The policies of the Federal Government of Western Germany, and in particular its economic policy, are going into the melting-pot. It is to be hoped that what comes .otit will be...

T HOSE persons who see little more than an electioneering move in Mr. Churchill's return to the- idea of a personal approach to Mr. Stalin must be suffering from election fever,...

The details of the Sino-Russian treaty of friendship and alliance now available show that, on the face of it, the new Chinese Govern- ment has done pretty well. What China has...

Important as it is, the oil position is anything but simple. British-owned oil companies produce comfortably more than is required to meet this country's maximum petroleum...

It is not yet clear how far the disturbances at the township of Newclare, on the outskirts of Johannesburg, are of more than local significance, but the situation which has...

Considerable attention has naturally been fixed on the Conference of American diplomatic and consular representatives in South-East Asia, which has just ended at Bangkok....

the Conservatives. On the radio, Lord Woolton and Dr. Hill have left Miss Herbison and Mr. Bevin nowhere. Miss Herbison was too light a weight, the Foreign Secretary too...

B EFORE the next issue of the Spectator appears the votes will have been cast and the issue decided. This, then, till the time comes for comment on the result, must be our final...

T HE remarkable interest in art among undergraduates is, I think, something rather new in the university firma- ment. At Cambridge, Professor Nicolas Pevsner, who now holds the...

Attlee, said: " Without controls we could not possibly have got through."— Oxford Mail. Or without a strong hand at the wheel. JANUS.

Judging by letters I have received from various quarters, that preposterous institution, The Academie Internationale, alleged to have its domicile at The Hague, honoured by the...

In these days February is not at all too early for the planning of summer holidays. Anything much later than February, indeed, may very well be too late. And obviously the ally...

of the matter, of course—all the essential reference sections—goes on pretty much unchanged from year to year, but there is always some- thing fresh, and because fresh...

for the good reason that that is not his name, was attending a public function recently when a hearty gentleman greeted him cordially as " Sir John," which he never had been,...

Foreign Affairs he refers to " the dramatised cliche of the mid- nineteenth century that ' a diplomatist is an honest man paid to lie by his country '." Mid-nineteenth century ?...

I hope that the dramatised version of E. M. Forster's A Room With a View, which had its trial run at the Arts Theatre at Cambridge last week, will come in due course to London....

By Professor D. W. BROGAN tt A France s'ennuie." •That lapidary phrase condemned, in advance, the dying bourgeois monarchy of Louis Philippe. And if one neglected all other...

THE stream, as modest as a vesper bell, Sings in its channel: only on each side The swathes of flattened grass remain to tell - _Of stone displaced, and concrete gaping wide:...

By PETER GALLINER One result of the difficulties faced by the average household is that the German worker, who has always objected to women working in industry, today urges his...

Concluding the exchange of letters in which two well- known members discuss the present plight of the middle classes. D EAR JANE,—I'm afraid I can't answer the last question in...

By C. H. LEWIS F EW people think about examinations unless they are compelled to, and if reminded of them remember only a distant summer term overshadowed by School Certificate...

By H. D. WALSTON A ST summer I was in Ireland, in a cottage on the West Coast ; and-while I was there we were visited by an inspector from the Department of Agriculture. He was...

By ALAN URWICK, (New College, Oxford) ITLAIRE ! Hitlaire ! " The shout was echoed by half a score of eager French throats. Our force was small, but we were determined and armed...

readers are urged to place a firm order with their newsagent or to take out a subscription. Newsagents cannot afford to take the risk of carryitig stock, as unsold copies are...

By HAROLD NICOLSON I HAVE just seen the January number of Foreign Affairs. This excellent American quarterly, which has for long been edited by Mr. Hamilton Fish Armstrong, is...

THEATRE "Larger than Life." By Guy Bolten. Based on Somerset Mau g ham's Novel Theatre. (Duke of York's.) HE is a rash dramatist who allots (as Mr. Bolten does) to one of his...

IT is a comparatively recent discovery, for all but scholars, that much of the admired grace, elegance and charm of Mozart is not so much his own as that of his century. His...

"Twelve o'Clock High." (Gaumont and Marble Arch Pavilion.)— " My Foolish Heart." (Carlton.)—" The Angel with the Trumpet." (Plaza.) Twelve o'Clock High is one of the finest war...

THE boats are resting along the shore, There's not one fisherman on the beach. The sea flows quietly ; quietly pour Pale , sunlights out of the clouds. On each Unpainted...

.Forth is earning very high dividends as a bird observatory. Some months ago a visitor sent me a realty marvellous account of the rarities seen there during his short visit. It...

sanctuary comes to me from a country rectory. The rector, standing by the front door of his Sussex house, heard his terrier giving tongue, and presently round a corner of the...

It is surprising how little fuss has been made over the abolition of tail-docking. Since November 24th last, horses and ponies must be accorded the satisfaction of flicking off...

ORCHESTRAL. Of three Haydn symphonies the London, played by the L.P.O., under Joseph Krips, is by far the best, though the slow movement is too fast for my taste (Decca). The...

It has been claimed that February is much the best time for giving your raspberries plenty of potash ; and therefore February is the time for the garden bonfire. This is one of...

COUNTRY folk in most, perhaps all, counties are wondering sadly what is to be the fate of their larger country houses. They cannot all, like a famous Herefordshire house, be...

Set by Dr. C. K. Allen, K.C. Excluding the Bible, state, with your reasons, in not more than 200 words, which three books you consider have, since the invention of printing,...

Report by Vernon Bartlett State in 200 words how any one of the following would be likely to vote at the forthcoming General Election, and why: Florence Nightingale, John...

The Liberal Programme SIR. — May a rank-and-file Liberal make some comments on your leading article of February 10th ? You speak of " party sacrifice " for the sake of...

against the claims of the Roman Catholics to preferential treatment in the nation's . schools. It has certainly never been demonstrated that children from schools where...

to elicit a reply to my question, which was: What democratic principle can be invoked to defend the discrimination in favour of non-religious education? In your footnote to Dom...

SIR,—I should like to clarify a point which arises in your note concerning " The Church and the Schools." You say that " immediate financial commitments are limited by the rate...

SIR,—Surely there are two possible reasons why Field-Marshal Mont- gomery " was not among those who contributed to an appreciation of Rommel " in Brigadier Young's biography, an...

Sin,—Mr. Willott's contention, that a child's education should depend upon his ability, is one of those principles easy to enunciate and to justify in theory, but less easy to...

recount a story heard recently in a railway train. A father, finding his small son making very heavy weather with his arithmetic homework, discovered that the boy had not...

SIR,—Mr. Philip's article, Return of the Shah, in the Spectator of January 13th is so full of inaccuracies and prejudiced innuendoes that it borders on the fantastic. The....

" when they see a highly- trained woman scientist scrubbing the kitchen floor. And the sight " rouses in them all the delight of storm-troopers watching a Jewish violinist break...

SIR,—I will try to answer briefly some of the questions in Mr. Bernays' letter. I cordially agree with him that " there is no one public opinion in. America "—I learnt that...

SIR,—It is not surprising that many people, seeing that profit sharing is a good thing, do not understand why convinced and practising profit- sharers strongly oppose the...

SIR.—Perhaps I may be allowed to offer a comment or two on the corre- spondence arising from my letter in the Spectator issue of January 20th. When the Vicar of Bamburgh, with...

SIR,—One of your readers in Washington received the other day his copy of the Spectator of January 20th containing an article of mine on United States policy in the Far East ;...

SIR,—In my boyhood days I well remember my father and others of his generation referring to a bootmaker or boot repairer as a snob.—Yours, &c., H. J. LEWIS. The Manse, 4...

FRANCE.—M. Cartier wages unmitigated war with Socialism ; whether with the simple object oe-suppressing that political development, or of covering less abstract designs, is a...

a new Post Office imposition ? On receipt of my telephone account for the six months ending December 31st last, I asked for details for some of the trunk calls for which I had...

us.) OLD admirers of Mr. Berenson's early publications, say Florentine Painters and The Golden Urn, may gladly recognise in this latest book his two characteristics, a fine...

Czech Tragedy AT the end of the last war the experiment was made throughout practically the whole of Liberated Europe of co-operation in the Government between Communists and...

THE quality emerging most plainly from the second volume (1919- 1939) of Canon Lloyd's skilful and scholarly book is the vitality of the Church of England. Emphasis is...

IN his foreword Mr. Andrews pays a whole-hearted tribute, in which readers of his book will fully concur, to the memory of Sir Aurel Stein and to the arduous archaeological work...

British Prehistory. By Stuart Piggott,. (Oxford University Press. ss.) SINCE it took over the Home University Library, the Oxford University Press has been replacing old titles...

The Crusaders. By Stefan Heym. (Cassell. xis.) The Dreams. By Anne Sebastian. (Cape. 12s. 6d.) How often, in noting the " unwritten " character of so much serious- minded...

Autobiography of Francis Toye. (Heinemann. i 6s.) THIS book is not to be recommended to Socialists or social planners, whom it will infuriate—unless, of course, they like to...

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[A Book Token for one guinea will be awarded to the sender of the first correct solution of this week's crossword to be opened after noon on Tuesday week, February 28th....

By CUSTOS MARKETS are now showing quite clearly what the City—and investors generally—regard as the main financial implications of the political programmes. A Conservative...

Here and Now," No. s. An Anthology Edited by Peter Albery and Sylvia Read. (Falcon Press. 7s. 6d.) " IT is," write the editors of this miscellany, " our endeavour to light the...

Mendes Pinto. By Maurice Collis. (Faber. 2 SS.) FERNAO MENDES PINTO was born in Portugal in about 1509, and in 1537 he set out to make his fortune. After returning home he gave...