Gropings towards a new morality Modern civilisation puts limitless weapons of destruction into the hands of mankind . . . Every recourse to war, to any kind of mar, is recourse...

PETER PATERSON I had intended this week to write about Lord Gifford's attempt to secure asylum in Britain for United States soldiers who have deserted to avoid service in...

Assuming—and I know of no good reason not to—that next year the Common Market will provide the chief topic of discussion and debate and the chief element in the political life...

Frontal attacks MICHAEL WYNN JONES Some curious bedfellows have turned up on the new International Committee on the Uni- versity Emergency, announced in New York on Friday....

of War, at Oxford, since 1953. Attached in an advisory capacity to the International Council of the Institute for Strategic Studies. Charles Hargrove Paris correspondent of...

AMERICA Way out West JOHN GRAHAM Son Francisco To the more traditional easterners, California is a wild place, too far away from the real centre of the world to know what is...

Without de Gaulle CHARLES HARGROVE Paris In some ways, General de Gaulle had been politically dead some time before he physi- cally breathed his last on 10 November— at least...

Gowon's army MOLLY MORTIMER When I lived in a Nigerian harem, the feeling between Hausa Fulani and Ibo was very evident. At that time, the local press, Northern Nigerian...

Beauty and the Flour Bombs SALLY VINCENT We saw the banners in Kensington Gore. The constables did their best to wrench them from the frail hands of the militants, a task one...

Brian Crozier writes: Relatively few of your readers, I suspect, know the name of Runia Sheila MacLeod. Far more must know the names of the writers she helped and encouraged...

by 'a Conservative' there are many ways in which a major political decision can be presented for pub- lic consideration by the managers of the parliamentary system. It can be...

Unsentimental journey back home TIBOR SZAMUELY Andrei Amalrik is one of the best-known of that small group of Soviet dissidents who for several years now have been a thorn in...

From the 'Spectator,' 26 November 1870—The rumours which ooze out as to the intentions of the Government with respect to the Defences are – not altogether satisfactory. It is a...

Poverty-a new approach? JOHN VAIZEY The problem of poverty is one of the most intractable in modern industrialised societies. It is strange that it should be so, because it...

Sir: Everyone except Peter Pater- son knows Tom Paine. described by him (three times) as Payne, in his `Political Commentary' of 2 November. Why the 'y' not Marcus Lipton House...

Sir: In 'The Spectator's Notebook' last week, the proposition is made, apparently, that the present sac should be replaced with a minimum of seven other bodies, presided over by...

Sir: I read Tom Driberg's article on Vietnam in 1945 (14 Novem- ber) with great interest. This is certainly a corner of history which needs illuminating. I am not sure he has...

Sir: Ministers from Mr Heath downwards constantly tell us to stand on our own feet. Apart from the fact that many are crippled and have no feet, or even legs, to enable them to...

Sir: Mr George Nichol! (Letters, 14 November) asks how large is the proportion of people demand- ing a restriction on smoking. The answer is the 57 per cent of our population...

Sir: Tony Palmer's reply (Letters, 21 November) to my reply to his piece on the Polanski Macbeth invites a little demolition. As follows: I. The suggestion that I paralz leled...

Sir: Immediately after the General Election, with the promise of better things to come, there was an im- mediate and substantial drop in the number of proposed emigrations. Does...

Dear Spectator and all other diarists who, when they cannot think of anything better, fill out their columns with abuse of other journalists and so forth, Will you please stop...

Sir: In your leading article you quoted with approval Keynes's aphorism, 'in the long run we are all dead'. This cynical mot is normally used to justify all manner of quick,...

From: Miss Elizabeth Barber one, Colin Welch, T. C. Skeffington- Lodge, Kenneth Tynan, Peter Jay. Colin Shaw, Hubert V. Little, Marcus Lipton MP, Sir Michael Balcon, Bruce...

Sir: A recent rry 'News at Ten' interview (9 November) of the (white) 'Miss South Africa' and the (coloured) 'Miss Africa South' —although there is no such country —not only...

Sir: It was with interest that I read the correspondence from Simon P rescott-Hughes (Letters, 21 N ovember). for I myself have undertaken research into the tradi- tional...

Sir: If your correspondent from Bishop's Stortford has not read an English or American novel for many years, the fault is his: and his attitude must contribute to any decline in...

Sir. The gulf between the accom- plishments of Rubin and Frost is wider than Tony Palmer thinks (14 November). At Cambridge Frost spent a great deal of time at the Footlights...

Sir: In the 14 November issue of the SPTCTATOR you assert what you appear to consider an absolute right to strike. I suggest that no man or group of men has or should have an...

Sir: It is disappointing to me as a reader of the SPECTATOR that prob- lems at the Institute (21 November) are dealt with in such little depth. One would have expected David...

Sir: How very kind of Mrs Blane to express a little sympathy for this resort. We do not, of course, have Ozymandias on Shelley or Sodom on The Lots, but I suspect that Blackpool...

Sir: Has Mr Trevor Bloom ever quite recovered from reading Ballantyne's The Gorilla Hunters or perhaps Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs? To some English people—but to notably few...

Having had the SPECTATOR for some years, owing to the generosity of a dear friend, I am very pleased with the new look and attitude, which promise full-blooded and ro- bust...

No. 632: Greetings Set by Timothy Snow: Verses which appear in Christmas and New Year cards are rarely of great literary -merit. SPECTATOR competi- tors might do better and are...

NORMAN GIBBS These two books, together with the two volumes on The Tanks published ten years ago, comprise Liddell Hart's most substantial contribution to military history....

AUBERON WAUGH The Birds on the Trees Nina Bawden (Longman 30s) Another reason why so few people buy novels nowadays is surely that publishers are so idle and incompetent. If...

DENIS BROGAN With Malice Toward None; A War Diary Cecil H. King edited by William Armstrong (Sidgwick and Jackson 65s) There are certain occupations which have their own...

ROGER SCRUTON A Critique of Linguistic Philosophy C. W. K. Mundle (Clarendon Press 50s) Philosophy and Human Nature Kathleen Nott (Hodder and Stoughton 55s) The most striking...

JOHN KENYON Bolingbroke by H. T. Dickinson (Constable 90s.) Bolingbroke had as brilliant a mind as any in his generation. He was a fine orator and an accomplished writer, in an...

W. W. ROBSON What Became of lane Austen? And Other Questions Kingsley Amis (Cape 48s) Kingsley Amis is one of the most skilful novelists now writing. His best stories have...

Milligan with his head on his sleeve Patrick Skene CATLING 'Do you think I'm normal or abnormal?' Spike Milligan asked at the end of The Other Spike (Granada), his...

Idol Jack KENNETH HURREN Though there are more popular images these days than that of the pipe-putting socialist addressing a beleaguered nation in a reassuring North Country...

Rio revue EVAN ANTHONY The Brazilians have invaded the London art scene: three shows currently on view. It would seem that in addition to the coffee and nut yield, some feel...

Tinkling symbols TOM HUTCHINSON _ The best films by Joseph Losey are usually a considerable shock to the nervous system. He plugs us in to voltages of violence within...

Sacred things RODNEY MILNES I have often found Leonard Bernstein's conducting rather more satisfactory on records than in the concert hall, where his energetic activity on the...

NICHOLAS DAVENPORT Looking at the index of equity share prices you would think that the Stock Exchange disapproved of Mr Heath and all his works. After its initial...

Having extracted £100 from my colleague Skinflint's jealously guarded hoard, I have been empowered by the Editor to risk it on the horses, at my own discretion. We begin this...

Pilkingtons has somehow charmed us into believing that it is a beneficial near-mono- , poly, a sort of business utopia. Whether it is the saintly figure of Lord Pilkington or...

Steeling ourselves to learn from Japan KENNETH WIGGS The British Steel Corporation proposes to erect two new iron and steel plants, each of which will have a yearly capacity...

No room at the inns Stephen Findlay-Scullion Conference business is big, diverse, profit- able. Worldwide it is worth around £6,000 million per annum. How well are u hotels...

Whicluratiirace? MICHAEL IVENS `But what about the rat-race?' I was dressing a lecture room of Cambridge undergraduates and the question came red peatedly to brush aside...

it must be at least ten years now since I first realised that London was a thing of the past, and at least five since I made a resolution to go quietly about it. The...

`What we have had this year,' a farmer neighbour was remarking to me the other day, 'is a six-months' drought.' He may have exaggerated a bit, as farmers have been known to do:...

Twenty years ago, depressed by not knowing what to do with the segments of sheep allotted to me on the meat ration, and being unable to include even a quarter bottle of wine in...

A porbeagle shark (and let's not have any nonsense about not knowing what:a por- beagle is), captured and tagged off the Cliffs of Molter, Co Clare, last 'August, has been...

An idiotic lawyer Tried to tell me black was white. But after he'd explained it, I could see that he was right. Betjeman? Edward Lear? Unpublished, in fact. Just one of 2,000...

No. 1457 DAEDALUS A prize of three guineas will be awarded for the first correct solution opened on 7 December. Address solutions: Crossword 1957, The Spec, tator, 99 Gower...