A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK T HE Prime Minister's speech at Bristol at

the week-end was in- teresting—particularly for the terms of marked cordiality in which he referred to his two Labour colleagUes whom he was creating Doctors of Laws. Considering that Mr. Sevin was held to have been a little truculent in his recent observations on the political situation, and his reminder that this was "not a one-man Govern- ment," the "one man's" references to the Minister of Labour (" a

• colleague who has handled most intricate and difficult problems in the maintenance not only of our armies, but of the vast effort of our factories ") was reasonably handsome. So, perhaps more in- telligibly (for the First Lord of the• Admiralty is a less impassioned party man than Mr. Bevin), was the tribute to Mr. Alexander, who succeeded Mr. Churchill himself at the Admiralty in 1940, and has • been there ever since. What is quite clear is that Mr. Churchill • would greatly regret parting company with Labour colleagues who • have worked with him loyally for years, and that he hopes pro- foundly that another National Government will succeed this one, whether he himself is the head of it or not. It is a hope that is widely, and I think will be increasingly, shared. A General Election there must be, and it will inevitably generate some party contention. But one more period of all-party administration after the election would conform both to the needs of the situation and, I believe, to the general desire.

* * * * Some texts on which sermons are hung Pare apposite and some not. High in the former category I should put the choice by the Dean of St. Paul's, who preached at St. Paul's on Tuesday at a

special service of intercession on the, of the San Francisco Conference, of the words from the Ep istle to the Romans, "we are more than conquerors." The essence Of the Dean's message was that the United Nations in the hour of victory must show themselves more than conquerors. Conquest, to adopt a famous declaration, is not enough. But if there must be progress from conquest to co-operation, who is there in Germany (I am asking this, not the Dean) to co-operate with? Here the possibilities of some of the priests and pastors should not be overlooked. Many, of course—probably the majority—capitulated long ago to Hitler, but by no means all. There are lesser Faulhabers and lesser Niesnollers 'to be found here and there. Rather, curiously that interesting book Excellenz X, published a year or two ago, after discussing what conceivable administration might succeed Hitler (of soldiers, of officials, of industrialists and so on), came to the con- clusion that perhaps there was more hope in the Churches than anywhere else. That may or may not be, but certainly priests and pastors could in many places be utilised with advantage in local administration. It should mean something to them that the Allies restore the freedom of worship of which Hitler so largely robbed them. And it may be with them that the Allied peoples, with their own Churches, will make the first contacts across the desolation—

though certainly not yet. - * * * *

Back from an eight-months' tour of his vast diocese,- which stretches along the north coast of the Mediterranean from Lisbon in the west to Ankara in the east, the Bishop of Gibraltar has been telling me something of his plans for the reconstruction of the Anglican Cathedral in Malta, towards which the readers of this • column have subscribed so generously—for the purpose of a Shrine Of Remembrance. Details regarding this I will leave to an article which the Bishop will be contributing to these columns later. One interesting fact he mentioned was .that the cathedral owed its existence to Queen Adelaide, who, as the widow of a sailor-king, was perhaps especially conscious of the needs of so 'important a naval station as Malta,' and herself gave a very handsome subscription to start the building-fund. Work on the .cathedral will of necessity proceed slowly, for the repair of the dockyards, after the prolonged and heavy bombing to which they were subjected, is still making extensive demands on the- supply of local' labour. Patience will

called for here, as in many other connexions nowadays.

* * * •* From Wing-Commander Nigel Tangye, who, in his capacity as liaison officer with the American Army Air Force, has been paying

a short visit to occupied Germany, I get a significant sidelight on German. mentality. In a middle-class house at. Hersfeld, in which he and some American officers were accommodated, there hung ova the fireplace in the sitting-room a drawing showing .a .Germ U-boat lying in the Thames opposite the Houses of Parliament The notable feature was that it flew the old German Imperial flag and bore underneath it the legend "Es kommt der Tag." It must have been there for over thirty years5 and is evidently thought

suitable adornment today. Wing-Commander Tangye confirms .the general impression that the Germans betray no sense of guilt

whatever. German soldiers being taken, packed in lorries, to priso camps are cheered by the populace as enthusiastically, as the " un- beaten " German army was when it marched home from France In 1918. My informant, incidentally, is full of admiration for the fi unemotional and effective handling of the population by the young

American officers to whom such duties fall.

* * * *

- With the arrival of the 1945 Who's Who, inevitably belated through no fault of its editor, life has assumed a cheerful aspect once more. My 1944 edition long ago split in half :through sheer bulk, and I rejoice to see that the new volume, with virtually the same number of pages—something over 3,000—is substantially less obese. The editor has worked under _grave difficulties ; to begin with, reference-books only get a 25 par cent, ration of paper, as against 42i per cent, for ordinary books, which naturally means a limited sale and restricted profits ; also slowness in printing and binding have so delayed the appearance of the book that a supplement, con- taining later details about various biographees (my own word, and I don't like it) has- been included. I believe a few of the longer entries have been slightly abbreviated, but some serious offences remain. With a couple of hours and a blue pencil I could improve this indispensable volume inculculably. (inc new entry, by the way, has a certain interest (partly because, by a departure from the general rule, it is biographical, not autobiographical). Under the name of Sisley Huddleston, a journalist about whom most of his colleagues always had reservations, appears the note "naturalised in

France under Vichy Government" Why not expunge Mr. H.?

* * * * Sieges Allie, it is suggested, has now become Scuttle Alley. think' not. There is nowhere left for Berliners to scuttle to.

JaNus.