T HE period of so-called quiescence is over. Herr Hitler has struck, and the early predictions that he would prove to have made his first capital blunder may soon prove...

Lord De La Warr's last task before he moved from the Board of Education to the Office of Works was a visit to Paris to confer with the French Minister on Anglo-French...

T W0 votes cast by the Senate of the United States in the past week are of considerable domestic and external importance. On April 5th, by a margin small but sufficient, the...

Agriculture, which after all is the basic industry in Soviet Russia, has never ceased to be the thorn in the flesh of the _Russian Communist system. In another effort to extract...

The announcement of the Government's intention to set up an English commercial corporation to assist in the development of British trade with the Balkans synchronised with the...

There will be no excuse for a repetition of many of the mistakes which were made in the employment of labour during the last war. "Emergency Report No. t," just pub- lished by...

The publication by the Dutch Government of decrees giving effect to the Anglo-Dutch trade treaty signed last month shows how useful an instrument the treaty may be in tightening...

postponed until next week. There was widespread surprise when the Prime Minister agreed to it in the first place, for he has not in the past been favourably disposed to debates...

the discussion on Tuesday. Mr. Gallacher, oblivious of the record of the Soviet Government, dilated on the general futility of war. Mr. Maxton pointed out that it was the...

Ministry in general or the Admiralty in particular. It is generally felt that, in conditions of low visibility, it was practically impossible to prevent a few individual German...

The conference next week between representatives of the Lord Chamberlain and the London County Council on the subject of decency—or more properly indecency—on the stage can only...

It was expected that the Labour Party would raise objec- tions to the recommendations made by the Unemployment Insurance Committee as to the disposal of the Fund's accu- mulated...

Our Parliamentary correspondent writes : It is not easy to describe Tuesday's proceedings in the House of Commons. Members listened grimly to the Prime Minister's terse and...

Fr HE seizure of Denmark and Norway, by the same methods as marked as the seizure of Austria, Czecho- Slovakia and Poland, demonstrates once more the folly of supposing that...

M ONTHS have passed since the country became conscious of the fact that intensive production of food upon our own soil is one of the major factors in the waging of total war. It...

candidates for commissions in the Guards consisted of a statement of fact, which was interesting and relevant, and a rather light-hearted line of comment - , which I never...

mentioning it; now the demonstration has reached me. The business notepaper of a London firm (run, inci- dentally, by a lady) bears in the corner the legend "Our tele- graphic...

without paying my tribute to that ardent and most attractive person- ality. However, Andrews, in his association with Mr. Gandhi, and his adoption of all the simplicities of the...

West of the United States is the part of the Union where citizens of Scandinavian extraction most predominate. I discovered that the first time I was in Minneapolis. Scandi-...

S TRAW-VOTES, even those taken by Dr. Gallup's organisations in this country and the United States, must be accepted with every kind of reservation. It is claimed, of course,...

the most distinguished of American "columnists," in Europe arouses keen expectations, for Miss Thompson will certainly not fail to set down in due course her im- pressions of...

Escape Me Never has an actress on the London stage leaped so decisively into sudden fame as Barbara Mullen has done in the past ten days. I shall be singularly surprised, and...

By STRATEGICUS W HATEVER has actually happened in Scandinavia, the war has entered upon a new phase and must in future proceed with a quickened tempo and an enlarged scope...

By ERWIN D CANHAM T HE most ancient sport in the American Republic is twisting the lion's tail. We began before the American Revolution, and we continue to this day. On the...

By PROF. LIONEL ROBBINS M R. WILSON HARRIS concludes his most recent con- tribution to our friendly argument by posing two rather technical questions. I think it will be...

By HERBERT ROS1NSKI T HE attack launched by Germany against Denmark and Norway under cover of the plea of their inability to maintain their neutrality effectively comes as no...

By THE DEAN OF ST. PAUL'S A FEW days ago I returned from a tour in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Holland. My main object was to visit the English chaplaincies in those countries,...

By G. H. GRETTON O N few subjects are the middle classes of this country less well informed than on that of population policy. Nobody with any real knowledge will question the...

By NOEL SIRCAR T HE long room, darkened in the afternoon, shuttered 1 against the scorching Indian sun, should have been cool ; cooled by the air filtering in through matting...

CANADA IN 1915 AND 1940 By GRANT DEXTER Ottawa, March 28th N OW that the election is over, it is possible to write with some degree of certainty regarding the attitude of the...

to notify THE SPECTATOR office BEFORE MIDDAY on MONDAY OF EACH WEEK. The name, the previous address to which the paper has been sent and receipt reference number should be quoted.

upon a deeper tide of uneasiness. People are asking themselves whether in fact there are no new cards in the pack and whether this game of musical chairs must continue...

By HAROLD NICOLSON I T has been strange, both in the House of Commons and outside, to observe the after-effects of the Cabinet re- shuffle of April 3rd. The popular newspapers...

be necessary. The first necessity will arise when the Germans launch their offensive against our own Army and when the people of Great Britain will realise for the first time...

Government back-benchers is due to subtler and more credit- able causes. In the first place, the more gifted among them are all Socialists at heart, and do not feel for the...

regarding the capacity of the back-benchers upon the Government side. This apparent dearth of rising statesmen is attributed to two separate causes, neither of which seems to me...

many discards, which might be used. The tough integrity, the ripe experience, of Mr. L. S. Amery cannot for much longer be disregarded ; Mr. Duff Cooper has returned to us with...

Con- servative and associated parties have been subjected in recent years to too stringent discipline upon the part of the Whips. It is true indeed that some (although not all)...

the House appreciated the promotion of Mr. R. S. Hudson, they would have appreciated it even more if his energy and strong will had been applied to some department other than...

Mr. Ashton's Good Wine ONE of the programmes given by the Sadler's Wells Ballet last week included two of Mr. Frederick Ashton's latest produc- tions, Dante Sonata and Les...

THE THEATRE Rebecca." By Daphne du Manner. At the Queen's Theatre . THE character whose name provides the title for this exciting play does not appear on the stage, for she...

"The Earl of Chicago." At the Leicester Square. THERE is a Chicago gangster who operates a whiskey dis- tillery, forcing sales on unwilling customers by the brutal methods of...

[Correspondents are requested to keep their letters as brief as is reasonably possible. Signed letters are given a preference over those bearing a pseudonym, and the latter must...

which was re- leased by the fiasco of the Finnish War and the wishful pursuit of new " trends " and " hints " which has accompanied the recent diplomatic events seem to reveal a...

causes of the present war consisted in our imperialism. Now imperialism denotes the presence of an empire. Will Mr. Lee tell us where the British Empire is? I have consulted an...

Richard Lee, stated that "in a delegate meeting of the Coventry Labour Party a resolution against the continuance of the war was carried by a good majority, although our...

Sta,—Those who know our " democracy " are aware that social distinctions exist, even between neighbouring streets in the East End of London—indistinguishable to the Uninitiated....

sTR,—Mr. Spaight says that the total strength of the Air Force in all theatres of the war and at home never exceeded 300,000 officers and men. When Sir Hugh Trenchard left the...

my article in your issue of March 29th, "Germany without Prussia," Mr. Henry Gottorp seems to misunderstand its statements concerning the Slavonic origin and character of the...

intervals during the past two and a half years I have had the privilege of interesting conversations about his country with a young Indian scientist. His course of study and...

effort. My only qualifications are that I am a friend of, and in the same class as, Mr. Bonham-Carter, and that, like him, I would defend the Public Schools while suggesting at...

Sm,—The distinction drawn by Canon F. R. Barry in Your last issue between "a naturally Christian creed" and "Christian affirmations" may find a parallel, particularly for your...

SIR,—Some months ago you were good enough to print a letter from me, pointing out that the pacts of mutual assist- ance between the Soviet Union and the Baltic States should not...

SIR,—" No university ever did itself the honour of presenting hint with its degrees." "His first book marked an epoch in Economic Thought." Many besides myself must have paused,...

SIR,—I desire to protest against a sentence in "A Spectator's Notebook" in your issue of April 5th. After describing certain questions said to have been put to candidates for...

have no wish to argue with the review of my Roman Fountain in your paper, although, naturally, I am not in agreement with it and wish that your reviewer might have had a...

springs, and England today is more English than ever. Almost everything, except the earlier warblers and sand martins, have waited for April, birds and flowers, both. Some...

SIR, —There is probably a much better way to meet Lord Haw- Haw than, as Miss Byrne suggests, by factual refutation, and that is by burlesque. Already, of course, Haw-Haw is a...

approved districts in the West of England, it appears that the common spruce, which had lost some of its old popularity, stood the winter with complete success, while its...

A passing allusion to that small and lovely bush, the cerato- stigma has brought inquiries. The bush, which rather suggests a plumbago, is hardier than the comparison suggests ;...

The highest possible praise of the land girls begins to appear in the local Press from one side of the island to the other, and different qualities are selected. The Yorkshire...

SIR, —The recent announcement by the Minister of Supply that 37 new munition factories are to be built immediately in Britain raises questions of real importance regarding the...

IT is the resourceful custom of certain persons to mitigate the tedium of railway travel by improvising dialogues calcu- lated to intrigue their fellow passengers. The usual...

the twentieth century he might have written an historical play about the reign of King George the Sixth. Prizes of book tokens for £2 2s. and LI Is. are offered for the best...

Temporary Monarch "THE Presidential office differs from everything else. Much of it cannot be described, it can only be felt." This was the opinion of C4vin Coolidge, and,...

Life and Death 01 the Spanish Republic. By Henry Buckley. ;Hamish Hamilton. I2S. 6d.) IT would be entertaining rather than instructive to note the divergences between these two...

THE publication in an English translation of successive works of the Danish preacher and writer, SOren Kierkegaard, who died in 1855, is both a remarkable achievement and a sign...

Letters from George HI to Lord Bute. 1756-1766. Edited by Romney Sedgwick. (Macmillan. as.) WE were nearly all, it seems, misled for years by those great corruptors of youth,...

Aeschylus the Creator of Tragedy. By Gilbert Murray. (Clarendon Press. 7s. 6d.) PROFESSOR MURRAY, who has already edited Aeschylus for scholars and translated and expounded him...

The Novel in the Modern World. By David Daiches. (Cam- bridge. University Press 15s.) MR. DAVID DAICHES is a man - with a theory which, in his own words, is "that the most...

Mr. Moonlight's Island. By Robert Dean Frisbie. (Heinemann. The Man Who Dared. By Niko!ai Gubsky. (Heinemann. 8s. 6d.) THERE is little that a reviewer can say about the above...

the Champlain Society for re-editing the early travel books and printing documents hitherto inaccessible. Robertson's correspondence is of the second kind. Taken from the...

By CUSTOS MARKETS are back on the defensive, but they are putting up a tough resistance. News such as broke over the air on Tuesday morning was bound to impose an effective...

At last we have an official declaration of faith in the vexed question of the fall in free sterling. Sir John Simon assures us—many of us were already convinced—that the recent...

If it is certain that insurance companies are facing unusually difficult problems it is also well to remember that they are remarkably well equipped to stand the strain. A...

6s.) The City of London Livery Companies. By Bryan Pontifex. (Methuen. 6s.) As a history of the London Guilds this little book needs revision. But as a summary view of their...

The Irish Dramatic Movement. By Una Ellis - Fermor. (Methuen. los. 6d.) THE Anglo-Irish theatre has certainly not lacked its com- mentators, but there was room for a systematic...

ed.) MR. LANDERY'S book is not about the reigning kings and queens of Los Angeles, but chiefly about the humbler studio employees—small-part actors, stand-ins, electricians,...

Phaidon Editions. All its illustrations are of fine quality, but what gives it its peculiar value are the clear detail reproductions, in particular those of the Sistine chapel...

Step by step Amalgamated Anthracite Collieries is im- proving its position. Its capital has been drastically recon- structed, its fixed charges have been substantially reduced,...

Dividend decisions by Imperial Chemical Industries and Dunlop Rubber present a striking contrast. Both com- panies have done well, as one would have expected, but whereas I.C.I....