N Y feeling of disappointment about the apparently small achievements of the Colombo Conference of Common- wealth Foreign Ministers must rest first on a misunder- standing of...

The seizure by the Chinese Communists of American consular premises in Peking has been followed by an announcement in Washington that all United States consular representatives...

It should have been plain that the question of the Saar would dominate the recent meetings between the French Foreign Minister, M. Schuman, and the German Chancellor, Dr....

All Egyptian parties are committed to demanding the evacuation of foreign troops and " the unity of the Nile valley "—which means the incorporation of the Sudan in Egypt. These...

The failure of the British Government and the West Indian sugar interests to agree on terms for the bulk purchase of sugar after 1952 (when the present arrangement ends) shows...

The deadlock that has arisen at Lake Success over Chinese repre- sentation on the Security Council is not to be taken lightly. A situation has been created for which the Charter...

It was bad luck for the Labour Party that its election manifesto, in which it said that the present system of distribution of meat should be made permanent, appeared on the same...

L IFE would be a good deal brightened if all the com- ments on Mr. Priestley's broadcast could be assembled and neatly presented. There was the suggestion that fifteen or twenty...

L ABOUR is first in the field with its election manifesto, whether with a winner or not the course of events will soon show. On the whole if the Labour Party is returned it is...

the publication of wills turns on nicely balanced considerations. It is arguable, as some writers have argued, that what a man (or woman) Jeaves is a purely private matter, and...

will be awaited with interest. In February, 1945, five months before the Election of July. the Marshal " remarked that he did not believe the Labour Party would ever form a...

College, Cambridge, last Saturday, appears at first sight to have contained nothing of great interest ; but it at least (haws attention to the man who bequeathed the box, Mr. A....

of and advocate for the Council of Europe, and , when he comes to this country and urges, either at public meetings or in newspaper articles, that Britain should throw herself...

that was called to nominate a Labour candidate in succession to him at Govan is intelligible, for he has represented the constituency since 1918, and does not, I think, consider...

made some reference last week, was not Dr. That is true ; I followed a mention elsewhere unthinkingly. In compensation let me tell a story about two persons who were. One was an...

go very far to discomfit their critics. If anything more watertight than the technique then adopted can be devised I should be very glad to hear of it. Mrs. Piddington was in a...

By WALTER TAPLIN I T used to be fashionable, a year or so ago, to prophesy that the nationalisation of steel would be the issue on which the next General Election would be...

By ROBERT WAITHMAN Washington M R. DEAN ACHESON, the Secretary of State, sat down in his seat at the top table in the Press Club auditorium, and there was a gale of applause....

For the next few week's two well-known writers will discuss here In a series of letters the present plight of the middle classes. D EAR JANE,—The first reunion after twelve...

have been the fate of many peoples during the last few years. So it is no surprise to hear that the White Russians of China's seaports are once more on the move, pitching their...

THE SPECTATOR 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...

Going Up By B. R. BARRON (New College, Oxford) U NLIKE the majority of undergraduates going up to Oxford today for the first time, I did not just catch the train at Paddington...

By HAROLD NICOLSON i . AGREE with those who contend that one of the minor pleasures of -life is to be slightly ill. In order to extract the greatest good from this condition...

THEATRE The Miser." By Moliere. Freely adapted by Miles Malleson. (New) A MENTAL effort, similar to that involved in recalling that there were once wolves in Surrey, is...

PROBABLY not very much of the music written in the 1920s will interest our grandchildren, once its period flavour has been tried and enjoyed a mild vogue. A great deal of it...

it The Blue Lamp." (Odeon).----" Woman in Hiding." (Odeon, Marble Arch.)—" No Place for Jennifer." (London Pavilion.) The Blue Lamp is a tribute to that portion of our Police...

For the most part, plays televised from theatres are an abomina- tion ; they are neither theatre nor television. But I confess to a sneaking pleasure I took in Mr. Tod...

For the talk of the last few days I should select (though I recognise that the choice is arbitrary) M. Michel St. Denis's contribution to the Contemporary Theatre series on the...

THEODORE GARMAN makes his debut at the Redfern Gallery under the auspices of Messrs. Epstein and Matthew Smith. From these distinguished names, and from the information that...

For other childish affairs, there is the new, and perhaps sadly- named, Listen With Mother. This programme is designed for the very young, up to the age of five; although I...

rate, Mrs. Piddington (who seemed singularly self-controlled throughout our enjoyable tour of the environs of S.W.1) pressed into my hand before journey's end a slip of paper on...

THE return of The Piddingtons means the return, I suppose, of controversy. I decline to dismiss the subject as flogging a dead horse: for this horse is so uncommonly lively....

Report on Competition No. By PETER FLEMING AUSTIN MOTORS are givin; Mr. Leonard Lord £100,000 on con- dition that he never works for anyone else—on condition (in other words)...

• Set by HILARY BRETT-SMITH A prize of £5, which may be divided, is offered for nine lines to complete a poem beginning: "Some fifty years before These three had shared a...

election, or are comprised within the " floating vote," is not one very strong reason for now voting Conservative that many of the present Ministers are really very tired men,...

sermon in November, 1946, on a new approach to Church unity, conversations have been taking place between representative Anglicans and Free Churchmen. This conference, which...

Voting Liberal SIR.—You will not expect Liberals to agree with your leading article, Election Issues. Where you go wrong is, first, in assuming that we " have no possible...

Egypt, in the Spectator' of January 6th, raises points of considerable interest and importance, bu unfortunately gives an incomplete and, in some respects, an inaccurat picture....

about university salaries, to which your remarks last week might seem to lend support. It is perhaps worth making clear that, in Oxford and Cambridge at least, only a small...

enquiry in the Spectator of December 23rd, " the blot in the scutcheon " probably refers to the heraldic " abatement of honour," a system of stains of various shapes placed on...

SIR.—Your Dumfriesshire correspondent refers to the " self-employed " under-sixty-fives. But what of the self-employed over-sixty-fives? Not even the magic of N.I. 28 can do...

round while laying blankets if, whenever completely stripping the bed for sheet-changing, he lays aside his blankets folded down their middles, thus making a line to serve as...

blankets with one stripe down the middle free, gratis and for nothing to Sir William Hamilton Fyfe for his own bed, in return for this brilliantly simple suggestion of his to...

Army courts martial pass without a reply. Although I have no experience of courts martial in the Army, 1 have sat on many, both as a member and later as a president, in the...

SIR,—Mr. Cole and 1 may differ on a question of opinion, but we must not differ on questions of fact. One of the British sugar refiners com- plaints is that plans were made to...

SIR,—Mr. Leslie .Hotson's book, recently published, argues that Shakespeare's " mortal moon " sonnet deals with the Armada, that its date, therefore, is 1588, and that at least...

SIN—Janus, in the Spectator of January 13th, delivers himself of a very odd dictum. He says: " Every Englishman is expected to know the law, and to order his actions...

SIR.—Having read Mr. 1. Reid's letter I still do not know what a shop steward's work is—or who pays him. Is he paid by the union or the " shop " ? I see he mentions the word...

a re loud and plaintive laments for the excessive destruction of trees are heard in the land, not least in Sussex. All sorts of people are held responsible. In one case a...

WHEN the weather is warm in January, when the prunus, viburnum and iris are in flower, when thrush, tit, robin and hedge-sparrow sing gaily, when .rooks obviously pair and begin...

One farm crop, we are told, is to be much diminished in 1950; and the ban will put an end to a quaint little practice. Owing to the comparative absence of beef, pork and certain...

place in the annual report of the Rothamsted agricultural station, which is full of the in- genuities of science, physical, chemical, biological and the rest. It seems to be...

The crown of annuals, at any rate for the votary of vases, is the sweet pea. The flowering period is long—it rn‘y last to November— and how wonderfully the colours, especially...

our Colonial Empire there is one bright and happy spot ; an oasis of good government, prosperity, and satisfaction, in the midst of a wide and hot desert of suffering,...

66 Praktizismus " The Debate on the American Revolution 1761-1783. Edited by Max Beloit . . The Debate on the French Revolution i789-1799. Edited by Alfred Cobban. (Nicholas...

The Growth of English Society. By E. Lipson. (Black. 21s.) IN this book—whose sub-title, " A Short Economic History," is somewhat belied by its 448 pages—Professor Lipson...

Roosevelt and the Russians: The Yalta Conference. By Edward MR. STE - I - m[0s who, as Secretary of State, went with President Roosevelt to the Three-Power Conference at Yalta...

The Life and Times of Po By Arthur Waley. (Allen and Unwin. :Ss.) WHEN Po chi'-i died, at the age of seventy-four, in A.D. 846, he left seventy-five scrolls or chapters,...

THIS is a horrifying book. It is also entertaining. Mrs. Hopkirk's quotations of cases of cruelty to children are sometimes unbearable ; but she herself treats the story of...

The Kingdom of Melchior. By The Master of Belhaven. (John Murray. 1 6s. ) THE bottom left-hand corner of Arabia is about as remote as any part of the modern world. The Yemen, it...

WHEN, two years a g o, Miss Oman published her life of Nelson, one became more eathan ever aware aof the need for a selection of his letters. Sir Harris Nicolas produced seven...

AGREED, the writing of novels is a very difficult pursuit and demands a great many parts of an author. And yet, for all the fine character- drawing, sensitive responst- and...

The Instruments of Music. By Robert Donington. (Methuen. 18s.) Tins thoroughly investigated and lucid account of the physical causes of differences of sound produced in the...

A R S_E ALL e kc, A 5 T R 0 S A S IA N A!l Vd5 0 0 12•2 H E I !olu• (.71 i t A!_1 - M • cIA;M I P:EIR Al . EIN 6 , 14E1.A.]7! . .aIr4 Pa- RE M SOLUTION ON FEBRUARY 3 The...

[A Book Token for one guinea will be encirrded to the sender of the first correct solution of this week's crossword to be opened after noon on Tuesday week, January 31st....

By CUSTOS INVESTORS who turn for light and guidance to the annual statements of the bank chairmen—and they might turn in other directions and fare much worse—are not likely to...