M R. TIELMAN ROOS, resigning his position on the bench of the Supreme Court in South Africa to plunge again into the turmoil of politics (and stir them into a considerably...

in respect of the debts discussion have been rather con fusedly dealt with in the cables, but there would seem to be no reason for misunderstanding the attitude of the...

move against the Government are no more than moderate. The Cabinet after a first impulse of alarm and hesitation has decided • to carry on, and it is doubtful whether Mr. Roos...

British Government should be one of those determined to make difficulties about the far-sighted lower-tariff agreement initialled by Belgium (cum Luxemburg) and Holland at Ouchy...

comes to an end this week-, but singularly little attention is being paid to that not unimportant fact. The reason no doubt is that no one can quite ,decide whether the plan is...

so far as Canada is concerned. A consignment of her wheat, sent by way of Buffalo and New York, has been refused a preference by our Customs authorities for lack of proof that...

to expect the Round Table Conference to end in complete agreement. That it has ended without deadlock or general disagreement counts for a good deal, though a rather different...

and Indian delegations have been reduced to narrower proportions. Financial stability will be even more necessary for the new Indian government than for the present one, for it...

attention. Tension between Italy and Jugoslavia continues and the three Little Entente States arc drawing thc bonds of their association closer. At the same time the internal...

of a Fascist party, known as the National League, should be read in the light of an article which appeared in the Spectator in November. Mr. Kenzo Adachi, a former Minister for...

The attempt to form a new non-republican party in the Irish Free State has special interest in view of the fact that four by-elections are pending. Mr. Frank MacDer- mott, an...

to The Times defends his action in closing the school for a time as result of the two cases of polyomyelitis (infantile paralysis) which took place there in October. The case he...

Betting is understood to be about to issue an interim report, and is rather surprisingly credited with the intention of condemning totalisators on greyhound-racing courses. It...

of Lord Justice Greer's Committee on the reciprocal enforcement of foreign judgements. They often have a difficulty in obtaining from a foreign country the satis- faction to...

T HE year is dying, let it die. No tears IA ill be wasted over 1932. It goes unmourned and unregretted, with its memories of inconclusive disarmament dis- cussions, nerveless...

T HE week in which the various educational associations of the country are meeting in annual conferences is a fit moment for dwelling on the capital question of what the aims of...

recent issue of the Spectator a re-encounter with the Toy Theatre, " conies rushing up again." If the pre- ceptors of my infancy had been more conscientious, that is perhaps how...

N OTHING better became King George at the micro_ phone last Sunday than his single little cough, that went radiating through the air to the farthest antipodes—an involuntary...

stand, have seized with some avidity on the discovery (due to the presentation of the lady's picture to the National Portrait . Gallery), that Mrs. Beeton, author of the...

English firm has secured, in competition against the world, the order for metal windows for the League's new buildings in Geneva. There was, of course, no kind of substance in...

BY H. L. 0. FLECKER (Hea dmaster of Christ's Hospital). I T is time that careful consideration was given to the position that examinations have come to occupy in our...

Free State, self-sufficient as it is anxious to make itself through tariffs and other expedients, has found it necessary to import the English public executioner to carry out a...

BY A. J. HOSIER. U PON the repeal of the first part of the Corn Pro- duction Act in-1920, I decided to go in extensively for milk production, and for this . purpose purchased...

By F. YEATS-BROWN. M Y title makes me shudder (I would have preferred " Is Peace Possible ? "), for I am well enough acquainted with my subject to view it with awe and...

(Headmaster of Merchant Taylors' School.). By SPENCER LEESON C HRISTIANITY claims to be the unique revelation of an all-powerful, all-righteous and all-loving God to man through...

BY JOHN PULLEN. • " W E measure man's life by years, and it is a solemn knell that warns -us we have passed another of the landmarks which stand between us and the grave." So...

" The Streets of London." By Dion Boucicault. At The Ambassadors' Theatre THE post-War theatre is for ever returning dusty answers : a form of repartee which, however...

ALONG the kerb where chestnuts young Spread late-hung leaves in layers green, And light their candles, dies the noise, And the rain softly falls. No step, no sound, an empty...

ONCE again we were bidden by the King's Scholars of St Peter's College of Westminster to the party that they gave last week, as they have given it generation by generation at...

within Britain that our producers have not yet caught up with the demand. We talk of over-production and forget the examples of under-production. Asparagus is one of the...

for the best and worst farming. Imaginative farmers who can experiment and spend on a considerable scale can make farming pay and the family farmer who scratches on as best he...

A novelist of some fame and high accomplishment puts to me a query in natural history. It seems that in a historic novel of the century he alluded to the gulls frequenting...

milking of a herd of cows with the old picture of man or maid, squatted on a three-legged stool with head thrust against the flank of the cow, rhythmically and with soft and...

Birds of many sorts learn new things, adapt new habits : I heard this year bitter complaints from an owner of Scottish moors that the black-backed—not this time the black-headed...

THE MILKER'S ROBOT. Farming is, of course, depressed ; and m my farmers are to all intents and purposes bankrupt. More than this : mortgages on their land are of small value...

by Mr. J. K. Thompson (of the admirable Agricultural Institute at Kirton in Lincolnshire) and contributor to the Estate Magazine. Canners and producers have different interests...

[Correspondents are requested to keep their letters as brief as is reasonably possible. The most suitable length is that of one of our " News of the Week" paragraphs.— Ed....

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—The Rev. P. M. Gedge's proposition that unemployment benefit is insufficient to keep a family of children in a state of bare physical...

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—The most vulnerable point in the defensive armour of the railway companies appears to me to be their failure to establish and maintain...

Sm,—Dr. Glover, towards the end of his article, writes : I propose to be aggressive, and your readers can protest at my conduct as much as they please." This appears to be a...

up in the neatest manner possible the three cardinal facts which govern the situation with regard to Kenya gold ; first, that the gold will be won, secondly, that the Government...

. [To the Editor of the SpEcTAron.j Sin,—May I point out an error which has crept into Sir William Beach Thomas's article in your issue of December 16th ? ft is stated that the...

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—I notice that Sir William Beach Thomas devotes part of his article in your issue of the 16th inst. to comment on the menace of the...

THE " SPECTATOR," DECEMBER 297n, 1832. THE PANTOMIMES. Pantomimes will always be popular so long as they are founded upon some fairy tale or nursery legend. And we have...

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sin,—Lady Lowther's letter, in which she explains the disappearance of the pariah dogs which used to roam the streets in Stamboul, makes...

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—While thanking you for the kind review of my Diversions of an Indian Political, in your issue of December 2nd, may I be allowed to say...

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sin,—At the risk of being accused of being lacking in a sense of humour, may I remind Mr. Stephen Leacock that Mr. Gandhi is a life-long...

Mr. Whitaker-Wilson's " Mozart " and the St. Hilary Players' performance of a Nativity play. Such catch-penny melodrama as " Mozart. " is in strange contrast to the good work...

poetry night-caps which have been irregularly broadcast during the last few weeks at the conclusion of the programmes and before the dance music. Particular instances which I...

Sunday : Song Recital by Isobel Baillie (Daventry National, 5.30) ; Chamber Music (London Regional, 9.5). Monday : "New Books "-Mr. Basil de Selincourt (Daventry National,...

BY X ANTI' I PPE. (.4 prize of one guinea will be given to the sender of the first correct solution of this week's cross-word puzzle to be opened. Envelopes should be marked "...

IT can hardly be said that the Christmas Day programmes were guilty of fostering a false spirit of jollity : seasonable sentiments, of the robins and tinselled snow variety,...

of a winter season of thirteen Promenade Concerts, planned after the manner of the time-honoured " Proms." of the summer. These concerts serve to fill in the gap until the...

Pattern the furnishing and decoration of a house, the proper use of pattern and patterned materials constitutes a problem which is, on the whole, less frequently solved with...

Agape and Eros : a Study of the Christian Idea of Love. By Anders Nygren. Translated by A. G. Hebert. (S.P.C.K. 6s.) TUE traditional culture of Western Europe, and of the new...

On the Continuity of English Prose from Alfred to More and his School. By R. W. Chambers, M.A., D.Lit., D.Litt. (For the Early English Text Society. Milford. 6s.) English Prose....

THE late Professor Tout, of Manchester, has a dual claim to be remembered. As a historian he wrote much of value on mediaeval England and France and, after years of research in...

character, abilities and place in history will have to take account of both these boOks. Mr. Martin has made the most of exceptional oppor- tunities for watching Mr. Churchill...

Macaulay. By Arthur Bryant. (Peter Davies. 561.) Gibbon. By G. M. Young. (Peter Davies. 5s. Wesley. By James Laver. (Peter Davies. 5s.) IF history at its best be a marriage...

Set the Children Free. By Fritz Wittels. Translated by Eder and Cedar Paul. (Allen and Unwin. 10s.) The Experimental College. By Alexander Meiklejohn. (Harpers. 15s.) Fon...

" THE man who enters the secret service," says Mr. Silber, " knows well that he must live in nerve-wracking isolation in the midst of his enemies and die without a murmur if he...

The Amber Lute. Poems from the French. By Margaret Winefride Simpson. With a Foreword by the Rt. Hon. J. Ramsay MacDonald. (Grant and Murray. 6s.) Two extremely difficult feats...

The Passing of Beatrice. A Study in the Heterodoxy of Dante. By Gertrude Leigh. (Faber and Faber. 10s. 6d.) Ix a formal age of controversy, Miss Gertrude Leigh's para- doxical...

Tim growing ignorance of the Bible is a misfortune alike for literature and for morality: Unluckily, in circles where the Bible is still known, it is too often known wrongly,...

Tuts book is a reprint of the chapters on Greek art in the Cambridge Ancient History. It is of importance to archaeo- logical students, as it brings within reach, for the...

By L. A. G. STRONG. Violante. By George R. Preedy. (Cassell. 7s. 6d.) Old Callender. By Claude Copping. (Harmsworth. 7s. exL) Tut , . heroine of Mr. Preedy's new romance more...

grace or great originality, though the latter quality may be granted his paper on " The Origin of the Drama," in which he seeks to detach drama from its alleged religious...

By Leonard Stein As a short account of an interesting and important subject Mr. Leonard Stein's Zionism (Kegan Paul, 8s. 6d.) is heartily to be commended. Though nominally a new...

Some time ago the B.B.C. broadcast a series of talks by " escapers "—that is to say, men who had been taken prisoner in the Great War and had succeeded in escaping from the...

The publishers of this book (Nisbet, 16s.) have done the author a strange disservice by sending it out with a list of hints for reviewers. There are in all sixteen page...

Howarth It is hard to believe, as the editor of these letters says, that Pepys had any real existence before or after his famous Diary. And this selection from his...

THE ROMANCE OF LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS By E. Beresford Chancellor Mr. E. Bereiford Chancellor's new essay in tondOn topo- graphy is somewhat - fancifully entitled The Romance of...

If, however, I had to say what I consider is the chief development of the year and the one most likely to affect the prospects for 1933, I should at once mention the signs of a...

These are times, however, when there is no room either for the shallow optimist or the gloomy pessimist. I think it was the late Studdert Kennedy who likened the former to an...

And to take the worst side of the picture first, it has to be recorded that the year closes with an actual increase in the numbers of unemployed in this country and probably...

Our foreign trade returns themselves have shown some of the lowest figures on record, and although by reason of the great fall in imports what is known as the visible adverse...

Nor must it be forgotten that the cheapness of money has had some favourable effect upon the financial situation. Indeed, one of the conspicuous events of the year has been the...

The Past Year NEXT week I hope to say something with regard to financial prospects for the New Year. It has, however, always to be remembered that the line between one year and...

So much for the enumeration of some of the un- favourable developments and conditions revealed during the past year. Have there been any redeeming features ? Unquestionably...