A GREEMENT in the West will not fail for want of discussion. At the moment in London, France, Britain and the United States with the three Benelux countries are discussing the...

Such general lessons as are to be derived from the methods whereby the Czech revolution was carried out are more immediately applicable to Italy, Austria, Germany and France...

The Nationalist forces seem to be failing in their struggle to hold North China. For some time the whole of Manchuria, except for one or two garrison towns, has been in...

The old illusion, already largely discredited between 1939 and 1945, that Scandinavia could stand apart from the main stream of European politics, is being transformed into an...

Another week has gone by during .which time there has been no progress at Lake Success towards a way out of the impasse on Palestine. The Security Council's discussions on last...

The debate in the House of Commons on Wednesday on the relation of the House to the nationalised industries like coal and transport began well and ended most disappointingly,...

The prevailing British ignorance of Latin American history has in the past been enlightened by one fact—that revolutions there have been frequent, seasonal and catching. The...

O NCE again the start of the week in Parliament was sombrely affected by the events of the week-end. This week, it is true, the scheduled business did, to some extent at any...

A debate on defence carried on under the shadow of the Czecho- slovakia transformation could not but be invested with an unlooked- for and sombre reality. Monday's discussion on...

With the period before July 5th, when the National Health Service Act comes into force, growing steadily shorter the continuance of the deadlock between the doctors and the...

T HE revolution in Czechoslovakia is running its appointed course, and the world has had time for full reflection on it. In the land of T. G. Masaryk, whose volume The Making of...

I observe that one of the Smith's Prizes at Cambridge has been awarded to the author of an essay on "The Topology of Lattices," while the Raleigh Prize is secured by "The...

will deeply deplore his untimely death. Though his appearance before he left England for the voyage that was to restore him to health shocked his friends, no one, I think, had...

though I see no signs of its working itself up to any great fury. However, it is all to the good ; any amount of paper is burned or otherwise destroyed that might well be pulped...

to which I made some reference a few weeks ago, will take place on the Easter adjournment motion in the House of Commons means that considerably more time can be given to it...

Having a certain personal prejudice against the imprisonment of journalists, I am glad to see that the editor and a reporter of a paper in New York State, who were sentenced...

attempt to blacken, the character of a witness who gives evidence in his court, what remedy or redress is at the witness's command ? The answer, I suppose, is None. When Mr....

By D. STURGE MOORE T HE snow has sludged and dripped away from the roofs and pavements of Paris, and premature spring has resumed its course. Everyone hopes that hens will be...

By SIR JOHN THORNE T HE delights of a cold-weather visit to India can be exaggerated. To pass from the damp discomfort of England at the end of December to the cool sunshine of...

By GEORGE BRINSMEAD A BRITISH financial mission led by Sir John Wise is now in Rio de Janeiro. As usual, the purpose of the visit is to negotiate an agreement on blocked...

By MARK BONHAM CARTER Chicago 0 NE of the ironies of America's position today is that, although she is the richest and most powerful country in the world, it is doubtful...

By EDWARD HODGKIN T HE trouble about North Croydon is that it does not really exist. Thornton Heath, Upper Norwood and Norbury are places, but North Croydon is only an...

By J. GORDON COOK I N our present days of coal and fuel shortage, it might be expected that a machine capable of delivering four or five times as much heat from a unit of...

By HAROLD NICOLSON • I HAVE found it opportune, when faced with an uncongenial situation, or working in circumstances of strain and animosity, to read books about people who...

Air in The Spectator of January 3oth Michael Evans was made the object of criticism which was meant to apply to another actor. It did not apply at all to Mr. Evans.

"Unconquered." (Carlton.)-" Le Corbeau." (Rialto.)-" Idol of Paris." (Warner.) MR. CECIL B. DE MILLE has always fostered our native herd instincts by the simple expedient of...

THE THEATRE " Castle Anna." By Elizabeth Bowen and John Perry. (Lyric, Hammersmith.) Ir may be unfair of English audiences to demand that their stage Irishmen shall run true...

DR. WILHELM FURTWANGLER conducted the London Philharmonic Orchestra in the first of a series of concerts at Covent Garden on February 29th. There were two symphonies, Schumann...

trunks on the North and South sides has recalled to a correspondent the experience of an old crafts- man and carver. His work chiefly consisted in preparing oak for half-...

Ideal Home Exhibition. (Olympia). THE war seems to have changed little in the English home. There is no sign of any radical change in taste and no suggestion that we are ripe...

by discovering unconscious verses in the most prosaic quarters. One of his latest should interest farmers. The account of a newly discovered drug that strangely affects the much...

THE New Forest today, like the Nottingham forests of old, has become a refuge for those who may be called outlaws ; but in respect of the nature of these displaced persons the...

frosts have done good service by preventing a too early spring, since it is the late frost that does the harm. All this is true ; but a number of flowers and bushes have...

Albert merits a visit not only because it illustrates the immense labour involved in the making of a picture, but also because the exhibits are so delightful in themselves....

peacock butterfly has been showing himself off in my study for a week or two. Doubtless in the way of his tribe he had entered the house to hibernate and been awakened by the...

Snt,—Your kind note about the projected university college at Stoke-on-I Trent is not entirely correct. The approval of the University Grants Committee to the proposal is not...

PATTON AND PRAGUE Sta,—With reference to the admirable leading article, Gottwald or Benes? in your issue of February 27th, may I call your attention to an error which does...

SIR —I should be grateful if you would allow me to reply to Mr. Barlow, who, in your issue of February 27th, refers to Ulstermen as having two votes. By this I presume he...

Stg,—According to his election address your distinguished contributor, Harold Nicolson, is going into battle to defend the superiority of our " planned economy " over the "...

SIR, With last year's monthly sales of liquid milk averaging nearly thirty million gallons more than in 1939, it would appear at first sight that milk production in this country...

Stg,—Mr. Tony Gibson, in your issue of February 27th, writes an interesting article on Third Force in China. As one who has recently returned after twenty-five years in China,...

SUBSCRIPTION RATES :— 52 weeks. 26 weeks d. £ s. d. Greet Britain and Overseas by ordinary mail 1 10 0 15 0 Air Mail to Members of the Forces in any of the World ......

of The Mastersingers have pointed out that this may be the first introduction of a new genera- tion to the mature Wagner, and as The Mastersingers is almost univer- sally and...

SIR, —In answer to the chairman of the Church Assembly Publicity Commission, may I say that I was concerned with its report, not its membership? The commission may not have...

Sm,—Surely Mr. Henry Strauss has overlooked that " hitting the nail on the head" implies hitting it there to good effect. The bigger the nail, the harder you must batter it to...

Sta,—In reply to your comments on the recent British Theatre Con- ference, may I say that: (a) Mr. J. B. Priestley was invited to be chairman for his pre-eminence as a...

A REVIEWER of a book by Dr. Joad is now in the position of a jury- man at the Assizes who is already familiar with the defendant and thinks he knows, the case from having read...

Our Debt to the Classics The Classical Background of English Literature. By J. A. K. Thomson. (Allen and Unwin. 12s. 6d.) ENGLISH literature and civilisation are inevitably...

J. L. Garvin : a Memoir. By Katharine Garvin. (Heinemann. 12s. 6d.) GARVIN has been dead little more than a year ; it is far too soon to allot him his final place in British...

The Sketches of Rubens. By Leo van Puyvelde. (Kegan Paul. 42s.) THIS book, which first appeared in French eight years ago, seems to have originated in the important exhibition...

THE publishers tell us that the second volume of this study of the Spanish American Empire completes the work begun in the "Rise" which appeared a year ago. No one who reads Mr....

RECENTLY two extremely informative books have appeared on the German resistance—the von Hassell diaries and Gisevius's To the Bitter End. About each disastrous event, and each...

The Loved One. By Evelyn Waugh. ("Horizon." 2s. 6d.) Bodies and Souls. By Maxence van der Meersch. Translated by Eithne Wilkins. (Pilot Press. 15s.) The Mountain Lion. By Jean...

_101116 P! h./ rs 1iOICiA 122 ids& el LIFloistIo A R iol-r -r,. R V It DiciA T_ R V P UiR A N.CIE KIE E U T E ARTIEM IEIRID : t . KIE 13 El i1121* S 44 1 1 N A rtuo c...

[A Book Token for one guinea will be awarded to the sender of the first correct solution of this week's crossword to be opened after noon on Tuesday week March 16th. Envelopes...

By CUSTOS FOR those who pin their faith in price charts—I am not among their number—these are critical days for markets. At its present level of just over no the Financial...