The nation has learned with sincere pleasure the news of the birth of a daughter to Princess Elizabeth. The crowds which gathered outside Clarence House over a period of several...

The resolution sponsored by Mr. Churchill in the Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe called for the creation of a European army ; as a concession to the French...

T HE Government has stuck to its resolution not to recall Parliament before September 12th, but nobody can feel in the least happy about it. One sentence in the Prime Minister's...

It now seems to be generally accepted that the period of con- scription will be increased to two years as soon as Parliament has a chance to pass the necessary legislation. If...

The crux of Mr. Churchill's proposal was, of course, that Western Germany should be included as an equal partner in European defence ; in other words, that Western Germany...

India and Pakistan, who this week celebrated the third anni- versary of the end of British rule, may (and did) congratulate themselves that, whatever the disasters which have...

The bulk of Persia's trade is traditionally with Russia ; this is a question of simple geography, and there is therefore nothing intrinsically strange in the fact that Moscow...

Mr. Wilson Harris, the Editor of the Spectator, entered University College Hospital on August 10th and underwent an emergency operation on Sunday, August 13th. The operation was...

The first thing that the Catering Wages Commission uncovered, in its recently published report on the operation in the hotel industry of the Catering Wages Act, was a state of...

T HE sugar doves that last year filled the shops of the Strasbourg confectioners have gone. Peace, this year, is symbolised by guns ; and while in the newly-built House of...

The last of the four test matches between England and the West Indies achieved in its last day a sort of symbolic significance. The symbol was a very dreary one—that of a long,...

I T would perhaps increase the effectiveness of the non- Communist Powers, and reduce the effectiveness of the endless Communist attempts to confuse the Korean issue, if it were...

VERY distinguished American was arguing that it was essential to deny Formosa to the Chinese Communists because of its strategic importance ; it threatened (he pointed out)...

he was killed last Saturday, I think Ian Morrison was what is generally understood by a great man, and I am quite certain that he would have been remembered as one had he lived....

hour or less " Princess " would be in the headlines of the next edition of all the evening papers, and the citizens would be able to satisfy their curiosity without laying out a...

plough- shares and the autumn sowing was held up. This year Whitehall has organised, or anyhow failed to avert, a sack famine. Tho Farmer and Stockbreeder pointed out some time...

tremendously complicated document which all officers are required to complete in order to bring their personal records at the War Office up to date. It includes a photostat copy...

mortal, and I should have thought it would be a good thing...for the United Nations to appoint a deputy commander-in-chief to their forces in Korea. I imagine it might not be an...

the civilian barman employed in the officers' mess was drawing, thanks to the Catering Wages Act, considerably more pay than the colonel. This, I believe, is what is known as...

By PETER FLEMING A FORTNIGHT ago I said that I thought the Americans had a better than evens chance of retaining Pusan, " but only very slightly better." I think now that this...

By R. H. CECIL N injury, Lord Chesterfield told his son, is much sooner forgotten than an insult. But despite its profound social importance, this revelation was not to find...

By RICHARD LEE STROUT W E are travelling fifty miles an hour, the roads are half- empty in the dew-pearled morning and the continent of North America stretches ahead. The...

By A. FOX The labour laws of Tanganyika were framed to prevent the exploitation of native labour, and safeguarded the African to the point of penalising the employer. It was...

By C. K. ALLEN F OR reasons which will appear, a powerful bond has always existed between Sir Donald Bradman and myself, and when he omitted to send me a complimentary copy of...

Changing Scenes B)' GODFREY BULLARD (Balliol College, Oxford) «j j OW chances it they travel ? " asked the wondering Hamlet, " their residence, both in reputation and profit,...

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 carrying stock, as unsold copies are...

By HAROLD NICOLSON S IR ALAN HERBERT, as this year's President of the English Association, has chosen as the theme for his address the subject of the " English Laugh." His...

THEATRE “Captain Carvallo." By Denis Cannan. (St. James's.) MR. CANNAN calls his amusing play " a traditional comedy," a label whose significance escapes me. On the analogy of...

THE Proms. and the Promenaders remain an enigma to me. Is there a section of the community whose taste for "classical " music is seasonal, for whom the last half of July, August...

"Sunset Boulevard." (Carlton.)--44 Cargo to Capetown." (Gaumont and Marble Arch Pavilion.)—" Rogues of Sherwood Forest." (Caumont and Marble Arch Pavilion.) Sunset Boulevard is...

Every year almost there is some bumper crop or other. This year the bumperest (why not? Bumper is adjectival) is undoubtedly the nut, wild and cultivated. The clumps of nuts on...

The experts at Rothamsted who examine all the evidence of immigrant butterflies will have some trouble to explain the phenomena of this summer. My experience seems to be quite...

A reference in this place to magpies, an increasing race, as the worst enemies of nestlings, has brought a letter from as far away as Cyprus. They are described as flying over...

garden hedges has produced a host of criticisms, with which I cannot help disagreeing both positively and negatively, on many points. Here are a few. Beech makes so fine a hedge...

THE other day I was shown some charming water colours and sketches by Adam and Repton of a fine country house. This week I walked up to the house and found the beautiful...

of Esop on the disadvantages or advantages to all concerned of having a third (i.e., Liberal) Party in British politics. I had hoped that party loyalty would be a stimulus to...

GOOD, long ago, was Better's foe ; Our worry is more coarse: Is there enough of Fair Enough To overcome what's Worse ? AMANUENSIS.

Set by Ian Fleming Alfred de Mussel said that : " La vie est breve, Un peu d'amour, Un peu de reve, Et puis, Bonjour. La vie est vain, Un peu despoir, Un peu de Maine, Et...

official, attempts to attract young men into the ministry by the assurance that there will be a religious revival to welcome them. But he offers no evidence, and statistics, so...

the Bishop of Southwell on Men for the Ministry has an interest for all who care for the cause of Christianity in this country. The Bishop . is by no means a prophet devoid of...

British Papers in Germany SIR.—I read recently in The Times with regret but npt surprise Mr. Kenneth Lindsay's letter stating that the Foreign Office proposes to close down the...

SIR, —I have received the following from an acute observer married to a Frenchwoman :- "The logic of the Frenchman and his intelligence are too great to give him confidence in...

calls for a brief marginal comment of its own from across the Atlantic—if only to tell Mr. Nicolson that, in spite of all that he may say about- the present mood in Britain, his...

SIR, —Just four years after an article of mine appeared in,the Spectator under this heading the Bishop of Southwell writes another to point out how serious the position is...

Sia.—The paragraph in A Spectator's Notebook on the serious and sober work done by Quakers in banking and in brewing is as interesting as it is instructive. May I add a rider,...

SIR,—In the game of chess it is the threat move that forces the opponent's hand. The policy of the Communist bloc is to bring increasing pressure upon our vital squares and thus...

SIR, The Spectator has so long enjoyed a reputation for the fairness of its reviews that 1 was astonished to find that your reviewer's notice of my book, Contemporary Jewry, was...

WORK DONE THIS YEAR IN PARLIAMENT OPPORTUNITY is the opprobrium of Incapacity; a fact which may explain why Ministers have gone through the easiest session with manifest...

SIR.—May I point out that " thirteen " in my letter of August 4th is a textual corruption due to oral transmission? It should be " certain" That should set Mr. Levens's mind at...

SIR,—I was very much interested in a paragraph in your issue of August 4th, " Treatment of Children in the Home," and the difficulties connected with their supervision. As an...

I T has more than once been remarked that a large majority of those who profess and call themselves Johnsonians are in fact Boswellians and nothing else. They have a keen relish...

FROM time to time I have talked to intelligent Americans about the roots of the anti-American feeling that is so easily encountered. Feeling as they do that, on the whole, the...

The Civilised Man IT is not alone their interests that make a common bond between these writers, which would hold firm even if there were an antinomy in their conclusions on...

English Poetry. By Leone Vivante. (Faber. 2ts.) IN his uncompromising introduction T. S. Eliot claims for Signo r Vivante that he disposes of most of the errors under which...

Documents in British Foreign Policy, 1919-1939. Edited by E. L. Woodward and Rohan Butler. Second Series, vol. IV, 1932-3. (Stationery Office. 253.) IN the third volume of this...

an Introduction by My Travel's History. By Roderick Cameron. (Hamish Hamilton. 2 is.) THERE are travellers and travellers in our era. Some use every civilised resource for their...

M. BOUILLANE DE LACOSTE, one of the greatest authorities on Rimbaud, is the first to have published a scholarly and accurate edition of the verse poems and also the best edition...

“ Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus." Edited by Charles Kerby- Miller. (Yale University Press. London : Cumberlege. 32s. 6d.) BY producing this edition of the Memoirs of the...

Stamp Me Mortal. By John Lodwick. (Heinemann. 9s. 6d.) A Voice in the Hills. By K. D. Savell. (Chatto and Windus. 9s. 6d.) READERS who were bored or disgusted by The Age of...

for one guinea will be awarded to the sender of the first correct sei , tion to be opened after noon on Tuesday week, August 29th. ACROSS 1. These were not demonstrations by...

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By CUSTOS HOLIDAY influences are now reinforcing the already powerful restraints on the stock markets imposed by the international political situation. Turnover is therefore...