In what, grotesquely enough, have now come almost to be regarded as " the good old days " of British mandatory rule in Palestine, it was possible to experiment with plans and...

I TALY, which for twenty years suffered one form of totali- tarianism, has refused decisively to submit to another. If the Communists had won this week's elections, as they...

To the documents circulated by the British Medical Association in connection with the new plebiscite to be held in the light of Mr. Bevan's new proposals no exception can be...

By an overwhelming majority, and to nobody's surprise, the Chinese National Assembly has re-elected Generalissimo Chiang Kai- shek President of the Republic. There was for...

With speeches by M. Schuman General de Gaulle and M. Thorez, the Communist leader, France had her fill of week-end oratory. Of the three the second and third represented...

The new plan for a settlement of the Kashmir dispute *hick the Security Council has prepared is probably as reasonable as any international body could have devised....

O N Monday the overworked Committee of Privileges were spared a further addition to its labours of this Parliament when the Speaker ruled that Mr. Blackburn had failed to make...

Sootier or later somebody had to speak out about the thoroughly unsatisfactory state of British coal production, and there was nobody better fitted to do it than Sir Charles...

Whichever way the overseas trade figures for March are looked at, the news which they give is bad. The adverse balance—that is the excess of imports over exports and re-exports...

T HE era in which the direction of European affairs was formally reserved for periodical meetings of the Foreign Ministers of the Great Powers ended only last December, when the...

but it will be very surprising if there are not two or three expulsions at any rate from the Labour Party. First favourites appear to be Mr. Platts-Mills, Mr. Zilliacus and Mr....

of Doctors' Wives does not, with great respect to that body, impart a touch of comedy to the controversy—now a little moderating—on the Health Service Act. I sympathise with the...

the future of the House of Lords break down finally—and break on a question of no more than two or three months in the Lords' delaying power. The opposing schools of thought...

of the month to commemorate the silver wedding of the King and Queen. We must hope the best of it, but so far as I remember (I am quite sure philatelists will correct me) this...

T HEIR MAJESTIES' Silver Wedding ,Day is an occasion for congratulations to others than the King and Queen themselves. It is the country that is to be congratulated most. It is...

genuity will still be needed to circumvent the shortage. Which means that car-hire firms will still have their role. The procedure is simple. You sell your car to such a firm,...

By GEORGE BRINSMEAD TT is estimated that in the U.S.A. a textile worker can earn the 1 price of a suit for himself in 371 hours. In Colombia a worker of the same grade must work...

By TONY GIBSON R ECENT events in South and Central China have focused atten- tion on the position of the foreigner in China and the new kind of reaction which he is getting...

By E. C. HODGKIN The ordinary reader of the newspaper is uneasily aware of what is presented to him as a " crime wave." The burglar lurks in his garden after dark ; the stranger...

By ELIZABETH WISKEMANN Lausanne. T HE rock-like stability of Switzerland, where Governments never change, and wars remain external; is disturbed by certain contradictions...

By J. R. GLORNEY BOLTON E IGHTEEN hundred and forty-eight was an archiepiscopal as • well as a revolutionary year. In February William Howley died • in Lambeth Palace, and two...

a nightmare of cream-painted plumbing and baths in the sky. Sorrow and Angst over the fish in the dining-car. Then Dover, looking guiltily northwards at the death of the spirit....

By HAROLD NICOLSON I HAVE been reading this week a stout American travel-book called The Fire Ox and Other Years, in which Mr. Suydam Cutting describes eight of his journeys to...

THE THEATRE ‘, The Burning Bush." Adapted from the Hungarian by Noel Langley. (New Lindsey Theatre Club.) To be unpaid and involuntary members of the cast is an experience...

"Broken Journey." (Gaumont and Marble Arch Pavilion.)—" The Roosevelt Story." (Empire.)--- 6, No Orchids for. Miss Blandish." (Plaza.) MR. KENNETH ANNAKIN, who directed Holiday...

BEETHOVEN'S Mass in D, which was given at the Albert Hall on April 14th by the B.B.C. Symphony Orchestra and Choral Society, presents virtually insuperable difficulties to the...

that among the trees being set in the new grove in Richmond Park and associated with the name of the Queen is numbered the hornbeam. It is a tree pot very widely known or...

AT the Leicester Galleries Mr. Lawrence Gowing adjoins Mr. Charles Murray—the one aged twenty-nine, the other fifty-four. A stranger might be forgiven for reversing the dates in...

a useful one, for the shires to throw open the best gardens on particular dates ; and one of these—at St. Paul's Walden on May 28th—will be the garden cultivated with much...

date are wont to make their first appearance with a certain regularity, for they can read the almanack in their own way ; bur'they appear to be more narrowly punctual in some...

the garden at the moment is a hedge composed of those two cousins, Berberis Darwinii and B. Steno- phylla. Both make a good, useful and attractive hedge. The flowers of B....

was quoted in this place from the works of a Yorkshire factory hand. The title of the book is desired by several correspondents. Can any-reader supply it ?

are all responsible for seeing that our health, education and other services are run in the best possible way. Taking no interest in them beyond grumbling at having to pay is no...

Sta,—In his reply to my letter, J. H. Taylor expresses admirably the opinion held by certain education officials towards parents who send their children to independent schools....

Sm,—It would be unfortunate if the recent protests about school meals were dismissed as the undignified wailings of " a vociferous minority." The National Union of Teachers,...

"THE MANAGER'S JOB" • Sm,—Your paragraph The Manager's 7ob is hardly an adequate summary of the situation discussed at recent conferences, including that of the Institute of...

Stu,—I think it unfortunate that Signor Franzero should have opened hiS article on Italy with a picture of his friends eating gigantic meals and finding amusement in the...

Snt,—Mr. C. M. Woodhouse, in his analysis. of Communist technique, appears to exaggerate the extent to which the Eastern European revolu- tions have been " internal." He...

SIR,—I have always admired Harold Nicolson's prose, if not always his views. This opinion is reinforced by reading his article on Civil Service English, which reveals an...

SIR,—In the News of the Week in your issue of April 16th you end the paragraph on the recent debate in the House of Commons on the abolition of capital punishment with the...

not, be wise. To write that it is " unquestionably wise " is, in my humble opinion, to write nonsense.—I am, Sir, your obedient servant, Springcroft, Spital Road, Bebington,...

SPECTATOR SUBSCRIPTION RATE FOR AIR EDITION TO U.S.A. & CANADA 52 weeks $14.00 (k3 10s. Od.); 26 weeks $7.00 (£ 1 15 s. Od.). Instructions and payment may be forwarded to:...

Influence from the South British Art and the Mediterranean. By F. Sail and R. Wittkower. (Oxford University Press. Three Guineas.) THE subject of this book is the relationship...

OVER a century ago when the world, shaken by the French Revolu- tion and the wars that followed, seemed on the brink of great changes, Tocqueville's work on democracy in America...

The Fire Ox and Other! Years. By Suydam Cutting. (Collins. 30s.) BETWEEN 1925 and 1939 Mr. Cutting travelled extensively. He accompanied Mr. Theodore and Mr. Kermit Roosevelt...

The Birth of the Christian Religion. By Alfred Loisy. Translated by L. P. Jacks, with a preface by Gilbert Murray. (Allen and Unwin. 18s.) Ir is a little difficult to understand...

NEITHER Mr. Spaight nor the Air League is particularly concerned about the justification of the views held by him in 193o ; the fact that this book is a sequel to Air Power and...

To escape from the weavers of webs to the dreamers of dreams— even when the dreamers are slightly forbidding—is a most agoeable truancy. But we should observe, I think, a...

The Drowned Sailor and Other Poems. By James Kirkup. (The Grey Walls Press. 6s.) The Wounded Prince and Other Poems. By Douglas Le Pan. (Chatto and Windus. 5s.) MR. KIRKUP does...

The Irish Tradition. By Robin Flower. (Oxford University Press. Cumberlege. 8s. 6d4 Our of the medley of religion, superstition and bardic legend which seems to have gone to...

and Art. Chosen by Nevile Wallis. With a Note on the Period by Holbrook Jackson. (Allan Wingate. 10s. 6d.) Tilts elegantly produced volume with its yellow jacket with a black-...

France : A Short History.. By Albert Guerard. (Allen and Unwin. 8s. 6d.) IN spite of certain defects this is an excellent short introduction to French history. Professor...

spare and unpretentious. His Land Without Heroes lies somewhere north of Mr. Leslie Halward's Birmingham and the Nottingham of D. H. Lawrence. It is a dark, rainy and -dangerous...

Hare. (Methuen. 4s. 6d.) MAURICE BARING claimed that hardly any literature equals the Russian in reproducing the spirited struggles of men, thus making Russian literature the...

oNIA A elk T , EIR oi :ST A C I - I A C s AR g 12. AIT! I o N IL CE ciR R k Alm! N AI.BIYIG.R!A N. E T o A 1-1-A!‘ E 1k ,E H • 010 1 1 - 0 M t3 N IV E 6244 E '11) N...

[A Book Token for one guinea will be awarded to the sender of the first correct solution of this week's crossword to be opened after noon on Tuesday week May 4th. . -Envelopes...

Guy de Selincourt. (Methuen. 12s. 6d.) WHAT Cardus has done for cricket, and Arnold Lunn for ski-ing, Mr. de Selincourt, assisted by delightful illustrations, does for the...

Press. 21s.) AT a time when the ideas and beliefs of the Victorians have been promoted to the dignity of the Third Programme, the re-issue of Dr. L. E. Elliott-Binns's scholarly...

By CUSTOS AFTER their pre-Budget exuberance markets have relapsed into a state of indecision which seems likely to continue for some time. Not even the Italian election...