I N the additional taxation which Sir Kingsley Wood proposed in his supplementary Budget, increasing the total by i166,000,000 this year, or £239,000,000 in a full year, he...

111HE importance of the Pan-American Conference which 1 opened at Havana on Monday may be very great or very small. If the United States has its way it will be the former; if...

The full implications of the change of Government in Japan have still to be revealed. While the new Cabinet is described as more pro-Axis than its predecessor, and military...

M. Gigurtu, the Rumanian Prime Minister, and the Ger- man Minister in Bucharest spent last week-end together;cloubt- less discussing the situation which will come to a head...

Russia is actively consolidating her outposts. The occupa- tion of Bessarabia in the south is followed by the assimilation of the republics of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in...

The value of Parliament as a safeguard against the undue surrender of liberties which cannot be completely sacrificed even in war-time was shown in the concessions forced on the...

best with all the figures, but they were larger than ever. As he announced tax after tax the House of Commons became hardened to the process. It is too soon to see the Budget as...

Sir John Anderson went in to bat. The Prime Minister took the first ball and hit two sixes, the pavilion cheered every stroke. His answer to the gloomy Mr. Oswald Lewis about...

Our Parliamentary correspondent writes: I spoke last week of agriculture and commended the new Ministers. The week ended with Food, and here again Lord Woolton and Mr. Boothby...

Mr. Duff Cooper met the Press Advisory Committee of the linistry of Information last Friday and informed it that the roposal to set up a Press Censorship Board would not be...

of confidence have en caused by the recent changes in the Army High Corn- d. Already in the key position of Chief of Staff Was eneral Sir John Dill, who is felt to be...

With that felicity of phrase of which he is a recognised aster the Prime Minister adroitly but decisively gave the oup de grace on Tuesday to the "Silent Column" campaign...

good that, as the war moves towards its supreme crisis, so far as this country is concerned, the issues in the balance should have been defined by speakers on either side and...

IR JOHN AND'IRSON'S statement last Tuesday about the treatment of aliens in this country is profoundly sappointing. He promises to extend the exemptions and re- ove the abuses...

came to England precisely a year ago—on July 26 1939—with the help of the Society of Friends. Though never a politician, he had always been strongly anti-Nazi, and he was...

I T was George II, I think, who said of his generals that he didn't know what effect they had on the enemy, but they frightened him. In a very different way the Prime Minister...

figures of aircraft production in this country. Considerable interest, therefore attaches to an article by the Sunday Times air corre- spondent stating that Germany's present...

fr Inke d by three to cent stamps bearing the head of Jane AddanA the well-known social worker who was so long the head of House, Chicago. Is this the first time any woman's...

seems to me utterly unimaginative and shortsighted. The economic gain must be trifling compared with the psycho- logical loss. Not only do the uniforms give the wearers certain...

and dexterous though the Prime Minister's con- duct of that operation was, obviously puts the Minister for In- formation in a difficult position, for it was Mr. Duff Cooper...

By STRATEGICUS ERR HITLER'S speech will not seem over-impressive to those who have seen the preparations that have been de for his reception in Britain. It is impossible hate...

By VISCOUNT SAMUEL T HE great part that has been played by Britain in the world's history is due, plainly enough, to geographical position, climate and resources, combined with...

By KENNETH LINDSAY, M.P. T HERE are four main reasons why communal feeding will 1 become more important as the war continues, and a fifth reason which is so obvious and perhaps...

By ERWIN D. CANHAM By Air-Mail. T HE creation of a vast citizen-army in the United States is now under way; the Government, with national opinion likely to come along...

IT would be strange If at a crucial question, in wild-beast dens Or cellars sweating with pain the stammerers Should find their confidence. It would be strange If the...

By A. L. ROWSE M ANY people—the Government itself, to judge from some of its pronouncements—have been struck by the similarity of our situation today to that in 1587-8, that...

Readers are again reminded of the necessity of ordering "The Spectator" regularly, since newsagents can no longer be supplied on sale-or-return terms.

Saving Seed A SINGLE plant of tobacco (Nicotiana affinis) may succeed setting 350,000 seeds ; in Certain species of orchid this number may be increased to a million. Many...

week it is pleasant to recall that Gilbert White, exactly one hundred and fifty years ago this week, had something to say: "Lime-trees are fragrant" (he wrote on July 25th,...

comment on the situation as a whole. Salvage is one of these cases. Six weeks ago I was asked by my Rural District Council to arrange for the collection of salvage in my own...

sudden touch of autumn to the July countryside. The first plums, Early Rivers, are ripe for cooking ; dewberries are heavily bloomed with purple. It is possible once more to...

The Grapes of Wrath. At the Odeon. THE cinema is a young art. It hardly existed at the beginning of the century. For forty years it has been largely exploited as an industry,...

in the House as rePo.ted in Hansard, the following facts may be of interest. They stem to this committee to show a most careless lack of feeling and an of imagination. A lad of...

read so much in The Spectator and other enlightened journals about the refugee internee aliens that I have been wondering whether these journals really represent English...

[In view of the paper shortage it is essential that letters on these pages should be brief. We are anxious not to reduce the number of letters, but unless they are shorter they...

letter in The Times dealing with the cases of my son and husband. The writer of that letter is not known to me personally, and I was not shown the letter before it was printed....

Sot,—On May ioth the Hants County Police arrested two Winchester College boys—one an Austrian and one a German refugee—both Jews —for no other offence than that Winchester is in...

Sfit,—It seems to me a convenience in terminology to keep up a distinction between " dogma " and "doctrine." "Dogma" should be used with a communal connotation: it is a belief...

under the Government's Scheme for the Children's 0'.`er", seas Evacuation could be overcome by entrusting the International Re° Cross Society with the execution of this scheme....

Ste,—If overseas evacuation is now possible the neediest classes are obvious: little children, orphan children, children who, for various reasons, cannot be evacuated from...

and a Conservative betrayal. If they refer to his policy of "appeasement," he had no alternative. He had to reap what others had sown. Continual disarmament and a pacifist...

against Dr. Se!hie. Mr. Sanders contends that the work of a professor or schoolmaster in any faculty only carries conviction to his pupils because it has behind it the authority...

the type mentioned by the Misses Oram in their letter, and as one who dislikes vague rhetoric and unsubstantiated accusations, I should be grateful if they would state exactly...

Ste,—If the people of a country are sixty feet high, how would a shipwrecked Englishman fare amongst them? Gulliver was Swift's effective answer to this query. If there are...

sm,—When the history of events leading to the present war will be given their true perspective one man and one man alone will be condemned by the British people for not warning...

Sta,—Ther,:. are today in this country democratic Governments or National Committees, representing the free peoples of France, Bel- gium, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, and...

Sia,—May I urge that the War Emergency Liquor Control which was set up during the last war under the able chairmanship of Lord D'Abernon should be revived as quickly as...

wonder whether after all there is anything in the familiar contention, now supported by Mr. Charles Morgan and Mr. Henry W. Nevinson, that " culture " of the brand they have in...

StR,—Though it is with hesitation that I question so great an authority on tanks as Sir Ernest Swinton, I would like to point out that there is a distinct difference between a...

last week's issue the paramount importance of the moral factor in this war—because that is the key note of " total " war. The dominant note before the war and now, both at home...

Dame Ethel Smyth What Happened Next. By Ethel Smyth. (Longmans. 151.) DAME ETHEL SMYTH'S position in the history of music cannot yet be assessed with any degree of certainty;...

Germany: Jekyll and Hyde. By Sebastian Haffner. (Seeker and Warburg. 8s. 6d.) THE authors of both these books, on the problem presented to the world by the German mentality,...

THIS agreeable and interesting collection of letters belongs, in spite of the dates on the title-page, almost entirely to the first stretch of Livingstone's African career, the...

The Trodden Road. By Albert Mansbridge, C.H. (Dent. is.) The Trodden Road is Dr. Albert Mansbridge's pleasant and notable biography. It is a record of many originations • of...

Kerillis on the Causes. By Henri de Kerillis and Raymond Cartier. (Putnam. 5s.) THE French original of this book was entitled Laisserons-Nous Demembrer la France? and was...

An Irish Journey. By Sean O'Faolain. With illustrations by Paul Henry. (Longmans. 12s. 6d.) HERE is an ideal travel book on Ireland ; unfortunately it has appeared at a moment...

Another Time. Poems by W. H. Auden. (Faber, 7s. 6d.) MR. AUDEN has always been fluent, he has always been ready to turn out a piece of slack, gossipy verse for a social or...

THE novel of sensibility easily becomes a bore. Certainly Clarissa has its langueurs ; but we plod on through the heroine's inter- minable examinations of conscience and motive,...

Journey Into China. By Violet Cressy-Marcks. (Hodder and Stoughton. 21S.) THE chief value of this book lies in the part dealing with China's Reds—Part IV—and in its concluding...

Fifty Years Work in London. By the Right Rev. A. F. Winning- ton-Ingram. (Longmans. tos. 6d.) "Tuts is not an autobiography," say the publishers, and, in the strict sense of the...

What Mussolini Did To Us. By Dr. Paolo Treves. (Gollancz 525. 6d.) DR. TREVES'S book is not, as publishers suggest, an important contribution to history. It is under-documented...

her text with many spirited sketches of incidents and people encountered on her travels through Sikkim, the small mountainous State which borders Tibet and British India. In...

GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY, LIMITED RECORD PROFIT CONTRIBUTION TO WAR EFFORT THE CHAIRMAN'S REPORT The annual general meeting of the General Electric Company, Limited, was held...

THE STANDARD BANK OF SOUTH AFRICA, LIMITED The 127th ordinary meeting of the Standard Bank of South Africa was held at the Head Office of the Bank, to, Clements Lane, London,...

ANGLO-DUTCH PLANTATIONS OF JAVA EFFECT OF WAR ON COMMODITY PRICES TEA AND RUBBER POSITION THE 30th ordinary general meeting of the Anglo-Dutch Plantations of Java Ltd. was...

By CUSTOS HAVING steeled itself for a really severe Budget, the City has received the Chancellor's proposals with feelings of relLf mingled with disappointment. Faced with a...

IA prize of a Book Token for one guinea will be given to the sender of the first met solution of this week's crossword puzzle to be opened. Envelopes should be wr k e d "...

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