D ECISIVE though the Saar plebiscite has been, quite enough minor problems remain to give rise to some perplexity and anxiety. The' change-over in currency from francs to marks;...

1721. Entered as second-clase Mail Matter at the New York, N.Y. Post Office, Dec. 23rd, 1896. - ' Postal subscription 308. per annum, to any part of the world. Postage on this...

appears on a day when nothing but the briefest comment on it here is possible. But for the most part it follows the lines indicated in the Minister of Health's various speeches,...

fired the first shot in his NeW Deal campaign before these lines appear. Comment on his actual proposals must therefore be deferred. Meanwhile the announcement of the first...

the condition was laid down that British merchant shipowners should co-operate not only among themselves but also with foreign organizations of shipowners. It is with the latter...

of confusion about the action of the Potato Marketing Board in arranging for the sale of potatoes to the unemployed in Bishop Auckland. It is not, as some impetuous critics have...

in built-up areas is to be introduced in .a couple of months ; the " Belisha beacons" arc to be made general 'throughout the country; motorists (it is rumoured) are to be...

Indian Liberals' unqualified condemnation of the Joint Select Committee's report is a little modified by Mr. Sastri's article in the Servant of India, in which he makes it clear...

year's accidents„ fatal and otherwise, have been issued. In 1934 no fewer than 7,273 persons were killed and 231,698 injured in accidents in which vehicles were involved on the...

to be taken in the matter of the censorship or control of films, but action of some kind is necessary. The deputation which was received by the Rime Minister last Tuesday stated...

a certain stately deliberation, and the announcement that the international commission appointed to investigate the sinking of the Canadian vessel ' I'm Alone ' by a U.S.A....

those best qualified to judge that the procedure adopted in the Coroner's Court at the Weymouth inquest was wholly improper and calculated to defeat the ends of Justice. The...

one of that increas- ing band of schoolmasters who would wean the public schools from the excessive rigidity of tradition. In expressing his views at the Public School Junior...

explaining two projected improvements which, with other recent changes, serve _ to show us that the Post Office under the present admin- istration has become an extraordinarily...

decide to recommend the continued enforcement of the arms embargo against Paraguay, but the lifting of the embargo against Bolivia, it will be taking an important and...

the course of a well-deserved tribute to The Times, delivers a sharp attack on certain newspapers, which he does not name, for practices which he does not clearly specify. He...

T HE size of the majority by which . the Saar Territory has declared for its return to Germany is not to be regretted by any who have the peace of Europe at heart.. The Hitler...

S IR KENNETH LEE has made out an interesting case for the day continuation- school as a means of solving the problem of educating children over- 14 years of age. He writes from...

to put notices on the rear of 'buses to the effect that cyclists are warned that the vehicle may stop suddenly, have denounced the Board for posting the same intimation on the...

the National Church of Finland, which will next . week be laid before the Upper House of Convocation by the Bishop of Gloucester and before the Lower House by the Dean of...

many items in the B.B.C.'s daily programmes. But on one point there seems to be unanimity—the deplorable deterioration in the last few months of the news bulletins, the standard...

affect trade is revealed in some figures an economist of exploratory tendencies has just given me. Investigating the consumption of citrus fruits (mainly, of course, oranges and...

M 11. LLOYD GEORGE'S first speech on his so-called " new deal " will have been delivered before these words appear, so readers by that tune will know all about what his...

By LORD EUSTACE PERCY W HAT is realism in foreign policy ? International relations are made up of two elements : the inten- tions of statesmen and the needs of their peoples....

By H. POWYS GREENWOOD U ST week I ventured the prediction that the issue of patriotism would finally settle the question of the Saar. But I never believed that it would settle...

By MAJOR A. G. CHURCH W HEN Bell introduced the telephone in 1876, the complementary notion- of sending vision by an electric current at once fired the imagination of scientific...

By OUR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT n NE needs to be of a complacent disposition to be kJ satisfied with the results of our national system of education. Nearly every child in the...

By K. S. SHELVANKAR M R. GANDHI'S increasing preoccupation with the plight of the untouchables has again drawn atten- tion to the present condition of Hinduism. Its inwardness...

By JAMES HANLEY E VERY morning at nine o'clock there was a queue of people waiting outside the library. They were mostly out-of-works, dock labourers, sailors, painters,...

By ROSE MACAULAY T WO more Englishmen are shortly to be canonized, and high time too ; they have hovered in a state of Beatitude quite long enough. We English- have never had...

*`Father of Lies." By Kenneth Home. At the Royalty Theatre ONE of the most noticeable results of the decline in religious observance has been the cessation -of any general...

" Maskerade." At the Academy This Viennese film—directed' by Willy Forst, who made Unfinished Symphony—has , been running now in Paris for sixteen weeks and in' Berlin ever...

curieux destin que celui des grandes oeuvres lyriques. On dirait que la naissance d'une forme melodique nouvelle, ainsi que la creation d'une sensibilite et d'une intelligence...

Late Renoirs Tim styles which great artists develop in their last years of active life present peculiar problems. In considering them we may perhaps simplify matters by...

has made a list of plants flowering at Kew at Christmas. It numbers 95, and pays a high tribute to our climate. The list opens with several sorts of rhododendron, heather and...

of course, be confined to reporting abuses or making private pleas, they would give information that would result in direct action. It is really very difficult to know what one...

lightning and the oak that I have come upon this week. In a little book of lyrics of really high distinction (The Magic Grape of Reginald Cripps, Bell) published some fifteen...

Country Wardens A new body of protectors of rural England is being organized by the C.P.R.E. from Great Marlborough Street, though the members of the force are to be all country...

; but the C.P.R.E., which is associated in this new venture with a number of its constituent societies, has the legal knowledge at its fingers' ends as it has the principle of...

A note, that entirely supports the experience of recent storms in England that the oak has an electric affmity, appears in a charming life of Warde Fowler, just published. The...

the part of the sanctuary watchers, though their primary object is to educate the public. All rural England should be regarded as a sanctuary, a holy place where you can saunter...

Fowler reversed the role of Gilbert. White. He was a classical scholar first and a lover of birds second ; but it was perhaps his love of birds and natural history in general...

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

L.C.C. textbooks with a view to purging them of undesirable propaganda is rather unfairly denounced by The 'Times, Daily Telegraph and, sad to say, The Spectator, as Socialist...

Sir Arthur Hort for pointing out a possible mis-reading of one sentence of my letter in your issue of January 4th. It was of a national flag, and not of a League flag, that I...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] Sm,—Mr. Maxwell Garnett, in the interesting letter which appeared in The Spectator of the 4th instant, supports pro- posals that have been...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR, —I should like to corroborate Mr. James' opinion that the success of the Peace Ballot has exceeded the expectations of its supporters. As...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—It is pleasant to share some common ground with one's opponents, and in replying to Mr. R. Wearing King I should like, at the outset, to...

any knowledge of the working of the minds of big national advertisers and their agents, he will know that far more wrong conclusions are'drawn from the refusal of publishers to...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—It is only because The Spectator enjoys a long life in my home that I came across your very capable exposition on " The Technique of...

in your issue of the 4th instant As I entered the Law sixty-one years ago I have had ample opportunities of witnessing the gradual changes which have taken place during that...

to most questions. Do Mr. John Paton, Miss Craven or Mr. Wenham ever consider how inherently barbarous and cruel is murder ? Are they insensible to the cruelty and horror of...

[To the Editor of TnE SPECTATOR.] Sin, — Your correspondent Chrystal Macmillan is not content with the proposal to prevent restraint on anticipation from being imposed by future...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—I think there can be little doubt as to John Bradford's having used the words : " There, but for the grace of God, goes," &c. I have not...

Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—I cannot prevent Professor Levy front " having it both ways " ; but I can prevent his " getting away with it" both ways, especially when the...

Stephen Gwynn has criticized certain points in my review of his, and Lady Gerald Wellesley's, book. He asks what lies behind my remark that Goldie was no plaster saint, and...

WHERE are the secret springs, and where The hidden source of sudden joy ? Whence is the laughter, like the torrent, falling ? Whence The tears, the rainbow-scattered sunlight,...

By ARNOLD J. TOYNBEE Tax Pacific Ocean, and particularly its western run, is one of the two focuses of international anxiety in these critical times ; and at this moment, at...

The Communist Answer to the World's Needs. By Julius F. Hecker. (Chapman and Hall. 8s. 6d.) Tun Higher Critic of A.D. 2200, who comes across Dr. Julius Hecker's Dialogue on The...

Our Own Times 1913-1934. Vol. By Stephen King-Hall. (Ivor Nicholson and Watson. 10s. ad.) - COMMANDER KING-HALL quite rightly does not call his book a history, but a political...

Tins book is a magic carpet, on which the reader is transported from India to England and back again with the rapidity and frequency of the author's own transits between her two...

Our National Church. By Percy Dearmer. (Nisbet. 6s.) IT is evident from this book, which is written in an easy, pleasant style and has grace and wit, that Dr. Dearmer has a...

French Revolutions. By E. L. Woodward. (Oxford University Press. 7s. 6d.) "Le pays des Recolulions"—the phrase, it is instructive to remember, was originally applied by a...

English Poetry and the English Language. By F. W. Bateson. (Oxford University Press. 6s.) Tins book is a very interesting attempt to outline a history of English poetry,...

THESE two fine volumes are doubtless primarily intended for the use of the sportsman ; but it is certain they will be no less heartily welcomed by all who are interested in the...

Burkle THERE are few memorable characters in modern fiction. The serious novel has been (and for the most part remains) straitjacketed in a demand for the presentation of...

By WILLIAM PLOMER The Harsh Voice. Four short novels by Rebecca West. (Cape: The Road Leads On. By Knut Hamsun. (Rich and Cowan. 103.) " THE role of the artist, like that of...

University Press, 10s. 6d. and 25s.) are complementary rather than consecutive. Taken by itself the first provides an analysis of the Institutions of Government as Henry VII...

British and American Cars THOSE readers of The Spectator whose motoring experience goes back to pre-War times will remember the days of the Great American Invasion, when the...

BENES, STATESMAN OF CENTRAL EUROPE By Pierre Crabits This is a strange piece of work. - Dr. Benes is the most accessible of men, and possessed of a vivid personality which no...

By Horace Wyndham The somewhat inclusive title is out of place on this book (Muller, 7s. 6d.), which is actually nothing but a collection of " write-ups " of some random...

Banicing Results for 1 934 THE satisfactory character of the. Reports and dividend announcements of the joint stock banks showing the 'results, for the year 1984 will possibly...

Elsewhere I have dealt at some length with the banking results for the past year as expressed in the profit figures of the joint stock -banks. Mention, however, must also be...

Not the least interesting feature of the week has been the continued flow of new issues of capital and the success which has attended almost all of them. One or two striking...

There are two main comments to be made upon the results of our foreign trade during 1934 as recorded in the official Board of Trade Returns. In so far as the gross, turnover is...

MARKETS STILL CHEERFUL. MOST of the factors operating upon the Stock Markets during the past week have been of a satisfactory character, and among them—so far, at all events,...

Nor must omission be made of the annual balance-sheet of Thos. Cook and Son (Bankers) which shows a moderate increase in deposits and a considerable increase in the Cash...

The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation has long ago established a reputation for sound and skilful manage- ment, and although it must be no easy matter, under present...

SIK EIW BI A LID/ Il OM A I QIV AIR TIE R I [MGM UINI RI A S • MI EIDIA ' AIDIWI I • 1122 L E LIOIG RI El I IT' El R Ell AI E EIRIGHWYN • GD lo LI AI El 0 El A...

Indications of an expansion in activity are also visible in the annual balance-sheet of Erlangers Limited, an expansion accompanied, moreover, by a full maintenance of...

By ZENO [A prize of one guinea will be given to the sender of the first correct solution of this week's crossword puzzle to be opened. Envelopes should be marked " Crossword...

WILL BE READY ON JANUARY 2Eers. One Shilling (or 25 cents) for each copy should be enclosed with instructions, and addressed to :- INDEX DEPT., " THE SPECTATOR," LTD., 99 GOWER...