The decision of the Turkish Government to exercise stricter control over the passage of German ships through the Straits is indication of a welcome improvement in the prospects...

T HE fall of Cherbourg may not be quite as imminent as some enthusiastic correspondents on the spot were predicting on Wednesday, but on the whole the prospects of prolonged...

It is satisfactory to know that all issues involved in the civil : - .Aministration of liberged France are at last being tackled on the Immediate and practical level by a mixed...

The Co-operative Commonwealth Federation victory in the Saskatchewan provincial elections last week savours of the sensa- tional. This left-wing party, which has never before...

The essential passage in Mr. Bevin's speech on the Government's employment policy in the House of Commons on Wednesday was the declaration that that policy "is directed to a...

of Commons last week, when the question of Defence Regulation 18B, under which Sir Oswald Mosley was, and Captain Ramsay, M.P. and a number of other persons still are, detained...

President Roosevelt, after eighteen months' careful consideration of diverse plans of an international organisation for peace and security after the war, has made known his...

E XUBERANT optimism is not one of the Prime Minister's characteristics. Reasoned confidence is. And when Mr. Churchill suggests on a public occasion that "the months of this...

'S NOTEBOOK T HE unanimity of the conviction that an answer to the flying bomb will soon be found is complimentary to our scientists. In fact, various answers are already...

By STRATEGICUS W HILE the campaign in Italy steadily tends to raise strategic questions of the highest importance, it is admittedly the developments in what has been called the...

By J. M. SPAIGHT T HE logical consequence of the establishment of the kind of international air force which is being advocated in some quarters now would be the disappearance...

By D. R. GILLIE The Thugs were a vast fraternity of murderers who flourished from one end of India to the other during the centuries of India's disunity. They had tranquil...

A Shelter Picture by Henry Moore THE artist sees the world in composition: In colour pattern rhythm line and light, And we in Moore's tube shelter sketch are seen As solid...

By A. USHER F ORTUNATE is he who can combine pleasure with duty, as I was able to recently, when in the course of a day's work I found myself at lunch-hour on the ancient...

NICOLSON By HAROLD A S I read of the fierce achievement of the United States' armies in cutting the Cotentin peninsula I seem to hear the wealthy denizens of Park Avenue or...

AT this white window by the Thames Where swans elide the labials of water, I sit and I must speak those names That, with my tongue like swan on thought, Are brought to my mind...

Follow the Boys." At the Leicester Square.---' , In Our Tillie." At Warners.--' , The True Story of Lill Marlene." At the Regal.--A , Conquest of a Germ." Generally released....

THE THEATRE WHAT a pleasure to be able to hail a real English masterpiece, a ballet which deserves to compare with many of the Productions of Diaghilev's great period. Well,...

Snt,—May I be granted a small space to oppose Mr. Gordon Males article (June tfith) on a few of his erroneous ideas? i. It is at best a gross exaggeration to suggest that there...

gm—Your article, "Fair Play for France," expresses very clearly what thousands must have felt when they heard that Mr. Churchill had visited the liberated coast of Normandy...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Si,—Professor A. Hill has indicated the right approach to the solution of the Indian problem. It is a matter of regret, however, that this right approach...

Sta,The attention of the Board has been drawn to the paragraph in the "Country Life" column of the issue of The Spectator on the 9th instant by Sir William Beach Thomas,...

your issue of June 6th a story, quoted by a correspondent, about two American soldiers who were billeted on a woman living alone. It is, of course, possible that it might have...

Snt,—Mr. P. A. Shaw, in recalling some facts about the first halfpenny evening paper, leaves the impression that the Echo was subject to frequent changes of editorship from its...

.has yet drawn attention to the matter, I wonder if it is not too late for me to comment on a passage in Mr. E. M. Gull's review of Agnes Smedley's book on China in your issue...

SIE,—The report of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologist, to which you make reference in your "News of the Week" notes in your - issue of June ifith, is plainly...

SIE,—Would you please allow me one more inch of this closed corre- spondence to satisfy Mr. Arnold Lunn as to the inaccuracy of the authority from which he takes his Blimp...

Victory," in your issue of June 9th, you say he continues "to tolerate German diplomatic agents in Dublin." Any stick will do to beat a dog, but this seems a very poor one, Do...

issue of June t6th on discussion and controversy in B.B.C. programmes, said he hoped that religious contention would not be favoured. May I ask why a frank discussion of...

What is a Poet ? • Study of Wordsworth. By J. C. Smith. (Oliver and Boyd. 5s.) IN these days, although little literary criticism of quality makes its appearance annually...

India in Outline. By Lady Hartog. (Cambridge University Prcss. 6s. READERS of Lady Hartog's Living India will not be disappointed with her latest work. India in Outline is a...

The Civil Defence of Malaya. Compiled by a Committee under th Chairman;hip of Sir George Maxwell. (Hutchinson. 7s. 6d.) THIS book purports to be as accurate an account as can be...

Reshaping Man's Heritage. By J. S. Huxley, H. G. Wells, J. B. S Haldane, J. C. Drummond, L. J. Witts, &c. (Allen and Unwin. 5s.) IN one of Peacock's novels there is a young...

Shorter Notices • Literature. By Gilbert Waterhouse. PROFESSOR WATERnonsE's book is intended primarily for university students, but also for the general reader. As usual with...

There was a poet in Jefferies and one in Hudson ; and there is one in Mr. Grant Watson. An ardent inquirer, a reporter of the curious in nature, and a collector of significant...

girls, they crosse d the Atlantic, unchaperoned, in search o f Europe ; which meant reallY , in spite of halts in London and elsewhere, Paris, France. They gil.! now their own...

Young Tom. By Forrest Reid. (Faber and Faber. 7 5. 6d.) The Barber's Trade Union and Other Stories. By Mulk Rai Anand. (tape. 7s. 6d.) Sweet is the Rose. By Helen Douglas...

3 Winner of Spectator Crossword No. 274, SURG. - LT. J. F. R. WITHY- MBE, R.N:V.R., Redcot, Exeter.

July 4th. Envelopes should be teceived not later than MUSI bear the word "Crossword," she NUMBER of the Scluttons must be on the form below, and none can be selunon of this...

Horace Rose. (Duckworth. 8s. 6d.) THERE is a weird magic as of King Solomon's Mines about the almost Chinese landscapes and Byzantine manners of the Ethiopian high lands. A lot...

IT has been generally accepted that the cuckoo is the only bird that sings a true musical interval. It has been saidthat the true major third, heard in May, often descends to a...

the north- western seaboard of Burma, where General Wave11 is beginning to press back the Japanese outposts on the Mayu River ; and it even mentions the Japanese, but only as...