F EARS (though the effect from the Allied point of view would not necessarily be adverse) of the extension of the war to Belgium and Holland or to Norway and Sweden have had a...

The return of severe Arctic weather on the Finnish eastern front has destroyed any hopes the Russians may have had that a thaw would come to deny the Finns the use of their...

Norway and Sweden are being threatened no less openly, but from another quarter. It looks indeed as if a close working arrangement had been reached between Germany and Russia in...

The political crisis in Japan has led to the formation of a new Government under Admiral Yonai, whose task it is to remove the causes of social discontent at home and find a way...

The return of road accidents for the month of December is in the literal sense shocking. The number of persons killed, 1,155, is the highest total ever recorded, in spite of the...

The controversy, such as it was, about the change of Ministers at the War Office ended on Tuesday as it might have been hoped and expected that it would end. Mr. Hore-Belisha,...

Out of 3,600 business concerns which left London last September 600 have now returned, and many others are weighing up the pros and cons in situations which in every case have...

The British Government have addressed a conciliatory but firm reply to the declaration of a "300-mile safety zone" around American coasts made at the Panama Congress, and to the...

The Turkish Secretary-General for Foreign Affairs has returned home after a journey which may prove to be of historic importance. In his visits to Paris and London his...

Warfare, but it was largely dispelled by Mr. Cross's admirable statement on Wednesday afternoon. He had not hitherto made any very notable contribution from the Front Bench. On...

liveliness of the House of Commons since the war began. It is all the more unfortunate that the space given to Par- liament in the daily papers should be so drastically cur-...

and Sir Archibald Sinclair that the Opposition parties were not prepared to raise a Parliamentary storm over the War Minister's resignation. Had it been otherwise, Mr. Cham-...

Figures published by the Home Office show that last October there were more than 74,000 Germans or Austrians registered by the police in the United Kingdom. Such a large number...

Our Parliamentary correspondent writes: Mr. Hore- Belisha's speech must have come as a surprise to the general public and even to a section of the House of Com- mons. It was...

Council makes its comment on the "vicious spiral" of ascending prices and wages in an official report to the affiliated unions. It denies the responsibility of the unions in...

in the closing passage of his speech in the House of Commons on Tuesday, "there is a lull in the operations of war, but at any time the lull may be sharply broken, and events...

I N passing a unanimous resolution that "it is desira- able that compulsory school attendance should be restored as soon as possible" the Manchester Education Committee has...

of December 29th it was mentioned that one shareholder of the old Submarine Continental Railway Company, founded in 1881, was still alive. That was Mr. Charles Sheath. The...

been taken of the centenary of the birth of Austin Dobson, which fell on Thursday of this week. It is made the more per- tinent by the death of Humbert Wolfe, another civil...

instructive conclusion. Though the number of adult pedestrians killed was 746 in December, 1939, as against 321 in December, 1938, an increase of over 230 per cent., the number...

Navy was called the silent Service, but it was voluble compared with the Royal Air Force. That is so no longer. We are being told a great deal, and rightly, of the exploits of...

W HAT has aroused my curiosity most in connexion with the Hore-Belisha affair is the undelivered speech. I mean, of course, Lord Beaverbrook's. Nobody, clearly, has felt more...

to know —perhaps some M.P. would think it worth while to put a question on the point—whether it is true that whereas regular R.A.F. officers get an adequate allowance for...

By STRATEGICL S HE new rumours about Germany's intentions with re- I gard to Holland and Belgium cannot be dismissed merely as an interesting but unimportant phenomenon. They...

By ANDRk MAUROIS - 111HE most visible sign of the strength of the central power in France is the predominance of Paris. Every country has a capital ; but in none other does the...

T HE Roosevelt peace offensive has now begun in earnest. By sending a special Ambassador to the Vatican—a very venturesome step from the viewpoint of American internal...

By DOROTHY L. SAYERS [Being extracts from the war-time letters and papers of the Wimsey family] Mr. Ingleby, Copy-writer in Pym's Publicity, Ltd., to Mr. Hankin, Head of the...

By FRANCIS GOWER M ORE than four months have passed since the staff of this company moved into the two country houses, three miles apart and twenty-five miles from its old home...

By STEPHEN LEACOCK O LD age is the "Front Line" of life, moving into No- man's Land. No-man's Land is covered with mist. Beyond it is Eternity. As we have moved forward the...

By OUR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT D URING the last eighteen months many thousands of people all over the country have been studying first aid manuals, attending lectures and...

By L. A. G. STRONG W E were talking about a friend who, recovering from an operation in hospital, had become engaged to his Nurse. Mr. Mangan removed his pipe. "I know quite a...

word "Blimp." Here again, it is not the word itself, but the expansion which has been given to it which may become a danger. People are tempted to transfer this word to any...

of Emanuel Ben's Mort de la Pensie Bourgeoise, and as I turned the pages my attention was arrested by two passages which I had heavily underlined. The first was as follows: "I...

By HAROLD NICOLSON W HEN I was a boy I used to be cursed by my masters for what they called my "inveterate habit of defacing books." I remember that at my private school I...

can be dangerous which makes us smile. There is, for instance, that facile and meaningless phrase "The Oxford Accent." Were this expression only used to deride a particular...

for having for so many generations allowed our educational system to remain stratified in social layers, and that we have only our- selves to blame if the half-educated and the...

seek to escape the effort of appreciating difficult things. The defenders of this infantile phrase contend that it applies only to certain forms of pedantry and does not apply...

of view even more damaging, slogan, namely "The Old School Tie." I admit that there exists a type of person who has never in after life been able to recapture the sense of...

MUSIC An Appeal for the L.P.O. IN the interval of the concert at Queen's Hall on Sunday afternoon Sir Thomas Beecham made one of those provocative appeals for public support...

"The Light that Failed." At the Plaza.—" The Old Maid." At Warner's. THESE two pictures succeed admirably in what they attempt— to jerk the waiting tear out of its duct....

SIR,—A hundred and fifty years ago, on January 20th, 1790, John Howard died in Russia on active-service for humanity. He was 64 years old and had gone to the Crimea because...

[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...

Sm,—Opinion is sharply divided as to the effectiveness of Nazi propaganda in this country, and what retaliation, if any, should be taken. It is the old controversy of Free...

as to the taste of " Janus's " reference to the anti-war vote of the Uni- versity Labour Federation's conference. But I hope all of your readers will agree with me in protesting...

last three and a half years, for half that time an active member of the Oxford City Labour party, and for the last half a member of the Communist party, as a delegate to the...

The Spectator for many years, I wish to express my entire agreement with the timely artic!e which appeared in the issue of January 5th, under the head- ing "The Rest of Our...

in the article "The Rest of Our Lives," which appeared in your issue of January 5th. _ In assuming that its conclusions are based upon the Government's estimate of the...

Snt,—I am firmly convinced that all of us should study care- fully the Prime Minister's speech in order to realise what may lie ahead. By his plea for a widespread sacrifice...

in the word Rehabilitation, and I write as an orthopaedic surgeon to endorse the wise words of Mr. Robert Hyde (January 12th, p. 37), and to emphasise the need for...

the view that more adequate provision should be made for the primary treatment of fractures due to air raids, and for the necessary subsequent rehabilitation. His criticism of...

Snt,—Mr. St. John Ervine accuses Mr. Nicolson of in- accuracy; but are his own hands clean? Referring to private soldiers being ordered out of restau- raro; by officers, he...

Mr. Harold Nicolson in your last issue, states that "never during the whole period of my service (during the 1914-18 war) did I meet anybody who had either suffered this...

SIR,—It would not serve any useful purpose to dwell upon the offensive air of condescending superiority with which, in your last issue, Mr. Harold Nicolson deals with Federal...

a story told me by an old friend and business colleague who died some years ago and who, in his youth, was in the Artists Rifles. They were in camp, I think in the...

think it a pity that your competition results last week should jibe at our noblest poet. When I was at Oxford we were taught exactly the stuff Mr. M. R. Ridley's entry...

Sri,—With reference to Mr. St. John Ervine's attack on Mr. Harold Nicolson in your last issue, I wonder if he is altogether fair to your contributor? Unless my memory is at...

Mr. Laing must realise That we read what we criticise. In what Kipling story Is glory made gory? And in how many does a colonel Supply the only kernel? " Sussex " is...

Form a village production group or allotment association. Plant plenty of Jerusalem artichokes. They yield heavily and will grow anywhere. Do not save by omitting to buy and...

for its birds than its politicians. The latest meeting there coincided with a rare influx of birds from the far North, probably from both Finland and Russia. Fortunately one...

A New Complexion The scenery of England will be a good deal altered by the war. More timber is being cut, factories are being ingeniously converted into pleasances, a deal of...

themselves, kept up a correspondence throughout the last war, though this corner of science is narrow and perhaps not very prolific. An endeavour, so far successful, is being...

lynch- ings for the year 1939. I find, according to the reports compiled in the Department of Records and Research, that there were three persons lynched in 1939. This is three...

Russian men of science, who are among the most ingenious researchers into animal psychology, are alleged to have made a curious advance in the training of hive bees to a useful...

£2 2s. and Li is. are offered for a new fable in the manner of Aesop introducing a cow, a whale, or a goose, and furnished with a moral referring to Communism, Fascism, or...

THE usual prizes were offered for topical poems of not more than i6 lines on any event reported or any subject discussed in the newspapers during the last few weeks. Competitors...

Nationalism and War Nationalism. By a study group of the Royal Institute of Inter- national Affairs. (Oxford University Press. 12s. 6d.) THERE was room, certainly, for a...

Tins book consists of a series of essays and addresses, most of which were composed for special occasions. They deal with a considerable variety of subjects ranging from John...

Japanese Industry : Its Recent Development and Present Condition. By G. C. Allen. (Institute of Pacific Relations. $1.) PROFESSOR ALLEN is known to students of economic affairs...

Ariel and All His Quality. By R. S. Lambert. (Gollancz. 153.) THIS book reminds me of the Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk. It is the long pent effusion of one who has spent the...

The Jewish Problem in the Modern World. By J. W. Parkes. (Home University Library. 2S. 6d.) Au. these books command the respect due to honest and serious work. Mr. Lowenthal, an...

The Boon Companions. By Hugh McGraw. (Heinemann. 8s. 3d.) War and Soldier is a Japanese version of the life of the twentieth-century infantryman, and it does, indeed, as an...

With the preliminary statement of Lloyds Bank the " Big Five" earnings picture for 1939 is complete. Net profit of Lloyds, after providing for all bad and doubtful debts, was...

By CUSTOS AFTER their long run of success the stock market optimists have suffered their first reverse. It is not at all surprising that gilt-edged had to take the main shock....

It is Still too soon to get a complete picture of the bank's alance-sheets but it is already apparent that a marked feature of me position at the end of 1939 was a striking...

Like many other industries the linoleum trade is con- fronted by some awkward problems on the materials side. At this week's meeting of Michael Nairn and Greenwich Sir Robert...

BRITISH-AMERICAN TOBACCO THE thirty-seventh annual general meeting of British-American Tobacco Company, Limited, was held on January 15th in London. Sir Hugo Cunliffe-Owen,...

As the annual statements have shown, the three discount companies contrived to do well in the difficult conditions of last year. The main aspects of 1939 from the money market...

One can always look for optimism` from Sir Hugo Cunliffe-Owen, and the stockholders of the British-American Tobacco Company have had good cause for believing that his optimism...

ALEXANDERS DISCOUNT COMPANY, LIMITED A YEAR OF FLUCTUATING VALUES DIVIDEND MAINTAINED INCREASED TURNOVER IN BILLS MR. COLIN F. CAMPBELL'S ADDRESS THE seventy-second ordinary...

MICHAEL NAIRN AND GREENWICH SATISFACTORY RESULTS THE t8th annual general meeting of Michael Nairn and Greenwich, Limited, was held on January 17th in London. Sir Robert...

ANGLO-ECUADORIAN OILFIELDS RECORD PRODUCTION MR. H. C. R. WILLIAMSON'S REVIEW THE adjourned twenty-first annual general meeting of Anglo- Ecuadorian Oilfields Ltd. was held on...

From the speculative investor's standpoint oil has so far proved a disappointing war commodity. Instead of the expected steep rise in prices of crude and refined oils, such...

imlp sl A I NE gç ic!oilaigeL V4Wel Fl NI! s L 0 AN S !a! in- ale 0 ii • IAI 14.1 N L NM :a. AAA lo o. 0 SOLUTION The winner of Crossword Cleveland Row, S.W.r....

Token for 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 Puzzle," and...