Fiction II The Leaning Tower. By Katherine Anne Porter. (Cape. 7s. 6d.) 11 The Demon Lover. By Elizabeth Bowen. (Cape. 7s. 6d.) 11 Dead Ground. By Howard Clewes. (John...

COUNTRY LIFE IT is strange, and sad, that the death of a man who has done more perhaps than anyone to save human life should pass unnoticed. Dr. Durham, who died last week in...

Strange Bed-fellows I had knowledge of one quaint little example of the width and particularity of his scientific knowledge. A certain plum tree in a Herefordshire garden...

A Precocious November A diary of botanical appearances belonging to the first week of this November would approach a best on record. Tomatoes were still reddening out of doors....

THE DRESS SHIRT SIR,--I am a very strong supporter of "Janus," and Mr. F. Courtney Harwood's letter in The Spectator for October 26th makes me laugh sardonically! Of course,...

In My Garden - | Pruning time approaches. It may concern those fruit-growers who are in a hurry to hear that at the best of the research stations insistence is laid on the...

DISPLACED PERSONS SIR,-Could some of your contributors and correspondents on the question of Palestine envisage the misery in the camps for " Displaced Persons " on the...

A note on a matter of some interest has reached me. No one is I very happy-though the point need not be laboured-over the omission of all mention of General Eisenhower (or...

There has been a good deal of discussion about the foreign ser- I vices of the B.B.C., about whose discontinuance many people whc realise their value as a sane and accurate...

From time to time readers write to me about the word or phrase I they hate most, and sometimes (particularly if their hate is my hate I say something about it. Today the...

Next year's University Boat Race, once more on the Putney tc I Mortlake course, is being anticipated in an interesting trial canter between the Oxford Magazine and the...

The lawless action of the London bus-staffs in refusing to carry standing passengers stirred the House of Commons to considerable indignation on Monday, when a private-notice...

Legal opinion, it is clear, is considerably divided about the Bar Council's resolution discouraging any member ot the Bar from appearing for a defendant in the impending War...

A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK THE cleavage between the Foreign Secretary and his party was once more conspicuously evident on Wednesday Rising earlier than was expected, Mr. Bevin...

FIFTY YEARS OF X-RAYS By E. ASHWORTH UNDERWOOD THE evening of November 8th marked the fiftieth anniversary of the discovery of X-rays by Wilhelm Conrad Rdntgen. These have...

MARGINAL COMMENT By HAROLD NICOLSON I HAVING just returned from a flying visit to Athens, I shall try this week to convey some impression of the state of uncer- tainty,...

It is for such reasons that our policy of non-intervention, how-I ever admirable it may seem in theory, is in practice most unhelpful. What the Greek people so passionately...

I do not wish to leave too pessimistic an impression. Intimida- I tion, both from the Right and from the Left, is certainly present, but actual violence is subsiding; there...

Mr. Bevin, I feel sure, cherishes the most distressed, if somewhat bewildered, feelings of benevolence. He does not, however, quite see himself in the r6le of the God in the...

It is a misfortune that so tense a situation shculd be complicated bv thc constitutional issue between the Monarchists and the Republicans. The British visitor is apt to be...

PALESTINE THOUGH the problem of Palestine grows in urgency daily, as the outbreaks in that country itself and in Egypt alarmingly emphasise, the Prime Minister had on Tuesday...

NEWS OF THE WEEK THE Foreign Affairs debate in the House of Commons on Wednesday had as many unsatisfactory as satisfactory aspects. Restricted as it was by general agreement...

The French Assembly On Tuesday of this week the first French Assembly of the Fourth Republic held its first meeting in Paris, and it is expected that it will not proceed to its...

M. Molotov in Moscow M. Molotov's speech in Moscow last Tuesday should be studied carefully by everyone who is interested in maintaining the alliance and friendship between the...

BELSEN TRIALS SIR,-In view of the recent correspondence in your columns, an obscrvation on the demeanour of the Belsen accused from one who has just revisited the trials after...

SIR,-Mr. Lipson in his article denies that the Jews are a nation without offering the least argument in support of his view. If the only thing that the Jews had in common was...

MYSTIC CHORDS SIR,-Dr. Norman Bentwich's " mystic chords of memory "-excellcnt though they may be as propaganda-are hardly what is bcing heard in Palestine to-day. 1Ixcept...

LABOUR AND INDIA SIR,-Sir William Barton's article in last week's Spectator is easily the best contribution, to my knowledge, yet made to a really serious discussion of the...

IS JEWRY A NATION? SIR,-Mr. D. L. Lipson's article under the above heading begins with the statement that " Many Jews . . . deny that the Jews are a nation.... We regard...

Indonesia It is not likely that the declaration of policy issued by the Netherlands East Indies Government on Tuesday will contribute much to restoring the situation in...

Dockers and Busmen The return to work of the 40,000 dockers who have been on strike gives hope that a reasonable settlement may now be reached. But there is not much time. The...

Civil Aviation The debate on civil aviation in the House of Lords this week revealed an interesting difference in attitude between the various critics of the Government's Bill....

Elections in Hungary The elections in Hungary have repeated the results of the rzcent municipal elections in Budapest ; as was expected, the conservative Smallholders' party...

Municipal Elections The results of last week's municipal elections confirm the results of the Parliamentary elections. Indeed, they emphasise them; for until now Labour has...

The End of Man II Mind at the End of its Tether. By H. G. Wells. (Heinemann. 6s. | IN the course of his long life Mr. H. G. Wells has played in turn the r6le of historian,...

New Help in Law Legal Aid. By Robert Egerton, M.A., LL.B. (Kegan Paul. lOs. 6d.) IN this admirable and scholarly work the writer deals comprehensively with the history and...

BOOKS OF THE DAY Family Fantasia Curious Relations. By William d'Arfey. Edited by William Plomer* (Cape. 8s. 6d.) Tiis agreeable and enchantingly frivolous book will bring...

Salute to Saintsbury, 1845-1933 | George Saintsbury. The Memorial Volume. Edited by Dr. John I Oliver, Dr. A. Melville aark and Augustus Muir. (Methuen. 12s. 6d.) I JUST as...

FRANCE'S PARLIAMENT By D. R. GILLIE Paris. FRANCE has a Parliament again-it met for the first time on Tuesday-a Parliament elected without disorder and without any serious...

SIR,-In his article in your last issue, entitled "Problems of Germany."I Mr. Goronwy Rees says that " if collaboration between the democracies and the Soviet Union is...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR I PROBLEMS OF GERMANY SIR,-YOU say in your issue of November 2nd, "It is difficult to agree with Sir Arthur Salter that all the means are available to...

SIR,-Thc comments of Mr. Goronwy Rees's article in your issue of November And on the approaching German famine really shocked me. He says in effect that millions of Germans...

A PALESTINE PLAN I SIR,-I regret that Eritrea for the Jew displeases Brig. Longrigg; car, he then think of no other country? For- the time has come when constructive ideas must...

ECCA RECORD I COMPANY MEETING I DE TAHE sixteenth annual general meeting of The Decca Record Company, Limited, was held on October 30th in London. Sir Cyril F. Entwistle, K.C.,...

NOBLESSE OBLIGE By ALIST AIR BUCHAN ON October the 24th a statement was issued from Downing Street announcing the creation of seven new baronies. It added, by way of an...

DUBLIN DAYS By CECIL NORTHCOTT TO descend at Dublin's elegant new airport a few hours after leaving Croydon is to be immediately aware of Eire's determination to be well in...

. Shorter Notices Death my Generation. By Michael Fyodrov. (Jarrolds. 12s. 6d.) THE author has had too varied a life to be typical of his generation in any of the countries...

FINANCE AND INVESTMENT | BY CUSTOS I AFTER the Bank of England, the Cable and Wireless combine. Nobody could accuse the new Government of letting the grass growT under its...

NATIONALISED AVIATION By H. E. WINIPERIS * T HE Government's announcement of its plans for the future of T civil aviation did not go into great detail, but it would seem from...

THE CINEMA "Rhapsody in Blue." Plaza. At the Warner. "Love Letters." At the THE Rhapsody in Blue is a film biography of George Gershwin. That a biography on the screen is no...

MUSIC Covent Garden and Sadler's Wells A CORNER of the curtain that has hidden the activities of the new regime at Covent Garden has at last been lifted and rumour gives place...

ART I WOULD like to plead with all the private galleries to have fewer and longer exhibitions. The average of three weeks does not give busy members of the public enough time...