prospective encounter between the two first elevens of ,!he Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia on czeeh soil is not quite the Czech diplomatic eQup it has been painted. Rather, it...

In the emergency debate on the supply of arms to Nigeria on 12 June, the Foreign Secretary said that 'the words and actions of General Gowon to which I draw the atten- tion of...

The case for votes at eighteen is paradoxi- cally that, because of delays in getting on the register and the (relative) infrequency of parliamentary elections, it means on...

Czechoslovakia's fate hung in the balance. Mr Dubcek, the prime minister, scored a diplo- matic success by getting the Russians to agree that the two countries' leaders should...

POLITICAL COMMENTARY JOCK BRUCE-GARDYNE, MP It used to be said that the Tory party existed to govern, and the Labour party to oppose. Then Harold Wilson was supposed to have...

CHRISTOPHER HOLLIS I've said it once, I've said it twice. I'm much obliged for your advice. But, if you'll pardon my persistence, I'd sooner see you at a distance. It's very...

AMERICA MURRAY KEMPTON New York—Talking to Mr Nixon is like talking to his manager. But then, since he has so long had to make do without either great property or conspicuous...

CZECHOSLOVAKIA JAN ADAM Van Adam' is the pseudonym of a Czech rnarxist economist who spent several years in prison under the former Czech regime in the 1950s and now lives in...

NIGERIA AUBERON WAUGH Lisbon—This city has been the scene of some fairly intense diplomatic activity by the British Embassy to prevent Portuguese tolerance of the mercy flights...

PUBLIC SCHOOLS STUART MACLURE Ai all the portents suggested it would be, the Newsom report is a dead duck. But there is no doubt about its ingenuity. Sir John Newsom has driven...

STRIX The figures given for the number of•Russian troops still in Czechoslovakia vary widely; but the Red Army contingent which took part in the Warsaw Pact manoeuvres seems...

From the 'Spectator', 25 July I868—The two strongest amendments to the Bribery Bill were lost on Saturday. Sir E. Goldsmid proposed that when a victorious candidate was unseated...

PERSONAL COLUMN NORMAN ST JOHN-STEVAS, MP With the fate of the House of Lords in the balance and the consensus (from which I can be counted out) that the hereditary principle...

THE PRESS BILL GRUNDY As I understand it, the reason why in the country of the blind the one-eyed man is king is that with his one eye he can see, however dimly. It is, I...

MEDICINE JOHN ROWAN WILSON Recently I broke my reading glasses and went to the optician for a new pair. While I was there it occurred to me that I ought to have my eyes tested...

CONSUMING INTEREST LESLIE ADRIAN For the purposes of this sermon I wish you to apprehend that the major difference be- tween a motor-car and a human being lies in their...

TELEVISION STUART HOOD it is rather large and rather frightening. No doubt we shall get used to its being there. The man who came to install it did nothing to assuage our...

CRUISES DENIS BROGAN It was with some interest that I read that the Cunard Line has sent the captain-to-be of the new 'Queen Elizabeth' to a business school to learn how to...

GORDON HOLMAN If the sun is going to shine on our weather- bedeviled island, it seems a fair assumption that the summer months are the most likely time in which to achieve a...

LORD REITH Monk Gibbon, born in 1896, is still writing; only three years of his life-1916-18--covered in Inglorious Soldier (Hutchinson 70s), with three pages pre-1916; a...

FRANCES DONALDSON The London Venture Michael Arlen with an introduction by Noel Coward (Cassell First Novel Library 6s) The heroine of The London Venture is called Shelmerdine,...

PETER FLEMING The Espionage Establishment David Wise and Thomas B. Ross (Cape 35s) The Secret War for Europe Louis Hagen (Macdonald 35s) 'Much of what is written about...

Cool views BARRY COLE The Gasteropod Maggie Ross (Barrie/Cresset 25s) The Bark-Tree Raymond Queneau translated by Barbara Wright (Calder and Boyars 45s) The Soft Machine...

(Cassell 50s) Bumptious blimp ROBERT BLAKE The murder of Senator Kennedy lends a macabre timeliness to this biography of the last political figure to be assassinated in...

CHRISTOPHER FILDES 'What was needed now was money to buy the carbines from the Government for $17,500 so that they could be altered slightly and sold back to the Government for...

THOMAS .BRAUN Here is a collection of essays and reviews, written over the last eight years. Their author has wide interests. He has studded his book with references to modern...

ALEC DOUGLAS-HOME Over the Hills W. Keble Martin (Michael Joseph 30s) No one who is a naturalist can afford to be without Mr Keble Martin's The Concise British Flora in Colour,...

HENRY McALEAVY Viet-Nam and the West Ralph Smith (Heine- mann 35s) 'Geographical proximity to China,' says Mr Honey, 'was always the cause of most of Viet- nam's troubles, and...

JOHN HIGGINS Of all the underground theatres which have opened in London during the past few weeks none has made a better start than The Open Space, to be found in a cellar...

Up the meanies PENELOPE IIOUSTON Exit Smiling (National Film Theatre 31 July) It somehow seems inevitable that the Beatles should turn up as heroes of an animated car- toon....

ART BRYAN ROBERTSON The assembly of sculpture by Henry Moore at the Tate, staged as a tribute on his seventieth birthday, is a stirring sight in its concentration and power....

MICHAEL NYMAN Not the least of the virtues of the City of London Festival has been the five new commis- sioned works spread throughout the twenty or so concerts. Without going...

PETER OPPENHEIMER Peter Oppenheimer is a Student (i.e. Fellow) of Christ Church, Oxford. The perennial discussions about equal pay for women have cropped up again in recent...

ADVERTISING ROGER PEMBERTON Not everybody knows that, as a reward for the vital contribution they make to the system. advertising agencies and advertisers have an riv programme...

CHRISTOPHER FILDES I cannot but warm to the `damn-you-all' statement from Sir Antony Hornby and Lord Harcourt. So the takeover panel thinks their firms—Cazenoves and Morgan...

BUSINESS VIEWPOINT REX MALIK For the last ten years, the effects of the com- puter have been largely felt by the public at second hand. But we are now within measurable...

CUSTOS The London market has slipped back. In- vestors, having taken the Financial Times index to 492.5—yet another new record—on Friday of last week, were uncertain where to...

PORTFOLIO JOHN BULL The London market is getting very excited about Kaiser Steel, an American West Coast steel producer. What has suddenly been noticed is that its 36 per cent...

his ancient history is plain wrong (19 July). Vespasian, not Caligula, used the contents of the public urinals to enhance the imperial revenue; and he didn't tax them, he sold...

Sir : Your editorial (19 July) correctly points out the fallacy of believing that within the Conservative party there exists -t distinct group, regarded by everyone as the...

his conversion from being a Peter Simple caricature of the Establishment leftie' into an equally uncritical acceptance of the `Rightie' package of attitudes (19 July). Parti-...

July). At long last the kind of leader most Conservatives hope for! A. Lothian The Penthouse, Putsborough, Georgeham, N. Devon

LETTERS From: Michael Hudis, Aidan Foster Carter, 4. Lothian, W. Sweeney. Alan Smith, Mary Renault, W. Horsfall Carter, Douglas W. Franklin, the Rev Fred Sessa, David Hopkin-...

Sir: President Kaunda of Zambia is now in London asking the British government for arms to defend his country; while armed men from Zambia have been entering Rhodesia and...

Sir: Demand for expansion does start within education, but not as Mr Maclure suggests (12 July); rather from the obedience of the profes- sional educationist to Parkinson's...

Sir: Bill Grundy, writing on the press (12 July), inadvertently attributed to that dis- tinguished newspaperman, Tom Hopkinson, a truism of mine. Mr Hopkinson is, of course,...

Sir: I must say I felt myself put off by the last thought of Auberon Waugh's book review con- cerning Wilderness Kingdom by Father Nicholas Point (12 July): . . at a time when...

Sir: I appreciate and on the whole quite agree with Mr Hopcutt's expanded remarks on Greek homosexuality (Letters, 12 July). In particular I like his conclusion with regard to...

Sir: Mr Jock Bruce-Gardyne (12 July) is, as always, cogent and convincing on the achieve- ments and the limitations of the ten-year-old Brussels Community. I would recommend him...

Sir: I deplore the printing of the two obscene, words in the review of the James Baldwin book (12 July). If the reviewer thinks that that kind of quotation must be given then he...

AFTERTHOUGHT JOHN WELLS If there is one thing about which it is possible to generalise, it is that generalisations are seldom illuminating. To say that all ballet dancers are...

Trevor Grove reports: Competitors were invited to submit excerpts from the classified ad ('Transplants') pages of some medical journal of the near future—Exchange and Heart...

COMPETITION Set by T. L. Roy: Competitors are invited to write an extract from St Paul's Epistle to the Permissive Society. Entries should not exceed 150 words and must be in,...

PHILIDOR Black Whi:c 10 men P. ten Cate (1st Prize, Austral Tourney, 1923). White to play and mate in two moves; solution next week. Solution to no. 396 (Umnov): B - Kt 2,...

Across 1 'There is in souls a — with sounds' (Cowper) (8) 5 Philosopher of the self-service stores? (6) I hope that it will be enough to induce some to want to read the...