Step by step it becomes plainer that the internal difficulties of the Soviet Union are widespread and acute. For a long time a few highly-placed persons outside Russia have...

It would be a big mistake to regard the episode which has ended With the replacement of Mr. Henry Wallace by Mr. Averell Harri- man as United States Secretary of Commerce as a...

T HE dates now agreed between the Four Foreign Ministers for the ending of the Paris Conference suggest that, the remotely possible not having been attained, the impossible will...

Housing presents an issue which every politician regards as fair game. Consequently a vast and intricate industrial process is dis- cussed almost exclusively in terms of the...

A glimpse of Britain's economic future was given this week at a meeting of the Railway Charges Consultative Committee, which is considering a proposed revision of fares and...

The exhibition "Britain Can Make It," sponsored by the Council of Indastrial Design and opened by the King at the Victoria and Albert Museum on Tuesday, is heartening evidence...

The surprise which the Turks are traditionally supposed to experience at the coming of winter is unlikely to be repeated in this country, if only because of the non-arrival of...

copies late in the past few weeks. The reason is the dispute in the printing trade, which still cont) ?es.

M STALIN'S replies to Mr. Werth's questionnaire form at . any rate an agreeable variant on the habitual contributions of M. Molotov, M. Vyshinsky and M. Gromyko to international...

did not, so far as I know, inherit money ; both his parents are still alive, and the family, in any case, was no more affluent than a Cambridge don's family normally is....

the new freedom conceded to the London daily papers to get what circulation they can will be visible. The first reactions may well be misleading. But such as they are they have...

my Sabbath sustenance, has for the last year carried two interesting political articles week by week, one by a Labour M.P., Mr. Thurtle, and one by a Conservative, Mr. Derek...

S UCH is the multiplication of other interests crowding in that little attention is being given to the fact that the greatest trial in history—having regard to its character...

The broadcast General Smuts is to give on Sunday evening will, I predict, be of the first international importance. There is a_strong feeling in many quarters that after Mr....

Churchill pub- lished in this country this week (Cassell, 6s.) have appeared already in the United States, but they are unfamiliar here, and even after the lapse of years and...

friend whose testimony is reliable. " One evening last week I opened the door of my flat in response to a ring, and to my surprise the gentleman waiting ouside greeted me in...

By DINGLE FOOT T HERE is nothing new about the closed shop, as such. For at least half a century it has been a familiar feature of the indus- trial landscape. As long ago as...

FROM A SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT T O drive through the Soviet-occupied zone of Germany one needs a permit, signed by a senior Russian officer attached to H.Q. at Karlshorst. The...

By GUNTHER STEIN F OREIGN diplomats in Washington have a difficult time evaluating the enigmatic trend of American developments. While absorbed in the hot internal...

By SIR STEPHEN TALLENTS P LANS for the reconstruction of our towns have been much in the public eye. London, Plymouth, Coventry, Portsmouth, Manchester, Middlesbrough,...

By FRANK SYKES C ORN harvest is over—if the past six-week period is worthy of such a name. On the chalk hills where I farm we have been comparatively fortunate. We missed the...

By HAROLD NICOLSON 0 NE of the most striking differences between the inhabitants of the United Kingdom and the inhabitants of France is that, whereas the former like foreign...

I WELCOME the appearance of an excellent recording of Mahler's Symphony No. 4 in G major by Bruno Walter and the Philharmonic Orchestra of New York (Col. LX 949 - 54). Mahler,...

" Spectre of the Rose." At the Astoria.—" Theirs is the Glory." At the Gaumont, Haymarket and the Marble Arch Pavilion. FROM time to time somebody or other in Wardour Street...

„ King Lear." By William Shakespeare. At the New Theatre. " I NEVER realised," said a lady behind me as "thefirst-night audience merged into the crowd of autograph-hunters...

Children on Trial is an admirably sincere and worthy study of life' in our approved schools as depicted by the experiences of three inmates—two boys and a girl. Possibly the...

in your article on squatting is misleading. While you correctly state that in Russia " individuals may own property, provided that it is not part of the means of production,"...

RECRUITS FOR THE ARMY Sta,—There will be hosts of Army personnel who, like myself, heartily agree with Brigadier Low's suggestions to encourage present and future recruiting....

SIR, —The limit of one per cent, which Mr._I-iubert Griffith in your issue of September zoth places on the extent of Anglo-American aid to Russia is surprising, but I have no...

Snt,—I have read with a certain amazement Mr. Harold Nicolson's version in " Marginal Comment " of September 6th of the incident at the Hotel de Ville on the anniversary of...

SIR, —An article by Sir Norman Angell America—Britain in your issue of September zoth quotes with approval Professor Elwood Corbett's state- ment that the United States...

Sta,—We have come to accept the misfortune that politicians may often interpret facts to suit political expediency. When Ministers of the Crown misrepresent facts—either...

Sm,—I fail to see why Janus should be so surprised that a third of his audience of German prisoners could understand him. In fact, his whole account throws an interesting...

by the Socialists now and the Tories in 1919 had been actuarially correct, it would have been essentially unfair, for the conditions were so different. The population in 1919...

SIR,—In contemplating the present expansion of Muscovite domination and the possibility of still further expansion, it seems time that we asked ourselves the question whether...

Sta,—Your correspondent, Sir Murdoch McKenzie Wood, writes that before the first world war the herring industry exported 2,000,000 barrels of herrings yearly. Dr. Worthington,...

Sta,—I have just read the letter on house-requisitioning in Germany in your edition of September aoth, and I wish to state that your correspondent Mr. London is singularly...

SIR,—I read with interest the reference in Spectator's Notebook to my recent speech on housing. I make no complaint at all about it, but the inevitably condensed newspaper...

SIR, -It is now (1946) demonstrable that what we call " the weather," meaning thereby the amount of sun heat and water condensation and precipitation experienced in a given...

A PRIZE was offered some while ago for the best account from members of the Women's Institutes of " What My Village Was." The theme proved congenial and productive. A good many...

a naturalist of sorts) as the key county for birds, but I doubt whether any year's record excels that of Devon's in 1945. The report (to be had from the Rev F. C. Butters,...

SIR, —Your contributor Janus, by his reference to Hatfield as " that embattled fortress of democracy " intends no doubt to be sarcastic, witty, pungent or sneering (or all of...

SIR,—In The Spectator of September 6th Janus remarks on the absence of picturesque villages in Cornwall. Perhaps this is explained by the following extract from Essays in...

desire among cotunry-house gardeners to sell their produce (both for the sake of not wasting it and for profit) grows continually. It is of course almost impossible to sell...

SIR, —Mr. Connell's letter is so disarming, in contrast to the passion usually aroused by praise of Vigo's work, that I have some hope for hint as" a potential convert when he...

SIR,—Janus advises us to keep banking accounts in order to foil prospec- tive depredators. Is he right? More and more frequently, in the tube, I see extravagantly dressed and...

the return of the quail. .I learn from other sources that quail have been seen in about a dozen English shires, including the unlikely shire of Hertford, and news from the...

Strange Portraiture Buxton the Liberator. By R. H. Mottram. (Hutchinson. 16s.) Tins is not a good book. Honesty, indeed, compels the verdict that it is a very bad...

The Perennial Philosophy. By Aldous Huxley. (Chatto and Windus. 12s. 6d.) ' MR. ALDOUS HUXLEY has always been among those who are dis- satisfied with the world. It is likely...

Industrial Art Explained. By John Gloag. (Allen and Unwin. 15s.. Tins book made -a welcome and timely reappearance just as the star of British industrial design ascends...

Three Years With Eisenhower. By Captain Harry C. Butcher, U.S.N.R. (Heinemann. 21s.) IT is mystifying how a man, apparently so little above the ordinary that he remained in the...

Deborah. By Esther Kreitman. Translated from the Yiddish by Morris Kreitman. {Foyle. 15s.) Uninvited Guests. By Parr Cooper. (Allen and Unwin. 10s. 6d.) Deborah is a surprising...

Diplomacy by Conference. By Lord Hankey. (Berm. 12s. 6d.) Loan HANIC,EY will never write a really good book. To say that is more compliment than disparagement. The book he...

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, October 8th. Envelopes must be received...

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By CUSTOS MY recent suggestion that this was not the time to be fully invested is finding full and rapid justification in the course of markets. Although gilt-edged and other...