T HE past week has been disastrous for the Germans both on the eastern front and at home. The last two R.A.F. raids on the capital appear to have been more catastrophic in their...

In the great sea, air and land battle which is now going on in the Marshall Islands, the Americans are drawing their net more widely across the Pacific, and are now advancing...

In the earlier period of Germany's war against Russia, when she was still winning victories, Hitler's propaganda told of Soviet armies annihilated, Soviet industries crushed,...

The sensibility of the civilised world is not so blunted by records of enemy cruelty as to fail to react with inexpressible horror to the accounts of Japanese barbarity in the...

Not much has appeared in the British Press about the conference of Italian democratic parties held at Bari during last week-end ; and in spite of a good many dogmatic...

It is reassuring to know that the British and -American Govern. ments have adopted firm language towards the Spanish Government, and that words have been backed by deeds in...

The Government's plan to set up a conference on electoral reform and redistribution of seats, presided over by the Speaker of the House of Commons, relieves the Home Secretary...

T HERE is always an element of the startling in Russia's methods of political evolution. The sweeping measure of decentralisation announced on Wednesday does not indeed come as...

EOPLE who like arguing can argue 'their heads off about Mr. Churchill's interventions in the Brighton by-election. Perscnally, I find his argument convincing. Lord Samuel seems...

By STRATEGICUS HE battle of Rome has not followed the expected rhythm ; and we can neither deduce the plan from what has actually occurred nor too confidently conclude that...

By DAVID THOMSON By DAVID THOMSON R ECENT developments inside France have created a situation which is more explosive end more significant for the future of her people than any...

By EDWARD F. GRIFFITH T HE whole future stability of our national life centres round the family. If that is insecure all our hopes and plans for effective national development...

By V. S. SWAMINATHAN I T is a matter of history that measures prescribed for disarming Germany after the First World War, and keeping her disarmed, failed dismally. That must...

By HAROLD NICOLSON A ROUND me as I write are grouped the flowers of spring. In a bowl from Mekinez, packed tight with fibre, the stiff flowers of the netted iris glimmer among...

••• The Druid's Rest." At the St. Martin's.—Sadler's Wells Ballet. At the New. MR. EMLYN WILLIAMS'S new comedy at the St. Martin's has a Nv eish setting, and a mainly Welsh...

"Johnny Vagabond." At the London Pavilion. WHY and how do films get made? Perhaps we too seldom consider the forbidding mechanics of the business—financial and technical....

By habitual measurements do not idly Aseasure Those who are shaken by the storms of war; He for whom Death 's become a daily neighbour Sees many things he never saw before. We...

SPECTATOR" One shilling and sixpence for each copy should be enclosed with instructions and addressed to:— INDEX DEPT.. "THE SPECTATOR," LTD.. 99GOWER STREET, LONDON, 1V.C.1,...

Sia,—Mr. A. J. P. Taylor, in a letter published in your issue of January 28th, is of the opinion that Poles "can have the friendship of Russia the moment they renounce their...

Sta,—I would like to add my voice to that of Miss Macaulay in your issue of January 28th when she declares that the most serious lack in the B.B.C. today would appear to be...

Sin,—Why, what a sullen fellow is this "Janus" before eleven in the morning! First he stops the announcer saying "Good morning to those of you who have not tuned in before," or...

Sto,—In last week's "Marginal Comment" Mr. Harold Nicolson makes out an impressive case for the indiscriminate retention of our refugee population. I do not propose to criticise...

SIR,—Miss Lucie Street's answer to my article on the Real. Austria is not quite accurate. I never asked anyone to believe "that. no one of Austrian birth save Hitler himself...

Snt,—" Janus" in the issue of January t4th last suggests that far more people receive knowledge from the Bible by learning extracts rather than by regular reading. At my own...

Snt,—In your issue of January 7th, Mr. Loeb is likely to mislead your readers. The Nazis never got a majority at any general election IS Germany. That is a plain and...

British Police and the Democratic Ideal. By Charles Reith (Oxford University Press. I25. 6d.) ANY book about the police service must have an especial appeal to th; serving...

The Birth of the Royal Air Force. By Air Commodore J. A. Chamier, C.B., C.M.G., D.S.O. (Pitman. is.) THE Royal Air Force, during these winter months, is preparing for...

Splendours and Miseries. By Sacheverell Sitwell. (Faber and Faber. 1:88.) OF the discoveries in which this century has proved all too fecund, none I fancy, not even flight, has...

Man and Literature. By Norman Nicholson. (S.C.M. Press. ros. 6d.) THE proposition advanced by Mr. Nicholson in this little thesis with the big title is this : that twentieth...

Elders and Betters. By!. Compton-Burnett. (Gollancz. 98. 6d.) Robber Bridegroom. By Eudora Welty. (The Bodley Head. los. 6d.) " Oh, must we be quite so honest with durselves, my...

Carteret and Newcastle : A Contrast ha Contemporaries. By Basil Williams. (Cambridge University Press. 15s.) PROFESSOR Basil Williams' " double biography" of Carteret and...

A NATURE Reserves Investigation Committee was appointed in 1942 to advise the official planners of rural reconstruction after the war. An immense sum of local information has...