W ITH the launching of General Auchinleck's offensive in Egypt the war generally gathers towards a climax. News from this particular field arrives slowly ; it is natural enough...

F the capital purpose of the leaders of the Congress Party in India was to demonstrate their country's unfitness for self- overnment they could have chosen no course better...

T HE leading article on the War Cabinet in Wednesday's Times was discreet, but suggestive. Its main concrete proposal, and even that took the form of a tentative question, was...

By STRATEGICUS T HE most revealing fact about the general military situation is the absence of any material change during the last week. The tactical position has changed,...

By B. SEEBOHM ROWNTREE T HE profound change which has taken place in the character of industry in recent times is primarily due to the rapid growth of technological knowledge,...

By MAJOR R. A. C. RADCLIFFE is, I think, common knowledge that one of the most serious adverse factors affecting coal production in this country today is the shortage of young...

By Silt STEPHEN TALLENTS M ARGERY the laundress. Robert the weaver, Hubert the cook, Simon the miller, William the shepherd, Reynold the carpenter, Godiva the widow, Walter the...

By AMABEL WILLIAMS-ELLIS E ACH hostel holds a thousand women and girls ; there are four, five, sometimes seven, hostels in a group ; there are four or five such groups in...

By HAROLD NICOLSON D URING the Boa War we had a large map of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State mounted upon cardboard and propped upon the blackboard easel in Great...

week's Promenade programmes was a pianoforte concerto by Alan Rawsthorne, which was con- ducted by the composer with Mr. Louis Kentner as pianist. This proved to be not a new...

" The Springtime of Others." By Jean-Jacques Bernard, translated by J. Leslie Frith, at the Arts Theatre Club. THIS play in three acts by one of the best known of French...

THE week's propaganda ration brings up again the old problem of the relationship between mass-appeal and naiveté. When Soviet film-makers decide to be naive (fortunately it...

ART THE large Matthew Smith show at the Lefevrc Gallery is disappoint- ing. Only a few of the paintings look as good as one feels they all ought to look. The boldness and...

space to deal with the contradictions and. para- doxes of Mr. Theobald's letter " Not too much Importance " must be attached to my appeal, but Dr. Paton's endorsement of it is...

far from being, as Mr. B. G. Theobald suggests, " a purely personal point of view," represents, I believe, a passion for Christian reunion which, in the face of our present...

see the universal Church inspired with " the spirit of truth, unity and concord," may I suggest that your correspondent Mr. B. G. Theobald has faced the question of unity...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR SIR, —Never in history was any people on earth more responsible for thcir Government and all the crimes which will for ever be connected with the German...

(I thought obvious) comments " anti-Soviet propaganda." I have a great admira- tion for the U.S.S.R. And I had supposed that one of the planks in its magnificent unity had from...

Sig,—Mr. Peter F. Wiener states in The Spectator of July 17th that Die Zeitung sponsors a Free German Movement. Mr. Wiener even refers to a statement of the Minister of...

SIR,—" John Haden " should not write any more verses about cricket—at all events in a journal read in America, where they think poorly of the game. In "Lord's Cricket Ground "...

the principles involved should be borne in mind. The very first words of the Prayer Book are these: "It bath been the wisdom of the Church of England, ever since the compiling...

SIR,—A remark of " Clusius " in your July loth issue raised an impor- tant point touching the intervention of Christian ministers in politics. He noted that the Bishop of...

Snt,—In your issue of July 17th Professor Orwin makes a sweeping statement regarding the presen' controlled prices fot farm produce. "Prices for produce have been fixed at...

SIR,—As one removed by only three years from "Clusius's" crucial age, eight to fourteen, I feel entitled to question Mr. Harold Nicolson's assertion that reading is difficult to...

I must yet protest indignantly at Mr. Nicolson's scathing remark in The Spectator of July 57th that " the works of Charles Kingsley were really unreadable." At the age of 14 I,...

THE chief of the Q. department of a house in the country journeyed some seven miles to consult The food controller's office. Three straight- forward queries were put, and after...

SIR,—Mr . Swinnerton's article contained such an intelligent challenge to those of us who ought to be writing interpretative fiction and are not that it is a pity he took it no...

Retrospect of an Unimportant Life. By Herbert Hensley Henson, Volume One, 1863-192o. (Oxford University Press. 16s.) FOR more than fifty years Dr. Hensley Henson has kept a...

The Moral Victorians Victorian Prelude. By Maurice J. Quinlan. (Columbia University Press. Published in England by Humphrey Milford. 208.) HYPOCRISY, as the late Professor...

The Germans. By Emil Ludwig. Translated by Heinz and Ruth Norden. (Hamish Hamilton. I2S. 6d.) Emil. LUDWIG sets out to answer the familiar riddle—" How is it possible for the...

The Twilight of France. By Alexander Werth. (Hamish Hamilton. This is Not the End of I2S. 6d.) France. By Gustav Winter. (Allen and Unwin. I2s. 6d.) MR. WERTH'S book (40o pages...

But We Are Exiles. By Elisabeth Kyle. (Peter Davies. 8s. 6d.) Scarlet Petticoat. By Nard Jones. (Hamish Hamilton. 9s.) Over the Border. By George A. Birmingham. (Methuen. 8s....

revised Russian edition by J. A. Joffe with an introduction by Carl Van Vechten. (Seeker and Warburg. 36s.) Tins new edition of Rimsky-Korsakov's autobiography is translated...

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. Ente'opes should be received not...

The winner of Crossword No. Lullings, Balcombe, Sussex. 174 is Michael Holland, Esq., SOLUTION ON AUGUST 7th

IT is curious that many publishers, as well as the B.B.C., seem unaware how much more telling and readable is a " plain unvar- nished tale " (when there is a tale to be told)...

which the B.B.C. producer responsible assures us has been, like greatness, thrust upon those taking part in the Any Questions programme—is a typical by-product of a jour-...

By CUSTOS THERE is no disputing the trend in the stock markets. So long as the war news remains only moderately discouraging weight of money will call the tune and prices will...