A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK I REFERRED last week, on the strength of

references in American papers and in a private letter from New York, to a volume by ex- President Hoover and ex-Ambassador Hugh Gibson on Problems of Lasting Peace, just published in the United States and not yet published here. Having since had the opportunity of reading one of the few copies of the book that have reached this country, I feel bound to say that its importance seems to me less than I thought and suggested. On the vital question of how far the United States is prepared to join with the rest of the United Nations in an inter- national organisation for preserving peace the authors are studiously non-committal, but their preference is clearly for regional arrange- ments, under which the responsibilities of the U.S.A. will be limited, primarily if not completely, to the Western Hemisphere. For the rest, the writers discuss all kinds of peace schemes, contenting them- selves, as they say, with merely stating the pros and cons. That may have a certain value in a country where post-war problems have not been as widely discussed as they have here, but something in the nature of a lead would have had a greater value. There are numerous mistakes of fact, and it is surprising to find the Paris Peace Con- ference located throughout at Versailles (where there was never any conference at all), since Mr. Hoover himself was at Paris off and on

throughout the peace discussions. * * * *

Some time last year The Spectator printed lengthy extracts from an admirable set of notes on America prepared by Professor W. J. Hinton for British airmen training in the United States. A complement to this has now appeared in the shape of similar notes, deserving just as high praise, on Britain for the American forces here. I wish I could quote in extenso, but that would take several pages of The Spectator. Whoever the author may be, he deserves the highest commendation—and gratitude. There is not a word any Briton could criticise ; he might well, indeed, ask himself how far he lives up to the standards ascribed to him. Take, for example, these consecutive paragraphs: KEEP OUT OF ARGUMENTS. You can rub a Britisher the wrong way by telling him " we came over and won the last one." Each nation did its share. But Britain remembers that nearly a million of her best manhood died in the last war. America lost 6o,000 in action..

Neither do the British need to be told that their armies lost the first couple of rounds in the present war. We've lost a couple our- selves, so do not start off by being critical of them and saying what the Yanks are going to do. Use your head before you sound off, and remember how long the British alone held Hitler off without any help from anyone.

In the pubs you will hear a lot of Britons openly criticising their Government and the conduct of the war. That isn't an occasion for you to put in your two-cents worth. It's their business, not yours You sometimes criticise members of your own family—but just let an outsider start doing the same, and you know how you feel!

The Briton is just as outspoken and independent as we are. But don't get him wrong. He is also the most law-abiding citizen in the world, because the British system of justice is just about the best there is. There are fewer murders, robberies, and burglaries in the whole of Great Britain in a year than in a single large American city.

A very solid contribution this to international understanding. * * * *

Double nationality involves many problems, particularly in war- time. There was obviously something to be said on both sides (though with a distinct balance on one side) in the case of Dr. F. C. C. Curtis, which the House of Commons discussed on the

adjournment one day last week. Dr. Curtis was the son of a British father, who in 1914, eleven years after Dr. Curtis' birth, acquired German citizenship as well, and a German mother. He himself was born at Frankfurt, and was of dual citizenship. He married a German wife, and in 1933, when the Hitler regime was instituted, was driven from Germany, came to England, and ulti- mately became a lecturer in Liverpool University. He did much war-work with an engineering firm, and was then lent by them to the Ministry of Works and Planning. In Jung of this year the

Ministry wrote to the firm in question saying that Dr. Curtis would not be employed by them after June 3oth. On July and he received a calling-up notice for the Army. The Ministry's case is that it engaged Dr. Curtis when there was no British citizen available for the particular post to which he was appointed, but

that Treasury Regulations left them no option but to dispense with his services when a suitable British citizen could be found. The answer, of course, is that Dr. Curtis is undoubtedly a British citizen, even if technically he was also a German citizen for a time.

Altogether, undeserved hardship seems to have been inflicted on a capable man, whose personal loyalty to this country is undoubted.

* * * * Shortage of petrol makes problems of public transport acute. People who used to go from village to town in their own cars now go in the 'bus and help to crowd out villagers who always went by 'bus because they had no cars. That has to be, and for the most part it is taken cheerfully. But much greater hardship is caused

in localities where numbers of troops are stationed. There the problem becomes acute, for the soldiers are adepts at getting on board first at the stopping-place and filling every inch of space. No

one can blame them. But while they are going in to a 6inema the

villager who was going in to draw his week's rations is left behind. That must be happening all over the country. What is the way out of the difficulty? Let the military run a lorry-service three or four times a day, and forbid 'buses to soldiers. That could be easily arranged and easily enforced.

* * * * The most pregnant remark I have seen made about the debate in the House of Commons on colonial affairs on Tuesday came from

the sketch-writer of the Daily Express. " Would you believe," be asked on Wednesday, " that there were not ten members in the

House of Commons yesterday when Mr. Harold Macmillan, Under- Secretary for the Colonies, gave a survey of Britain's Colonial

Empire? " The tragedy is that I can well believe it. It happens every time. It happens, almost the same, over India. In this case

the studied absence of several hundred M.P.s was particularly unfortunate, for Mr. Macmillan made a singularly interesting state-

ment (notably about the effect of submarine activity in the Caribbean on West Indian trade), as he invariably does. Acceptance of salary surely carries some obligation with it.

* * . * * Mr. Dalton is a humane man—and a married man. He cannot really want to impose utility marriages till the necessity is over-

whelming. Surely a modest coupon-allowance for brides—even if not for bridegrooms, who dislike entering the married state with

shiny sleeves—would appeal to him in both capacities. He is well behind Hitler the bachelor in offering inducements to matrimony. Possibly he feels example is the best inducement. But example plus