which must be interpreted before all things as a vote of confidence in him. To mark his appreciation, he made one of his rare public appearances and delivered a public speech,...

T HE despatch of the British Nate to Tokyo and the event s that led up to it are discussed in a leading article on a later page. As we go to press an announcement, obviously...

as the Principal of Mansfield suggested in our correspondence columns last week, the hopes raised by Herr Kerrl's ambiguous speech of a fortnight ago regarding the Government...

at the Assembly's request by the Economic Committee of the League, contains little that is new but emphasises some important conclusions. On the one hand, the question of access...

derided fears of a trade depression ; and perhaps Sir Thomas Inskip's speech on the same day revealed some of the reasons for the Government's confidence, which all do not...

Bill does not correspond with party divisions ; and the Committee stage of the Bill has given rise to some interesting discussions. Last week Mr. Shinwell, for the Labour Party,...

who have drawn up a memorial pressing on the two Archbishops the desirability of exacting from ordinands a pledge that they will not marry, except with the express consent of...

British Industries forwarded to the Prime Minister a deplorable statement on the proposed Anglo-American trade treaty. It is a warning of the opposi- tion which will be offered...

from the League of Nations lies in the motives that may have prompted it. To the League itself her defection is no loss. She has attended none of its meetings for eighteen...

that " there has been no substantial rise in the cost of living, even in recent months." But the Home Secretary must have noticed that he now has to pay more for his cup of tea...

mittee stage of the Coal Bill. The Labour Party did not press for complete abolition of the compensation clause as some of their supporters may have wished, but moved the...

Commons found time last Friday to carry the second reading of Miss Wilkinson's Hire-Purchase Bill. The Bill rightly aims, not at restricting the system itself, which frequently...

may be two views on the wisdom of the Leader of the Opposition's visit to Republican Spain, but the anticipated " occasion " of Mr. Attlee's reply to back-bench Conservatives...

The Castlecary Disaster The Scottish railway crash which occurred in a blinding snowstorm. at Castlecary, Stirlingshire, last Friday night has proved to be the worst since the...

appear next week on Thursday - instead of Friday. Among its contents will be an article by Rose Macaulay on Cruden's Concordance (which was first published zoo years ago);...

T HE three questions that arise out of Japan's latest outrage in China are, who was responsible, what was the motive and what are the probable consequences ? The first two can...

L AST week's debate in the House of Lords, on Lard Newton's successful motion that a Select Com- mittee be appointed to enquire into means of reducing the number of accidents on...

at least about his visit to Spain. As I mentioned last week, Mr. Eden had said that the Leader of the Opposition signed the usual undertaking " not to take part in any...

all to the good that men like the Bishop of Lichfield are interesting themselves in it and that men like Mr. Joseph Rank are willing to help to finance experiinents in the new...

of matins at eleven on Sundays appears to be highly unpopular, to judge from letters I have received and others which, I understand, appear in another column. It is not, I...

T HERE can hardly be five decent people in the country who will dissent from the Duke of Portland's strictures on the conduct of a section of the daily Press of this country...

from celibacy as commonly understood ? I ask because the signatories of a memorial addressed this week to the Archbishops of Canterbury and York assert roundly that "...

here (with plenty of money of her own) has just gone in for a football pool for the first time and won 4800 ; she chose the winning teams by pricking at the teams at random with...

Starace to be the star ace of the Fascist Party, and it is right and natural that as a good Fascist he should know how to put his foot down firmly. But he should also know where...

By A STUDENT OF GERMANY A FTER the intense publicity given to it in advance the actual pronouncement of Italy's withdrawal from the League proved something in the nature of an...

By RICHARD FREUND O NE morning in Bombay I asked Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru my pet question : " What do you think of the situation ? " He promptly rose to it. " Which situation do...

[The writer, who is aged 21, is a woman-clerk in the Civil Service] E VERY time a scholarship is won to a workers' college a new hope is born into the world. For as my class—...

By S. L. BENSUSAN F OOT-AND-MOUTH disease is caused by a virus, possibly air-borne, that no microscope can detect and no bacterial filter can hold. It affects all domestic...

By LADY ARTEMUS-JONES T HERE has recently been a spate of books and articles dealing with prison life and penal reform but the subject does not appear to have been dealt with...

By JOHN RAYNOR T HE 'bus came roaring into the market-square of the little country town. Gratefully, tired after a day's walking, I got in and sat down near the door. The plush...

By THE EDITOR R ECENT articles in The Spectator have aroused consider- able interest in conditions in the convict and other prisons of this country. So have various volumes by...

WHITHER ROlUIVIANIA ? By G. 0. GARDENER [The Roumanian General Election will begin on Monday, December 2oth.) FOR four years a Liberal Government, headed by Mr. Tatarescu, has...

in the field of short films tends too easily to be swamped by the more succulent appeal of the super-film, and the glittering panoplies of the stars. Yet here in our own country...

THE production of The Valkyrie at Sadler's Wells last week was the crowning achievement of Lilian Baylis's operatic direction. It told the world that there is practically...

The Tally of Trees The royal book on Coronation planting, which is to be published early next year, will surprise most people by its scope. The total of trees and flowering...

" scheme, flourishing in " the Valleys," was shown last week to the King and Queen at Buckingham Palace. I happened to be staying for a night with an out-of-work Glamorganshire...

Perhaps the waders also are particularly numerous. The suggestion is an inference from a particular example. The other day in a little township passers-by were invited to buy...

of Conifers, by the Afforestation Commission and others, to the exclusion of the harder woods. The New Forest and the Lakes have suffered ; and there are grim plantations of...

their views on the controversy about the spotted woodpecker. The more or less novel view is that the drumming is not made by the beak but by the syrinx, chiefly on the ground...

weather, the felts are in such numbers," someone said to me the other day. 'I he " felts " of course, as I realised only after an interval, are the fieldfares, sometimes also...

It is pleasant news that the succession of sanctuaries in Norfolk (mostly on the coast but one inland), will benefit greatly by the sale of this year's Christmas card published...

SPECTATOR.] Sut,—Will the beneficed priest under thirty forgive me for pointing out the supreme purpose for which he was ordained ? Social betterment he may " take in his...

SIR,—Surely the most distressing feature of the " Under Thirty " articles and resulting correspondence is the lack of sympathy shown by the elderly critics to their juniors, and...

[Correspondents are requested to keep their letters as brief as is reasonably possible. The most suitable length is that of one of our " News of the Week" paragraphs. Signed...

many of your views, par- ticularly with that egregious League of Nations, of which I think you approve and which I have always thought from the start (and which I now think has...

Sta,—A hundred years ago Isaac Pitman produced his " Steno- graphic Soundhand." Having regard to the labours of those men who had gone before, Gabelsberger, Taylor, Gurney,...

Sm,—The spirited outburst of your correspondent, Lieut. Warren Tuke, is so novel in these days of decadent Left- Wingism, Pacifism and Won't-fight-for-King-and-Country-ism that...

were good enough to publish in your issue of December 6th an article from my pen entitled " Bias in Broad- casting," in the course of which I mentioned that the Luxem- bourg...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] Sia,—The remarks made by " Janus " in your last issue, that the Church of England should provide Matins regularly at eleven o'clock in case he...

Sur,—Has Janus, who voices in your Notebook last week his sympathy with the " desire " of the " average Englishman " to attend Matins at t t o'clock on a Sunday morning, been...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Your article " Russia Makes Elections " was advertised on posters as " Russia's Mock .Election." Yet, in the article itself you say that "...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR, I hate to say so, but I do not find Miss Dorothy L. Sayers convincing. If I felt the same about her detective stories, she would lose a...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] Sm,—At the end of my letter which you printed last week, I expressed a doubt whether the Law Reform (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 5934, which...

THE SPECTATOR.] Sm,—Mr. Clynes denies that the phrase " hectic debates," which he uses in connexion with the Abdication Crisis, refers to proceedings in Parliament. I accept...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] Sta,—In your " Notes of the Week " you seem to imply that belligerent rights will not be granted because this " would allow General Franco to...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—An article I wrote on Dartmoor Prison in The Spectator of December 3rd was described as a postscript to Major Athill's recent series of...

[To the • Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] Sta,—Mr. Anthony Powell's " Marginal Comments " on the proposal for an American film actor to play the leading part in a film of the Royal...

Stit,—Now that - Germany's Colonial linen is being aired so insistently, and the mandatory regime docketed with every label from indecorum to larceny, we may be pardoned for...

[D'un correspondant parisien.) C'Erarr a la Chambre it y a quelques jours. Le ministre de Ia guerre retiondait a une serie de questions touchant Is defense rationale. II...

Germany Pushes South-East (C. A. Macartney) South American Contrasts (Julian. Duguid) A Champion of Internationalism (Honor Croome) More About Holland House (Christopher...

Monetary Nationalism and International Stability. By F. A. von Hayek. (Longmans. 5s.) AN optimistic eye, roving over the world's affairs, may here and there note signs that the...

iss.) THESE books are reviewed together because they illustrate very clearly two methods of approach to South America. In fact, they do more than this. They explain why our...

Chronicles of Holland House, 1820-1900. By the Earl of Ilchester. (John Murray. 18s.) THIS is a companion volume to The Home of the Hollands, which was one of the most...

THE object of Dr. Monsarrat's book is no less than a recon- struction of our image of the world in terms of power and its resultant action. The world, he maintains, is only...

IF any literary undertaking deserves the title of magnum opus, it is this—the Yale Edition of Horace Walpole's Correspondence. The first two volumes of it, containing Walpole's...

Edward Thompson. (Faber. 21S.) The Life of Charles Lord Metcalfe. By Edward Thompson. (Faber. 21S.) A PIECE of exceptional good fortune has befallen Mr. Edward Thompson. Among...

SOME write autobiographies to justify their works or to ease their consciences. Those who have no conscience write to make money by giving the public the pleasure of saying so....

THIS is an important book, inasmuch as it represents the strongest advocacy which the Church of England can muster for the appeal of the Archbishop of Canterbury to the...

The Golden Cockerel Greek Anthology. A selection of the poems, edited with translations and an introduction by F. L. Lucas. Line engravings by Lettice Sandford. (The Golden...

By NICHOLAS- BLAKE To Wake tfie Dead. By John Dickson Carr. (Hamish Hamilton. 7s. 6d.) Death on the Nile. By Agatha Christie. (Crime Club. 7s. 6d.) Come Away, Death. By Gladys...

FRENCH PAINTING AND THE NINETEENTH - CENTURY By James Laver This book (Batsford, ars.) must be given some welcome, since we are told on the dust-cover that the author regards...

Described as a " Testament of Food," this is a personal anthology of recipes from soup to savoury. It is neither a standard cookery book nor a collection of curiosities, but...

By . Compton Mackenzie It was Pericles who established Athens as the material, intellectual and spiritual leader of all Hellas. But more than this it was he who planted within...

The blurb on Mr. Pope-Hennessy's book (Chatto and Windus, ars.) boldly states that it is " the most important post- War contribution to the study offifteenth- century painting...

2 is.) spoilt by having no plan.' It is fundamentally an appreciation of one artist by another and as such is of interest, though of course many of the judgements (such as the...

Mr. Fergusson has succeeded in an almost impossible task. He has set out to describe, simply and with exactitude, the whole life of Eton—boys, masters, work, games, " notions "...

trend of trade investors will continue to watch the United States and the commodity markets. So far, the Washington Administration has been content to throw certain crumbs of...

HAVING ceased to be the scene of any great activity in stocks and shares Throgmorton Street has become a vast and'rather noisy debating society. The main item on the agenda is,...

fixed-interest stocks beconie correspondingly cheaper, it will obviously not be the fault of the British Treasury. There' is nothing wickedly infla- tionary in official policy;...

A few months ago I outlined the merits of the 3s. 4d. shares of Kern River Oilfields as a speculation on the strength of Certain impending developments. The price was then 5s....

Many readers have inquired whether I approve of leading Kaffir shares, such as Crowns, Sub Nigels and Weit Rands, as suitable investments for their dividend yields ? The answer...

WINTER RISKS Jr is really 'very odd that in spite of all we are supposed to have learnt about cars in the last quarter of a century the trials and difficulties of winter-time,...

WOOLWICH EQUITABLE BUILDING SOCIETY 90th ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING ASSETS NOW EXCEED L37,000,000 MR. FRED HOAR'S SPEECH THE Chairman said that the Society, at the conclusion of...

EMPIRE AND FOREIGN BANKING DURING the past ten days we have had two interesting speeches, the one dealing with banking and commercial developments in various parts of the...

••■••,-- BARCLAYS BANK (DOMINION, COLONIAL AND OVERSEAS) PROGRESS IN MANY COUNTRIES SIR JOHN CAULCUTT'S REVIEW Tim twelfth ordinary general meeting of Barclays Bank...

RESTRAINED OPTIMISM. THE City is rather undecided at the moment as to whether the most harmful influence upon what may be termed the " psychology " of commercial and financial...

It would indeed be astonishing if some of the developments I have mentioned, together with the anxiety concerning international politics, did not have a restraining effect upon...

BANK OF LONDON AND SOUTH AMERICA, LIMITED LORD WARDINGTON'S REVIEW THE seventy-fifth ordinary meeting of the members of the Bank of London and South America, Ltd., was held on...

Some allowance, of course, must be made for the fact that recent reports of Home Industrial companies cover a period preceding the recent set-back in commodities, but the...

at the present time, but the recent announcement by the Fairey Aviation Company of a dividend of I2 j< per cent. free of tax, against to per cent., less tax, a year ago is a...

a further recovery in the position of the Scottish Australian Company; the past year's report shows a substan- tial improvement in earnings, the profit, indeed, rose from about...

AN EMINENT GEOLOGIST'S RECOMMENDATIONS PRESIDING at the annual general meeting of Wiluna Gold Corporation, Limited, held in London on December 13th, Mr. John A. Agnew...

So far as steel production is concerned, there are certainly no signs of a set-back, let alone a slump, in our main industries. The latest official figures show that the British...

YEAR OF FAVOURING CONDITIONS 1'HE nineteenth annual ordinary general meeting of Anglo - Ecuadorian Oilfields Ltd., was held on December 14th at Winchester House, London, E.C....

At the annual meeting, held last Tuesday, of the Woolwich Equitable Building Society, the Chairman, Mr. Fred Hoare, stated that the Society at the conclusion of its ninetieth...

BY ZENO IA prize of a Book Token for one guinea will be given to the sender of the first correct solution of this week's crossword puzzle ro be opened. Envelopes should be...

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