Germany's Share of Food It is a sign of crisis in the world food situation that any and every piece of bad news creates a sensation. The fact that drastic reductions in rations...

NEWS OF THE WEEK IT is difficult to see what motive-except a desire to satisfy their respective Left Wings-prompted the statement which the British, American and French...

Tension at Trieste Less than three months from today th, Peace Conference which will consider the settlement in Italy will meet at Paris. Its decision concerning Trieste and...

MOFFAT AND THE BECHUANA SIR,-I have read with interest the review in The Spectator of November i6th (which we receive very late these days) by Mr. S. K. Ratcliffe of The...

MINISTERS' EMPLOYERS SIR,-Despite the ruling mentioned by " Janus " that a Minister ranks as a self-employed person, as treasurer of a Congregational Church I am obliged to...

INJUSTICE TO MINING VOLUNTEERS SIR,-There is one aspect of demobilization which has received scant attention-that is, the release of those men who, while still in the Armed...

JOHN AUBREY'S WILTSHIRE COLLECTIONS SIR,-Some months before the outbreak of war, you were kind enough to allow me to enquire through your columns whether any readers possessed...

"FORGETTING AUSTRALIA" SIR,-" Forgetting Australia,'" by Clive Turnbull, reads like " advanced " thinking to us English people living in Tasmania, and must, I am afraid, convey...

CAN WE AFFORD IT? SIR,-Many of your readers must have agreed with the brief but incisive letter which you published on February 8th from Mr. P. E. Roberts, under the above...

Ciouds and Weather When the young Constable was employed at Flatford Mill, he was often sent out by the miller to observe the wind and the we-ther; and this duty turned his...

SIR JOHN TENNIEL: INFORMATION WANTED SIR,-I am preparing an illustrated monograph on the life and work of Sir John Tenniel. I should be grateful for news of unpublished letters...

Prophetic Birds Has the weather-wise countryman been knocked out quite by the central prognostics broadcast by the B.B.C.? We feared so once when one of us put a leading...

GIFT-HORSE PROBLEMS SIR,-I note, with feeling, the remarks of Janus on Peter Howard's books. I have two friends whose laudable custom it is each to send me a book for...

AN AMERICAN SECT AND BUTTONS SIR,-On November 23rd, Mr. Stephen Neill reviewed in your pages Religion in America, and asked, emphatically what were the religious reasons which...

COUNTRY LIFE THOSE who go to see-and necessarily, if they are English, to admire- the Constable pictures now on exhibition in South Kensmgton snouLct bt interested in the news...

In My Garden On an admirable little fruit-farm in the West Country I Found the farmer on the point of planting, a line of busli fruit of a kind new to me. It was a cultivated...

AUSTRALIA AND ASIATICS By CLIVE TURNBULL FOR the first time the White Australia policy-a principle which the present Chief Justice of the Commonwealth High Court once...

A Redoubtable Critic "1 Critical Essays." By George Orwell. (Secker and Warburg. 8s. 6d.) MR. ORWELL is a moralist-critic and not an aesthete; he is interested in attitudes...

BOOKS OF THE DAY A Warning to Victors Victors, Beware. By Salvador de Madaraga. Jonathan Cape. lOs. 6d.) DON SALVADOR DE MADARIAGA is not only delightful to read. He is...

FOOD IN 1 947 By H. D. WALSTON IT is impossible to over-emphasise the appalling nature of the present world food shortage, but it is easy for agriculturists to waste their...

Someone to whom I am duly grateful has sent me a notice of a I book of poems which has elicited from the Manchester Guardian the affirmation that "many of these poems will be...

Readers of The Spectator of the later 'thirties will not have for- gotten the so-called University of Sulgrave, lineal successor of the so-called Intercollegiate University,...

What effect great expectations are capable of having on the mind I of trustful investors is rather strikingly demonstrated by the present quotation for Butlin's Camp shares....

As by-election follows by-election, the stability of the Govern- ment's position is rather remarkably demonstrated. The drop of a few hundred in the Labour majority at Heywood...

Others besides myself must have been puzzled for a moment, as I they listened to the Prime Minister on Sunday evening, at his reference to "my fellow trade-unionists," for...

A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK W ITH the death of A. G. Gardiner the last of the great Liberal W editors-Cook, Spender, Massingham and, in another cate- gory, C. P. Scott-is gone. One...

. I am glad to see that the Fulham Chamber of Commerce is pro- I testing against the decision of the Fulham Borough Council to supply radio and television sets in connection...

"THE POLES IN ITALY " SiR-I happened to be in Florence when 1 first saw Mr. Bregman's objections to my article on the Poles in Italy, and it was unfortunately impossible to...

HELP FOR INDI X: BREAD-RATIONING SIR,-The action of Mr. Gandhi and other Indian leaders in condemning lawlessness and indiscipline and their declared intention to give the...

" BOMBER HARRIS" SIR,-Many must be grateful to you for mentioning the shabby treatment of Sir Arthur Harris, but when you say "no one can feel quite happy" it would be more...

BALLET: ENGLISH AND RUSSIAN SIR,-I have to confess that my eyes nearly fell out of my head and rolled on the carpet when I read the following remark by your ballet critic James...

",THE DOMESTIC PROBLEM" SIR,-On what grounds does the author of the article on " The Domestic Problem " in this week's issue of The Spectator take the point of viewwith the...

Fiction The Cross and the Arrow. By Albert Maltz. (Harrap. 9s. 6d.) The African Queen. By C. S. Forester. (Michael Joseph. 7s. 6d.) The Black Gulf. By K. Paustovsky....

Coalfield Chronicle Charity Main. By Mark Benney. (Allen and Unwin. 7s. 6d.) ON books about coal there is, apparently, to use a collier's term, no "stint." For many years now...

A Defensive Defence Policy The two days of debate in the Commons on defence policy produced few fireworks. The White Paper on which the debate was based was itself far too...

Production and Enjoyment The Government's production drive is not likely to cause controversy. Its timing in particular will command general approval. British industry had...

Meals for the Workers With the British Restaurant service more than five years old. and the emergency for which it was founded over, it is useful to have a report on...

Houses Promised The trickle of legislation and information concerning houses threatens to become a flood. This week's contributions are the Housing (Financial and Miscellaneous...

INTERPRETING BRITAIN By T. R. HENN BOUT a year ago some British officers paid a courtesy call on Signor Croce at his villa at Naples. The talked of aesthetics, painting and...

Looking on Moscow A Window in Moscow. By Alaric Jacob. (Collins. 15s.) THE window belongs to the Hotel Metropole, in which Allied journalists were caged during most of the...

Improving Homes Report on the Market for Household Appliances, P.E.P. (Oxford University Press. 18s.) IN 1943 the Board of Trade commissioned Political and Economic Planning...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR "RUSSIA AND OURSELVES" SIR,-The letter you publish from Sir Christopher Robinson on the subject of "Russia and Ourselves" is both courageous and lucid....

"THE SCHOOL AND THE VILLAGE" SIR,-When Mr. Edwards says that "the case presented by the Local Education Authority wins all along the line" I suspect that he is just trying to...

SIR,-In your issue of March ist you refer to conditions in Spain. In regard to your comment that " men who have deliberately taken up arms against the Government of their...

INTERFERENCE WITH GENERAL FRANCO SIR,-Beyond a certain admiration for the shrewdness of General Franco in refusing to declare war against us at a time when our fortunes were at...

THE THEATRE "Red Roses for Me." At the Embassy Theatre. THis is the first production in London of Mr. Sean O'Casey's new play recently published by Macmillan. Mr. O'Casey's...

ART I James Ensor. At the National Galery. I JAMES ENSOR is one of those tragic figures whose fate it has been to anticipate developments and even revolutions ini painting,...

THE CINEMA '"1 Adventure." At the Empire.-" Leave Her to Heaven." At the Odeon. THE cinema, in common with literature and the stage, achieves its profounder effects with the...

FINANCE AND INVESTMENT By CUSTOS CITY estimates of Budget possibilities this year are so far very tentative. On the basis of prospective expenditure and revenue the gap to be...

MARGINAL COMMENT By HAROLD NICOLSON I HAVE b2en reading a scholarly and interesting book which, after ye3rs of study and research, Mr. John Summerson is publishing this Friday...

THE RIFT IN THE THREE M R. CHURCHILL has seen more of the political leaders of Adz Russia than any other British statesman, and he, if anyone, should know what kind of language...

FRANCO AND FRANCE By JOHN CARSTAIRS ONE of the statements issued in Madrid last week enumerates 0 services which General Franco claims to have rendered to France during the...

ISkorter Notices IStill Time to Die. By Jack Belden. (Gollancz. lOs. 6d.) MR. BELDEN has been reading the new American translation of Clausewitz, and has taken from it his...

"ANCILLARY " DENTISTS By EDWARD SAMSON IT is popularly imagined that the new national health service, proposed by the Government and originating in the Beveridge Report, is...