Nothing kills Parliamentary debate like unanimity. Con- versely, the House of Commons is at its best when there is a deep cleavage of opinion and when feeling is intense. Both...

Mark Tapley himself could have taken lessons from Mr. Kenneth Lindsay. Everything in the world of education is invariably jolly, and he always arrives at the despatch-box full...

Public Contracts and Private Profits The question of war contracts must be probed ruthlessly. Profound uneasiness, to put it mildly, has been aroused throughout the country by...

Continued Unemployment To the effects of long-continued frost and snow are attrinuted the smallness of the reduction in the unemployed figures on February 12th as compared with...

The Week in Parliament Last week the Labour Party was fighting the Pensions Bill "clause by clause," as the saying is, ' and line by line." They poured out their fiercest...

I Education in War-time and After The debate in the House of Commons last Tuesday and Lord De La Warr's broadcast on Wednesday show that one good thing has already resulted...

Mr. Kennedy is too shrewd a man to be deluded by the nature of his reception, or to mistake the bruised and spotted rind of British opinion for the central core within. The...

PEOPLE AND THINGS By HAROLD NICOLSON THE function of an ambassador is to act as intermediary between his own Government and the Government of the country in which he is...

Meanwhile Mr. Joseph Kennedy regains his post in London. He will be warmly welcomed. He will receive a general welcome from all of us, irrespective of party or point of view,...

An American, on reading the above paragraph, will, I predict, pass through two stages of thought. His first stage will be a startled recognition that what I say is...

It is unlikely also that Mr. Joseph Kennedy, the present successor of General Dawes, will publish his memoirs in the immediate future. Mr. Kennedy has been over in the United...

I hasten to add that in drawing attention to the difference which exists between the behaviour expected of foreign diplomatists in America and American diplomatists abroad, I...

The disclosures in Sir Nevile Henderson's book, at present being serialised in the Daily Herald, have not so far added much to our knowledge of past or future. The announcement...

Two aged comedians met at the late Harry Tate's funeral. "Well, George, this takes us back. I'm 85. How old are you now? " " Pretty close to 87, Albert." " Hardly seems worth...

The truth that to depart from the deadly earnest never pays ought to be blazoned over every writer's desk. I have been chastened (and at the same time flattered) this week by...

Sub-editors, or whoever writes newspaper posters, are not what they were. obvious poster for I should have thought there was one the evening papers last Friday: R.A.F. AND...

Now that we have a censor of our own the achievements of the Irish censor tend to be overlooked. The latest is the banning of Louis Bromfield's novel, The Rains Came, on the...

The story in last week's Spectator called " The Schmidts :Listen In "-dealing with the predicament of a family who heard on the forbidden London wireless of the survival of...

A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK THE German technique of distortion needs no illustration at this time of day, but one example affecting this journal has just come to hand and seems...

NEWS OF THE WEEK MR. SUMNER WELLES has visited Rome and Berlin M and will have reached London by way of Paris soon after these words appear. His mission therefore is almost...

The Battle in Finland In the prolonged battle which the Finns are enduring with indomitable courage they are faced with the biggest concentration of troops yet brought against...

More Restrictions in France The formidable list of economic and financial decrees issued by the French Government shows that our ally is as fully determined as ourselves to put...

The Neutrals' Sea Losses t The ruthless and indiscriminate ferocity of German attacks on neutral shipping has created profound indignation in Holland. In the last few days a...

Export Trade Drive At last an organisation that should be capable of dealing with the requirements of the export trade which is vital to our existence has been brought into...

CAN THE POOR SAVE? SIR,-My attention has been drawn to your issue of last week, in which Dr. Jones criticises my article under the above heading, which appeared on February...

THE CHILDREN OF THE POOR SIR,-Mr. Richard M. Titmuss said that had the underprivileged maintained the same birth-rate as the rich during the last thirty years, we should not...

THE METROPOLITAN CITY SIR,-Someone must come to the defence of London against the assault of Sir Montague Barlow and the Royal Commission. When the industrial city first came...

FINANCE AND INVESTMENT I By CUSTOS As I suspected last week, while markets were improving, the Treasury was waiting round the corner with its first big war loan plan. The...

ATTRACTIONS FOR INVESTORS How the market would respond depended therefore on its reactions to the addition of £300,000,000 to the supply of stock and on its estimate of the...

L.N.E.R. PREFERENCE YIELDS Stock market movements are often irrational, but for sheer stupidity the recent behaviour of home railway prices must be almost without precedent....

A GREAT GOVERNOR By SIR JOHN HARRIS THE death of Sir Hubert Murray, in his 79th year, is an event in the Colonial world. The Governor of Papua was both unique and original;...

" UNFINISH1 D VICTORY " SIR,-In a review of my book Unfinished Victory, Mr. Christopher Hobhouse informed your readers that I borrowed my phraseology as well as my history from...

BACK BENCH WISDOM SIR,-I should like to make a few comments on the review of Sir Richard Acland's Unser Kampf, signed " H. W. H.," in your issue of March ist. For surely it is,...

A RESPONSIBLE PRESS IN his sermon on the fiftieth anniversary of the incorporation by Royal Charter of the Institute of Journalists the Archbishop of Canterbury said all the...

OURSELVES AND AMERICA SIR,-I don't wish to prolong a correspondence about one point in the letter you were kind enough to print on February 23rd, but it would be discourteous...

APATHY AND WASTE SIR,-Capt. Chudleigh's article in your issue of February 23rd is useful in drawing attention to the subject of salvage of household " waste," but is misleading...

NUDITY ON THE STAGE SIR,-Headlines have recently appeared in the Press with regard to girls appearing practically nude upon the stage, and stating that many of them so deeply...

NAZIS IN THE ARGENTINE SIR,-As there still seems to be a persistent idea among many people that only ignorance keeps the Nazis in power, it may be of some interest to your...

SHERRY FOR VICTORY SIR,-Mr. Oldmeadow's controversial methods are peculiar. With every appearance of triumphantly clinching an argument he flings a quotation at your readers,...

Cabbage Enthusiasts A sad gardener said to a fellow, "The frost left me exactly five spring cabbages, and now the pigeons have eaten them! In a neighbouring garden a...

"WITHIN HIMSELF" " Within himself The danger lies, yet lies within his power;" (Paradise Lost.) MARVELLING man, half blind and half aware holds knowledge in his hands, with it,...

COUNTRY LIFE " 0 English Girl " Mlarch, which "blooms" garden and farm, as well as "the whins," will see this sear a fine example of the survival, not to sav the success, of...

The Perfect Parent The other discovery, so to call it, concerns that incomparable parent, the partridge. In the course of his hobby for photographing birds, Mr. Hosking watched...

Talking Insects Two small but mystic discoveries in the realm of natural history are recorded in two books just published. The more important concerns bees, insects that have...

Books of the Day E. F. Benson By F. YEATS-BROWN To my mind Edward Frederic Benson was a more considerable artist than his two brothers. In their day A. C. and R. H. (Father...

How Not to Write History The Romanovs. By William Gerhardi, O.B.E., B.Litt., M.A. (Oxon.) (Rich and Cowan. 30s.) "For my part. having familiarised myself in four languages...

INSURANCE AND WAR These are trying times for life insurance companies. The flow of new business has been substantially reduced, taxation is heavier, expenses and claims are...

KAFFIRS AND THE GOLD PRICE It is good to see the South African Government adopting a more sensible attitude to the gold mines. This latest budget, while it does not reduce the...

STAGE AND SCREEN THE THEATRE " The Long Mirror." By J. B. Priestley. At the Playhouse, Oxford. TtIE town of Oxford has had the pleasure of having that eminent Camblidge man,...

THE CINEMA "1 Sherlock Holmes." At the Regal. IT is a pleasure to meei a well-mannered criminal again we have suffered so long from " Siddown, you," and "I said, Siddown"; at...

MUSIC Arnold Dolmetsch NEARLY fifty years ago Mr. Bernard Shaw, after hearing one of Arnold Dolmetsch's concerts of music for viols, wrote: How much pleasanter it would be to...

THE ANNIHILATION OF GERMAN JEWRY From A BERLIN CORRESPONDENT NO one knows how this war will end and whether Hitler will achieve his war aims or not. But one thing is already...

New Novels Venus in Scorpio. By Murray Constantine and Margaret Gold- smith. (The Bodley Head. 9s. 6d.) _ _ The Prophetess of Santa Barbara. By Cunliffe Owen (Rich and...

CYPRUS: A COLONY WITH A FUTURE By VISCOUNT SAMUEL [Lord Samuel has just returned from a visit to Cyprus, where he was lecturing on behalf of the British Council.] TO the...

Private Histories A Family History, 1410-1688. By the Hon. Hl. A. Wyndham. (Oxford University Press. i6s.) The Russells in Bloomsbury, 1669-1771. By Glady' Scott Thomson....

Social Democracy She Politics of Democratic Socialism. By E. F. M. Durbin. (Routledge. 7s. 6d.) THIS is an opportune book. For some years the literature of the Left has...

THE WAR SURVEYED: THE FIRST HALF-YEAR By STRATEGICUS W HILE all thoughts are engrossed by the passion of W Finland, it is a little difficult calmly to take stock of lhe Allied...

Commonwealth and Foreign CANADA AT THE POLLS By GRANT DEXTER Ottawa, February VOTING is still more than a month distant-it takes place on March 26th-but electioneering is now...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR [Correspondents are requested to keep their letters as brief as is reasonably possible. Signed letters are given a preference over those bearing a...

NUMBERS IN WAR I SIR,-I notice with something more than surprise that the revered doyen of official historians, General Edmonds, has written a letter to inform your readers...

SIR,-In your issue of February gth, in the first of Sir Cyril || Norwood's articles, " The Crisis in Education," he says, "Boarding-scho3ls there must be, unless all the...

SIR.-Like most reform movements, Sir Cvril Norwood's sua- gestions conceal the need of a radical change of heart in the English mind upon the whole question of education....

ITALY AND THE FIGHT FOR LAW THE difference Df opinion between the Allies and Italy over German coai is very much to be regretted. The questions at issue are psychological as...

SPONGE DISEASE IN THE BAHAMAS By PROFESSOR C. M. YONGE THE recent announcement of additional financial aid for the colonies has been welcomed in this country. It is the report...

THE PALESTINE PROBLEM THE soundest observation made in the debate on the Palestine Land Regulations in the House of Commons on Wednesday fell from Mr. Amery, when he expressed...

WHY MR. SUMNER WELLES CAME By ERWIN D. CANHAM By Transatlantic Air Mail W HY is Mr. Sumner Welles making the diplomatic grand tour of Europe? In the informed American view,...

Crime Censor Wanted Maigret Travels South. By Georges Simenon. Translated by Geoffrey Sainsbury. (Routledge. 8s. 3d.) Verdict of Twelve. By Raymond Postgate. (Crime Club....

COMPANY MEETING ENGINEERING COMPONENTS IMPROVED POSITION THE fifth ordinary general meeting of Engineering Components, Limited, was held on March 6th at Winchester House,...