Prospects in Korea I:jrst a thaw and then snowstorms have hampered the slow advance of the 8th Army in Korea, and in the last few days the enemy's resistance has been...

The Suppression of La Prensa The Argentine authorities in London issue a bulletin which Is called Noticias de Actualidad and which gives a summary of the news from Argentina,...

Political Vacuum in France The French political parties, far from abhorring a vacuum, seem intent on perpetuating one. Last week MM. Pleven, Bidault, Queuillc all failed in...

Mr. Gaitskell The present Chancellor of the Exchequer has the benefit (f an object lesson in political behaviour, provided by his tr'sC immediate predecessors in office. Mr....

India and Kashmir The hope expressed in these columns last week that the conclusion of a satisfactory trade agreement between India and Pakistan might have a favourable...

The Final Examination Sie,-Thc correspondence published in your issue of March 2nd suggests that there is wide support for Mr. W. 0. Bell's views on the inadequacy of the...

A Commonwealth of Churches SIR,-The Rev. Mervyn Stockwood's contention that a Christianity incarnated in life is the best defence against the onslaughts of materialisin would...

The Record of Dr. Clementis I SIR.-With reference to Mr. Pick's prepositional dialectic; surely a mutiny among Czech troops must have been of Czech troops. For there were rio...

Crayfish or Prawn ? I SIR,-l live in an intellectual desert, and subscribe to the airmail edition of the Spectator to maintain contact with a culture which I am often not able...

CINEMA "' Storm Warning." (Warner.) -" Fourtecn Hours." (Odeon, Marble Arch.)-" Wedding Bells." (Empire, Sundly.) EAGER once again to expose American social sores to the...

EXHIBITION Djilt M4ail Ideal Home Exhibition. (Olympia.) RA'NNAHI MORE declared that "the almost sacred joys of home" depended on "the large aggregate of little things," and...

The Birds of Whidom A reader, having been awakened at night " by the most blood-curdling and demoniac cries from a neighbouring tree," has asked me to comment on the habits of...

COUNTRY LIFE THOuGH most land is still water-lopped this weep two continuous davs without rain have enabled farmers to get on to sloping ground, at least for hand-labour, and...

In the Garden Those two days without rain have given me opportunities which have had to be seized, for much of the spring sowing of vegetables is already belated. Being on a...

MUSIC AT the Kingsway Hall on March 5th the Philharmonia Concert Society presented an interesting programme of twentieth-century chamber-music. The earliest work played was...

"4 A Penny for a Song." By Johii Whiting. (Haymnarket.) WHEIHER it was necessary, or anyhow desirable, to turn this gently whimsical pastiche into a producer's bcncfit I am...

CONTEMPORARY ARTS THEATRE "sThe Duchess of MaUKi." By Jolin Wcbster. (Pcrformncd by the O.U.D.S. at the Oxtorl PIPlayhouse.) TiIE trouble about most dramas belonging to...

Ivor Novello: An Appreciation BY CHRISTOPHER HASSALL IVOR NOVELLO'S career began in music, and by music his legend will be carried down the years.... " I was sixteen when I...

Unwillingly To School By VIRGINIA GRAIIAM IT is a lamentable fact that to a child education is seldom, if ever, enjoyable. Not only are children commanded to grapple with the...

Reviews of the Week La Petite The Little Madeleinc. By Mrs. Robert Henrey. (Dent. 12s. 6d.) O0JR books today, like other things, have reached a splendid level of mediocrity;...

Melville-and More Melville Herman Melville. By Newton Arvin. (Methuen. i Es.) The Complete Stories of Herman Melville. (Eyre and Spottiswvoode. i 6s.) WHATEVER benefit or...

Fiction The Travelling Grave. By L. P. Hartley. (James Barrie. gs. 6d.) A Change of Hcart. By Emyr Humphreys. (Eyre and Spottiswvoode. , os. 6d.) Seven Against Edinburgh....

Chaucer Scrutinised Chaucer the Maker. By John Speirs. (I:aber. 12s. 6d.) MR. SPIEIRS. in his examination of Chaucer, uses the critical methods taiight by lM1r. 1. R. Leavis....

Satellite Shame By G. E. R. GEDYE Vienna IT is more than a century since Metternich proclaimed that Asia begins at the Vienna Landstrasse-that mainly undistinguished...

FOUR-POWER DEBATE T o HE Paris talks are going very much as might have been expected, with relations all cordial the first day and all tense the second. So at least it would...

The Gospels Embroidered God So Loved the World: A Life of Christ. By Elizabeth GoudE!e. (Hodder and Stoughton. X os. 6d.) Miss GOUDGE, as befits the daughter of a Regius...

A Hitler Close-up Ifitler's Interpreter. 1By Dr. Ijul Schmidt. (Heinemann. 15s.) EVERYONE who frequented international conferences before the war was familiar with Dr. Paul...

The Pageant of Syria The History of Syria, including Lebanon and Palestine. By Philip K. Hitti. (Macmillan. t2s.) POLITICALLY and economically Syria is today again in the...

The Earth: Whence? When? How? The Origin of the Earth. By W. M. Smart. (Cambridge University Press. 2s. 6d.) TiiV title of this book might well have been "The Origin of the...

\Valuable as Mr. Ashley Courtenay's annual Let's Halt A while, a IiMt of selected hotels in Great Britain and Ireland, always is, it cle rly has a special value in the Festival...

Everyone who reads the Spectator with any regularity know3 the sort cf football articles Mr. J. P. W. Mallalieu, M.P. (an old Oxford rugger blue, but today a soccer...

THE LAST DAYS OF HONG KONG " Cut off from U.S. goods, face to face with the conquering armies of Communist China, the Hong Kong of song and legend is no more. This is what the...

So the Festival of Britain pleasure gardens are in for a certaia loss of some £572,000. Not much, I suppose, at the rate money is flowing out nowadays, but not a very...

Clhactun a son goett, De gustibus non disputanduin and all that. StiII, when I chanced on an almost ferocious review of Mrs. J. M. Hart's The British Police, by Charles Reith...

A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK T HE action of Mr. Churchill in inviting Sir Arthur Salter to join the Conservative Shadow Cabinetfor that is what the nomination of Sir Arthur as (...

The Western Orthodox University is in the news again. So, in interesting but not surprising juxtapositiop, is His Sacred Beatitude the Lord Patriarch of Glastonbury. Both of...

MARGINAL COMMENT By HAROLD NICOLSON IN one of the high saloons of Drury Lane there was held last week a meeting of the Ellen Terry Fellowship. These annual reunions are...

Imbroglio With Engineers The dispute over piecework rates for engineering workers is rapidly degenerating into a state of confusion, cross-purposes andl dislocation. The basis...

The New Air Force Nobody expects much from any of Britain's present defence Ministers, and consequently Mr. Henderson's presentation of the air estimates sounded more...

AT WESTMINSTER N OW there is no question about it. Foreign affairs and defence have got Parliament in thrall just as they had during 1938 and 1939. Domestic subjects introduce...

| Gallia in Tres Partes I Be D. W. BROGAN AMNOTHER French Government has fallen, and that one of the best since the Liberation. M. Pleven had made an 11 excellent impression...

POWERS FOR GERMANS T O expect the political leaders of Western Germany to -feel much gratitude for the revision of the Occupation Statute or. if they felt it, to say so would...

Assassination in Persia Admirers of General Ali Razmara claimed that he was potentially the saviour of his country. He had not had the time to Justify the high claims on his...

FINANCE AND INVESTMENT By CUSTOS As expected. markets are beginning to show sonic hesitancy in face of the coming Budget, bUt so far there is no indication of real weakness....

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR A Health Act Anomaly SIR.-The effects of the National Health Service Act are gradually becoming clearer, but I wonder how many of your readers are...

Christian Unity and the Bible Sile.-No obstacle to reunion of the Churches is greater than the wide range of attitudes to the Bible. It is a far cry from the sceptical approach...

Paper for Books SIRk-The newsprint shortage is receiving constant publicity and is. in fact, brought to our notice with a jerk every morning and evening; but it is not commonly...

John Byrom: Selections from his Journals and Papers. l.ditc(l witli notes by Henri Talon. (Rocklil1. 2 (s.) To have written "Christians awake! would be sufficient...

SHORTER NOTICES In the DaYs of the Janissaries. Old Turkish I ile as IDnpicted in the " Travel-Book of 1 Llia.i Chelebi. By Alexander Pallis. (I 1(1t( hins!,l. X 8s..) Boosts...

footsteps in Civilisation. By F. Kingjdon- I Wa trd. (Cape. i 2S . 6(I.) - ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~I A SHIORr discursive book for the general reader about some of the discoveries on...

A Farmer's Thoughts BY FRANK SYKES T WO wars have taught us that British agriculture is an integral part of our defence. Consequently at times such as these one might well...

IAspects of Portugal I Bv NEVILL BARBOUR E NTERING Portugal from the north, you descend the hill from the last Galician town, Tuy, cross the bridge over the River Minho, pass...

BOOKSAND WRITERS LAURENCE STERNE-first of modern writers. The title hangs loosely on the shoulders of that odd Anglo-Irishman who peers so quizzically down his nose at us in...