T HE- Cadman Committee's report on Civil Aviation is a vindication of the wisdom of the House of Commons, whose criticisms in the course of a debate last November compelled the...

changes proposed by the Committee. The maxi- mum subsidy payable to air transport companies is to be raised from £1,5oo,o00 to £3,000,000. A Permanent Under- Secretary for Air...

taken the form of a remarkable recrudescence of patriotism in Austria, and Dr. Schuschnigg has to all appearance shown himself a shrewd judge of the public temper in deciding to...

demand on attention this week. Herr Hitler saw Mr. Hoover on Monday and according to report heard a characteristically American view on the virtues of demo- cracy. On Tuesday...

in the re-arrest of Pastor Niemoller by the Secret Police, immedi- ately after he had stood his trial, had been acquitted on all but minor charges, and had served the sentence...

' The writer of an article on a later page describes in detail the naval aspects of the Spanish war, and confirms the impres- sion that the sinking of the insurgent cruiser '...

reconstruct his Govern- ment, omitting the Socialists from his Cabinet, it has been clear that a further reconstruction would be necessary before long. France's financial...

the precarious nature of Japan's military victories. Having advanced to the frozen Yellow River, still stubbornly defended, and by the capture of Puchow obtained control of the...

Tuesday's debate was no exception. Mr. de Rothschild, who speaks all too rarely, did not confine himself to expressing the point of view of the Jewish community. He also...

the cost of rearmament. No one suggests that an upper limit can now be placed on the expenditure of the Service Departments or that their demands should be too jealously...

Moscow have, even more than those which preceded them, bewildered and dis- mayed the Western world. If the evidence is taken at its face value, and some at least of it, is...

last month affords small ground for complacency or indeed satisfaction. It is usual at this period, when building especially becomes more active, for the numbers of those out of...

Ireland in both its domestic and its external aspects—both Eire and Ulster—by Derek Verschoyle, who has been travelling in Ireland for the past two months, will begin in next...

debate on the Government's White Paper relating to Defence showed the House of Commons at its best. The spokesmen of the various parties and schools of thought gave expression...

T HE Labour Party was perfectly justified in insisting in the House of Commons on Monday, when the Government came before the House with demands for an expenditure on armaments...

has twice insisted that one of the few obstacles to Anglo-German understanding is the mischievous, if not criminal, behaviour of the British Press. In his view, indeed, the...

exclusively legal Lord Chancellor it has had, I should think, since the days of Lord Cranworth, before the Crimean War. The least political appointment was Lord Sankey's in...

by the Press for the benefit of the public, in connexion with an incident which took place in Essex. Another incident described in equal detail at Darlington on Monday, when the...

1940, due to be held in Tokyo, gains some interest in the light of discussions on the subject which have taken place since in the Japanese Diet. The Army seems to have declared...

V ERY few people, I think, believe a European War is near. Many believe it can be permanently averted. But, as Monday's debate on the defence programme brought home to everyone,...

eight million odd subscribers, complains of its poverty ; and considering what its commitments are I daresay it is right. But I wish, all the same, it would consider seriously...

is more entertaining than disturbing (if " entertaining " is a word to be used at all in connexion with proceedings so repellent). Anyone may clearly at any moment be cited as...

By W. V. EMANUEL THE sea-battle fought off Cartagena on Sunday may well prove a turning-point in the Spanish Civil War. It is a reminder that sea-power is a deciding factor,...

By DR. EDWYN BEVAN T HE books of the Old Testament came out of the burning hearts of men during a course of some thousand years, but because they were hearts which had been...

By MICHAEL SPENDER M OUNT EVEREST Expeditions will soon be in the school history books. 1921, 1922, 1924 (death of Mallory and Irvine) ; 1933, 1935, 1936. The list is already...

By S. L. BENSUSAN W E have in England a growing number of farms and market-gardens on which a system of cultivation untainted by the use of poisonous mineral dressings is...

By KENNETH RICHMOND T HE ancient and curious art of astrology is one thing ; the flood of sham predictions from " your stars," now being let loose upon a credulous public, is...

By BONAMY DOBREE H OURS before dawn, gleams will show in the village windows, and in those of the scattered farmsteads ; and soon lights will appear, bobbing up and down along...

SAFETY FIRST-VI By MARK BENNEY [The writer, whose age is 27, is well known as the author of " Low Company "] TF one thing more than another has characterised the .I. Under...

" Vessel of Wrath." At the Regal BY all the rule-of-thumb guesswork methods that showmanship uses to assess entertainment values, this film should be good. In the lead it has...

MUSIC Sunt Lacrimae Rerum THERE are tears and tears. Some are idle drops, shed surrep- titiously by strong men in the decent darkness of cinemas when the gangster's...

[D'un correspondent parisien] MALGRE les preoccupations d'ordre exterieur, 'Inquietude de la plupart des Francais ne &passe guere les probl ernes domestiques. Au premier rang...

Sophistication and Naliveté THE exhibition of the complete works of Christopher 'Wood at the New Burlington Galleries is evidently intended to provide the material for a final...

The question of footpaths has long since been dealt with in admirable fashion by Essex, where footpaths and bridle-paths are marked by signposts. Here the walker knows his short...

March came in not merely like a lamb but like an angel. After an abnormally dry February the days, from the first to the sixth, had almost the lofty blue tranquillity of...

I have been severely taken to task by purists for ratting a kestrel a sparrow-hawk. I am guilty, but unrepentant. I was, unfortunately, brought up to call a kestrel a...

Country Schools The problems of the country school child is one which continues to agitate country people. Country people are cast-iron conservatives on the subject of schools...

to stir the dormouse out of his winter's anaesthetic. More squirrel than mouse, gentle and harmless, friendliest of creatures, he belongs more to the world of children than any...

Ditching and Dyking The state of English dykes or ditches today is something which would have given Cobbett apoplexy. It is less than a generation since the art of ditching and...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] Sta,—The article "After the Crisis " in your issue of last week came as a shock to one reader who had come to rely on The Spectator's...

Britain developing into a series of paradoxes ? Those who now declare, in harmony with Germany, Italy and Japan, that Mr. Eden's policy was leading to war, perhaps do not...

[Correspondents are requested to keep their letters as brief as is reasqnably possible. The most suitable length is that of one of our " News of the Week " paragraphs. Signed...

company with a majority of our Liberal papers, seems to me to be taking a rather cynical and oppor- tunist line on the present international crisis. In your leader of March 4th...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] Sta,—Having just returned from Vienna, I am convinced that the English public do not realise what a vital change has taken place in Austria...

S nt,—Perhaps you would allow me to describe the reactions of the ordinary voter in this part of England to the events of the past fortnight so far as I was able to observe. On...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Your correspondent, Mr. F. 0. Taylor, in commenting upon my letter in your issue of February 25th is delightfully basking in the sun of...

upon the hospitality of your columns in any vain attempt to hammer some intelligence into Mr. F. 0. Taylor's head. A man who can compare the " Cat " to a schoolboy caning is...

SIR, — Having more than one prison sentence behind me I claim authority to know whether or not the " cat " is a deterrent. Recent correspondence in The Spectator and elsewhere...

SIR,--Will you permit me as a regular reader of The Spectator to express in a few words my entire agreement with the views of your correspondent (signed J. D. A.) contained in...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] Sta,—In his article on " Reactions and Road Safety " (The Spectator, February 25th) Surgeon Rear-Admiral Beadnell suggests that part of the...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—As a result, presumably, of my letter to you last month I have received a package from the President of the Vulpician Fraternity of...

Minchin, perhaps I should have said " to many people," not " to most people," mass and com- munion service seem names for the same thing. I will not be one of those " imps of...

Rose Macaulay in her article on the " Mass-book and Covenant " has trailed her coat so provocatively for the Scottish Nationalists to tread on, that I don't suppose there will...

points in Mr. Charles Foster's significant comments on what I wrote under the above heading I disagree. In my opinion, while perfectly correct in his statement that " the...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR, — In your last issue you published an admirable review by Mr. Martin Cooper of a book that does not exist, but which, unfortunately, he...

SIR,—One thing emerges very clearly from Mr. Bartlett's letter ; he knows nothing whatever about foxes. A most interesting study. Contrary to general opinion I find this a...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR, — While it is likely that a majority of practising teachers interested in the training of our pupils to face the duties of citizenship...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Sympathy for children is a very laudable sentiment ; but I don't feel quite certain that all that Mr. M. S. Sarkani wanted to say was, "...

prejudging the question of our duty in the matter of the restoration of the Colonies in Africa ceded by Germany as a result of the Great War I urgently advise your readers to...

SIR,—Has not the time arrived to curb the publicity given to crimes and lawsuits ? Trials of all kinds must, of course, be public, and those who wish to attend them should be...

St. Paul (The Dean of St. Paul's) . . Social Service Explained (R. F. Scott) .. A History of Cynicism (C. E. M. Joad) China and Japan (Guenther Stein) .. Potemkin (G. A....

THE Cynics of antiquity were an obscure and not very edifying school or sect that flourished more or less continuously from the fourth century B.c. to the sixth century A.D. Its...

J. Q. Henriques. (Allen and Unwin. ros. 6d.) THE nineteenth-century conception of social service was one of charity and philanthropy and its activities were accordingly limited...

Potemkin. By George Soloveytchilt. (Thornton Butterworth. as.) THE reign of Catherine II has too long been neglected by historians, and left almost exclusively as the preserve...

THE able staff of Chatham House have managed, within the narrow scope of a booklet of x3o pages, to give a surprisingly complete account of all that really matters in Far...

The Buddhist Sects of Japan. By E. Steinilber-Oberlin. (Allen and Unwin. los. 6d.) BUDDHISM as a living force—as opposed to the immense number of its nominal adherents—is today...

Time Gathered. By W. B. Maxwell. (Hutchinson. zos. 6d.) MR. W. B. MAXWELL'S autobiography has the air of being written with genial enjoyment ; and if its readers do not enjoy...

The Trial of Bruno Hauptmann. Edited by Sidney Whipple. (Heinemann. iOs. 6d.) INTEREST in crime is almost universal, and doubtless in most of us part of that interest has a...

Stories and Sketches. By George Gissing. (Michael Joseph. 7s. 6d.) THIS volume of previously uncollected work, covering the whole span of Gissing's literary career from the...

Prince of the Blood: Philippe Egalite. By E. V. Scudder. (Collins. t5s.) THE scandals and extravagances of fashionable society in pre- revolutionary France have been described...

By KATE O'BRIEN IT is alarming to notice that each of the five books to be reviewed this week costs eight-and-six pence. Seven-and-six is already a large sum to gamble on the...

Traffic Lights and Crossings An experienced driver, who for reasons that will appear has the matter very much at heart just now, suggested to me the other day that some of the...

WHEN markets have been reduced to the stage of nervous apprehension at which they are afraid of their own shadow, who can wonder that even gilt-edged stocks have recoiled at the...

of the possibilities of the 4 per cent. First Debenture stock of the Anglo-Argentine Tramways Company the price has slithered from roughly 38 to 33. Such a steep decline is due,...

wholesale and export manufacturing confectioners and chocolate makers, consolidat- ing their recovery. Now that the balance-sheet position has been cleaned up, available...

tax is avoided, why should there be any serious depreciation in the level of gilt- edged prices ? The argument of the pessimists, it seems, is that whether taxation is increased...

blessing of the invest- ment trusts and insurance companies—some very interesting speculative possibilities are opened up not merely for the debenture holders but for the...

The speeches of insurance company chairmen, of which several have been made in the last few days, are of special interest because they give the private investor an insight into...

Mr. J. Wilcock Holgate, the chairman of the Refuge Assurance Company, is not perturbed by the British industrial outlook, believing that it would not be reasonable to expect...

The accounts of the Halifax Building Society, the largest building society in the world, reflect another year of steady progress. The total assets have risen by £8,298,431 to...

FEBRUARY UNEMPLOYMENT. THE February unemployment figures make slightly better reading than have the returns of the previous four months, but they are not conclusive evidence...

Sir Ernest Benn, the chairman of the United Kingdom Provident Institution, is also among the optimists. He thinks that all the known factors point towards continuing prosperity,...

D. NAPIER AND SON INCREASING VOLUME OF WORK SIR HAROLD SNAGGE'S SURVEY THE twenty-fourth ordinary general meeting of D. Napier and Son, Limited, was held on March 4th at...

UNITED KINGDOM PROVIDENT INSTITUTION L63,000,000 OF ASSURANCE THE ninety-seventh annual general meeting of the members of the United Kingdom Temperance and General Provident...

If holders of D. Napier and Sons 8 per cent. non-cumulative Preference shares and Ordinary shares are disappointed not to have received a dividend in respect of last year, they...

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BY ZEN() [A prize of a Book Token for one guinea will be given to the sender of the first correct solution of this week's crossword puzzle to be opened. Envelopes should be...