Did Mr. Acheson know about the North Korean bombings before he left Washington ? The State Department was apparently consulted beforehand, so presumably he did. One result of...

N Monday a carefully co-ordinated, unopposed and successful attack by some 500 fighters and fighter- bombers of the Fifth Air Force, the U.S. Navy, and the Marine Corps was...

In a somewhat hectic peroration to a speech on the renewal of the Licence of the B.B.C. in the Commons on Monday, Mr. Gordon Walker asserted that a Labour Govern- ment would...

The frankness with which Communists are prepared to change their tactics is in strong contrast to the furtiveness with which they usually put their plans into action. At first...

There is only one thing now that can extinguish in an instant all the rumours of discontent in the Tory ranks over Mr. Churchill's leadership and that is a word from Mr....

It is improbable that the American suggestion for an impar- tial enquiry into the Russian and Chinese charges of germ warfare in Korea will be taken up, and equally improbable...

Next week's "Spectator" will be a special Summer Number. It will contain, in addition to all the usual features by Harold Nicolson, Virginia Graham, Marlin Cooper, fain Hamilton...

at the bombing of the hydro-electric power- stations in North Korea. For half an hour on Tuesday it endeavoured to reason the Speaker out of his ruling against an immediate...

The shortage of newsprint is no longer a problem, but the price of it is. Stocks are embarrassingly high—perhaps even high enough to justify the abolition of rationing if the...

L ONG before the present Conservative Government came to power a few voices prophesying industrial war were raised within the trade union movement. Among the - first—if not the...

suspicious in their attitude not only to their allies but to each other. General MacArthur and—even more con- spicuously—the late General Stilwell exemplified this trait in an...

A SUPREME Commander should be a big man even if he cannot be a great one, and I find it difficult to excuse General Mark Clark for his failure to tell Field- Marshal Alexander...

they are required to answer irrelevant or impertinent or difficult to understand. None of these charges can be levelled against the last item on a list of questions sent to...

it was almost-too much to expect that the letter to the Straits Times criticising Mr. Malcolm Macdonald for appearing at a concert without his dinner jacket shquld have been...

to report favourably on his experience of a measure of State control for independent schools, finishes his letter with the words: " And, anyhow, who is there in his heart does...

after joining one of the big firms in Burma, was sent up country on a long tour in company with a senior member of the firm whom he did not much like. The old hand changed into...

felicitous performances in popular journalism, is this week divided between (a) the sub-editor who put the headline " JUNGLE- MAN MOVES " on the announcement that the C.-in-C....

By ROBERT WAITHMAN Washington. N INE-TENTHS of the election talk in America at this moment is being devoted to the Republican Party; to the struggle between Mr. Eisenhower and...

By LORD KINROSS S MILES, surprisingly, greeted me at the aerodrome. Was I a tourist ? Yes, in a sense I was. With more smiles I was ushered into a V.I.P.'s sitting-room,...

By DAVID THOMSON T HE announcement by the Minister of Education that the value of State Scholarships to universities has been revised upwards, without any decrease in the...

By J. P. W. MALLALIEU, M.P. FTER the First World War I would 'have given all my A pocket-money to watch G. L. Patterson, Suzanne Len- glen and Bill Tilden. Patterson had that...

Coloured Boys- By OLIVER JACKMAN (Magdalene College, Cambridge) T EY, bud ! " Turning in the direction of this incisive trans- atlantic greeting, I half expected to see some...

By HAROLD N1COLSON I HAVE hitherto been unable to decide what attitude an English gentleman should adopt in the handling of foreign languages. I agree that he is not one if he...

as a " farcical comedy," but to my dismay I was unable to recognise the presence of farce in any strength. It is, in fact, a genial kitchen comedy in the Northern manner, played...

THEATRE Tlie'Pink Room. By Rodney Ackland. (Lyric, Hammersmith.) Ir is sub-titled " The Escapists," and we -know roughly what we are in for when we see the hag-ridderi, the...

The Importance of Being Earnest. (Odeon)—L'Uomo dal Guanto Grigio. (Studio One.)—Tora-No-0. (Rialto.) EVEN if it were acted by yokels, there is nothing, I think, more delightful...

take the tip and not fail to carry a pair of scissors to the telephone when it rings op the evening when the husband is out. There is no knowing what might reach out from behind...

Rossini's La Cenerentola, this year's novelty at Glyndebourne, is a fairy-tale without fairies, a comic opera in which the only praeter- natural glamour is provided by the...

INLAND, grass begins to push through the acres of hard-baked silt left by the winter's floods. From the Lido to Chioggia the builders are up at five in the morning to complete...

Sadler's Wells Theatie Ballet. (Sadler's Wells.) NnvErrE DE VALOIS' seventeen-year-old ballet, The Rake's Progress, is being danced again at Sadler's Wells. That it wears so...

elections is far from engros- sing the whole of the public mind. The restlessly active cut out for themselves work—half-business half-pleasure, or half- political half-personal,...

Stalin taken from either C'arlyle's " Russian Revolution," or Gibbon's " Decline and Fall of the Russian Empire," or Macaulay's " Essay on Com- munism." There were fewer...

in Jive sentences than adapt ' Pickwick Papers ' for the stage," wrote Mr. Kenneth Tynan recently. Competitors are asked to try their hand at the first task, the five sentences...

Sm,—Mr. Marvin appears to represent the point of view of the societies belonging to the Association, who believe in a closed shop for building societies and regard any show of...

.Sta,---Keats's own description, in a letter (No 176) to Fanny Brawne, of his haemorrhage would justify Mr. Harold Nicolson's descrip- tion of it as " terrible." He said: " On...

A Policy for Rivers Sm,—You publish in your issue of June 6th a letter from Mr. Michael Ionides, one of the leading authorities on the recording of the flow of rivers, in which...

Srn,—Even supporters of the Government may have doubts about the efficacy of its proposals for transport. I would like to make a few suggestions which I believe should be...

SIR,—Mr. Graham Greene seems to think from my remark (that some writers on Saki had the extraordinary delusion that he had " a miserable childhood") that such delusions are all...

Sul,—May I be permitted to add one remark to your note in the Spectator of June 20th ? The population of Israel when it was estab- lished on May • 15th, 1948, was - some 650,000...

A friend tells me that his apple-trees are carrying less fruit than in previous years. I hope that people in fruit-growing districts are having better results. Mulching with...

Sut,—May I say how much I agree with your correspondent D. G. Davies. I have been in domestic service for four years now, after taking a free course in domestic work at a centre...

Wasp-population is as uncertain as summer itself. A walk through the woods and along the banks where the nests are more obvious in autumn tell very little. Two or three coming...

SIR. —Your correspondent does us less than justice. We are certainly willing to accept £75,000 for a half-crown, but we are not all selfish- ness. Every Wednesday it gives me...

Dog-owners, -horse-owners and even bee-keepers know how fear transmits something to the animals or insects concerned. An animal that reacts sharply to a nervous approach is a...

Foa sheer impudence the crow-family cannot be equalled. They seem to have no fear, and their audacity makes one smile. While I was working among the trees, I was startled to...

behaviour of the greater spotted woodpecker, which is known to feed on berries and fruits as well as insects. The bird has been observed picking up almonds, placing them in a...

THE last war gave far more opportunity than its predecessor for individual adventure of all kinds, from Philips Oppenheim to Doughty ; and it has already produced a fine crop...

Doctor and Sage To Teach the Senators Wisdom : or An Oxford Guide-Book. By J. C. Masterman. (Hodder & Stoughton. 15s.) THE unbearable Boomer (Sir John, of course), wealthy old...

From the Remains of the Count C. W. By Rainer Maria Rilke. The German text and an English translation and introduction by J. B. Leishman. (Hogarth Press. 8s. 6d.) Rainer Maria...

THE poisoning of Sir Thomas Overbury in the Tower of London is a tale familiar to students of the reign of King James I, but probably less so to the publisher's and—in this...

The Sudan Question. By Mekki Abbas. (Faber. 21s.) THE fact that this is the first book to be written in English by a .Sudanese could be made either a tribute or a reproach to...

A History of Greek Political Thought. By T. A. Sinclair. (Routledge. 25s.) Catholic Political Thought (1789-1848). By Bela Menczer. (Burns Oates. 18s.) READERS of Professor...

Collected Poems : 1921-1951. By Edwin Muir. (Faber. 15s.) OF the poets of an older generation still living, there are not many who stand outside the group which has been...

The Dark Island. By Henry Treece. (Gollancz. 12s. 6d.) READERS of Mr. Powell's A Question of Upbringing are too deeply committed by the excellence of that opening volume to take...

Louisa May Alcott. By Madeleine B. Stern. (Peter Nevill. 21s.) INTurnvE biographies need genius to succeed, but all that Miss Stern has to offer to the potentially splendid...

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Book Token for one guinea will be awarded to the sender of the first correct solution opened after noon on Tuesday week. July 8th. addressed Crossword. and bearing NUMBER of the...

THESE small essays, plainly yet elegantly written, tell the ordinary music-lover pretty well all that he can want to know about the slightly less well-known of the great com-...

stores or be reserved for pavement-artists and wedding processions ; it is equally evident that the only way to paint swans is to row one's easel out in a boat and ask the birds...

become a classic, not only for its extraordinary adventures, but also for the Captain's forthright comments and style. His next most remarkable achieve- ment, an earlier one, he...

well as the more basic restraining influences markets are still drifting lower. Gilt-edged prices, which still set the tone for markets as a whole, are wilting under small but...