A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK
SINCE Common Wealth took to running candidates, and succeeded in getting one of them in (on a minority vote), the question of whether that success was a mere flash in the pan has aroused some interest. The answer to it seems to be in the affirmative. The British elector has never liked " splinter " parties ; witness the exiguity of the I.L.P. representation for years past. Common Wealth's electoral record since its isolated success at Eddisbury (when two rival Liberals kept each other out and let Common Wealth in) is instructive. Up to date it is as follows : April 7th.—Eddisbury, 8,023 votes out of 18,373 cast. April 2oth.—Daventry, 6,591 out of 19,727 cast. June ist.—Hartlepool, 3,634 out of 20,828 cast. June 8th.—Newark, 3,189 OW of 22,892 cast. June 9th.—Aston, 1,886 out of 8,717 cast.
Most of the votes Common Wealth has secured probably come from Labour electors in constituencies where there was no Labour candidate by reason of the party truce. In an election in a con- stituency where Labour holds the seat Common Wealth would stand a particularly poor chance.
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The fact that Thunderbolts—the Thunderbolt is the latest and best fighter-plane produced in America—were destroying two F.W. t9o's over Liege on Sunday has a bearing of some importance on possibilities of the immediate future, and the Daily Express Air Reporter is well jusstified in calling attention to it. For fighter-range is a vital matter when invasion—anywhere—is being considered. The Germans, for example, know over just what stretch of the north coast of France an invading army could get fighter- cover if the fighters were Spitfires, for there is little secret about what a Spitfire's effective range is. The range of a machine which can get at least as far as Liege, and perhaps farther, is substantially greater, and if the Spitfire could give cover from, say, X to Y, the Thunderbolt would give equal cover for a good deal east of N to a good deal west of Y. That obviously lays a much heavier strain on the defence and increases proportionately the possibility of tactical surprise. The French coast, of course, serves only for ehrposes of illustration. The Thunderbolt could confer similar advantages anywhere else.
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The sufficiently complex situation in North Africa is made still more complicated for English readers by the fact that, pending the arrival of the newly appointed Minister of Information, M. Henri Bonnet, official spokesmen for General Giraud and General de Gaulle are issuing irreconcilable statements representing their respective leaders' point of view. To that is added the fact that some of the journalists there have strong sympathies with one side or the other, and their messages seem often to be coloured by their pre- conceptions. On Wednesday you got from the News Chronicle correspondent at Algiers, "General Giraud has rejected the new plan for a solution of the French High Command problem," and from the correspondent of France at Algiers, "It is understood that a plan drawn up by M. Jean Monnet and General Catroux, which represented a compromise on the subject of the High Com- mand, has been rejected by General de Gaulle." Most of the other panel s, on the whole, support France's version, but with varying degrees of hesitation. M. Bonnet is badly needed. Strange things happen in American politics. One of the strange I have noticed lately was the appearance of Dr. Emil Ludw• before the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Representativ. at Washington. He was there, according to the New York co respondent of the News Chronicle, at his own request. "to t you and to prove to you why the defeat of Germany is near than you think, and what to do with the Germans after the defeat." He added that he was sure Hitler would be assassinate probably by the Junkers. Dr. Ludwig is a Swiss writer of Germ origin who was educated at Breslau and Heidelberg. His self description in Who's Who sets out the qualifications which no doub entitled him to proffer instruction to the House Committee: " Bega
as a dramatist ; wrote twelve years only plays, nearly all in verse began after thirty with psychological essays and lives ; calls himse a portrait-painter ; lives since his twenty-sixth year independent] in the country in Tessin, Switzerland." Are such voluntary contri butions so gratefully accepted?
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A good many people besides myself, forgetting what we plain' ought to have remembered, have been wondering why we have hear so little of the island of Corsica, in spite of its strategical importanc in the past two or three years. What, in particular, was its attitud to Vichy? Nothing at all seemed to have been heard of that. Th reason is not that Corsica, which is a French Department like th three Departments of Algeria, has been in Italian hands all that time It was only occupied in November of last year. Till then, bei unable to join the Free French, it kept quiet. Its lot has attracte little attention, partly because, Corsica being an island, news is le easily obtainable from it than from occupied France, and part] because the 300,000 inhabitants of the island never showed them selves particularly submissive to any ordered rule, and the Italians have found it expedient to ride them with a light rein. But it cannot
be doubted that an Allied landing on Corsica would be the signal for a fierce onslaught by the population on the Italian garrison. The strategic importance of the island needs no emphasis. * * * * The private business meeting of the Cambridge Union called to discuss the admission of women to membership was, I see, counted
out. That appears very proper. Whatever the merits of the proposal, it represents too radical a departure from tradition to be carried through at a time when the Union, like the University as a whole is no more than a shadow of its normal self. The issue of the Cambridge Review from which I glean this information mentioned, under the heading "University Sport," that the Judo match against Oxford would be played on June nth. For all I know it was, though I can see no record of the result in the daily Press. But Judo is, as they might say in the other Cambridge, new on me. Are there blues for it?
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The number of the United Nations seems as indeterminate as the number of Polish newspapers published in England_ The Daily Worker, which, like its Russian friends, has no particular affection for Poles, has been doing some sleuth work regarding the latter, and has got its total up so far to 45—which seems likely to be an exaggeration. As for the United Nations, there were said to be 48 of them at the Hot_ Springs conference. Elsewhere I have seen 27 mentioned. Some day truth will out. JANUS.
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