Exactly one year ago, on 30 May 1967, , t he former Eastern Region of Nigeria, in- habited largely by lbos, proclaimed its i ndependence as the Republic of Biafra. It did this...

For all its vacillation, the Wilson administra- tion has at least been consistently clear on one thing. Whatever else may be responsible for the widespread frustration and...

'On retournera aux (takes de l'anarchie': President de Gaulle's forecast of what would happen after his departure was belied. France had turned to anarchy while his ten-year...

POLITICAL COMMENTARY AUBERON WAUGII Mr Anthony Wedgwood Benn, the vacuum- packed philosopher who believes that we are 'still stuck with a communications system that has...

From the 'Spectator', 30 May 1868—M. Boutet, a French engineer, has laid a plan for bridging the Channel before the Emperor of the French, and the Times seems to believe that a...

GOVERNMENT NIGEL LAWSON On Friday 10 May, on the eve of the opening battle between the Paris students and police, the price of gold on the London free market closed at $39.60...

CHRISTOPHER HOLLIS Amiens. Who doth disorder shun And would see troubles done, Thinks that upon the whole He'd better back de Gaulle. Come hither, come hither, come hither....

PARLIAMENT JOCK BRUCE-GARDYNE, MP On Friday afternoon the House of Commons rises for a curtailed Whitsun recess. As he collects his cases and boards the train for Cum- 6erland,...

STUDENTS STUART MACLURE The first politician to exploit the anti-student feeling which is now in the air would get a Force 8 response on the Enoch Powell scale. The dockers...

J. W. M. THOMPSON The year 1968 does begin to look more and more like one of history's uncomfortable turn- ing points, one of those climactic periods when numerous forces...

PERSONAL COLUMN NANCY MITFORD Nancy Mitford (Mrs Peter Rodd) lives about a mile from Versailles. Further extracts from her diary will appear in next week's SPECTATOR. 16 May...

CONSUMING INTEREST LESLIE ADRIAN Anyone giving calm thought to the subject must realise that the London telephone direc- tory does not exist. There are nine Lon- don telephone...

THE LAW R. A. CLINE Much has been written recently about the volUme of undigested and indigestible laws emerging from Westminster. Soon the Trans- port Bill will join the many...

TABLE TALK DENIS BROGAN Princeton, NJ—It was, I suppose, the reading in an English public print that the niece of Frank Richards was writing a life of her cele- brated uncle...

MEDICINE JOHN ROWAN WILSON The most urgent problem the world has to face during this next generation is not overpopula- tion or food shortage; it is not communism or capitalism...

PATRICK ANDERSON Let us suppose a collection of friends, vari- ously interested in politics, psychology, art and literature, always critical of each other, rarely in complete...

TIBOR SZAMUELY Reap the Whirlwind Geoffrey Bing (Mac- gibbon and Kee 63s) Mr Geoffrey Henry Cecil Bing, CMG, QC, was Labour MP for Hornchurch between 1945 and 1955; in 1956-57...

High tide HENRY TUBE And Really Frau Blinn . . . Peter Bichsel translated by Michael Hamburger (Calder and Boyars 25s) The Attempt John Hopkins (Seeker and . War- burg 25s)...

1804-1806 (cue £8 8s) Luxury letters J. H. PLUMB Professor Aspinall is as indefatigable in retire- ment as he was in office, massive volume follows massive volume with the...

AUBERON WAUGH Enderby Outside Anthony Burgess (Heine- mann 25s) I always thought that to enjoy Mr Burgess's first Enderby book fully one needed to be a Catholic-educated...

J. B. DONNE Yoruba Religious Carving Kevin Carroll (Geoffrey Chapman 90s) Modern Makonde Sculpture J. Anthony Stout (Trench Trubner, distributed by Kegan Paul cloth 60s, paper...

NAOUM ODNOPOZOV Naoum Odnopozov (Gurevich) is thirty-two years old; his first poems appeared in some of the 'underground' literary publications that have sprung up in Russia in...

Play of Sir Thomas More A. W. Pollard and others (cuP 60s) First hand MARTIN SEYMOUR-SMITH The Artistry of Shakespeare's Prose Brian Vickers (Methuen 75s) Shakespeare : Time...

ED WARD BOYLE Bach's B Minor Mass has never been particu- larly fortunate in its recordings, and many music-lovers may still be considering whether or not to invest in the new...

Liaison 1914: A Narrative of the Great Retreat Major-General Sir Edward Spears (Eyre and Spottiswoode 105s). 'No other part of the Great War compares in interest with its open-...

ART PAUL GRINKE Bankers are a cagey lot, not usually given to exuberant display, but 200 years ago they were evidently roisterous, boisterous and consider- ably enmeshed in the...

ELECTRONICS STANLEY MYERS Perhaps the best feature of last week's four concerts—an electronic mini-Odyssey, spon- sored by Music Now and the IcA—was the improvement in the...

Ustiborne and Osnov HILARY SPURLING The Unknown Soldier and His Wife (Chiches- ter Festival Theatre) Time Present (Royal Court) The Shaughraun (Abbey Theatre at the Ald- wych)...

CHRISTOPHER FILDES Hambros decuple their contribution to Tory funds—worst Prime Minister since Lord North, says chairman—colleagues unanimous . . . It sounds Rhadamanthine: a...

NICHOLAS DAVENPORT Last weekend was for me a memorable one, listening to the broadcasts of violence and an- archy in France and reading peacefully the domestic dissertations on...

BUSINESS VIEWPOINT ANDREW GEDDES Andrew Geddes founded Building Products Index (in. which he is a partner) in 1966, soon after coming down from the university. He is now...

PORTFOLIO JOHN BULL As I write, the equity market has steadied again at around 450 on the Financial Times ordinary share index after falling sixteen points on the new bank...

SAVINGS LOTHBURY rat Th e Woolwich Building Society will now pay ou 81 per cent, or one full point above the Bank e, on money that you can withdraw when- 6er you like, at a...

LETTERS From: Giles Playfair, Geo. E. Assinder, Philip Norton, Dr E. J. Mishan, C. A Griggs, B. J. Hurren, P. E. M. Taylor, Mrs Sybille Bedford. Sir: One does not know how bad...

CUSTOS The market remains cautious. Though the Financial Times index is some thirty points below its record level, that level was only reached for a brief and hectic moment....

Sir: For anyone who should be misled into taking Mr Skeffington-Lodge seriously, there are a few points which should be made con- cerning his latest letter (24 May): firstly, as...

Sir: I, and, no doubt, most of your readers, read sourly your two articles about university students (24 May). Perhaps I am unique in this country in being both the father of a...

Sir : Before the hubbub following Mr Enoch Powell's speech dies away, I should appreciate the courtesy of your columns to dwell briefly on a number of facts that have been in-...

Sir: Today I took two Zambia notes (one kwacha and fifty ngwee, if that helps) for ex- change to the bank on behalf of a pupil at this school normally resident in Zambia. Under...

Sir: The dexterity with which your correspon- dents, Messrs Harrison and McKendrick, evade the prime issue shows how prejudice can assert itself against reason (Letters, 24...

Sir: My sadness at the current turn of social and political thought in this country has been deepened by the astounding reactions of some of your readers to Simon Raven's...

Sir : I have been invited by Messrs Chatto and Windus and William Collins to write the official biography of the late Aldous Huxley, with the consent and cooperation of his...

AFTERTHOUGHT COLIN WELCH All fascinated by political processes and public philosophies were bidden last week in an article by Mr Paul Johnson, editor of the New States- man, to...

PHILIDOR Black White 8 men 8 men A. Bottacchi (1st Prize, L'Alfiere di Re, 1921). White to play and mate in two moves; solution next week. Solution to no. 388 (Blake): B – B...

Trevor Grove reports: Competitors were asked to write an octet, using the given rhymes, on one of the following subjects : The Paris riots; Kingmaker King; a sewer-rat dreams of...

Across 1A tour of Parisian high-life? (6) 4 Doom is on this masonic structure (8) 10 A sort of gold-fever shows up this Rabelaisian (7) 11 Took a turn in line (7) 12 A round of...

COMPETITION Set by J. M. Crooks: The playwright John Mortimer has complained that people like bank clerks and lawyers do not have to face regular criticism of their life's...