T HE Prime Minister, unless his announced intention is I changed at the last moment, will before these words appear have given the House of Commons what informa- tion it is safe...

T HE decision by the British Government (the French haw so far taken no similar step) that British shipping shall avoid the Mediterranean route, so that British warships would,...

When Admiral Sir Roger Keyes, at the reunion dinner of the Diggers Abroad Association last Saturday, urged a policy of boldness in Norway, he was speaking as one who had been...

Herr von Ribbentrop surpassed even his own record of auda- city in inviting the Diplomatic Corps and the neutral Press to hear his belated justification of the invasion of...

The French Minister of National Education and the Presi- dent of the Board of Education on this side are working loyally together on parallel lines to carry out the accord...

Recruitment for the Army by the calling up of successive age groups and the training of young officers by selection from the ranks is proceeding according to plan, but use is...

The lessons of the invasion of Norway have not been lost on the Governments or peoples of the Balkans. The stern measures taken in Rumania and Yugoslavia against German agents...

through its legislative programme. On Tuesday the Workmen's Compensation Bill received its second reading. The attend- ance among the Opposition parties was not too good. On the...

in Parliament in recent years. It has been in common use this week. The Prime Minister's critics are recalling his unfortunate declaration that Hitler had missed the bus, and...

The Select Committee on National Expenditure which is steadily pursuing its useful work, is not intended to be an inquisition. Its function is to bring its special experience to...

the various parties on the matter of subversive propaganda. It is a ticklish subject; no two members seem to agree as to where the line should be drawn. All parties are...

Our Parliamentary Correspondent writes : We are nearer a political explosion than at any time since the war began. The House of Commons is thoroughly angry. At the time of...

Mr. Ronald Cross made an admirablt statement at an American Chamber of Commerce luncheon on Tuesday about the nature of economic war and the way in which it must inevit- ably...

The disaster at Clacton is the first experience on a large scale in this country of the effects of air warfare upon civilians. The provisional list of six dead (including four...

A SIGNIFICANT statement appeared in the New York Times last week. The result of the most recent poll taken by Dr. Gallup's now well-known organisation, , the American Institute...

present, was, I am told, in his liveliest mood at the dinner which the Opposition Liberals, some of whom had in their time been as much opposed to him as they are to the present...

activities covered many fields. He will be remembered chiefly as Secretary of the Anti-Slavery and Aborigines Protection Society, in which capacity he proved himself to be...

recent speech by Mr. Pirow, till recently Minister of Defence in South Africa, to which L'Europe Nouvelle opportunely calls attention. The Paris weekly summarises the speech...

other things besides taxation. The Government has for months been uttering repeated warnings against idle chatter about the war. "Careless talk may cost lives "—and so forth_...

is considering the activities of organisations whose activities are likely to im- pede the successful prosecution of the war (not that his list of such organisations and mine...

usual clientele to their invigorating neighbourhood Clacton hotel- keepers recently, I understand, made the following offer widely known : 33 per cent. reduction on the daily...

By STRATEGICUS A N amazing change has come over the position in Norway. Only a week ago it was possible to speak of the favourable opening of the third phase of the campaign,...

By DINGLE FOOT, M.P. I T is almost exactly six months since the House of Commons debated the Defence Regulations. No member of Parlia- ment then contended—or has contended...

By MERCURIUS p ERHAPS the most perplexing feature of this war of sur- prises is the comparative and unexpected inactivity of the German Air Force. Why has its power to destroy...

By ERWIN D. CANHAM T N the dusky hinterland of diplomacy a good deal seems to I be happening about Greenland. And out in the open, the United States is seriously disturbed...

By T. K. DERRY m EN wiser and more learned than I," wrote H. A. L. Fisher in a preface which lacked neither wisdom nor learning, "have discerned in history a plot, a rhythm, a...

By G. D. SKELTON rI NE day, when Mr. Charles Bodiam was out shooting rabbits, 1J he found a tramp asleep beneath a hedge on his estate. He prodded the man with the butt of his...

concluded by the Press generally in view of the paper shortage, no copies of The Spectator will be supplied to retail newsagents on the normal " sale-or-return " basis. That...

with no moral, legal or practical problem: it is evident that we must respond to their attitude with extreme respect. Those Powers who belong to the second category do not...

pregarded the doctrine of neutrality as some legal fiction of the nineteenth century. The juridical basis of neutrality had been shaken, if not destroyed, by articles sixteen...

negotiations which might sully the virginity, or wound the pride, of the smaller neutrals, would be incompatible with the ideas and purposes by which our intervention in this...

left no room for neutrality today." The University of Oxford has always been justly proud of its irrelevance, and the Union has for generations cultivated the excellent habit of...

of my own vintage, who would tell slow stories about Polybius and who played hockey very well indeed. That little bright- eyed, stooping figure over there recalled for me the...

By HAROLD NICOLSON A T the end of last week I visited Oxford and attended the presidential debate in the Union. The hall was crowded, and as my eyes wandered along the rows of...

seared by the sharp frosts of Adolf Hitler. Yet the moral and the practical trunk remains. We must cut down to the roots. What are the roots? One of the speakers in the Union...

hungry generations tread us down ; how comforting to find that the amateurs should speak so much better than the pro- fessionals; and to discover that the Union (which of late...

HOLLAND ON GUARD By M. VAN BLANKENSTE1N assenaar, April. H OLLAND is anxiously scanning her eastern frontier. She is keeping keen watch, keener than she has hitherto ever...

MUSIC The London Symphony Orchestra THE musical public showed up very poorly at the London Symphony Orchestra's last concert, when there was an oppor- tunity of hearing,...

Three Painters. At the Leicester Galleries GRAHAM SUTHERIAND has developed gradually. Now, at thirty. six, he is a first-rate painter at the beginning of a mature pro. duction....

"La Marseillaise." At the Academy. Tins film was a child of the ill-fated Front Populaire in France. In the justified enthusiasms of that short period it was planned to make a...

do not know exactly what constitution Mr. Ransome and the " experts " for whom he speaks have in mind for Federal Union, but perhaps you will let me say a word about a proposal...

[In view of the paper shortage it is essential that letters on these pages should be brief. We are anxious not to reduce the number of letters, but unless they are shorter they...

protests from some of your readers. Personally, I think there is much in what he says, and indeed will give him his case, and much more if he likes ; and even so, what then? The...

Haw(Mister Haw-Haw we shall have to call him), in the person of Mr. Radinsky, whose letter to The Spectator sounded pathetic- ally like what we hear every night from Bremen or...

SIR,—If Mr. Radinsky's typical American could suddenly be transformed into a citizen of one of the countries now under Nazi control, and if, forgetting for the moment his new...

Snt,—As the Bursar of an Oxford college with large estates I have lived for many years in close touch with the agricultural world, and my experience, so far from lending any...

to me unconvincing in argument and misleading in statement of fact. He writes: "Just as to bring up children is the inviolable responsibility of parents, so it is their sacred...

SIR, —Mr. Richard Lee's reference to Poland's insistence en the preservation of the status quo in Danzig, the Corridor, and Upper Silesia, draws attention to one aspect of the...

SIR, —Your contributor, the Rev. Philip Prime, makes out a case for the survival of denominational schools which will com- mand general and respectful sympathy. The fact, which...

A suggestively paradoxical epigram was made to me the other day by a distinguished man of science and (with the proviso that it has no moral reference!) I may be allowed to...

At or about the same place the harsh, petulant cry of a herring gull was heard overhead ; the bird was seen to be mobbing a buzzard that circled round without paying any...

It has been argued, not altogether without some justification, that the hard winter of x881 taught the black-headed gulls the desirability of life in London. I may give a small...

be feared by our ships, because the Admiralty's Monday communique says that "the determined attempts to render the waters of the Norwegian coast untenable" made by all German...

are in short supply, I intend to leave "The World" alone. I merely wish to mention, in connexion with English literature, two books which, in my perverse opinion, should always...

of Miss Kate O'Brien, I must protest against an injustice she commits against several writers—including myself—in her review of Mr. T. H. White's The Witch in the Wood. She...

A Tricolor Patch A soldier poet in the Great War wrote some agreeable verses on the tricolor theme. He had found red, white and blue flowers growing together on the edge of a...

but neglected by gardeners is now reaching the first stage of its excellence in the South-West of England. It has been ruined perhaps by its name, the stinking iris. Neither the...

Education and the Birth-rate. By Grace G. Leybourne and Kenneth White. (Jonathan Cape. los. 6d.) This is a very solid book of nearly four hundred pages with additional and...

That Blessed Word Federal Europe : Being the Case for European Federation. Together with a Draft Constitution of a United States of Europe. By R. W. G. Mackay. With a Foreword...

GENERAL FULLER, in these two large volumes, attempts to give an account of military history from 336 B.C. to A.D. 1938, not only for military students, but also for the general...

MR. BETJEMAN is both a traditionalist and an innovator, one of the most original poets now writing. His originality springs most of all from the ambivalence of his feelings...

KARL. MARX was a political slogan in this country for a good many years before he became a subject of academic study. Mr. Adams' useful little book represents the second stage....

Royal Highness. By Thomas Mann. (Seeker and Warburg. 8s. 6d.) The Dark Door is the first of Mr. Collis's works which I have read. If this novel is representative he is an author...

DrREcr subscribers who are changing their addresses are asked to notify THE SPECTATOR office BEFORE MIDDAY on MONDAY OF EACH WEEK. The name, the previous address to which the...

By CUSTOS WHETHER or not the Budget was really good for gilt-edged from the long-term economic standpoint—on that question there is in some quarters considerable doubt—it is...

PRIZES of book tokens for £2 2S. and £t is. are offered for the best list of crossword puzzle clues for any five of the following words : harridan, calendar, date, alphabet,...

have at one time or another been honoured in English literature, with the marked exception of dentists. The usual prizes were therefore offered for a short passage of prose or...

THE ALLIANCE TRUST COMPANY REVENUE POSITION AND OUTLOOK THE annual ordinary general meeting of The Alliance Trust Company, Limited, was held in the Company's Registered...

HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL YEAR PROFITS FROM ALL DEPARTMENTS SIR EDWARD MOUNTAIN'S ADDRESS PRESIDING on April 29th at the annual general meeting of the Eagle Star Insurance Company,...

EQUITY AND LAW LIFE ASSURANCE SOCIETY EFFECTS OF WAR THE RT. HON. SIR DENNIS HERBERT'S SPEECH THE annual general meeting of Equity and Law Life Assurance Society was held on...

MR. H. ERIC MILLER'S SPEECH The Ordinary General Meeting of The Mendaris (Sumatra) Rubber and Produce Estates, Limited, was held on May 1st. Mr. H. Eric Miller, the chairman,...

ROYAL EXCHANGE ASSURANCE 220TH ANNUAL GENERAL COURT THE two hundred and twentieth annual general Court of the Royal Exchange Assurance was held on May 1st at the Royal...

SUBSTANTIAL PROGRESS TOTAL ASSETS £46,000,000 Tim seventy-ninth annual general meeting of The Royal London Mutual Insurance Society, Ltd., was held on Tuesday, April 30th, at...

UNITED MOLASSES COMPANY SATISFACTORY CURRENT EARNINGS THE 14th annual general meeting of the United Molasses Company, Ltd., was held on Fiiday, April 26th, at the Waldorf...

LONDON ASSURANCE FURTHER PROGRESS Tim annual general court of the London Assurance was held on. May 1st at I King William Street, London, E.C. Mr. R. Olaf Hambro (the...