A NY optimistic reading of the international situation must be based mainly on the assumption that German strategy in the matter of Czechoslovakia rested on a threat of force,...

agreement are present in the scheme understood to have been prepared by Dr. Hodza, and to be ready for immediate publication, providing for the division of Czechoslovakia into...

may have some effect on Germany, for though the United States and the Scan- dinavian countries may not be regarded as among Germany's possible opponents, at any rate in the...

have continued to advance in the direction of Castuera, and the valuable mercury mines of Almaden are now reported to be out of danger of capture by the insurgent forces. On the...

Under. Secretary for Italian Africa, talked more - sober sense than is customary in Official pronouncements - in Italy. Speaking on the possibilities of agrichltural settlement...

the Catholic Bishops of North Germany after their recent conference at Fulda is perhaps the most outspoken statement that has yet been made on the bitter struggle between the...

there has been fierce fighting on the fronts in five provinces ; by far the most important has been the advance of the Japanese along the Yangtze on Hankow. By their important...

Government has still done nothing to satisfy the demands of the peasants who form the overwhelming and impoverished majority of Poland's population. But if the Government really...

page, a correspondent in Paris analyses the difficulties attached to the task, undertaken by M. Daladier, of increasing French industrial production, especially for purposes of...

bid for admission to the Labour Party as an affiliated organisation will succeed. The official resolution to be put to the party conference a fortnight hence makes it clear that...

Khan Pahlevi, drove the last golden bolt of Iran's first trunk railway, running 865 miles from North to South, and uniting the Caspian Sea with the Persian Gulf. The railway has...

Columbia " aflame with enthusiasm " for Sir Henry Page Croft's idea that the British Government should agree to the incorporation of a company to fit out and settle British...

the history of the movement is recorded in the annual returns of the registered trade unions of this country. Funds have doubled in the past ten years and now exceed...

between milk producers and distributors by which the retail price of milk in the London area is to be fixed at a flat rate of 7d. a quart for the coming year. The new rate...

T HERE can be no sane person in these islands who does not realise that within a space to be measured rather by weeks than by months—perhaps rather by days than by...

T HE Foreign Secretary has succeeded in finding time, in the midst of other and more obvious preoccu- pations, to make an appeal for funds for the Student Movement House, which...

R ECENT articles in The Spectator, and in particular the Greek Censor's Instructions printed on August 19th, have suggested the question why King George, who has Liberal...

R. GILLIE By D. F RENCH summer holidays are longer and cheaper than English ones. From the middle of July till late in September the social life of the middle and upper classes...

By A MILITARY CORRESPONDENT A MONG the many bewildering aspects of modem warfare, the immense increase in the demand for man-power is probably, in spite of all that has been...

By A CORRESPONDENT IN SOUTH-EAST EUROPE On the Lower Danube I is often believed by those in England who doubt whether 1_ Hitler is quite so pacific as his apologists, and...

By DERRICK SINGTON And now (though improved in conformity with the rising standard demanded by a series of excellent corporation by-laws) the majority of the houses in Ancoats...

By A COLLEAGUE F OR thirty-five years contributors to The Spectator—their names through that period have shed much accumulated lustre on its pages—have posted back their...

By MRS. EDGAR DUGDALE T HEplaying of the bag-pipes has been a living art in the Scottish Highlands for centuries, and is very much alive today. In fact skill in piping is...

By SIR ROBERT GREIG W E have been hearing a great deal lately about Egyptian politics, but we hear relatively little—too little— about the industrial development cff the...

By AN OCCASIONAL PASSENGER B EFORE the present hostilities reached South China one travelled from Hong-kong to Canton either by day or night steamer, which took about seven to...

Commonwealth and Foreign AUSTRALIA has just taken a great stride forward in social security. Hitherto the Commonwealth has been without National Health Insurance, although...

STAGE AND SCREEN You don't admire the English music-hall. You enjoy it. It doesn't worry about uplift or catharsis : its purpose is to amuse. There are ninety nine reasons why...

well be forgiven for drawing the line at their superficial counterparts, the Brothers Ritz. The former, for all their lunatic fantast never divorce themselves from the...

Farewells and Festivals AFTER records, sweet reason in the game of cricket. The end of the season is a paradox. It is sad, partly because another summer is over, partly...

[Von einem deutschen Korrespondenten) Mtr belegten Broten, gekochten Eiern, Kaffee, Tee uad Toma- tenmark ausgestattet, haben vier Manner den Ozean zweimal in einer Woche...

The Extinct Fir The First has quite lost its old associations. Its importance in the sporting calendar began to wane with the arrival of the breech-loader and modern...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—The death, at St. Audries' Bay, of a stag which leaped over a hundred-foot cliff to escape being torn to pieces by hounds of the Quantock...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR [Correspondents are requested to keep their letters as brief as is reasonably possible. The most suita51s length is that of one of our " News of the Week...

much interested in the correspondence in your columns about " Public School Religion." It would seem that it is hopeless to expect teachers to teach their pupils what they do...

SIR, — May I shortly answer Lord Horder's letter, because we appear to be at cross-purposes ? Naturally I was only referring to licensed practitioners, as unlicensed...

read with interest the article of your motoring correspondent on " National Motorways," in your issue of August 26th. While I am glad that he is in general support of the...

SIR,—Mr. Upton avers that " since its creation, the Christian Church has been inseparably linked with the Gospel which it preached." That is just what a very large number of...

anxiety of some of your readers lest the Germans take umbrage at the " strong " language expressed in The Spectator is astonishing in view of the fact that the German inspired...

SIR,—It is hardly likely that a country will legalise abortion that will not officially allow birth-control information to be given except in cases where there is danger to...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] Sir,—With reference to your important review of Lewis Mumford's The Culture of Cities in The Spectator of August 26th, we should be glad if...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] Sm,—I have received a letter from one of the most distinguished poets and literary critics in Barcelona, saying that he cannot get sufficient...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—Your contributor, Mr. Laurence Housman, the inventor of Bridge, has tried to anticipate criticism of his comments on the game of cricket...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,--General Fuller is not quite accurate in stating that after 1874 there were no Army manoeuvres until the Duke of Cam- bridge was succeeded...

SPECTATOR] Stx,—Sir John Harris challenges me to " cross swords," and to show in what respect his statements concerning the Masarwa are " misleading." I can only repeat that...

BOOKS OF THE DAY By BONAMY DOBREE IT is a grimly sad story which Mr. Churchill unfolds in this last volume of his life of Marlborough, gloomy not only in the retrospect as a...

The Tyranny of Words. By Stuart Chase. (Methuen. ins. 6d.) WHEN we speak or write, if it is our aim to convince or prove, or merely to communicate our thoughts, it is of the...

Storm. By G. P. Gooch, F.B.A. (Longmans. los.) GREY'S FOREIGN POLICY IN the two volumes of Studies in Diplomacy, of which this is the second, Dr. Gooch has adopted the novel...

Woodrow Wilson, Life and Letters. Vol. VI, 1915-1917. By Ray Stannard Baker. (Heinemann. 21s.) ON January 1st, 1917, less than five weeks before the United States broke off...

" Hear the voice of the Bard Who past, present, future, sees . . ." That, in its magnificent arrogance, is the voice of Blake. That too—in a very different tone—is the...

So, the old Robinson housekeeper when the family said they were leaving Cork to go to the little seaside port of Kinsale. (Which is, as we say, rich from a woman living in...

Czechoslovakia By Lt.-Commander Edgar P. Young. (Gollancz. 12s. 6d.) " Asg me the name of the current Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia," wrote Mr. John Gunther in 1936, " I...

ROMANCE IN PIMLICO J. M. S. Tompkins. (Cambridge University Press. cos. 6d.) Tins entertaining volume is a by-product of the author's reading while she was engaged on her...

on the dust cover that we must not expect a biography. What the author has sought to do is rather to demonstrate that George II, in sub- mitting to the successive domination of...

iss.) WALT WHITMAN'S biographers seem to be agreed, in general, on one thing at least about their elusive and complicated subject, namely, that he got a sudden awakening or...

ONE is thankful that this book is proVided with adequate margins, for almost from the beginning one findi the pencil coming out and scrawling (Detestable habit ?: What are...

Castiiian Literature. By A. F. G. Bell. (Clarendon Press. 15s.) MR. AUBREY BELL has attempted to give a descriptive rather than a chronological account of Castilian literature....

Vanessa and the Dean. By Lewis Gibbs. (Dent. los. 6d.) ALTHOUGH the title of Mr. Lewis Gibbs's book and the fact that it is priced at half a guinea suggest that it is a serious...

By FORREST REID Spella Ho. By H. E. Bates. (Cape. Ss. 6d.) The Sword in the Stone. By T. H. White. (Collins. 8s. 6d.) Green Volcano. By Jim Phelan. (Peter Davies. 7s. 6d.) I...

HITLER has been making our flesh creep again and investment markets have become merely political barometers. Money, most of it Continental, has been seeking refuge in the United...

AUSTRALIAN WOOL SALES THE new season's wool sales which started in Sydney this week have opened reasonably well. Prices of good quality wools are fully maintained and inferior...

THE Round Table gives prominence to an article on " Empire Security and National Service," urging that civilian organi- sation, especially against air raids, is essential. The...

The winner of Crossword No. 309 is Mr. A. D. Macleod, 55 Park Road, Brechin, Angus.

ZENO [A prize of a Book Token for one guinea wit' d e given to the sender ,1 the first correct solution of this week's crossworc puzzle to be opened. Envelopes should be marked...