A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK
IN its generous recognition of the arts the New Year's Honours List is more imaginative than Usual. One award that will provoke interest and discussion is that of the Order of Merit to a distinguished Canadian surgeon whose name is familiar to very few people in this country outside medical circles. So far as I remember no British physician or surgeon has ever received such recognition. The inclusion of Lord Eustace Percy among the new barons is very welcome. Lord Eustace has done great service to education in the North of England as Rector of the Newcastle Division of the University of Durham, and it must not be forgotten that he is a former 'President of the Board of Education; it may be hoped that his membership of the .House of Lords will 'mean at least a partial return to political life. (Incidentally, a review by Lord Eustace appears on a later page of this issue.) One honour in which readers of the Spectator will take a special interest is that of a K.C.V.O. to Mr. Harold Nicolson. Awards in the Victorian Order are, of course, directly associated with the reigning sovereign, and it is natural that Mr. Nicolson's outstanding service in the production of his Life of King George V should be recognised in this particular way. Other- wise, it may be suggested, a Companionship of Honour, such as has gone to Mr. E. M. Forster, might have been more appropriate. The conferment on Mr. Forster is of the nature of delayed action, for though he was part-author of the libretto of Benjamin Britten's opera Billy Budd he has produced no major work since his Clark Lectures on Aspects of the Novel twenty-five years ago; but Howard's End and A Passage to India abundantly jugtify the award. One other name familiar to Spectator readers (as well. as to many others) is that of Mr. Arthur Ransome, who gets a well-deserved C.B.E.
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