SPECTATOR ESTABLISHED 1828 - NUMBER 6765 - FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1958 - PRICE NINEPENCE

c OINCIDING, as it happened to do, with the startling news of Rochdale, the Defence White Paper has re- ceived less attention than it deserved. The Conserva- tives have had more...

THE merger of Jordan with Iraq should not be I regarded as the culmination of the historic Hashemite dream—the 'fertile crescent' from the Persian Gulf to the Bay of Haifa,...

that, at the time of s . writing, have passed since French bombs fell on the Tunisian fron- tier township of Sakiet have taken Paris through a whole gamut of emotions. The dust...

By Our Industrial Correspondent I T is heartening to see industrialists and trade unionists getting together to see how many of the problems presented by the European Free...

By Our Canadian Correspondent O N March 31 the Canadian people will decide in their second general election within a year whether the Progressive-Conservative Ministry of Mr....

on JOHN BULL'S SCHOOLDAYS in which well-known writers recall their schools and schoolmasters Later contributors: KINGSLEY AMIS CASSANDRA WOLF MANKOWITZ PHILIP TOYNBEE

Tun other night I dreamed that the Chief Whip was dead. I awoke in a considerable state of alarm, not untinged with sorrow; for Mr. Heath, though I can hardly be ex- pected, in...

crew will be glad lo know that he does not propose to abandon ship, or to hug the shore. There is only one course to be steered—that which has already been set —and it must not...

struck a blow for the press on the occasion of Mr. Macmillan's return from his tour. Some busybody had arranged that the Prime Minister should have no fewer than three...

atomic power station at Trawsfynydd, in the North Wales National Park, has brought a long-standing conflict into the open. National Park committees tend to be unpopular with the...

CONSERVATIVE REACTIONS to Roch- dale have had a tedious predictabil- ity about them. The first response of the Tory press to the glum news was to urge that scapegoats should be...

news stories must be ignored? Lord Altrincham's criticisms of the Court were not re- ferred to until his lordship's face was slapped— showing a curious sense of the Top People's...

right to criticise the BBC for its TV broad- casts from hospitals, but for the wrong reasons. The BBC is incredibly timid and naive on medical subjects; criticism of the...

reasonable Conservative would be : 'Right : we have taken a bad beating : no excuses : now let us find out what hit us and why.' But what happens? Lord Hailsham goes to Glas-...

air crash turns out to have been no scandal; simply a misunderstanding. I can sym- pathise with Mr. Milward of BEA; apparently he had been woken up by reporters the night before...

By GEORGE WOODCOCK* T HE Trades Union Congress has never been enthusiastic about proposals for closer politi- cal and economic association of Great Britain with the continental...

By CHRISTOPHER HOLLIS E VERYBODY is asking everybody else what they propose to do at the next election. Those who are fortunate enough to find themselves uncom- mitted,...

By ROGER FALK W HEN, in 1938, the African Survey was published, a gap in the factual, compact literature of Africa south of the Sahara had been admirably filled. This prodigious...

By CYRIL RAY W HEN the boyos raided the camp of No. 1 Training Battalion, the Royal Mechanical and Electrical Engineers, at Blandford the other day, and seized and gagged, among...

By STRIX T HE more I look at the photographs published in the newspapers, the more insistently I feel, tugging as it were at my coat-tails, a baffled curiosity. How is this...

Saving on the Bacon By LESLIE ADRIAN T ODAY the snap, crackle, pop of the cereal packet dominates the British breakfast table. The leisured luxury of our bacon-and-egg days is...

Holidaymakers who have enjoyed the very good local wines in Switzerland have not usually been able to pursue the acquaintance at home : the story used to be that Swiss wines did...

SIR, -1 would like to be allowed to comment on Pharos's notes (of January 24) about mental de- ficiency hospitals. As a member of the public and of a well-known social service...

too often teach an out-of-date view of the eighteenth century. May I, as a schoolmaster, suggest that part of the blame lies with his fellow- examiners? A glance through old GCE...

SIR,—Among the startling inaccuracies and puerilities of Victor Anant's article on women's magazine fic- tion (called by him, rather revoltingly, 'pop' fiction) I was pleased to...

Side Lines of History Sir Lewis B. Namier M ental Hospitals Mrs. S. E. Marshall Pop' Fiction Howard Wyce Teaching History 1. H. Whyte, David Henschel Purchase Tax Anomalies R....

SIR,—It was not my intention to make a direct parallel between British policy in India and French policy in North Africa. The parallel for India is Indo-China, where French...

Ste,—You will have noticed the rather peculiar reply given to Mr. Nabarro by Mr. Simon when a question was asked by the former in the House last week about purchase tax. The...

SIR,—You have been generous to me and to Mr. Baxter in giving us space. I hardly dare hope for more, but probably before your next issue appears the 'courageous policy of...

Dr. Erhard's book on the German 'miracle,' quotes me, with some- what exaggerated scorn, as protesting against the `few mild deflationary measures' recommended (but, Mr. Birch...

SIR, — I had thought that Taper's refusal to acknow- ledge the fact of Liberal revival was due to per- versity. It is now clear, however, that he has been looking for it in the...

Dr. Plumb, like all my colleagues. If Dr. Plumb wished to confine his remarks to the teaching of eighteenth-century history he should not have spoken in such general terms....

FEBRUARY 23, 1833 HENRY CHANNELL, WhO, at the last Admiralty Ses- sions, was . sentenced to be hanged for the murder of his captain on the high seas, died yesterday, of...

Writing of the recent appearance in Moscow of the English ballerina Beryl Grey, a Soviet critic put a firm finger on one of the basic problems of interpretation : it was his...

Broken Mould Epitaph for George Dillon. By John Osborne and Anthony Creighton. (Royal Court.) MOST tragedies turn the limelight on to the big man in decay. From King Lear to...

Victory at Sea. (Berkeley.)—The Truth About Women. (General release.)—The Story of Doctor Schweitzer. (Cinephone.) - Don't Go Near the Water. (Empire.) THINGS, as if to prove...

IT seems incredible that the BBC has waited so long to present a regular magazine feature on the arts. Even now the Corporation seems to be shy of associating this dubious...

Mr. West's Good Wine By BRIAN INGLIS O NE of the last places where it is possible to play the old literary game of guessing the author from the text is the New Yorker, where a...

OF these two books, which record the impressions of their authors gathered on recent journeys to the Middle East, the better is undoubtedly Mr. Johnson's. It is lively and well...

ON a certain evening the Wandering Jew arrives at a mountain shack inhabited by an ageing ex- priestess of the Delphic temple and her idiot son. He has come to inquire after his...

Ten Thousand Eyes. By Richard Collier. (Collins, 18s.) THE words 'Atlantic Wall' were frightening, to those who had the task of invading France in 1944. Everything else we knew...

The Last Continent. By Douglas Liversidge. (Jarrolds, 21s.) Men Against the Frozen North. By Ritchie Calder. (Allen and Unwin, 16s.) North of Sixty. By Colin Wyatt. (Hodder and...

Looking Back: The Autobiography of The Duke of Sutherland. (Odhams, 25s.) AFTER plodding through a couple of deadweight forewords to His Grace's autobiography, one by' Viscount...

Face to Face. By Ved Mehta. (Collins, 16s.) Mermaid Singing. By Charmian Clift. (Michael Joseph, 18s.) With Adventure in My Rucksack. By Arne Hirdman. (Jarrolds, 21s.) Life's a...

The Hurling Time. By Maurice Collis. (Faber, 32s. 6d.) WHAT is history : a story, a lesson? Why do we read about the past: to relax, to escape, to learn, and what to learn?...

Mikhailovsky and Russian Populism. By James 1 - 1. Billington. (O.U.P., 30s.) WITH the bankruptcy of ideology, even in its central fortresses, ideas proper are coming back into...

The Channel. Tunnel. By Humphrey Slater and Correlli Barnett. (Wingate, 2/s.) CHANNEL TUNNEL projects have been discussed since the French Revolution : indeed, the stories told...

Through. Alchemy to Chemistry. By J. Read. (Bell, 18s. 6d.) 1 N the seventeenth century, when Isaac Newton, th e greatest scientist whom this country has ever Produced, was...

WHAT a pity that so promising a writer as Mr. Xan Fielding should have let his admirers down with his latest book. After all, the Corsairs and the Barbary Coast are no mean...

By BLACK LllD0 R N o. 141. C. G. WATNEY ('Observer.' 1922) LAac o men ) WHITE (12 men) wurrE to play and mate in two moves: solution next week. Solution to last week's problem...

Manager's Disease I SEE that 150 of the BBC senior staff are to get regular medical examinations. This, the paper said, is part of the policy of the Director- General, and its...

By CUSTOS DESPONDENCY again ruled in the markets this week and even the gilt- \ edged market turned dull. The new convertible debentures, however, remain very firm and I...

By NICHOLAS DAVENPORT LAST week, when the Financial Times index of ordinary shares dropped to a new `low'—three points below the slump of the Suez c Tisis and the lowest...

An advertisement of a novel published la st year quoted from the book: 'Ida's idea of Heave , was Sitting in front of a large fire, eating pepe: mint creams washed down with...

Tonal. 11 All-ruling. 12 Poor thing. 13 Noble. 14 Canalising. 16 Adam. 18 Rift. 20 Daily dozen. 23 Elgar. 24 Handi- work. 27 Trombones. 28 Inorb. 29 Rank. 30 Cyclostyle....

The usual prize of 'six guineas was offered for a translation of du Bellay's sonnet to the Cardinal's secretary, Le Breton: , Le Breton est scavant, et scait fort bien escrire...

ACROSS 1 Sunshine is tops here, that's cheering (6). 4 Indulged in wholesale murder on the moors? (4-4) 10 Of course, it involves a climb (2-5). 11 Regret the dart, in the...