Marie Corelli Nharie Corelli. The Life and Death of a Best-Seller. By George Bullock. (Constable. I2S.) .MARIE CORELLI was a woman of deplorable talent who imagined that she...

Forerunners of Liberalism An Inquiry Into Physiocracy. By Al. Beer. (Allen and Unwin. 6s.) DR. BEER'S most recent investigation into the development of economic theory is a...

[he Distribution of Population The recently issued report of the Royal Commission on the Distribution of the Industrial Population was actually completed just before the war,...

The Age of Recruitment Some time ago The Spectator pointed out that the present method of recruitment, if not modified, would tend to the creation of an army " consisting too...

Mr. Stanley on Peace Conditions Nr. Oliver Stanley's first public speech since his elevation to the Secretaryship for War and the War Cabinet, delivered at Ncvcastle last...

Unemployment Persists There is normally a big rise in the unemployment figures in January, which is attributable to the cessation of Christma., activities. But the register...

The Agricultural Front Lr. Lloyd George did good service last Thursday in cornpoling the House of Commons to lift the debate on agriculture from a routine discussion of...

Such were the convictions and determinations which I inspired the greater number of Members in that most significant Debate. It was painful for them to observe that the Front...

Superficially it was caused by the fussiness of the Govern- ment Whips. Members were offended because their true motives were misinterpreted. They had assembled for a Council...

The Members of the House of Commons are realistic men I and women. They know that we are approaching what may prove the first decisive stage in the Second German War. They know...

It may be difficult, as Sir Archibald Sinclair suggested, to I hear in Downing Street, or even in Whitehall, " the throb and rhythm of a powerful driving machine." It is easy....

There are many factors, on each side, which must be discounted. The Government are burdened with pressing responsibilities, constrained to irksome reticence, and limited by the...

PEOPLE AND THINGS By HAROLD NICOLSON THE debate in the House of Commons last week on the intensification of our economic effort has left behind it feelings ot discomfort. A...

THE CRISIS IN EDUCATION-I By SIR CYRIL NORWOOD* W HILE the eyes of all are of necessity fixed upon the war, and the country prepares to make the sacrifices and to develop the...

THE NECESSITIES OF EDUCATION IT was one of the strange and unforeseen consequences of the war that almost from the start it thrust into the foreground a problem that might have...

I do not seem to command complete approval in Hungary. Part of a page of The Spectator of December 22nd, i939, the page which bears my signature at its foot, has been sent back...

A final word on R.A.F. "disturbance allowances," this time on official authority. The position is this. A niarriec regular officer who had his family living with him on or near...

The editor of the Nineteenth Century includes in the latest I of his always important monthly articles on " The Situation a passage which deserves reproduction. " Among men of...

I am not sure that Commander King-Hall is right in I thinking that the public is thirsting for detailed reports of the proceedings in the Chamber which he has lately entered...

A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK W HETHER the Government is considering the problem W of the Communist organ, the Daily Worker, I have no knowledge. It is a difficult problem to decide....

The I.R.A. Executions I Mr. de Valera's appeal for the reprieve of the two Irish murderers sentenced to death in connexion with the explosion at Coventry last August was...

The War Cabinet and Economics The Government's refusal to appoint a Minister for Economic Co-ordination has been more convincingly vindicated by Sir William Beveridge than it...

NEWS OF THE WEEK SERIOUS friction with Japan arising from the seizure by a British warship of 2i Germans from the Japanese vessel 'Asama Maru ' has been averted by the good...

The Viceroy and Mr. Gandhi The failure of Monday's conversation between the Viceroy 0; India and Mr. Gandhi to produce results is surprising as well as disappointing. It was...

The Export Council's Task I Meanwhile there is general agreement that Sir Andrew Duncan must be given every chance to show his capacity at the Board of Trade, and a general...

FINANCE AND INVESTMENT a By CUSTOS HERE at last is the railway agreement, and from the stuck. holders' standpoint it must be judged fully up to cxpCLa tions. The companies...

CHEAP RAILWAY STOCKS I What do these arrangements imply in terms of market values? My own feeling is that home rail junior stocks should enjoy a further substantial rise. If...

A DEFENCE OF BANK EARNINGS 0 In his address to shareholders of Lloyds Bank, which rounds off this year's series of bank chairmen's speeche5, Lord Wardington made a vigorous...

SIR,-It is as lamentable as inexplicable that nearly half a year after its declaration of war the Government, while preaching to the country the need of economy, should still,...

NEWS FROM FINLAND I SIR,-For over two months the public has been supplied daily with information from Finland about the supposed rev erse of the Red Army, the inadequacy of its...

THE DEAN OF CANTERBURY SIR.-The pulpit and platform utterances of the Dean of Canterbury have astounded and shocked many Friends of Canterbury Cathedral. Some of them, since...

LIQUOR IN WAR-TIME SIR,-Dr. H. M. Vernon based his claim for the introduction of the rationing and restriction of the brewing and sale of beer in war-time mostly on the usual...

SIR,-In his review of the Dean of Canterbury's book in last I week's issue of The Spectator, Mr. Christopher Hobhoue adopts an attitude of good-humoured sarcasm. He is quit"...

THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT SIR,-I do not wish to enter into a lengthy theological conl troversy with Dr. Bevan, not because I shirk it, but because it would hardly interest your...

SIR,-We are all federalists now! There is, however, '~me fundamental difficulty that has not been really faced in all the writings that have come my way on international...

FEDERAL UNION SIR,-This prestige appeal to which Mr. Nicolson now resorts really won't do. For whose prestige are we to accept? Mr. Nicolson knows as well as I do that among...

TILLING'S RECORtD PROFITS It is good to see Thomas Tilling, an old favourite of these notes, announcing record profits in spite of the obviou,1 difficulties which must have...

JOHN LEWIS-SELFRIDGE DEAL I Following the recent internal changes in the house of Selfridge, there will be little surprise at the announcement that this Oxford Street store is...

THE MURDER OF ROEHM SIR,-Miss Elizabeth Wiskemann, in her interesting review of some recent books about Germany, mentions that Mr. Garbutt and Mr. Walton-Kerr, authors of two...

AIR RAIDS AND FRACTURES SIR.-The importance of rehabilitation as one phase of the treatment of bone and joint injuries has been emphasised in your columns (January 12th, p. 37,...

Charles Ricketts Charles Ricketts: A Self-Portrait, taken from his Letters and Journals. Collected and compiled by T. Sturge Moore and edited by Cxcil Lewis. (Peter Davies....

A Book of Good Counsel g.ill Here. A WVar-Time Essay. By Dorothy L. Sayers. (Goliancz. t(s.) IN presence of the existing world conflicts, with their dark in:;) "ations for the...

THE CALL FROM GIRLS TO-DAY SIR,-It is difficult in war-time, even in this comparatively Sv iring war-time, to think of the future, and to take any trouble to plan for it. But...

THE ARMY AND THE CHURCHES SIR,-One cannot fail to be interested by Dr. Selbie's article in last week's Spectator, but might I suggest he is unnecessarily pessimistic. I am not...

WAR AND ART By HERBERT READ IN the nineteen-twenties, when German museum directors and art critics began to resume their visits to this country, they would often ask where in...

Our Excellent and Indispensable Eighteenth Century The Eighteenth Century Background. By B-isil Willey. | X Chatto and Windus. 15S.) IN the present state of society and until...

Serial Map Service. (Dunham's Lnc, Letchworth, Herts. i8s. 6d. a ycar). AT the present moment, when so much of the contents of the daily papers can only be fully appreciated...

Shorter Notices Britain and the Mediterranean. By Kenneth Williams. (Newnes. 3S. 6d.) THIS brief, businesslike and unpretentious volume contains much useful and pertinent...

COMPANY MEETING LLOYDS BANK LIMITED RECORD DEPOSIT FIGURES WAR FINANCE PROBLEMS LORD WARDINGTON'S ADDRESS Tii !:2nd ordinary general meeting of thc shareholders of Lloyds I...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR [Correspondents are requested to keep their letters as brief as is reasonably possible. Signed letters are given a preference over those bearing a...

Books of the Day Archbishop Laud Archbishop Laud. 1593-1645. By H. R. Trevor-Roper. ,MVwacmillan. 21 S.) LAUD was, in the opinion of Dr. Fisher, " the one second-rate...

STAGE AND SCREEN MUSIC The Big Bass Drum SO.MAETHING may be learnt about a composer s music from the instrument he played on himself or knew familiarly. Elgar and his violin,...

ART "d Anyone can paint from nature." HENRY CORNELL, the mail-van driver and jack-of-all-trades, who has been holding a one-man show at the Leicester Galleries, is reported in...

THE CINEMA "The Wizard of Oz." At the Empire. "Dust Be My Destiny." At Warner's. ' Fifth Avenue Girl." At the Plaza.-" African Skyway." At the Leicester Square. The Wizard of...

THE MORAL FRONT By SIR EVELYN WRENCH IT is impossible to take up a newspaper nowadays without finding references to the material preparations being made by the nation and its...

HELP FINLAND NOW THE Supreme Council of the Allies is said to have discussed the Finnish situation at its important meeting in Paris last week-end. That is satisfactory news....

THE INFLUENZA PROBLEM By OUR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT ONE of the practical problems of influenza, prevalent, as always, in these winter months, is, of course, to disentangle it...

THE WAR SURVEYED: FINLAND'S HOUR OF NEED By STRATEGICUS BY a strange perversity of fate events are conspiring to represent Finland's position as secure just as the hour of...

GERMANY'S SELF-DECEPTION By ELISABETH KOFFKA I IT was with a heavy heart that on a hazy August morning I stood against the railings of the ferry that was to carry me across...

COUNTRY LIFE Winter Memories After the heaviest fall of snow I went to call on a near neighbour whose age is ninety-five. He had rigged up) a curtain in front of the cottage...

Valuable Dates I The weakness, as well as the strength, of country memories has been discovered by those, generally country doctors, who have laboured to secure old age...

Tu-whit, Tu-whoo ! I Was that great countryman, William Shakespeare, wrong when he made the song, so to call it, of the owl a proper accompaniment of frosty nights? Some...

Iced Milk I A local milkman slipped on the frozen snow, and upset some of his burden; but, as the householder said, he did not crv over spilt milk, he took it up and dusted it....

BALKAN STATESMANSHIP THE conference of the Little Entente, which ended on Sunday, achieved a success which had two aspects, positive and negative. The latter, though the less...

New Novels A Man of Forty. By Gerald Bullett. (Dent. 7s. 6d.) The Day Before. By H. M. Tomlinson. (Heinemann. gs.) Green to Amber. By Sherard Vines. (Cape. 8s. 3d.)...

INVADED BRITAIN By DEREK HUDSON S OME time within the past few months the thoughts of most of us must have turned-however reluctantly and sceptically-to the possibility of an...