It will be well to be prepared for a critical period in India. No one ever supposed that the transition now in progress could be carried through without friction that might at...

The central distinction between the Third Republic and the Fourth is that whereas under the former the crises occurred and the Govern- ments fell, under the latter the crises...

HINGS have now got to such a pitch at Lake Success that the T imposition of a veto by Russia (with Poland usually dancing attendance) is becoming the rule rather than the...

Beset by industrial crisis and ruled by a Government whose indus- trial policy is profoundly influenced, if not entirely determined, by trade unions, the ordinary citizen may be...

The attack on the arrangements for marketing fruit and vegetables was bound to begin somewhere, and it is natural that it should have begun with an exasperated improvisation....

The difficulties in the way of a European customs union are very great. The speeches made by the delegates at the Paris economic conference, including Sir Oliver Franks for the...

The difficulty of preventing violence from taking its course is being demonstrated in the case of Indonesia. The Dutch, having begun military action on July zoth and ended it on...

earnings of sterling has been able to convert those earnings into dollars at British expense. The devices resorted to in order to carry out this transaction have been so many...

I know no more than anyone else why the meeting of Ministers at Downing Street on Sunday was called, but it quite certainly was not for the reasons set out in the flagrantly...

R ATHER paradoxically the warnings of still harder times to come, and various other depressing news in Thursday's papers, had on me, and no doubt on most other people, a quite...

in the United States and as such deals with all financial proposals. When he went to his local New Hampshire railway station recently to buy a ticket for Washington the...

Having been unimpressed by Mr. Attlee's broadcast I expected to be, but was not, much more impressed by Mr. Churchill's. There is one salient difference between the Premier and...

and a critic of cricket (say that quickly six times), is just publishing a singularly interesting autobiography. As the book has not yet appeared I can say nothing about what is...

was undoubtedly right—in appealing to the ablest and most enterprising of British workers not to desert the ship by emigrating just at the moment when maximum output is needed...

By GEORGE BRINSMEAD M ANY Argentines during the past thirty years have felt them- selves to be members of an embryo super-race. They have considered that Argentina would prove...

By MAJOR E. W. SHEPPARD O NE of the principal items in the Government's newly announced programme for making both ends of our national economy meet, is the traditional one of...

By GERARD HOPKINS P UBLISHERS and their colleagues of the retail trade have had a weakness for referring to books as " necessities." use of the word became, between the year...

By RAWLE KNOX I F the Dublin air in Horse Show Week is not quite champagne it is at least black velvet ; champagne certainly mingles with the local porter. The Horse Show must...

By W. H. EDWARDS A S I listened to a very interesting and comprehensive discussion of British agricultural problems broadcast in the Pacific Service of the B.B.C. not long ago,...

By KENNETH BRADSHAW A S a recent worker (not by choice) in a mammoth football-pool firm, I am surprised that the Government, despite its announce- ment some time ago, seems to...

• By DEREK SEVERN THAT stretch of road was seldom quiet. All day, and often all THAT the Harvards and Stearman PTI7's which we, R.A.F. cadets, were learning to fly buzzed...

By HAROLD NICOLSON I T is customary for those who have travelled much—whether on the Continent of Europe or in those extensive areas over which the white soul of America...

"The Two Mrs. Carrolls." (Warner.)—" Dancing With Crime." (Plaza.) IT seems probable that in a few months' time film critics will be liquidated, their services presumably...

THE THEATRE The Linden Tree." By J. B. Priestley. (Duchess.)—" The Shelley Story." By Guy Bolton. (Mercury.)—" Fly Away, Peter." By A. P. Dearsley. (St. James's.) tsTo one has...

THERE seemed to me something less than satisfying about both of last week's principal dramatic productions on the air. Webster's importance in the development of English drama...

IN a recent broadcast Mr. Spike Hughes made a plea for that particularly social kind of music which was designed as a back- ground to conversation. He quoted as an example the...

Sta,—There is an analogy between the European domiciled communities (Creoles) of Bolivia, Peru and Chile prior to their throwing off the Spanish yoke circa 1820, and " the...

Sta,—After reading the brilliantly gloomy article (oh splendid wisdom!) of Mr. James Pope-Hennessy in your issue of August 1st, I should wish personally, and at the request of...

StR,—I read Mr. Mallalieu's article, " At Bramall Lane," in The Spectator of August 8th with great interest and pleasure, but may I be allowed to point out that, quite...

Stn,—Margot Wood, in her article " Czech Choice," would have one believe that the recent withdrawal of Czechoslovakia from the discussion of the Marshall Plan was not due to...

25th bears the heading " Czech Choice," the writer of it shows that in fact the Czechs had no choice, saying that the Press does not criticise Russia because of the " vital...

Stn,—Having much enjoyed Mr. Hotson's article last week, I should like to put forward an alternative theory. The old phrase " Mum as a mouse " is well known. Shakespeare, I...

SIR,—I have just read with appreciation the article entitled " Land of Plenty " in your issue of August 8th. The " lavishness " referred to is not general, however, and is the...

SIR,—I read with keen interest Mr. Witham's letter in your columns about the case of General von Falkenhausen, the anti-Nazi officer who, having been condemned to Dachau and...

Postbridge, has much to say of Swiss contentment and tran- quillity, and contrasts this with the strain and stress in England. How is it then that, despite this apparent...

SIR,—Your correspondent on " At Westminster " describes the recent ceremony in connection with two journalists at the Bar of the House as " a piece of Parliamentary procedure...

SIR, —How well Sir Alexander Paterson puts the case for the chance to be given to delinquents to benefit from decent surroundings which also, incidentally, help the staff in the...

SIR, —The passage which follows is from the " Private Journal of the Marquess of Hastings," Governor-General of India from 1813 to 1822. The date of the entry is May 17th,...

Sta,—I should be the last, for reasons which Mr. Hayward will recognise, to deny that the L.C.C. made a good start towards fulfilling its obligations under the Education Act,...

fishermen are having a very thin time on some of the Scottish rivers, which are so low and clear as to make fishing quite vain. One fisherman, at any rate, is regretting this on...

ONE of the results of very dry weather is that it greatly increases the virulence of river pollution. In normal weather any pollution is more evident towards the river's mouth...

numerous than thrushes, and have become almost, if not quite, the commonest of our birds. There are many reasons which help to make them successful " struggle-for- lifers." One...

strawberries are planted out the bettor ; that August is better than September, though the ideal date is still disputed. After a period of obvious degeneration, the plant has...

The Last Days of Mussolini Empty Balcony. By Piero Saporiti. (Gollancz. 7s. 6d.). IT is unfortunate that Signor Saporiti has played fast and loose with his subject. His book...

(This is the third of the letters on current French books which M. Henri Martineau, the Stenclizalian scholar, is contributing to " The Spectator" at regular intervals.) FOR...

MR. Gleas's choice of a subject is admirable. This observation reminds me unpleasantly of my rather misguided although courageous appearance as a soloist at a Welsh eisteddfod...

The Sand Kings of Oman. By Raymond O'Shea. (Methuen. 12s. 6d.) THE author of this book (who, his publishers say, followed in the wake of Doughty, St. John Philby, Freya Stark,...

Missing from the Record. By Colonel Dick Malone. (Collins. 12s. 6d.) "THE history of all coalitions is a tale of the reciprocal complaints of allies." So wrote an eminent...

Mendelssohn Letters. Edited by G. Selden-Goth. (Paul Mac. 16s.) MR. SELDEN-GOTH, introducing his selection of Mendelssohn's letters, rightly bewails the absence of any complete...

Browns and Chester. By Mass-Observation. (Lindsay Drummond. 15s.) ANYBODY who has done any research work in the libraries of pro- vincial towns must have been struck by the...

Christian Education. By Spencer Leeson. (Longmans. 15s.) THIS volume consists of eight Bampton lectures given before Oxford University in 1944. In them the late Headmaster of...

THE latest of the Contact Books, those excellent five-shilling surveys of contemporary life being produced by Contact Publications Ltd., is appearing next week. Called World Off...

By CUSTOS Wm, relief to our precariously-balanced economy come quickly, or will Uncle Sam insist this time that a recalcitrant British Lion be put through the hoop? That is...

one guinea -vill be awarded to the sender of the first correct solution of this week's crossword to be opened after noon on Tuesday week September 2nd. Envelopes must be...

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