quee~i's (Coflege: 184S-1948. Bv Rosalie Glynn Grylls. (Routledge. 1C~r (ats TiiE.'- is bound to be a cert-in sameness of tone in reminiscences of irls sc...

A Se'ection of Poems by William Wordsworth. Edited with an Introduction by Montgomery Belgion. A Song to David and Other Poems. Bv Christopher Smart. Selected with an...

TENSION IN GERMANY ALARMING as the situation in Berlin in the past eight days has been, it is conceivable that the sky may in the end be left a little clearer. The decision of...

Mr. Bevan's New Move The statement made by the Minister of Health on Wednesday should go far to remove the difficulties between him and the medical profession. It indicated a...

Dr. Edith Summerskill's party broadcast on Saturdav was as capable as one would expect, though her opening passages worked sentiment quite as hard as it is wise to work it. But...

Sir Ernest Gowers' long-looked-for booklet Plain Words. written primarily to improve civil servant's English, is now available and can be obtained from the Stationery Office...

A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK TO say that Sir Stafford Cripps increased his already very considerable Parliamentary stature by his Budget speech on Tuesday is to say a good deal, but...

Addenda to observations (from various contributors). SilnaturLs are illegible because while a man's (or for that matter a w oman's) handwriting evolves with age, signatures,...

The best news I have heard of late about the United Nations- and good news about the United Nations is rather badly needed-is that Commander Robert Jackson has been appointed...

I hear that The Spectator is for sale. That is very intercetirnz news-or would be if there were a word of truth in it, which thcre is not. I am not clear who the putative...

I observe that Professor Hyman Levy, of the Imperial Collegz of Science, is credited by Ceteka, the official Czech Ne'ws A-ency, with having stated at Prague last week that...

St. Proudhon The Un-Marxian Socialist. A Study of Proudhon: By Henri de Lubac, S.J. (Sheed and Ward. M6s.) IN Proudhon Father de Lubac has discovered a Socialist whom even a...

BOOKS OF THE DAY Goebbels The Goebbels Diaries. Translated and edited by Louis P. Lochner. (Hamish Hamilton. 21s.) GOEBBELS was a fascinating orator. In private conversation...

AT WESTMINSTER QUESTION TIME on Tuesday, the day of reassembly, was well attended. To the habitual stalwarts of Question Time, animated by inexhaustible curiosity and zeal for...

Elections in Algeria Algeria is a Department of Metropolitan France, and last week's elections were for the Financial Assembly, which is a local consultative body with fairly...

The Monopoly Bill It was inevitable that the Monopoly (Inquiry and Control) Bill, published last week, should be a cautious and tentative document. Monopolies work in secret,...

PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT By D. W. BROGAN SIR WILLIAM REID DICK'S statue of Franklin D. Roosevelt in Grosvenor Square is to be unveiled on Monday. It is three years since Roosevelt...

MEALS AND MISCHIEFS By JOHN GARRETT A GEORGIAN poet, true to the period's passion for the minor pleasures of life, once opened a poem with the words: " How nice it is to eat,...

SECOND BEST BUDGET THE last thing that anyone expected of Sir Stafford Cripps was that he would produce a popular Budget. A reputation for presenting bad news without evasions...

LIFE IN ANTARCTICA By BRIAN BEVES Port Stanley, Falkland Islands. THE work of setting up British bases in the Antarctic and supplying them from a great distance with the...

PEREGRINE FALCONS SIR,-With reference to the paragraph on hawks and game in the Country Life notes of April 2nd, the writer would appear to be unaware of the fact that the...

CONSOLATIONS OF A CANDIDATE SIR,-The maddening and unaccountable postal delays still surviving from war-time are responsible for the fact that your issue of March 5th has only...

HEALTH AND EDUCATION SERVICES SIR,-Dr. Summerskill, in her persuasive broadcast last Saturday, described the proposed health service as if it would be as wide and beneficial as...

SANDHURST MEMORIAL CHAPEL SIR,-May I bring to the notice of your readers the situation regarding the Second World War Memorial in the Sandhurst Chapel consequent upon the...

CALENDAR MEMORIES SIR,-The late Sir Isaac Isaacs had the same knowledge of dates as had Louis XVIII. I met Sir Isaac some years ago when he was GovernorGeneral of Australia and...

J. L. GARVIN SIR,-I do not wish to prolong any argument about the quality of J. L. Garvin as a writer; but I think it is due to his memory to emphasise one truth. Personally,...

Palestine Oaks On the subject of denudation, many people think they have some sort of remedy for the trouble in Palestine. I would add to their suggestions the planting of...

COUNTRY LIFE I HAD scarcely realised till this week (when travelling with one of the fortunates who had petrol and was allowed to use it) how wide and rapid has been the...

A Multiplying Bird One of the most obvious results of the falling population of keepers (a word that sounds sarcastic in some ears) is the multiplication of magpies. They begin...

EPITAPH OF AN OBSCURITY BOOKS and fame Ignore my name. Debts forbid A pyramid. By this alone I shall be known. JOHN SAUNIDERS.

A Natural Forest It is a little hard, I find, to be enthusiastic about National Parks, though the idea is intrinsically delightful, because of the difficulty of discovering...

In the Garden We grow used to the enhancement of our garden flowers, but novelties may still surprise us. The date is the heyday of the species tulip, which precedes the...

SiR,-As you suggest that it might be useful to know the views of the Headmasters' Conference on this subject, you may perhaps allow a sometime member of that body to state his...

A FIXED EASTER? SIR,-Until this year I should have echoed every word of your con- tributor's argument in favour of a fixed Easter, and of your own note upon it. But I am not...

"DUBLIN AND PLENTY" SIR,-There is something almost poetic about the fact that my article in praise of Dublin should be the object of an Irish attack. I am not even sure whether...

THE L.C.C. AND PUBLIC SCHOOLS SIR,-To a Scot, who attended a "public school" in the Scottish sense (parish school) before proceeding to higher education (grammar and...

CIVIL SERVICE CANDIDATES SIR,-Surely the statement that a substantial percentage of failures in the Civil and Foreign Service examinations is due to lack of personality and...

THE CINEMA " The Fugitive. ". (Leicester Square.) ALTHOUGH most film critics will agree with me, I am sure, that it is a mournful thing to spend so many daylight hours in dark...

CONTEMPORARY ARTS THEATRE "Coriolanus." By William Shakespeare. (New.) " THE Tragedy of Coriolanus," Dr. Johnson thought, " is one of the most amusing of our authour's...

MUSIC LA TRAVIATA at Covent Garden on April 6th suffered from two major drawbacks-a miscast Violetta and sets and production which seemed to hanker after effects proper to...

The Continuity of Style Local Style in English Architecture. By T. D. Atkinson. (Bats- ford. 15s.) The Regency' Style. By Donald Pilcher. (Batsford. 15s.) TODAY, to judge...

Stop Planning? Ordeal By Planning. By John Jewkes. (Macmillan. 12s. 6d.) THE open attack on planning was bound to come sooner or later. So deeply had the assumption that...

REAL AMERICAN AID By WALTER TAPLIN BEFORE President Truman signed the Foreign Aid Bill, providing $5,300 million for aid to Europe in the current year, the first shipments...

The Jesus of History Jesus, Son of Man. By Professor G. S. Duncan, (Nisbet. 16s.) THE quest for the Jesus of history was inspired in no small degree by the hope of...

Sir William's Daughter Youth is a Blunder. By Elma Napier. (Cape. lOs. 6d.) FROM the beginning Mrs. Napier seems to have suffered from a sense of inadequacy. The first-born...

"WHERE THEY SING" By REGINALD GIBBON WHEN Adolphus Crosbie found himself at Barchester with a W train to wait for and nothing to do, he went into the cathedral. It was a...

MARGINAL COMMENT By HAROLD NICOLSON THOSE of us who aspire to intellectual sincerity are distressed when we encounter the incomprehensible in art or literature. We are not...

Fiction William Medium. By Edward Hyams. (The Bodley Head. lOs. 6d.) A Season of Olives. By Wrey Gardiner. (Falcon Press. 8s. 6d.) More Lives Than One. By Hobert D....