M GROMYKO, having held up the adjournment of the United Nations Assembly in New York by his insistence on making a speech on the recent riots • at Pongam prison-camp, only...

Things are quieter in Tunisia now that the Bey has come to the conclusion that for the moment French pressure is less easily resisted than that of the nationalists around him,...

So sudden was M. Pinay's announcement of his Govern- ment's resignation that it is hardly surprising that President Auriol showed some reluctance to accept it. It is true that...

The admission of " neutralists," pacifists and others to the ranks of the partisans of peace made very little difference to the final vote when the Vienna Peace Congress broke...

The intimation in Mr Harold Nicolson's " Marginal Comment " on a later page of this issue that he feels that he can no longer undertake to produce an article a week for the...

There must be many people making Christmas journeys this year who wonder how, in the light of the British Transport Commission's intention to raise fares yet again, they can...

Those Washington correspondents who have decided that an agreement will shortly be signed under which the United States naval and air forces will obtain bases in Spain have not...

I T needs something of an effort to recall one. The politically- minded might feel it necessary to go back to 1910 or thereabouts, those halcyon days when a war seven thousand...

T HE decision of the Dune of Edinburgh to take up flying, and his success in completing his first solo flight after ten hours' tuitiop, is very interesting, and from one point...

auto- biography, decorated with sketches by himself, at Christie's to an American purchaser, has presented the proceeds-350 guineas—to the Church of the Good Shepherd, Lower...

of the periodical broadcast conversations between the Spectator's German cor- respondent, Ernst Friedlaender, and the German Chancellor. Since it took place last week it...

and widely mourned as a journalist among journalists, but much more as a friend among friends. As Foreign Editor of The Times he was highly efficient, not indeed in the sense...

considering seriously the introduction of legislation making it an offence to be found in possession of an offensive weapon without lawful reason in a public place, but the...

By MARGERY MUMFORD Kitale, Kenya. 0 N the drive to Kitale I wondered why some settlers had passed through all that lovely country, undulating downland, vast fields of barley...

For many years J. P. W. Mallalieu's Spectator articles on sport, whether football of either code, cricket or tennis or the Boat Race, have been widely appreciated and widely...

B) RICHARD GARNETT T O the amateur diver the Mediterranean is the most hospitable of seas. There is no tide to disturb the mud on the bottom; the sand as a rule is too coarse...

Set by Six Fellows of St. John's College, Cambridge. Who wrote ? a. Forgive my transports on a theme like this; I cannot bear a French metropolis. b. Then said the fat-faced...

. . NE summer afternoon, about forty years ago, when I 0 was a child, three middle-aged Quakers came to call. Our visitors belonged to a small group which broke off from the...

B I REDA TURNER T T nine o'clock on Christmas Eve, as on any other eve, the European area was dim and quiet; but down in the town, through which our way to the hospital lay,...

)y HAROLD NICOLSON M ANY years ago I read a story by Sir John Squire about a man who wrote his own obituary. Sir John described how this individual, having failed as a poet,...

Marching Along. (Odeon, Marble Arch.)—Botany Bay. (Plaza.) THIS is the week when good film-critics make a succinct r6sumo of the year's films, commenting on influences and...

THEATRE Dear Charles. By Alan Melville, after. " Les Enfants d'Edouard " by Marc-Gilbert Sauvajon and Frederick Jackson. (New.) ALL'S grist to the comic mill that grinds down...

As I was walking in a wood On Christmas Eve, I heard a heart begin to grieve, "0 the holly and the ivy and the running deer Bring Christmas near. "But fear and war have...

FEW concerts given by the Royal Philharmonic Society can have had a stranger programme than that of December 17th. Sir Thomas Beecham, who conducted the Royal Philharmonic...

THE new production of Swan Lake at Covent Garden is most exciting. This four-act ballet has now been lengthened, enlarged and re-dressed, and it is greatly to the credit of all...

This map, stretched out and definitely shaded Green for the plains and contour-brown each hill, A later colour marks, though summer faded, The summer journey traced, indelible...

Vicarage, Oxford, writes to me about the fact that some old country-people are suspicious of " pipe" water and prefer water from the pump, and he goes on to mention- that, when...

Dig over ground that will be planted with vegetables later. After spreading manure or compost, turn the soil and leave the plot to benefit from the frost. A shallot or onion bed...

When Bob goes out with his dog he does not simply go for a walk. He beats about the hedge, the dead bracken and the gorse. The dog finds a scent, and Bob follows almost as...

Now that the rain has ceased, each branch and leaf Glitters with bubble and bauble ; a breeze stirs Faint as the breath of gently sleeping child, So faint indeed that not a...

UP at Ty Nwydd—the new house—which is not new but old and is not just a house but a farm, they were busy when I called. I was directed to a shed where the men were at work, and...

A friend has given me an account of an unpleasant experience suffered by his wife on two occasions when she prepared a rabbit for the pot. Each time.the carcass had been skinned...

Royal College of Art Students' Exhibition; (R.W.S. Galleries.) ANYONE interested in the directions that " official " art is taking in this country should visit the exhibition of...

Set by A. V. Coton The Sadler's Wells Theatre Ballet is now rehearsing The Great Detective. This is "not based on any particular book or even episode" but is described as "a...

Report by John Usborne Prizes were offered for an improved version of Good King Wenceslas. .. one of his (Neale's) less happy pieces.... The time has not come for a...

Privacy and the Press Sill,—Mr. C J. Slade's article on " privacy and the Press," however well-meant, is not very helpful to the journalist, however welt-meaning. It may be...

abuses our Foreign Secretary. Mr. Anthony Eden, for being polite to the Head of Yugoslavia who is not a Roman Catholic. Surely he should know that our Prime Minister, Winston...

SIR,—Despite cries to the contrary from parties with private axes to grind, the temper of this country still remains fundamentally liberal and Protestant. It can surely be...

Sts,—Janus's comments on the case of the Z Reservist who had become a conscientious objector prompts me to write about the Supplementary Reservist (the ex-National Service man)...

SIR, —It is well that " the truth of things " is known in heaven. It is obviously not known in Winchester, for Canon Roger Lloyd in his article in your issue of December 19th on...

SIR,—In Patterns for Africa in your issue of December 12th, reference is made to only European and African, and white and black. May I ask where in the future racial....

A a CHRISTMAS, 1852 THOUGH a few Lords of Parliament may feel aggrieved by the duty of waiting on a Ministerial crisis, the English people gathered round their Christmas...

SIR.—In spite of the understandably reserved tone of the communique issued at the close of the Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conference, one thing is manifest: the ascendancy of...

The Creation of British India The East India Company in Ei g hteenth-Century Politics, By Lucy S. Sutherland. (Cl a rendon Press, Oxford. 35s.) To ride ahead, to shoot strai g...

RARELY has the true stature of an artist been so successfully dis g uised by popular acclamation as in the case of Fra An g elico. He was hardly dead when the title " an g...

The Shores of Li g ht: A Literary Chronicle of the Twenties and Thirties. By Edmund Wilson. (W. H. Allen. 25s.) THE bulk of this book is made up of short criticisms, rept inted-...

I ) • • • • THIS is a distinguished piece of work. Other men might have written a more formal and more stodgy history of what has been achieved in education since 1852, but...

Tuts work is in two volumes, each complementary to the other. The first volume was published as long ago as 1949 as an illustrated historical survey. The plates in that volume...

Rowanberry Wine. By Dorothy Cowlin. (Cape. 12s. 6d.) Julien Ware. By Guthrie Wilson. (Hale. 10s. 6d.) MATTHEW ARNOLD: "The mass of current literature is so much better...

for one guinea will be awarded to the sender of the first correct solution opened alter noon on Tuesday week, January 6th, addressed Crossword. 99 Cower Street, London, W.C.1....

Solution on January 9 The winner of Crossword No. 708 is: F. C. GEAuy,Esq., Windmill House, Mill Hill, Shoreham-by-Sea.

what is now acclaimed as the first important architectural monument to the New Movement in Europe. That was the Glasgow School of Art of which, in the concluding words of his...

DISREGARDING a friend's advice that where you have been happy never return, Sir Robert Bruce Lockhart recently revisited seven of the free countries of Europe. He found...

WOOD observes in the last chapter of his book on the film magnate that "it is not the habit of the modern world to delve deep," and one must be forgiven for de- tecting a...

The Lilac and the Rose. By Susan Tweeds- muir. (Gerald Duckworth. 12s. 6d.) SENSITIVE, innocent to the point of naiveté, and above all undemanding, books such as this carry us...

By CUSTOS THE usual pre-Christmas quietude in stock markets has been accentuated by the uncer- tainties still clouding the outlook. Will the New Year bring a substantial decline...