most important hnd cheering news which we have had from India for a long time was published in the papers of Wednesday. In the early hours of that morning Lord Irwin and Mr....

with horror that Lord Irwin has " surrendered " about the salt tax. As a matter of fact, he has yielded some- thing which only a craven fear of being called weak could have...

1.—A Subscription to the SPECTATOR costs Thirty Shillings per annum, including postage, to any part of the world. The SpEc-reina is registered as a Newspaper. The Postage on...

army who, although he knows that he has force at his disposal immensely superior to that of his enemy, wants to agree to conditions of peace which will not be wounding. The...

grateful admiration of his moral courage. He has persisted in the face of much misrepresentation and disparagement, but he is bringing to India a harvest of peace which could...

under Article 304 of the Treaty of Versailles have been on the whole successful experiments. There is no doubt about the success of the Anglo-German tribunal, the principal...

Nobody knows what programme the Government will produce in order to replace the Bills which are being slaughtered one after another, though it is true that the Alternative Vote...

Red Cross work in war-time were laid before Parliament on Monday. They were signed at Geneva in July, 1929, and are now to be ratified. One of them strengthens the Red Cross...

issue of the Trade Disputes Bill, but may mention here that before the Bill was abandoned on Tuesday there were many comings and goings between Cabinet Ministers and the Liberal...

has dropped his inadmissible demand about the police. Last week we expressed our concern about this because long experience has shown that when a Government throws over, or...

present state of China, to continue the present party dictatorship, the Central Executive of the Kuomintang has decided to draft a provisional Constitution. This represents a...

Scullin in the ascendant. At the meeting of the Federal Labour Caucus on Monday all the Ministries were declared vacant, and a ballot was taken to fill the posts. Mr. Scullin...

to be continued, but these tactics broke down utterly before the determination of the ordinary Labour members and the ordinary Liberals not to compromise. We cannot be surprised...

rejection of the School Attendance Bill by the Lords, but in his letter to the Prime Minister he added that he had been " very much out of sympathy " with the Government on...

set up to advise the L.C.C. on Charing Cross Bridge is not yet available, it is clear from Sir Leslie Scott's speech on Tuesday that the majority favour a modified version of...

that no further matches with French clubs could be played until the control and conduct of the game in France had been placed on a satisfactory basis. The decision, coming on...

Boston has been accepted by Mr. Basil Mathews, the well-known missionary who is the author of the Clash of Colour and similar works. Recently he has been working at Geneva for...

course. On Tuesday he had the temerity to make a tentatively Protectionist speech in the Free Trade Hall, Manchester. Yet this was not so bold as the delivery of such a speech...

Unionist constituency of St. George's, Westminster. Sir Ernest Petter has come forward as an independent candidate whose main policy seems to be " Out with Baldwin." The...

for 1929-30, gently reproaches the medical profession for not, making fuller use of insulin in the treatment of diabetes. The consumption of insulin has increased steadily since...

on May 1st, 1930. War Loan (5 per cent.) was on -Wednesday 10311; , on Wednesday week, 1081; a year ago, 102. Funding Loan (4 per cent.) was on Wednesday 921 ; on Wednesday...

T HE failure of France and Italy to agree at the London Naval Conference about the respective strengths of • their navies has hung like a black cloud over the political...

rc HE defeat of the Government in Standing Committee on the essential clause of the Trade . Disputes Bill was deserved, and it is important that every thinking man and woman...

certainly - I - unparalleled in British politics.. A minority Government, clinging desperately to office, is maintained there with the utmost difficulty by a small and divided...

BY G. M. THOMSON. [The Bill of the Trustees of the National Library for a Provisional Order will be before Parliament this month. Mr. Thermion puts the ease against the Bill,...

Proposals—III BY CHRISTOPHER TURNOR [This is the third and last of Mr. Tumor's articles on the Govern- ment's proposals with regard to Agriculture. We would draw attention...

By R. A. FISHER. [Dr. Fisher of the Statistical Department of Rothamsted Experimental Station is one of the most brilliant of our younger mathematicians and scientists. His...

W.—The Psychology of Religious Dogma BY DR. ROBERT H. TIMULESS, M.A., PH.D. [Dr. Robert Thouless is Lecturer in Psychology at Glasgow University. Next week Rev. Fearon...

BY J. B. MORTON. T HE other day a man was charged with causing an elephant to be led in a prohibited area. The magistrate who heard the ease said : " I cannot imagine a more...

BY AmICUS. I N the figure there is alertness, vigilance, readiness to pounce : in the gnawed sidelong cigar, shrewdness ; in the eye—well, the eye is an eye " in fine frenzy...

BY RABINDRANATH TAGORE. [Translated from the original Bengali by Bhabani Bhattdcharya.] • T HE pathway that runs through the shades of the wood is now - covered with tall...

[Cit_\RLIE Ch APLIN'S " CITY LIGHTS." DOMINION THEATRE.] " WE come to laugh at Charlie, not to criticize him." So I said to myself on arriving outside the Dominion Theatre to...

[" Ton CIRCLE." By W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM. AT THE VAUDEVILLE THEATRE. " DESIRE UNDER THE ELMS." BY EUGENE O'NEILL. AT THE GATE THEATRE STUDIO. " THE VENETIAN." By CLIFFORD RAX. AT...

THE " SPECTATOR," MARCH 5TH, 183!. THE REFORM BILL. The Great Measure has at length been laid before the public. It fully justifies the anticipations of the warmest friends of...

The Editor offers a prize of two guineas for the best new verse for " God Save the King," advocating world co-operation. This Competition will close on Friday, March 20th.

THE Editor offered a prize last week of two guineas for the best description on a postcard of the thoughts of Mr. Beer- bohm's caricature of Lord Cecil. We have decided to award...

WANTED : A NEW REFORM BILL [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR, —The objections raised to " A New Reform Bill " in the three interesting letters in your issue of February...

. [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sin,—Maternal mortality in India is a subject which has been - treated from various points of view by different observers. It is a...

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sin,—Referring to Mr. Sinanan's letter, I could quote numbers of instances where the colour bar in this country does not apply to cricket,...

all due respect will you permit me to say that I think the theoristic, high-brow, callous tone of Mr. H. G. Metcalf's letter casts a shadow on our national honour ? Thousands of...

SIR,—As you have had correspondence in your columns on the subject of forced labour in Kenya Colony, I think the following reply by Government to a question I asked in...

which has excluded many men and women from the probation service because they were not communi- cants of the Church of England was not erected by Local Authorities. It was, in...

Sm,—Your editorial comment upon the letter of " A General Medical Practitioner," in your last issue puts in a nutshell the case for legal recognition and regulation of...

be established by this corre- spondence : (1) The clergy in most places cannot accomplish properly the pastoral visitation of the whole parish. (2) If they endeavour to do so...

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—May I make an urgent appeal towards obtaining an ambulance for the Jaffa and Telaviv Society for the Pro- tection of Animals ? Thanks...

Sra,—The Coal Owners' Association, according to Mr. Philip Gee's letter, have asked the Minister for Mines to "• insist " on the production of evidence of cruelties to pit...

SPECTATOR.] SIR ,—Your correspondent Mr. Jethro. Sable asks " how the parson discovers the sick and the infirm in his parish." Ile will find an answer to his inquiry in the...

be permitted to endorse the views expressed by your correspondent Mr. - Philip Gee, in your issue of Feb- ruary 14th ? If definite evidence to support Miss Gardner's charges...

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,--On an early day in January, 1929, on the sands at Camber, near Rye, I watched for some time a ringed plover with only one leg, hopping...

Sin,—In reply to Mr. B. E. Westbury may I suggest that the loss of a leg or legs in our river gulls is due either to fish (pike or eels most probably) or to rats? To the...

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR, I have read with interest the letter in the Spectator of Jan. 17th from Mrs. Breck, President of the Anti-Steel-Trap League of Washington,...

SHADOWED and frowned upon by Hope and Hee, Lashed into frenzy by the sudden squall, There lies a tarn. Few human footsteps fall Upon its banks, though passing hinds may see...

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sin,—In my letter to the Spectator of November 8th I made grave specific charges against the Burns Federation. Sir Alexander Gibb, replying...

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sin,—Mr. Squire, in his delightful references to some past frequenters of the British Museum Reading Room, suggests that " the silent aisles...

FINANCIAL SUPPLEMENT BANKING AND INSURANCE No. 5,358.] WEEK ENDING SATURDAY, MARCH •7, 1931. [GRATIS

A Difficult Year TIIERE appears to be a popular belief in some quarters that no matter whether general conditions in the country are prosperous or not, the profession of...

ALTHOUGH, in- the main, general conditions affecting banking profits in Scotland have not differed vastly from those south of the Tweed, there have nevertheless been some points...

Ix the previous Financial Supplement of the Spectator brief allusion was made, in discussing the relative merits of whole, life and endowment assurances, to the problem of...

rill: bullion market is one . Of the most 'romantic of London's institutions. Every year many million pounds! worth of solid gold are sold there like so much merchandise. The...

1929, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Philip Snowden, announced in the House of Commons the intention of the Government to appoint a committee to enquire into--the Bankin...

and 99 Fetter Lane, E.C. 4, and Published by THE SPECTATOR, LTD., at their Offices. No. 99 Gower Street, London, W.C. 1.—Saturday, March 7, 1931.

Ma. KEYNES'S new TrEdfise on Money appears at a most opportune moment. It: comes just as the whole world is bewildered by a rapid and disastrous fall in prices, which is...

MRS. COURTNEY'S book is good company. We envy her recollections of Oxford in those more beautiful days when the suburbs were not built and the cars and the crowds had not come...

Percy, M.P. (John Lane. is. 6d.) A TIME of national depression is always an occasion for newly invented remedies. It is the hey-day of the opportunist and the quack who is...

Green Hell. By Julian Duguid. (Cape. 10s. 6d.) WE owe a real debt to the Spanish peoples for preserving a substantial part of the new world from dullness, and it is a debt...

and Georges Romieu. (Skeffuigton. 12s. 6d.) • IF only the Brontës had had a good stepinother ! Some amiable lady, not too young, with a little money, common sense and...

The German Submarine War, 1914-1918. By R. H. Gibson and Maurice Prendergast. (Constable. 36s.) TJIF authors of this book have admirably gathered together all the more important...

Tins is indeed a fragrant book ! Besides the technical information, the nomenclature, and the plain instructions for growing the most scented varieties of an endless number of...

with an Introduction, by Count Du Moulin Eckert. The Translation edited with a Preface and Notes by Scott Goddard. (Knopf. 1,000 copies at 218.) THERE is still a large number of...

THE London home of the King and Queen was known to be full of beautiful things. But the descriptions and photo- graphs of the Royal treasures in Mr. Clifford Smith's fine and...

Value for Money Ships In The Bay ! By D. K. Broster. (Heinemann. 7s. 6d.) Two novels of individual excellence, one by a practised hand, the other by a newcomer ; a swinging...

The World Our Neighbour. By Vernon Bartlett. (Elki n Mathews and Marrot. 6s.) MR. VERNON BARTLETT, as a member of the League of Nations Secretariat, has, of course, no politics,...

6d.)—A rattling story of the days of the Old Pretender by the most successful historical novelist of our generation. Heartily recommended to boys of all ages—from seventeen...

THE ERL KING. By Edwin Granberry. (Constable' 7s. 6d.)—Mr. Granberry has several of the novelist's virtues, notably sincerity and feeling : but his story of the' Florida'...

6d.)—A story of distinction by a novelist who, more intent upon inner than outer drama, justifies her choice by humour," sympathy, and a precise observa- tion of human character.

is in Hampshire and is peopled principally by Pecksniffs and congenital idiots. Well-written, but surely libellous.

magnificent couple ! An alley cat who in spite of everything is " always the lady ' and an aggrieved cockroach with a gift for typing. A delicious example of dry and ribald...

of two stout sailing ships in the South Seas, a murder, a beautiful girl and stolen jewels make an exciting yarn for juvenile grown-ups.

mechanical and telegraphic record of a girl clerk's emotions in office, suburbia and love. A " Strange Interlude " in Wimbledon.

is on his second speed. He tries us rather hard in extracting a tinkle or two out of the eternal triangle.

(Methuen. 7s. 6d.)—Tracking down a black- mailer becomes quite a jolly affair with sleuths like Jimmy Lezaire and his irrepressible assistant. Good fun and innocuous excitement.

6d.)—" A cheerful murder story," says the author. A normal specimen of modern, machine- made melodrama for the million. Here's to more and merrier murders !

above all snobs are poor soil for the development of the tragic psychological implications of a concealed murder. Smoothly written, however, and holds the interest.

girl comes unscathed through the worst horrors of the revolution to wed a Labour M.P. A brisk, brutal and super-sensational yarn.

fortunately incredible, story of India thirty years hence. Governor Hardy trium- phantly sweeps away politicians, lawyers and Bolsheviks, and restores the iron hand. Soothing...

THE. Nineteenth Century for March leads off with the inevitable article on India, in this case by Lord Meston, who disparages 'the achievements of the Conference, and writes, we...

ledge, 7s. 6d.) the uncritical reader will get some instruction, he will be interested in the origin and meaning of many curious names, and he will learn by copious examples...

A FINE piece of history is Mr. Shan Bullock's After Sixty Years (Sampson Low, 8s. 6d.), and a fine and faithful picture it draws of the tranquil but iron-hard life led by Lough...

and corrupt gang of nobles (her own half- brother their fugleman), diplomatically undermined by Elizabeth of England, and with the haughty Guise blood surging hot within her,...

of society which Mr. Dreiser pours forth with special reference to the American scene in his book HO Rub-a-Dub-Dub (Constable, 7s. 6d.) are yet further example' of that...

Wallis Budge (Humphrey Milford, 30s.), are professedly answers to some of the numerous questions which were put by the general public to the author, while he was keeper of the...

under- phirt and black trousers, busily adjusting gold studs in the bosom of a hard-boiled shirt " is an extract from Mr. Hamli n Garland's Roadside Meetings (Lane, 12s. 6d.)....

and Science in the Making ; they relate to talks being given at 7.25 and 8.0 p.m. respectively, every Tuesday until March 24th. The first pamphlet is by Mr. Gerald Heard, and...

firmly convinced that the game of Africa is doomed to extinction within the next few years, thanks to economic development and to the modern rifle - wedded in an unholy alliance...

Powley (Cambridge University Press, 4s. 6d.) should prove of use to students and others. Palgrave's Golden Treasury was published in 1855, and in the early pages of his book Mr....

(as the wrapper Characterizes them) are so well known to students of ethnology that the scholarly translation pro- vided by Professor IL J. Rose under the title The Origin and...

to Day Pamphlets, the first of which was Mr. Maurice Dobb's interesting and informative pamphlet on Russia To-day and To-morrow (1s. 6d.). No. 4 also deals with Russia : it is...

scholarly work from the United States. A Walk to Horace's Farm is published in Oxford (B. Blackwell, 6s.), but Mr. E. K. Rand hails from Cambridge, Massuchusetts, where the...

issue of the Spectator to a selection of records recommended by Mr. A. C. de Busay. The name should have been Mr. A. D. C. D de BrisaT. - _ — _

Come- dian. By Himself. (Sampson Low, 12s. 641.). For thirty 'years this clever mirth-provoking artist has been convulsing music-hall and other audiences with plain honest fun,...

British Cotton Fabrics BY MRS. E. V. LUCAS. , • Tim British Cotton Textile Exhibition which closed on February 28th could scarcely have been more attractive d ither in the...

OUR weekly prize of one guinea for the best thirteen Questioni submitted is awarded this week to Mr. Louis de Winton, Linford, Ringwood, Hampshire, for the following :— ....

his mother's brother's wife's sister.-2. She was my second-cousin ; married my mother's brother, who deceased. and -then myself.-3. I was a widower, and my son married my second...

The C.P.R. Jubilee FOR Mr. Kipling, " Romance -brings up the 9.145." There is assuredly romance in the jubilee of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company, which has ,just been...

Railways, the Public and the Investor POSSIBLY by the time that this article is in print the Award will have been given in the matter of the recent discussion with regard to...

In these days of industrial depression it is encouraging come across so cheerful a report as that recently published Thomas Tilling, Ltd. Indeed, in some respects Industrials...

A BETTER FEELING. IN spite of the wintry elements out of doors, there has bee a touch of Spring in the air on the Stock Exchange, and uncle the influence of a slightly more...

The Report, which was placed before shareholders and policy-holders of the Refuge Assurance Company at the recent meeting was a thoroughly satisfactory one. Both in the Ordin-...

Remarkable progress continues to' be made by the Scottish Widow's Fund and Life Assurance Society, and for last year the new business established a fresh high record, the total...

The Report of the Abbey Road Building Society for the past year shows that the rate of progress noticeable. for some years was increased in 1930. The number of share- holders...

Not unnaturally the heads of some of our big Stores have felt it incumbent upon them to take up the point which has been raised in many quarters with regard to the lag in retail...