in the House of Commons on Tuesday to announce the package of deflationary measures over which the Cabinet has been fighting this past week, he will have two specific and...

Sir William Armstrong, who is to succeed Sir Laurence Helsby as Head of the Home Civil Service at the end of April, is one of this country's outstanding public servants. His...

Snow and ice covered most of Britain on Tuesday, resulting in the usual chaos on roads and railways. In the West of England there were floods as well. From. the Cabinet, on the...

POLITICAL COMMENTARY AUBERON WAUGH On the day Prince Andrew was born. our Lon- don daily woman came to work with a grim countenance and announced: `It appears that the Queen is...

CHRISTOPHER HOLLIS 'The economic impact on the island city-state of the British withdrawal . . . is about to bite hard.'—The Times on the future of Singapore. Forces of...

CZECHOSLOVAKIA TIBOR SZAMUELY Antonin Novotny, who was removed last week from the First Secretaryship of the Czechoslovak Communist - party, was appointed to this post by the...

AMERICA JOHN GRAHAM Washington—The reactions to Mr Johnson's balance of payments programme have been remarkably uniform. There hasn't been much reaction from Congress, since...

THE PRESS RANDOLPH S. CHURCHILL Just a year ago I wrote an open letter in the SPECTATOR addressed to the new editor of The Times. I wrote it from Barbados and did not know then...

From the 'Spectator', II January /868—Mr. Forster made a very able speech on education at St. James's Hall on Tuesday night. He declared himself for State interference to enact...

INDUSTRY STUDENT LABOURER One of the first topics of conversation in college at the beginning of term is liable to be, 'What did you work at during the vac?' This frequently...

J. W. M. THOMPSON The past week's reshuffle at the very top of the civil service is of much significance. On the heels of devaluation, events have now brought about a...

PERSONAL COLUMN GEOFFREY TAYLOR For a brief spell after Cuba 'crisis manage- ment' enjoyed a certain prestige. Nothing has come of it, and crises are still as unmanaged as...

CONSUMING INTEREST LESLIE ADRIAN Some years after graduation, a young Ameri- can husband and father wrote to his former principal in terms of polite but forceful reproach. '1...

MEDICINE JOHN ROWAN WILSON • Almost every animal species has its own indi- vidual pattern of disease. Cats and dogs don't catch colds and human beings run no danger from...

PHILIDOR C. Goldschmeding (1st prize, Holland, 1944-5). White to play and mate in two moves; solution next week. Solution to no. 368 (Wimsatt): R - Q 1, threat B x P. 1 . R...

TABLE TALK DENIS BROGAN Washington—It is surely quite absurd to print menus in French when de Gaulle is an open - enemy of the United States. The Australians don't print menus...

MARTIN SEYMOUR-SMITH `Commitment' deserves to be relegated to the ' status of pseudo-term: it raises a host of questions, -yet settles none. In The Writer and Commitment (1961)...

of Arthur Hugh Cough edited by James Bertram (University of Auck- land and OUP 80s) Amorous prawn DAVID WILLIAMS Thomas was Arnold of Rugby's favourite son. The Doctor's...

Blood royal TIBOR SZAMUELY This 'intimate account of the last of the Rnmanovs' has become a best-seller in the us, a. selection both of the Literary Guild and the Reader's...

Pan Books 5s) Third Mrs Philby PETER FLEMING Kim Philby Thepy I Loved Eleanor Philby (Hamish Hamilton 30s, Pan Books 5s) The authoress, an American, married H. A. R. Philby...

(Robert Hale 50s) I liked Ike LORD EGREMONT Ah, did you once see Eisenhower plain? If not, you can see him so now. We have already had from General Eisenhower's hand two major...

Geoffrey Keynes (Hart-Davis 84s) Bud muddle AUBERON WAUGH The development of the normal human mind generally determines that, as a child grows up, its artistic creations lose...

(William Kimber 55s) Read all about it PETER VANSITTART Astrology claims rational premises and, indeed, serious work is being attempted on the effects of cosmic movements on...

Traders 1441-1807 James Pope-Hennessy (Weidenfeld and Nicolson 42s) Fatal triangle DEREK PATMORE This remarkable book is not just a study of the slave trade but also a...

A Soldier's Diary Yael Dayan (Weidenfeld and Nicolson 25s). Racy first-hand account of the June war—Not war to kill but war in order not to be killed.' Nevertheless, it is a...

Final solution HILARY SPURLING Macbeth (Aldwych) 'There are two ways of being a great writer,' said Stalin: 'painting powerful tragic frescoes like Shakespeare or else...

ROY STRONG 'France in the Eighteenth Century' is a stagger- ing show, the finest winter exhibition the Royal Academy has staged since the days of the great comprehensive Dutch...

British dowdy PENELOPE HOUSTON Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush (Lon- don Pavilion, 'X') Comic Strip Hero (Cinephone, 'X') Tony Rome (Leicester Square Theatre, 'X') - Here...

ART PAUL GRINKE There will be some bemused faces wandering round the Tate Gallery's retrospective ex- hibition of Roy Lichtenstein in the next few weeks. Poster-sized...

FINANCE USA WILLIAM JANE WAY New York—The year here began with the im- position of mandatory government restrictions over direct foreign investment and foreign lending by...

NICHOLAS DAVENPORT As a professional investor I have no objection to being accused of inconsistency provided I end up with the right stocks. When Keynes first became chairman...

BUSINESS VIEWPOINT WILLIAM L. MATHER William L. Mather is chairman of Mather and Platt, a director of the National Provincial and District Banks, past president of Manchester...

CHRISTOPHER FILDES City fingers remain locked in the crossed posi- tion, but hopes rise that the Government will not, after all, raid the private holdings of dollar...

PORTFOLIO JOHN BULL It is easy to return from the Continent, where last week I was talking to bankers and busi- nessmen, with one's confidence dented. The rehabilitation of...

LETTERS From the Rev Kenneth Mackenzie, Dr Edmund R. Leach, Noel S. Paul, Sir Archibald Hope, Professor Harry G. Shaffer, E. Poulo- poulos, R. F. Fernsby, Christopher Purcell,...

CUSTOS Markets these days seem to spend their time waiting for something—the trade figures, the gold figures, or one of the mini-budgets which come almost as often. The season...

Sir: Professor Laurence Martin's article 'Do we need the F 1111?' (5 January) is a useful review of the 'current situation concerning this controversial aircraft. - It is true...

Sir: What evidence has P. E. Mallon (Letters, 5 January) for his extraordinary assertion that 'the citizens as a whole accept the state decision and resent the flamboyant...

I was surprised to see Randolph Churchill raising the tired old gimmick about heavy taxes on commercial tele- vision being the answer to Fleet Street's present economic ills....

Sir: You must be as bored with these etymologi- cal niceties as I am. I meant what I said, not what Dr Goodhart (Letters, 29 December) thinks I meant to say. In a social world...

Sir: Mr Ovenden (Letters, 5 January) is wrong. These social groups (AB, Cl. C2, DE) are defined by occupation not money. 'C2s' (the skilled manual workers) can, and often do....

Sir: Mr Llewellyn-Smith writes from Athens (5 January), 'The junta ... proposed to reduce income tax on all income -brackets, presumably on the principle adopted by Papandreou...

Sir: In your 8 December issue you restated your belief that the Vietnam war is 'a hideous error of judgment, a threat to world peace, and contrary to the best interests of the...

Sir: You published in your issue of 15 December a letter from Mr L. E. Weidberg criticising the procedure - followed by the Press Council in his complaint against the Daily...

Sir: From his book, Mr Tylden-Wright strikes me as too amiable a man to be pleased by the Strabolgis' childish rudeness (Letters, 5 January) on his behalf, but perhaps they are...

AFTERTHOUGHT JOIN WELLS Amidst the arms of the Americans, and under the despotism of France, we again inquire into the fate of Britain, which had reached, toward the close of...

Sir: If Mr Purser (Letters, 5 January) thought my review of Miss Raines book mockery and a `send-up,' he retorted with a restraint and ami- ability 1 might not have maintained...

Sir: Many of us in publishing will rejoice that Mr Leslie Frewin's services to wit are beginning to re- ceive their proper due—John Wells's 'After- thought,' 5 January. A number...

Across 1 The Archbishop has a great race (12) 9 Inquiry as to agreeable environment for the well-dressed astronaut (5 - 4) 10 What use is an old-fashioned yashmak? (5) II A...

Solution to Crossword no. 1307. Across: I Bloomsbury 6 Grip 10 Amber 11 Lapicides 12 Tite-a-tite 13 Uncle 14 Gallopades 16 Elms 18 Amps 20 Pastmastcr 23 Dover 24 Dymchurch 27...

No. 483: The word game Competitors are invited to use the following ten words, taken from the opening passages of a well-known work of literature, in the order given, to...