Despite the demonstrated ability of France to continue indefinitely with a constitution that does not work, a Govern- ment that does not govern and a Budget that does not...

A S a result of Wednesday's debate in the Commons it is now confirmed that a major British party, and there- fore the British people itself, is split on the question whether the...

Before the Indian General Election started four months ago, Mr. Nehru, in that slightly pedagogic manner which befits the Prime Minister of an old nation adapting itself to new...

Mr. Lyttelton on Tuesday cleared up most of the uncertainties which had been caused by the news that the London confer- ence on Central African Federation had been put forward...

Mr. Alfred Robens, the former Minister of Labour, began his speech in Monday's Commons debate on man-power and productivity with a statement that he did not want to worry the...

The short-lived but alarming disturbances which occurred in Kowloon last week were given rather highly coloured treatment in some Press reports. They seem to have been caused by...

of writing, had escaped in some degree from the mood of sour enmity toward the Government which has been weighing on its benches ever since Parliament reassembled. The mood, to...

Nobody knows why the Minister of Housing and Local Government has decided, and been allowed, to raise subsidy rates for council houses by more than a third at a time when the...

It was high time for the introduction of fresh restrictions on the sale of new-cars, for no one doubted that abuses were too common. A man might place orders with half-a-dozen...

T HE eternal triangle of modern Egyptian politics— Palace, Wafd and British—has seen many variations in the course of the last generation, but only rare truces; yet a truce, or...

that has led to the resignation of Lord Waverley from the chairman- ship of the Royal Commission on Taxation has not to my mind received sufficient attention. Lord Waverley,...

smoking Indian hemp and dosing themselves with benze- drine, caffeine and other drugs, and undergraduate papers at either university are investigating the matter. I doubt...

is being celebrated by a few of his oldest friends this week, must be counted one of the remarkable men of his generation: Enlisting as a volunteer in the earliest days of the...

the Diocese of York on his hands, to say nothing of multi- farious activities such as tours to the Antipodes and frequent attendance at the House of Lords, can find time and...

ambition he would hardly have accepted the Wardenship of All Souls'—at forty-five Mr. John Sparrow has achieved something notable. A close runner-up when Sir Hubert Henderson,...

National Anthem has brought me expressions both of agreement and of disagreement—as was to be expected; every man has a right to his own tastes. Someone, in the matter of...

in their appeal for a fund, not to assist the library gener- ally, but to ease the way for those users of it who find the necessarily increased subscription (from four guineas a...

By C. W. VALENTINE S IR ERNEST BARKER, in his article " Family and Nation," in the Spectator of February 22nd, stressed especially the duty of the parents, not only to one...

By D. W. BROGAN O N March 1 1 th the electors of New Hampshire will vote in their party primaries for delegates to the national conventions, and they will express their...

By OWEN TWEEDY W HEN I left Cairo on December 31st I wrote in my diary : " I loved my Christmas; but it was Christmas ' in a Police State. I felt I was being watched." Five...

By ERIAN INGLIS " No Catholic may enter the Protestant University of Trinity College without having previously submitted his case to the Ordinary of the Diocese. " Any...

By REGINALD GIBBON W E never knew his true name. Undergraduate humour had played with Muffet, changed to Muffin Man or the Muffineer, and finally settled down to Mr. Muffin as...

and on what is normally the Undergraduate Page, is not by an under- graduate. None of the articles recently submitted for this page have been of a sufficiently high standard to...

By HAROLD NICOLSON 0 N May 4th, 1951, I wrote upon this page an article in which I boasted of my intention to smoke no more than five cigarettes a day. It being now nearly ten...

did. For Peacock, though his mind worked untheatrically, dwelling, magpie-fashion, on trivia, knew at least one cardinal secret of comedy : he doted on eccentrics, and loved to...

revival, from a mellower past, turns out well, and many a theatre-goer has been learning to his surprise that James was not above writing, an actable play ; a respectably...

thought such a very good idea to revive this comedy, neither cake of wit nor ale of deep substance but good plain bread-and-butter of naturalistic comedy cut in the fashion of...

THEATRE King Lear. By William Shakespeare. (Old Vic.) Tins huge, flawed pyramid of a play has a way of collapsing under mere competence. The actor is called upon to seize us,...

" LEONARDO'S life is changeful and uncertain. It is thought he lives only for the day." Since this was written, rather disapprovingly, by Pietro da Novellara 451 years ago, no...

The Belle of New York. (Empire.)—Red Skies of Montana. (London Pavilion.) IT is not often my lot these days to attend a public showing of a film. Now that I have shared The...

As the idioms of the twentieth century develop, multiply and converge afresh, the imprecision of the terms we use to describe them by becomes increasingly clear. The sculpture...

EUGENE GOOSSENS, who has this week conducted two concerts at the Royal Festival Hall, is the most professional of musicians, both as composer and conductor. If we did not...

The "Daily Mail" Ideal Home Exhibition. (Olympia.) THE Grand Hall of the Ideal Home Exhibition at Olympia has this year been designed by Mr. James Gardner, one of the architects...

THE INCOME-TAX CONTINUANCE The Income-tax !—the single word ought to startle Mr. Disraeli in his new but not unsought capacity as Chancellor of the Exchequer. What does he mean...

Set by A. D. C. Peterson Competitors are asked to assume that they are junior officials in a Ministry of Town and Country Planning, and that during their first week of office...

£5 was offered for an official rechristening of four of the following downtrodden persons, who have been known too long by their present names : an undesirable alien, a...

SIR,—The Spectator of February 22nd commented that "coal-miners have to be singularly unreasonable or extraordinarily foolish before they forfeit the admiration and respect in...

SIR,—Having devoted very nearly the whole of my column in your issue of February 6th to commenting on the melancholy necessity for a Society for Twentieth Century Music, and...

Public Worship SIR,—So long as we Church people manage to " hold the Faith in unity of spirit in the bond of peace," does it really matter so very much if we fail to attain...

essay by Mr. Harold Nicolson concerned with Mr. Nicolson's own attitude towards a number of matters, and containing an occasional passing reference to the late Norman Douglas—a...

SIR,—In the few obituary and other notices I managed to see on Norman DtSuglas I was struck, as I was too in Mr. Harold Nicolson's reflections in the Spectator, by what seemed a...

Disraeli in 1874 on Archbishop Tait's proposals to suppress ritualism : " The Archbishop is asking for an impossibility; that it shall be as easy to apply a much-disputed law,...

When I was a boy I looked forward to the month of March and the nesting of the lapwing or " peesweep," as the bird was called locally. The search for the nest of the peesweep...

SIR, —Miss Laski knows far more about King Alfred than I do. How- ever it was character, not intellectual achievement, which I had in mind, and where I think true greatness is...

Sia,—Thank you for printing the article by the Very Rev. George Duncan on Scottish feeling. With, its sanity of judgement and timely clarification of the issues involved it was...

on the moor. To the west we could see a range of mountains covered in snow, but where we were it was warm, and the mountain scene seemed unreal. A black-cock and grey- hen...

IN a hard country you will find hardy men. The cattle will also he of a hardy strain. In Wales they have their own Welsh Black cow s, a few Ayrshires and many Frisians, which...

SIR, —The letter from Mr. Mottram,•in your issue of February 22nd, broadens the discussion on the horse population to include the general question of rural craftsmen at the...

Sta,--You hold that the national anthem strikes a wrong note when the terms " victorious " and " glorious " are applied to a Queen for whom we all wish a reign of unbroken...

SIR, —Dr. Duncan's reference to Scots law in his interesting article this week prompts me to suggest that it would have been easier for Englishmen—and others—to take the Scots...

fox when he knows he is safe. The one I saw came along a high bank, and looked down the road to see that no one was about. 1 was sitting on a gate, a hundred yards away, but...

unsightly, but they make a good top dressing if brushed in with a birch broom. The worms can be destroyed with a preparation bought for the purpose, although it might be argued...

The Enemy in Ambush FULLY to appreciate how remarkable an achievement is Mr. Hart- Davis's biography of Hugh Walpole, it is necessary to read the book. No summarised comment...

No Picnic on Mount Kenya. By Felice Benuzzi. (Kimber. 15s.) KENYA is in debt to her Italian prisoners-of-war for making what was long the •only good road in the colony ; it is...

Tins most excellent and unusual collection of autobiographical fragments has appeared at last, and cannot fail in fascination upon all who read it. Eagerly anticipated, it will...

THE arrangement of the civil series of histories of the war by Govern- ment departments, which has obvious merits from the point of view of materials and method, has also...

The Autobiography of Frank Richards. (Charles Skilton. 10s. 6d.) THE author of this curious, whimsical, unpretentious biography—a slight but not unattractive performance—is the...

The German Army in the West. By General Siegfried Westphal. (Cassell. 17s. 6d.) DURING the war General Westphal was Chief of Staff successively to Rommel in North Africa, to...

WHEN is a murder story not a murder story ? When it is something more, like Hamlet, but also when it is something less, as murder and the other great crimes have become in those...

S. E. Morison and H. S. Commager. (Geoffrey Cumberlege. 2 vols. 70s.) SINCE its first appearance in 1930, this book has become established as the standard short history of the...

with an introduction by Sir Ernest Barker. (Thames & Hudson. 28s.) A BOOK which includes essays by such writers as Sir Maurice Bowra, Professor Carcopino, Professor Runciman,...

By CUSTOS As the Budget approaches markets are put- ting up a brave show. As everybody is now well aware, Mr. Butler has nailed his colours to the mast of disinflation and next...

THE SPECTATOR readers are urged to place a firm order with their newsagent or to take out a subscription. Newsagents cannot afford to take the risk of carry- ing stock, as...

(A Book Token for one guinea will be awarded to the sender of the first correct solution opened after noon on Tuesday week, March 18th, addressed Crossword, 99 Gower Street,...

ilffit113L_11:1 1101001311111i1: 0 EAR II 112 00011031e 12100011111111 el 13 13 13 - fl" 13 M CI 0131313130130103 1013013 13 s' El 13 L 4 1210 1 01311121 000131E103...