All possible explanations of Tuesday's incident, above Konnern in the air corridor from Berlin to Frankfurt, in which a French airliner was attacked by Russian fighters, must be...

T HE constitutional crisis in the United States is grave, but there is at least the assurance that it will be treated as such by the President. "I am a constitutional Presi-...

The appointment of General Matthew Ridgway to succeed General Eisenhower as Commander-in-Chief Allied Forces Europe, comes as no surprise. The choice was recognised as lying...

It must be hoped that the sound and sure information about political and economic prospects in Japan which has not emerged during the occupation will become available quickly...

The Spanish mission which has been touring the Arab States has now returned to Madrid. Its reception in the Arab capitals has been officially quite warm, but unofficially there...

The effect of Monday's Commons debate on fare in- creases was to make clearer the exact reasons why the Government intervened to prevent the rise which had been due to take...

Anyone—say an American—who comes fresh to the problem of a settlement between Britain and Egypt, may well find it almostincredible that success or failure apparently hinges on...

The Conservative Government has meddled much less than its predecessors in the affairs of the British film production industry. There may be some connection between this and the...

T HE Government hardly came out of the debate on the standstill on fares with blushing honours. Never did it rid the House of the impression that it had acted impulsively—that,...

The claim made by certain shop stewards on behalf of 200 redundant workers at the Smith Clock Company's factory at Cricklewood is, on the face of it, beautifully simple. It is...

A FRICA is providing the world with a full quota of problems. There is Tunis, there is Egypt, there is Bechuanaland, there is the Union of South Africa, there is Central African...

one or two crusades which the next Labour Government may wage when it comes to power—though if it does come to power crusading will be unnecessary; weight of votes will do...

the Play of the Famous Film." This advertisement from a Yorkshire paper is stimulating in its significance. The public mind is working all right, and this is how it works. T. S....

lust for information about the Philo-Byzantine University. Someone very kindly has. I have indeed been told more than I think it wise to impart to readers of the Spectator. The...

"A Jesus College freshman, Keith Wedmore, was reported in the Vational Press this week to have seen a flying saucer over Cambridge."—Varsity. "The details of the time and place...

(A. & C. Black, the dead £4, the living £5) reaching my desk simultaneously is almost an embarrassment of riches. How- ever, there are questions demanding an immediate answer....

T HE Dean of Windsor has been vigorously denounc- ing the Welfare State. I rather welcome that, in spite of the fact that if the Dean is half- right he is also half-wrong. Every...

By JOHNCOATMAN * T HE record of the B.B.C. is contained in some hundreds of volumes of Hansard. It opens on April 3rd, 1922, with a question asking if the Postmaster-General...

Born are for different men's hurt The merry and the soulful flirt. Neither can bring herself to spurn, Even gently, love she can't return. The merry wounds lightly enough, The...

By ROBERT POWELL Bonn, April 28th. T HE attitude of the average man in the Federal Republic towards the problem of rearming and participation in the European Defence Community...

By GLYN DANIEL W HEN the foreign-travel allowance was cut to £50 last November, tourist agencies began to report that their bookings were increasing, and by January, when it was...

R HODES in his baggy trousers is on his plinth, and in Meikles Hotel, Salisbury, are the children of his genius. Noise is the first and overwhelming factor that hits you as you...

Front-Door Man By DAVID JONES (Balliol College, Oxford) K A1 LUNG met his beloved over a water-buffalo, and I too have conversed with a woman of China while between us stood...

By HAROLD NICOLSON I F one be both shy and short-sighted, the occasions of social embarrassment are much increased. It is bad enough when one fails to recognise a person with...

MUSIC Our of England in December, I neither saw the first performances of Britten's Billy Budd nor read the criticisms ; and when I saw the opera for the first time on Saturday...

Los Olvidados. (Academy.)—La Foire aux Chimeres. (New Gallery.)—High Noon. (Odeon.)—Carbine Williams. (Empire.)—Bugles in the Afternoon. (Warner.) DEPLORABLE as are our own...

The Fire Fiend has been very busy of late in various parts of the country. An immense fire, ascribed to an incendiary, devastated the village of Harwell in Berkshire, on...

Spray pears and apples with lime sulphur to prevent scab which disfigures fruit and retards development. Pears should be sprayed in the white-bud stage; apples when the buds are...

As our train slowed on its journey up the valley, a woman sitting opposite remarked to her husband how startlingly life-like was a scare- crow in the field. It was a very fine...

in the village: " Before I went to work on the farm," he said, "I worked as a lad in Aber. . . . Man called Davies had the place. He was always tryin' to please his customers...

The nursery boast Among the teacups uttered, as the hunt Went squelching over fields of buttered toast: "Some day I'll fly about with magic power. Some day I'll wear a peak cap...

they have fleas. The starling's nest is a revelation, for they are as untidy and insanitary as any bird, and have numerous ticks. I had often thought that birds might be...

WALKING home and coming downhill into a little village. I paused a few minutes to take in the map of the countryside defined by lights of cottages, travelling cars and a far-off...

Mont Follick, M.P., recently managed to transform a debate on the naval estimates into one on spelling reform. A prize of £5 was offered for an extract from a speech in a...

Set by R. J. P. Hewison A prize of £5, which may be divided, is offered for a poem of ten to fourteen lines in rime riche on a subject suitable to the month of May. (In rime...

Sir Percival Griffiths' article Pakistan Today in your issue of March 28th. He makes an impartial analysts" of the problems of Pakistan and the progress she has made in...

Bombay in your issue of April 25th is a timely reminder of the many liturgical experiments that are being eagerly and yet cautiously made by the Church overseas. Not the least...

of Britain had no classi- fication of restaurants and hotels." My Michelin (Great Britain, ninth edition), bought in 1927, has a classification of hotels and restaurants. There...

Cripps in India SIR,—In his penetrating analysis of Sir Stafford Cripps Mr. Francis Williams confuses the occasions of his visits to India. In fact he went there three times....

issue of April 18th Mr. Lewis says that State schools are no longer producing those fit to become managers and leaders in industry. He quotes, as his authority, that the men at...

SIR,—I appreciate, of course, that one who writes on a controversial subject invites comment. So far as I know twenty-four public references have been made to Report from...

SIR,—There has been a tendency in recent years to use the indicative instead of the subjunctive with expressions such as "it is important that" or - it is essential that." This...

My India. By Jim Corbett. (Oxford University Press. 10s. 6d.) How fortunate it is that Colonel Jim Corbett, the author of The Man-Eaters of Kumaon and The Man-eating Leopard of...

. A Goya Disappointment I WAS glad when I was asked to review this book. A devoted Goya far!, I was happy to read yet another book about that extraordinary, fastinating...

British Mammals. By L. Harrison Matthews. (Collins. The New Naturalist Series. 25s.) OF late years there has been something approaching a spate of books on birds, yet mammals...

13ooics about Russia written by Poles have a quality which dis- tinguishes them from the writings of other nations on this subject. They are pervaded by a sense of national...

When I was a Child. By Edward Hulton. (Cresset Press. 18s.) CHILDHOOD memories begin, for most people, with a series of isolated snapshots, stills rather than moving pictures ;...

Nineteenth Century Opinion. Compiled and edited by Michael Goodwin. (Penguin Books. 2s. 6d.) IN March, 1877, when The Nineteenth Century was started, upper- middle-class...

Madeleine Grown Up. By Mrs. Robert Henrey. (Dent. 15s.) MRS ROBERT HENREY has the power of the glittering eye. You may have little or no liking for the scenes and the people of...

The Forging of a Family. By Lord Geddes. (Faber. 25s.) Tins is a very long book. Well it may be, indeed, since into it the author packs not only the chronicle of seven...

CHILLED, perhaps, by his labours on Doctor Faustus, Dr. Thomas Mann has chosen a warm, almost rollicking tone for his much briefer legend of a child of incest who became Pope at...

THIS last work of Bernanos, written during his fatal illness, is hard to classify. It is described as a film scenario, but is in fact a chronicle play which might be adapted for...

MR. BRIAN JOHNSTON iS a B.B.C. commen- tator, who has become more than usually well-known to listeners through the series of amusing, and at times hair-raising, exploits which...

IT was fortunate for the Sephardic Jews of England that they built their synagogue of Bevis Marks and collected its treasures during the period of the highest flowering of...

LioNIE L ▪ À 't '41 ILk IC A a lc K R Y A mlf N A N I NI L LIC,!Ine,6.1tt 1 C E E R Solution on May 16 The winner of Crossword No. 674 is: Miss E. M. BANCROFT, Barry-...

IA Book Token for one guinea will be awarded to The sender of the first correct solution opened after noon on Tuesday week, May 13th, addressed Crossword, 99 Gower Street,...

By CUSTOS WITH the £150,000,000 electricity loan off the stocks the gilt-edged market is now con- solidating its recent advance. That, in my view, is as much as can reasonably...