The signing with a flourish of trumpets of the Soviet- German economic agreement does not, of course, mean that a new situation has been created, but that the two sides have...

centre, but most fiercely in the Summa region. The vantage that the enemy possess is that they can call on ost inexhaustible numbers, whilst the Finns can have few serves. But...

Army has been sub- jected to the most severe ordeal that it has yet had to dure in a war which has put its mettle to the test at every ge. Opposite the strongly fortified...

The event shows that M. Daladier was right in not making the holding of a secret session of the Chamber a question of confidence. If he had insisted he would no doubt have...

German assurances were given to the Scandinavian Governments of Germany's deter- mination to recognise the rights of neutrals to maintain normal trade relations with...

Salutary as President Roosevelt's characterisation of pro. Soviet enthusiasts is, many of them no doubt write him of in advance as a capitalist reactionary. To them an assess-...

It is given to few men in any generation to excel in so many spheres as Lord Tweedsmuir. John Buchan—for so be will most probably be remembered—was an ideal University Member of...

Following so soon after the arrival of Canadian forces in England, the disembarkation of the first contingents of the Second Australian Imperial Force and the New Zealand...

Nothing could be more wholesome than the addr ess delivered to some of America's young Communists b y President Roosevelt last Saturday. Admirably combini ng geniality with...

in a month. No one who listened to any one of them could make the mistake of regarding him .ss a spent force . in British politics. In the art of oratory, with the single...

in a state bordering on mutiny. At the beginning of the war the responsible Ministers made the most reassuring statements on the subject of feeding-stuffs. Today everyone knows...

Lord Snell is better equipped with good sound sense than ost men, and it is to be hoped some admonitions he voiced Sunday in the matter of rationing will be taken to heart rever...

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.

The first part of the Labour Party's declaration of policy " the War and the Peace " follows very closely the o uncements of policy made by Mr. Chamberlain and d Halifax. The...

The Government's agreement with the railway companies e under two-fold criticism from the Labour Party on uesday—first on the ground that it was too generous to the mpanies. and...

Our Parliamentary Correspondent writes : The subject of transport nearly always gives rise to a lively debate, and Tuesday's proceedings were no exception. The Labour Party were...

P RESIDENT ROOSEVELT'S decision to despatch Mr. Sumner Welles on a mission to Europe is easily the most significant step taken in relation to the war since the embargo on the...

HE long period of waiting before the war reaches its full intensity has afforded a breathing-space. It ould have been turned to account not only in military efence but also in...

T HE fact that Lord Tweedsmuir—then, of course, John Buchap—was the originator of this column and the in- ventor of its heading is not among the greatest of his tides to fame,...

serves as warning against facile assumptions of an early collapse of civilian morale. The food situation is, of course, bad, and the cold spell, with its effect on trans- port,...

unique personality stands out most conspicuously, but the New York paper which spoke of his " distinction " found the one right word for him. There was distinction in everything...

11 Italy?" " In 1939 a Jew ; in 1940 a German ; in t94 11 Fascist." (I am inclined to doubt the 1941 prediction.) Ws.

has many strong claims to election, but a sentence I notice in his election address is not among them. Speaking of the post-war settlement he says " I regard the British...

of what purported to be a re of the recent secret session of the House of Commons soon subsided. A translation of the article in question been placed in the Library of the House...

situation? About 14 servants kept Times advertisement. About 14? Why not a decent precision about it? It these sloppy approximations that mark the degeneration of British...

Was Hitler's Maid (John Long, 2S. 6d.) by a German wo who claims to have been in domestic service for so two or three years (the dates are a little vague) at Bercht gaden. As...

By STRATEGICUS UMOUR is once again busy with the possibilities of an attack on the Low Countries. This may mean no or e than is suggested by a reading of Germany's govern- s...

By SIR WILLIAM BEVERIDGE THE War Cabinet today consists of the Prime Minister, who is also Leader of dr: House of Commons, five Ministers with full Departmental...

U NLESS Irish public men of all the constitutional parties recover their composure and take courage to utter unpopular truths, the country may descend into the lowest pit of...

By SIR CYRIL NORWOOD B EFORE entering in broad outline on the details of the organisation which by unifying our educational system may go far to bring the whole nation to unity...

By L. J. CADBURY HE idea of taking family circumstances into account in the allocation of purchasing-power is by no means new, ut it is only in recent years that the advocates...

By ERWIN D. CANHAM Washington. A S always, it is a mistake to judge American public opinion by its metropolitan newspapers or by its cos- mopolites, by the clubs or foreign...

By NEIL BELL E was three and a half feet long, somewhat thicker than a cricket stump to his middle, thence tapering y to his rounded tail whose fin was confluent with the an...

By HANS HOHKUM [An extract from the sensational book published this—or next—week by the Phony Press] I GOT my position in the first instance through denounc:- 1 ing my parents....

Bird tables (which even official economists bid us to furnish as in peace-time) have attracted guests of a new sort. In the suburbs of one village-town in Hertfordshire a hare,...

A Finnish Bird-lover If examples were needed of the affectionate interest in birds prevailing in the modern world, here is one that deserves record. In the chain of bird...

In the strange rain of ice that was the climax of the long frost the strangest effect that has come my way is told me by a dweller in Surrey : "My four peacocks were encased in...

Close to my own house at the same date a rook was observed perching for an inordinate stretch on a high tree. Finally the bird was shot, but remained in the same posture. It...

Everyone is telling us what to grow in the garden for in- creasing the national food supply, and this urgency is good ; but there are some things better omitted. One of them—at...

inaulge in similar escapism? Did we not say that Japan was justified in her Chinese policy, that the Abyssinians were slave-traders, that the Spanish Republicans murdered...

on many points the American undergraduate was better informed upon European affairs than the British undergraduate. He knew about the Southern Dobrudja, and who the Kutzo...

else which is difficult to identify or define. It was a general conception that Europe constitutes an entity known as The Old World' which is more or less of a homogeneous...

" how large a place this Indian problem now occupies in the feeling of the United States. They are almost totally ignorant of the real proportions of the problem, and they...

By HAROLD NICOLSON I MET a man last Monday who had just returned from 1 lecturing to the universities of America. He had visited nearly all the eastern and fresh-water...

the Americans are in a spiritual dilemma. They loathe war and they detest evil. They dread that the day may come when, unless they go to war, evil will triumph. They thus seek...

thirty lectures I bore this question with bright charity, answering with polite and incisive liberalism. Yet I recall that on one evening at Dayton, Ohio, my patience failed. A...

THE THEATRE " Lights Up ! " Charles B. Cochran's 1940 Revue. At the Savoy. MR. Collimates new revue, unlike its three successful rivals at the Hippodrome, the Palladium, and...

" Dark Rapture." At the Polytechnic.— " Destry Rides Again." At the Leicester Square.—" The Hunchback of Notre Dame." At the Gaumont. Dark Rapture is a film shot by an American...

" Don Giovanni " at Sadler's Wells THE revaluation of masterpieces is a favourite sport of under- graduates and a healthy exercise for growing minds. The hypothesis of the...

shell of the August night, and the quail, the lost and pleading call of the quail And the cypress swamp rich with the moving sepia Of slumber and gestation: delicate, white...

The Leicester Galleries THE works of the three present exhibitors at the Leicester Galleries are worth seeing for their own sake, and together they give a good line on...

SIR, —The letter of Mr. Edwyn Bevan in your issue of February 9th very pertinently raises the question as to what is meant by the " destruction of Germany." As he points out, it...

[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...

SIR,— Since the outbreak of war there has been much dis- cussion in the Press as to whether fox-hunting should be restricted, or even abolished, in the interests of poultry-...

medical correspondent's statements as to the cause of influenza and other " virus " diseases such as small-pox, measles, rabies, foot-and-mouth disease are incomplete? It is...

SIR,—In your issue of February 2nd, Mr. C. Leslie Norris writes that " The Government, however, seems at last to have awakened to the fact that there is such a thing as...

urges that " we should put forward more clearly, in agreement with our French Allies, what attractive elements in the subsequent state of things would remain safeguarded for the...

SIR,—Dr. Vemon's article on Liquor in War-Time shows such a lack of grasp of all but the statistics of the subject that I feel sustained to take up the cause of the poor who...

Sut,—I am not concerned to criticise or justify the disparity between clerical incomes, but the letter of Mr. H. W. Pearson on this subject in your last issue but one ought not...

on " The Moral Front," in your issue of February 9th, with pronounced misgiving. Sir Evelyn quotes certain ascetic practices adopted by fanatical young Nazis, such as the...

SiR,—In a review of The Art of Preaching in The Spectator of February 2nd, Miss Dorothy L. Sayers writes: " We are bom- barded, six days of the week, with definitely...

SIR,—In his article, " The Moral Front," Sir Evelyn Wrench compares the energy of the young Nazi with the apathy of the young Christian, and asks : " . . are we ready to give a...

the revenue from liquor taxation on the ground that it comes from the public. So does Income Tax. Your readers may like to be told what a plain citizen said in my hearing last...

SIR S I was glad to read the letters from Mrs. Mozley and Mr. Tetley under the above heading in your issue of February 9th. Of the self-refuting statements of " fact" in the...

SIR,—The letter on this subject, from the Minister of Labour, will seem pathetic to many of us. It is the final demonstra- tion of what so many who had special qualifications...

SIR,—Regarding your footnote to the letter under the above heading last week, no one doubts the reliability of the journa- lists in Finland, but it is obvious that they can only...

the first time since 1886, being renovated, at a cost of £6,000, entirely owing to the generosity of the Friends of Canterbury Cathedral, I was rather disturbed to read Mrs....

SIR, — A few weeks ago you were good enough to publish some verses of mine headed " Evacuees." In them I men- tioned the verminous state of some of our evacuated children and...

in your last issue, I suggest that her decision to cancel her subscription to the Friends of Canterbury Cathedral, and to advise others to do so, is not the right one. The glory...

SIR,—My attention has only just been called to the outraged letter from Miss Drew in your issue of January 19th. May 1 just say that (i) Miss Drew seems to be more serious than...

SIR,—It would be interesting to know by what financial pro- cess Dr. Annandale Troup would suggest that billions of German money might have found their way into the coffers of...

Ways to Peace IF the Government does not publish its peace aims it is not from lack of advice on the subject. Was there ever a war which provoked so much discussion about the...

Unfinished Victory. By Arthur Bryant. (Macmillan 8s. 6d.) How often is one told by supercilious Germans that the Treaty of Versailles was the final demonstration of British...

MR. WILENSKI has found a subject that suits him perfectly. It is historical and dramatic: interesting enough to be learned about, complicated enough to be subtle and selective...

edited by Nora Ratcliff. (Nelson. 6s.) THIS book may justly be described as opportune and refresh- ing. John Wesley is a man whose beauty and energy of character win the...

Country Lawyer. By Bellamy Partridge. (Harrap. los.) IT is sometimes hard to remember the quite recent days when no reputable book about American rural life could be pub-...

Tradition and Romanticism. By B. Ifor Evans. (Methuen. 6s.) THIS short and rather puzzling book, which takes the form of a series of essays on English poets from Chaucer to...

Foreign Exchange. By F. J. Docker. (P. S. King. z5s.). Tins is a most useful book for any reader seriously seeking to understand the workings of the foreign exchanges and . the...

Mohammed and Charlemagne. By Henri Pirenne. (Allen and Unwin. mi. 6d.) WHEN the great Belgian scholar, Henri Pirenne, died in 1935, he left behind him the uncorrected...

THREE of these four women novelists tell their tales this time in direct unfolding from the feminine point of view, each of them settling, oddly enough, upon a feminine group...

past—Dr. jowett and the Rev. W. A. Spooner were given as examples—are remembered less for their real achievements than because of the agreeable anecdotes (generally apocryphal)...

PRIZES of book tokens for £2 2s. and Li is. are offered for the most enjoyable descriptions of, or reflections on, the black- out in the style of any one of the following (I)...

By CUSTOS - IT is now apparent that the Treasury has taken the first hurdle in its open-market borrowing programme in good style. Conversion applications of £236,000,000 out of...

Dividend forecasting in the case of the Canadian Pacific Railway is a notoriously tricky business. Net operating earn- ings may point to one decision and unpredictable items in...

the Govern- ment's financial deal with the railways, the immediate results for stockholders are obviously good. If one assumes, as I think is reasonable, that the railways' net...

1939 profits of the West End stores would show a very marked reduction. How serious the effects have been of evacuation and the black-out, to say nothing of the " normal "...