THE SPECTATOR COMPETITIONS No.

PRIZES of book tokens for LI is. and los. 6d. are offered for the two best lists of six rules to guide the conduct of ordinary people in war-time. Specimens of the kind of sug- gestion we have in mind will be found in the first paragraph of our " Country Life " page.

RULES.-Envelopes should be addressed to the Editor, The Spectator, 99 Gower Street, London, W.C. 1, and marked " Com- petition No. 5." Entries must be delivered by first post on Friday, October loth. The Editor reserves the right to print, in part or in whole, any entry submitted, and to withhold the prize should no entry attain the requisite standard of merit. Competitors are permitted to submit more than one entry, but no competitor is eligible for more than one prize in any given week. Envelopes should bear a lid. stamp. No entries can be returned. No com- munications to the Editor on any subiect unconnected with the competition should be sent in the same envelope as an entry. A breach of any of these regulations will cause the entry to be disqualified.

REPORT ON COMPETITION NO. 3 THE usual prizes were offered for the best descriptions in not more than 25o words of dialogue or narrative of the meeting in the Shades of those two distinguished but unfortunate soldiers, General von Fritsch and Marshal Tukhashevsky. It was evident that most of the competitors did not share the belief prevalent in Nazi Germany that General von Fritsch was unsympathetic towards the regime, for almost every sentence in his conversations with Marshal Tukashevsky began or ended with a devout " Heil Hitler! ": some went further and put into his mouth justifications of the regime's conduct towards himself. Marshal Tukhashevsky was permitted to show no more resentment towards his com- patriots, though in his case it was fatalism rather than a sense of military duty that led him to acquiesce in the turn his fortunes had taken. On the whole the entries were undistinguished. D. G.'s was the only one of positive merit, and he accordingly gets the first prize, while the second goes to Mr. N. E. Marryat, whose entry, though (like all but D. G.'s) pedestrian, was at any rate plausible.

FIRST PRIZE

Enter in the Shades General von Fritsch and Marshal Tukhashevsky. BOTH AT ONCE:

Are you the happy warrior, are you he Whom every man in arms would wish to be?

MARSHAL T.: I was a traitor : I was heard confess

By chosen members of my national Press ; A visionary-oh, the dream was wild, Of Germany and Russia reconciled. My Leader knew how wild : he proved his case

By an odd silence, a vacuum, a disgrace Hinted in foreign papers, an exile,

Enforced by nervous friends afraid to smile, From counsel, conversation, till at last

The gunbutts grounded as the Ogpu passed. Five sleepless nights they stayed to question me, Then Pravda dug the grave which set me free. GENERAL VON F.:

You lived a year too early, I too late. Unused to public love and private hate, I read my Moltke, lived. with men and maps,

Modelled the Western Wall, dugouts, tank traps, Studied statistics, knew the exact strength Of enemy divisions and the length Of hangman's rope allowed us. Better far

Have endlessly applauded at Lehar,

With Goebbels censored films, with Marshal Goering Have tickled tiger cubs to set them purring.

My only aim to make my land securer, I warned too often-Thus far and no Filhrer.

They shot me in the back, lest I should be A crying witness to stupidity. MARSHAL T.:

My plot unfinished : Stalin completes it.

GENERAL VON F.:

My army withdraws: Hitler defeats it.