D R. MOUSSADEK'S Note to the British Govern- ment contained nothing new; as before, he offers to negotiate with the Oil Company on the form of compensation which is to be paid...

The pace set by the Army in Egypt is a hot one. General Neguib and his colleagues apparently see no reason why the reforms which have been so much talked of in the past, and to...

The new Western proposals for disarmament deserve closer consideration than it seems, from Mr. Malik's first comments, they are likely to receive from the Russians. The three...

of living to be found in the official Bulletin for Industry for August, after mentioning various further rises in prices, mainly food-prices, still to be anticipated, adds that...

The failure of the three European Defence Community Powers to agree on a uniform term of military service at their conference on Tuesday is serious. .1t bears out, particularly...

The deposition of King Talal of Jordan is a sad story. There is no doubt about the gravity of his mental illness, which has been investigated by _Egyptian and Jordanian as well...

T HE platitudinarians at any rate seem assured of that full employment on which the Labour Party lays such stress. That is the first reassuring conclusion that emerges from a...

I T appears that some of the glaring deficiencies in the prison system of' the country, brought to public notice by the recent report of a Select Committee of the House of...

suppose, are meaningless to most readers of this column. Very few of us remember, even when the facts are recalled, the dis- covery on May 16th, 1948, of the corpse, trussed...

Eden on Thursday was only that of the Registrar at Caxton Hall, not of some appropriate ecclesiastical dignitary. Marriage is a solemn undertaking, and there is everything to be...

living Picture Post is to be reduced immediately from 6d. a week to 46. That is a drastic, but probably a wise, decision. The report of the Hulton Press published last Saturday...

of the Bible will receive a considerable stimulus when Messrs. Nelson publish at the end of next month the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, prepared by a most competent...

By E. W. ASHcROFT H IS HIGHNESS SIDI LAMINE, Bey of Tunis, recently summoned a sort of Estates General to meet in his cream-coloured summer palace on the water's edge at...

By ERICH GEIRINGER, M.D. H OWEVER successfully we may bypass the fear of death, and however sensibly we may die, to give up one's personality remains fundamentally an unaccept-...

By FRANK DEBENHAM* R ECENT releases of information on how the U.S.S.R. is tackling the water-problems of Central Asia take the breath away, just as the scope and power of...

W ERE it possible to plot India's relations with the U.S.A. on a graph, the curve would be a very simple one. Beginning from the top in 1947, it would register a steep fall down...

By EVE TAYLOR T HE Society of Frienas are somewhat chary of publicity accorded to their domestic affairs; and the fact that both non-Friends and the Press were excluded from...

By HAROLD NICOLSON , I T is an excellent thing that the 'Departments of Extra- Mural studies in our several universities should, during the month of August, arrange vacation...

CINEMA The Little Man. Anni Difficili. (Academy.)—The World in His Arms. (Odeon.) Ir is not surprising that when The Little Man was first shown in Italy it aroused a storm of...

The Happy Marriage. By John Clements. (Duke of York's.) NOT being among those who consider farce . a contemptible form of entertainment, I am dismayed to think of the heaviness...

New York City Ballet. (Covent Garden.) HAVING been away on holiday I have, unfortunately, missed much of the New York City Ballet season, but in the programmes seen since my...

No musical journal aims consistently higher than The Score,a "music magazine" (to use its own somewhat misleading name) which appears but three times a year, and is designed for...

of Cambridge University has done well to celebrate its fiftieth production by coming up to London for a week. By the time this note appears Romeo and Juliet will have been...

SPECTATOR readers are urged to plade a firm order with their news- agent or to take out a subscription. Newsagents cannot afford to take *risk of carrying stock, as unsold...

true British sailor." The ballad composed in honour of William the Fourth need not go out of use yet; like the national anthem, it may by a simple change in the designation be...

ALTHOUGH I have often heard of people being bitten by adders, I have not heard of one who has died as a result. No doubt people die from snakebite in this country, but they also...

Chlorophyll, I was told at school, is the stuff of life itself. When I look at a field of hay or a hill of swedes I sometimes remember what my biology master had to say....

Set by John Usborne A prize of £5, which may be divided, is offered for it four-line epitaph on an English drought. Entries must be addressed to the Spectator, 99 Gower Street,...

There was a startling roar from the inside of the shed, and as I looked towards it the farmer smiled. "Can't trust him any more," he said. "-I knew when he was two he was goin'...

prize of £5 was -offered for 'Soubriquets (on the analogy of "The Swan of Avon," " The Rupert of Debate," &c.) for Mr. Winston Churchill, Mr. Aneurin Bevan, General de Gaulle...

Disregarding the comments of the experts, I have increased the number of rose trees in my garden by taking slips. If the blooms are no larger than those on the older trees I...

Because it once had a wonderful crop, I went back to see how the old crab - apple tree was doing. It grows in a hedge that surrounds a copse. The first time I found it, it was...

SIR,—As a young schoolmaster who has helped in the teaching of scripture at this country grammar school for the past three years, I feel that something further must be said...

his revulsion at the sight of them might be dissipated. Put some prunes into a large jar, cover them with gin and perhaps the dregs of a bottle of port. Three months later top...

Prison Problems Sta,—Mr. Benson may be right when he says there is no solution to the problem of our prisons except immensely costly new building and rebuilding. But I venture...

Sta,—No doubt, as Mr. Penney reminds us, we should all be kind to poor dumb vegetables which cannot answer back, but Janus is entitled to express his opinion (however wrong)...

what he likes about the prune, but I wonder if he has ever had them as we cook them in Scotland, that is: cooked slowly with sugar in the oven, and finally a good measure of...

unlovely fruit, we are told, is excellent when well cooked; suffice it to say that good prune-cooks must be extinct. Certainly there are none in schools, where prune-suffering...

Sta,—All those concerned with the preparation of the Everest Exhibi- tion recently shown at the Tea Centre in Lower Regent Street, and of the model of Everest which was its...

Sm,—Returning to the charge (albeit reluctantly and solely in the Interests of truth), I must again challenge Mr. Hilton Young's figures in his letter of August 1st. I have...

Snt,—In some parts of the world even stranger nesting materials than those mentioned by Mr. Ian Niall are used. Like human builders, birds are sometimes obliged to use...

SIR,—Mr. Ochiltree has touched on a very unpleasant aspect of modern bureaucratic control. It reminds one of the old jingle: "Big fleas have little fleas upon their backs to...

Sts,—The reasons for J. Lindsay's proposal of clubs for professioral people who take jobs away from home would seem to be inadequate. If, as stated by her, the membership of a...

Sm,—I am interested to see Janus's error about Thomas Gray's colleje corrected. As an undergraduate I was taken to see from below de window of his bedroom at Peterhouse. The...

SIR,—Miss Marghanita Laski's venomous criticism of Nevil Shute's book The Far Country needs an answer from one who agrees that life in England today is quite intolerable for...

Revolution in China. By C. P. Fitzgerald. (Cresset Press. 21s.) IT would be an excellent rule if no one was allowed to write about a revolutionary regime who had no knowledge oc...

The Monarchy Transformed King George the Fifth : His Life and Reign. By Harold Nicolson. (Constable. 42s.) _j King George the Fifth : His Life and Reign. By Harold Nicolson....

Vermeer. By Lawrence Gowing. (Faber. 50s.) OUR perception of the visible world is now so thoroughly conditioned by photography that it is hard to realise how strange and even...

The Forrestal Diaries: The Inner History of the Cold War. Edited by Walter Millis with the collaboration of E. S. Duffield. (Cassell. 25s.) JAMES FORRESTAL went to Washington in...

The Living and the Lost. By Michel Zeraffa. (Bodley Head. I5s.) Count d'Orgel Opens the Ball was first published in the French original in 1924, a year after the death of...

The Pocket Guide to British Birds. By R. S. R. Fitter and R. A. Richardson. (Collins. 21s.) THE number of pocket-size reference-books on British birds is a testimony to the...

[A Book Token for one guinea will be awarded to the sender of the first correct solution opened after noon on Tuesday week, August 26th, addressed Crossword, 99 Gower Street,...

0 m RIAM MI 0 MO IT: M rt- MEMO O MMOMM I EMMOITIMM Ail Aeirl - -01eman - r e '0110 nnognm M ORO moommln amanmen 0 g , mLa nOmMo n Guam ORIeuRM nrrurvmm AmOM wanonainmn,...

ANYONE who is interested in the artistic crafts should try to save up for, scrounge, beg or borrow—presumably not steal—a copy of this delightful illustrated record of Laurence...

Three Great Irishmen—Shaw, Yeats, Joyce. By Arland Ussher. (Gollancz. 12s. 6d.) Three Great Irishmen—Shaw, Yeats, Joyce. By Arland Ussher. (Gollancz. 12s. 6d.) THE title of Mr....

MOST boys instinctively enjoy playing at pirates, and the readiness with which Mr. Olsen and his friends—all barely in their twenties—took to sabotage and spying probably...

By C US I' OS holding up surprisingly well. Both the recent loan operations in the gilt-edged market—the Nyasaland 41 per cent. issue and the 5 per cent, issue for Johannesburg—...