and Signor Mussolini on Wednesday nothing is known as these words are written except that it took place. It is not apparent why General Franco or anyone else should desire to...

The action of the British Government in instructing its Minister in Rumania to ask for hii passports was an inevitable consequence of the menacing attitude which Germany has...

The situation at Vichy has been only partially clarified in the past week. There are, it is true, certain definite moves to record. The fortunes of M. Laval have, so far as is...

It was a wise move at an early stage of the war to lay plans for an Empire air-training scheme by which thousands of pilots, air-gunners and observers could be trained in Canada...

Last Saturday the House of Representatives in Washington passed the " Lease-and-Lend " Bill by 26o to 165 votes, but the measure was still under examination by the Foreign...

Though every word that Mr. Churchill has spoken since he became Prime Minister has acted like a tonic to the nation and has helped to inspire it with his own confidence in...

It is obviously to Germany's interest that Japan should be preparing a diversion in the Far East at the time when Germany herself is planning a great stroke against Britain, but...

The appointment of General Wilson to be Military Governor and General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Cyrenaica marks the conclusion of the conquest of the vast eastern province...

This was the first radio war, said Mr. F. W. Ogilvie. Director-General of the B.B.C., addressing the Manchester Luncheon Club last week ; and he went on to describe bow this new...

of citizens must go unrepresented in Parliament. Is this a dangerous condition for democratic Government? Does it imply an unwarrantable increase of power for the Executive? Or,...

Bill Sir Kingsley Wood asked the House for two items of credit, L60o millions for the current financial year and £1,000 millions for the coming financial year. He said that it...

possible exception can be taken, but there is a tendency to appoint more and more Junior Ministers to places of profit under the Crown, with salaries of Major-Generals. The...

faced with heavy opposition on the question of insuring chattels. Mr. Oliver Lyttelton failed to convince the House that a voluntary scheme could succeed. His speeches on the...

disfranchisement of many constituencies. There was, perhaps, a case for Sir Stafford Cripps retaining his seat ; there may, perhaps, be a case for Sir Samuel Hoare remaining as...

workers, when all allowances have been made for extras, is still considerably below that of industrial workers. That fact is clearly shown by the report of the cost-of-living...

Our Parliamentary Correspondent writes: The superb and sober review of five months' war-time administration broadcast by the Prime Minister stands out as the event of the week....

Committee on National Expenditure is an important addition to the work which this practical body is doing in eliminating waste in Government war work, and incidentally in...

Postage on this issue: Inland lid., Foreign and Imperial id., Canada td.

A WEEK which sees the passage of the Lease-and- Lend Bill through the House of Representatives, the appointment of Mr. J. G. Winant as American Ambassador to Great Britain, the...

a story told me this week of a recent enquiry into living condi- tions in one of the West Indian islands. A negro pastor had given very intelligent evidence on the whole...

libel action, in which each of the plaintiffs was awarded £350 damages, were to the effect that the sum was just £349 19s. Ix:Id. too high. Much as I deprecate libel actions...

The Spectator mentions that the production of aeroplanes in December was no more than 700. Disappointing as that figure is in one sense, it inspires confidence in another if...

it can certainly not be said that oblivion had overtaken her. Elizabeth and Her German Garden was written as long ago as 1898, but it sells steadily, and must therefore be read...

High Com- missioner to Canada may be, and no doubt is, a compli- ment to Canada, but it seems a doubtful compliment to Mr. MacDonald. High Commissioners have always, I think,...

answer in the House of Commons last week regarding the driving of army vehicles. Captain Margesson, asked about the number of military lorries and vehicles in this country...

By STRATEGICUS E XAMINED in retrospect, the Prime Minister's broadcast speech, made on the occasion of one of the most striking victories even in a war that seems to be making...

By DAVID THOMSON [An article on "What to Tell Italy," by the same writer, ppeared in THE SPECTATOR of 7anuary 31st.] FTER a distressing period of hesitancy and faltering...

By ERWIN D. CANHAM By Air Mail. T HE President of the United States and his Administration THE the one hand, and most of the common people of America on the other, are...

By LOUIS DE BROUCKERE O UGHT we to concern ourselves here and now with war- aims? I fully appreciate the reasoning of those who refuse to recognise any other war-aim than the...

By ARCHDEACON FOSBROOKE E NEMY action has intensified 'a problem which in any case the Church would have been called upon to face in the very near future. The appointment by...

By GRAHAM GREENE NE cannot, unless one belongs to the Army of the Nile, travel very far these days, but a little book on Colloquial Persian which I picked up recently set me...

I LOOK at the conifers, the grey row of leeks, The buddleia now naked and the Michaelmas daisies: I can feel with its pom-poms the gentle cloth On the table inside: and the tall...

Tin Pan Alley." At the Regal.—" Arise My Love." At the Carlton.—" Arizona." At the Regal. Tin Pan Alley, as its name denotes, is a musical picture. Set in the days of the...

An Edwardian Symphony LAST . week's programme of the Royal Philharmonic Society was designed to show something of what English composers have achieved in the course of three...

the futu re o f our public schools. I agree with him, at any rate in the main, that it is necessary to keep the individuality of each school, but rye does not seem to realise...

the public schools so serious that it might, I should fear, prove fatal. Most of the State-supported boys would come from homes where a part at least of the public school code...

SrR,—I have read with interest Mr. Lyon's views on the advantages of boarding schools over day schools in matters of religion. But the public school chapel is ahnost...

[In view of the paper shortage it is essential that letters on these pages should be brief. We are anxious not to reduce the number of letters, but unless they, are shorter they...

SIR, —The Duke of Bedford's sincerity is as obvious as the fact that some injustices and cruelties have been committed against Conscien- tious Objectors and suspected and...

the a letter like his own in the last issue of The Spectator could b e published in the German Press, your readers would at least be able to judge whether his expression of...

has in mind when he writes of " the real German reformation " for which " decent Germans have looked for a long, long time to the great democracies" for help in bringing about?...

many of your readers to be very unjust. She impugns the historical accuracy of the narrative, but Sir Robert's indictment of Germany's behaviour to her neighbours finds abundant...

issues of The Spectator stated clearly his reasons in favour of the survival of the public school system; but we are in variance with him over his attitude towards boarding...

raises prospects of happier times in a reformed Britain. Most of the projected changes can only be considered and planned now, for the effort of winning the War takes most of...

Sir,—Mr. Williams-Ellis brings the awful charge of being a romantic against Mr. Piper because he wants to see castles, abbeys and tumuli left as they are without being tidied...

welcomed D r . Joad's observations upon " Dualism." To the common man life is dualist. He is aware of two unseen forces outside of himself appea ling to him, the one holy and...

a right in the name of democracy to impose its will on Indian minorities because, under wholly different conditions, majority rule seems natural to us in Great Britain is to...

said about Dr. Joad's suggestion that it is at least. possible , that we shall have to be content after all with a dualistic solution of the problems involved in the existence...

I think, than that in which, late last summer, I gave some details of the current prices of medicinal herbs. The year was too old and the blitz too vigorously young to enable...

SIR,—In his letter describing the treatment of a Sherborne deportee, Mr. E. H. Pease accuses the captain, officers, crew and guards on board the s.s. Dunera ' of grossly...

purpose in trying to grow mixed borders of flowers and vegetables, but where flower beds are cleared twice a year there is no reason why flowers and vegetables should not be...

Swan Battle Six swans, two parents and four cygnets, ruled the lake all sunimer. At the first sign of severe frost six strange adult birds appeared from the direction of the...

SIR,—" When I use a word," said Humpty-Dumpty, " it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less. . . ." "Partisan!" says the Northern Ireland Minister for...

of the asparagus pea, which I mentioned on December 27th. Miss Eleanor Sinclair Rohde, who has often written of uncommon vegetables, is one of the very few seedsmen to offer...

SIR,—The railway companies are refusing to issue workmen's tickets to night fire-watchers proceeding to their duties in the evening. I have taken up the matter with the...

The Hour and the Man Into Battle : Winston Churchill's War Speeches. Compiled by Randolph Churchill. (Cassell. 8s. 6d.) WE have it on the authority of Cassius that Julius...

A Faith to Fight For. By John Strachey. (Gollancz. 6..) FOR how many of the leading intelligentsia has the Soviet German pact been the road to Damascus? It was not the...

Poems 1930-1940. Edmund Blunden. (Macmillan. ros. 6d.) Tux impact of the last war upon Mr. Blunden's poetry was profound, and at the present time this adds to the interest of...

Born these books are, I think, primarily intended to convey some sense of bombed London to America, and one of them is by an American. Mr. Farson is a first-rate journalist; we...

91 The Century of Science, 1840-1940. By F. Sherwood Taylor. (Heinemann. 8s. 6d.) Da. SHERWOOD TAYLOR has produced a lively and attractive album of snapshots : we turn the...

Tins is the story of an established writer who, of his own free will, chose to become a farmer. The three main reasons for this sudden decision were first, to provide himself...

• U.S.A. By D. W. Brogan. (Oxford University Press. 25. 6d.) THE highest praise that could be given to this little book—and no praise could be too high for it—is to say...

More Details from Pictures in the National Gallery. Introduction by Sir Kenneth Clark. (Printed for the Trustees. 75. 6d.) IF you never go to the Queen's Hall but constantly...

The Best Short Stories of 1940. Edited by Edward J. O'Brien. (Cape. 8s. 6d.) THERE is at the moment a controversial fluttering as to what the short story is—character, an...

The Land of Spices. By Kate O'Brien. (Heinemann. 8s. 6c1.) THE chief character of Miss O'Brien's new novel is the Reverend Mother of a convent. She is English and the Order she...

Inside the Department of State. By Bertram D. Hulen. (McGraw Hill. r8s.) AMERICAN traditional folklore has not been kind to American diplomats, " cookie pushers " as, thanks to...

By CUSTOS WHITEHALL has again waved its wand over the gilt-edged market Re-investment demand is to be stimulated by the paying off of large block of India's sterling loans....

and London. Maps produced by J. Bartholemew. (25s. a year). IT is impossible to follow intelligently any war, least of all this, without reference to maps, yet no ordinary...

book of the fifteenth-century mystic from King's Lynn, which was published a few years ago by Messrs. Jonathan Cape in a modernised version by the owner of the MS., Colonel...

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 marked with the words...

iE I 'ST SOLUTION ON FEBRUARY 28th The winner of Crossword No. 99 is Miss Maxwell, 7, Lorne Terrace, Berwick-on-Tweed.