BOOKS OF THE DAY Orwell on the English The British People. By George Orwell. (Collins. 5s.) THE latest addition to the admirable Britain in Pictures series is a study by Mr....

French Poetry Anthology of European Poetry. Vol I. Machault to Malherbe. Translated by William Stirling. Introduction by Marcel Arland. Selected by Mervyn Savill. (Allan...

Mr. Churchill's Contribution It is an index of the position which Mr. Churchill holds in this country that no speech in the present crisis, excepting only the Prime Minister's...

Dr. Evatt in Tokyo The present tendency of the Press in this country to play down, or ignore, news from Japan is understandable but to be regretted. Little publicity has been...

Egypt's Complaint When some six months ago the Egyptian Government suddenly broke off discussions with the British about the future of the Sudan and announced their intention...

Peace in Indonesia ? It is still too early to say whether the cease-fire order by the Netherlands Government, which came into force at midnight on Monday, heralds a stable...

COUNTRY LIFE HARVEST began on a considerable scale in July, rather more than the prophesied six weeks after the first dog roses opened ; and here and tncre a field or two of...

AN UNNECESSARY CRUELTY SIR,-There are many people who like turtle soup-and I am one of them. -t has, however, been brought to my notice that great cruelty is inflicted on these...

In My Garden A wild flower that flourishes exuberantly in a garden is the hare- (or hair-) bell, the bluebell of Scotland. A common near me is now singularly blue, but I never...

IRE-LAND SIR,-The problem is not one of black and wh-ite; there are rights and awrongs on both sides. All attempts to polarise the issue lead to an extremism where the chances...

WEYBOURNE HOPE SIR,-As a reader of your journal who appreciates the column by Sir W. Beach Thomas, I would like to mention that, as regards his query as to the origin of "...

B.A.O.R. FINANCES SIR,-Privates A. and B., stationed in Germany both draw their ration of cigarettes. Pte. A. promptly destroys his by setting fire to them; Pte. B. exchanges...

Oil and Duck The sea about our coasts is in rather worse case than our rivers. Id some appalling but singularly interesting statistics quoted from Hastings by a correspondent...

Midland Fishermen The present renewed campaign against river pollution, which is alre;dy winning some small successes, has brought out the popularity of coarse fishing as a...

Misplaced you may call it, or maladroit, or at best well-intentioned; but that it was loyalty, of a true and simple kind, which moved Nanny -before anybody else could get a...

A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK THE twelfth hour has struck, the crisis has broken, the blizzard is upon us, and it would be easy to see a dire portent in the two carrion crows which...

What are power-politics ? From the shocked references to them which one is always coming across, I deduce that they are in some way different from ordinary politics; but I...

In real life most language difficulties can, by diligence, dumb show or good luck, be overcome in the end; but in nims ano in drama the conscientious artist meets at regular...

If you come to think about it, physical pain has many singularities. Of all human experiences it is, as long as it lasts, the most absorbing; and it is the only human...

LAND OF PLENTY B~y WARREN POSTBRIDGE ONE risk any intending visitor to Switzerland must be prepared to face-of dying of a surfeit in his first week. To be seated, an hour...

CONTEMPORARY ARTS THE THEATRE "6 Dr. Angelus." By James Bridie. (Phoenix.),-" My Wives and I." By Edward Percy. (Strand.) THERE iS a curiously metaphysical quality about...

THE CINEMA " The Web." (Tivoli.)-" It Happened on Fifth Avenue." (New Gallery.) The Web now being woven at the Tivoli will be a pleasure to all flies who like this type of...

MUSIC IT was interesting to see Les Presages again at Covent G(arden. 1t was the first of the symphony-ballets, and it remains far the most satisfactory. This is partly because...

Bosnia by Parachute Partisan Picture. By Basil Davidson. (Bedford Books, Bedford. 18s.' IN the late summer of I943, Lt.-Col. Davidson was dropped by parachute into Bosnia...

Small Savings A History of Saving Banks. By H. Oliver Home. (Oxford Univer- sity Press. 18s.) AMONG the various threads combining to form the pattern of British social and...

HOUSEWIVES AND FOOD FACTS SmI,-At various recent mcetings and demorn~trXtions up and down n the country, the Housewives' League-a fundamentally non-paryv organi's.tion formed...

BOARDING SCHOOLS AND THE L.C.C. SIR,-Mr. Gedge, in your issue of last week, betrays his ignorance of the Ministerial administrative memorandum No. 225, May 9, 1947, to which I...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR WASTE ON THE FARMS SIR,-When I was released from the R.A.F. last month there were a number of courses open to me before going up to Oxford in October. In...

SIR,-If the Socialist administration on the L.C.C. had decided to inmit the benefits of boarding education to certain selected categories of children because, as Mr. Gedge...

Lear Centenary The Complete Nonsense of Edward Lear. Edited by Holbrook Jackson. (Faber and Faber. 12s. 6d.) THE cult of the absurd has been nearly always joined with a...

More About John Buchan John Buchan. By His Wife and Friends. (Hodder and Stoughton. 12s. 6d.) LISTENERS to the wartime programmes of the B.B.C. became familiar with the sort...

PLIGHT OF THE NATION JUST over three weeks elapsed between the establishment of the cons ertibility of sterling in accordance with the AngloAmerican financial agreement and the...

The Pressure of Parliament The annual business of Parliament is like a jig-saw puzzle, in which the varied requirsnents of legislation and of the financial year must inexorably...

AT WESTMINSTER- THIS column must start this week on a personal note. I am, at the time of writing, that pitiful paradox, a politician without a voice. Not that this of itself...

Neurosis Among Factory Workers The report of the Industrial Health Research Board of the Medical Research Council on The Incidence of Neurosis among Factory Workers presents a...

ON THE AIR AUGUST iS traditionally the silly season, which must be my excuse for devoting a couple of paragraphs to the subject of studio audiences. From various comments which...

ENCOUNTER FALLEN to what strange places Love travels pilgrim, And into what deep dream Descend these bottomless synthetic stairs, For out of nothingness, impassable locked...

NEWS OF THE WEEK THE past ten days have been among the blackest in the history of the Palestine problem. The murder by the Irgun of Sergeants Paice and Martin after several...

Failure in Germany Formally Monday's debate on Germany and Austria concerned the vote of £53,473,794 of British money for services connected with these countries. At the...

IN DEFENCE OF MERCUTIO By LESLIE HOTSON MOVING tales are told of the discovery of fact couching unM suspected in the jealous corners of History. Every truly gentle reader...

LIVING ON THE FAT SIR,-When the coal crisis struck Britain in February, one factor cushioned the impact of the blow on our industrial economy, namely the stocks held by various...

A REPORT ON GREECE SIR,-The report of the Security Council's Commission in the Balkans states quite categoricallv that " On the basis of the facts ascertained by the...

NEWSPRINT AND PROVINCIAL PAPERS SIR,-I am glad that your correspondent, Mr. Francis Graves, has drawn attention to the serious effect of the cut in newsprint on the weekly...

SEARCHLIGHTS TO THE RESCUE ? SIR,-The time is now approaching when it is proposed to restore, if only to a limited extent, the lighting of our streets, and it is therefore...

SPACE FOR ADVERTISEMENTS SIR,-Among the outcry in the papers and in Parliament relative to the restriction made by the Government in the size of newspapers one has not seen a...

PRISONERS IN EXILE SiR,-In her thought-provoking article, Prisoners in Exile (July 11), Mrs. Buxton says: " sMr. Bellenger has told us that restrictions can be relaxed 'only...

The Law Through the Centuries Essays in Law and History. By Sir William S. Holdsworth. (Clarendon Press. 20s.) THE editors of this volume, two of Holdsworth's best friends,...

Newness and Novelty Living in the New Towns. By Clough Williams-Ellis. (Jason Press. Is.) ____- ,F -T.. -er New Beginnings and New Towns. By David Williamson. _ w_____ _ *__...

FINANCE AND INVESTMENT By CUSTOS I By the time these lines appear in print investors will have registerx i their reactions to the Government's crisis plans. I find it...

Shorter Notices The Path to Nigerian Freedom. By Obafemie Awolowo. (Faber and Faber. 7s. 6d.) THIS book might prove a misleading guide both to Europeans and to Africans who...

AT BRAMALL LANE By J. P. W. MALLALIEU, M.P. It is little I repair to the matches of the Southron folk, Though my own red roses there may blow; It is little I repair to the...

MARSHALLING EUROPE By MARGOT WOOD LL right, if you do not want to share Mr. Marshall's cake, Athere will be all the more for us." This rather sums up Western Europe's first...

MARGINAL COMMENT By HAROLD NICOLSON THIS morning I came across a passage in the diary of Benjamin Constant which I found difficult to understand. "I am often reproved," he...

V.D. AND CONSCRIPTION By LORD %IORAN, MI.C MICROBES, for which penicillin is a specific, may become inM sensitive to this mould if it is given for some time. Likewise the...

Short Stories Innocents. By A. L. Barker (The Hogarth Press. 7s. 6d.) 19 Stories. By Graham Greene. (Heinemann. 8s. 6d.) .. . . . 1 ,,. The Survivors. By John...