The Government and Conscription The decision of the Government to continue military conscription indefinitely, on the basis of i8 months' service, with a further five years in...

Nanking and the Communists The Chinese mind abhors finality, and to say that a meeting of the National Assembly is fixed for November the 12th is to state a hope rather than a...

Food and Laissez-Faire Less than six months ago, reporting to Parliament on his visit to America, Mr. Morrison said: " We are now on the way to creating the same type of spirit...

The Equal Pay Problem The report of the Royal Commission on Equal Pay, the result of two years' deliberation by its members, must be one of the most inconclusive documents of...

The British Zone Crisis The debate in the House of Lords on Wednesday on conditions in Germany followed with curious closeness the lines of the leading article on the same...

Science Old and New. By J. Arthur Thomson. (Andrew Melrose. lOs. 6d.) THIS book provides a typical example of its author's very characteristic style. The subject-matter is...

Grace Hadow. By Helena Deneke. (Oxford University Press. Geoffrey Cuumnerlege. 10s. Wd.) Ti-Ts is the biography of an eminent woman written by a close frie;nd. Grace I-dow,...

Post-War Defence of Australia. By the Melbourne Research Group, | the Australian Institute of International Affairs. (Robertson and | Mullens, Melbourne. Is.) THIS pamphlet...

Oscar Wilde. Selected Works, with 12 unpublished letters edited, with an I introduction by Richard Aldington. (Heinemann. 15s.) TimIS omnibus volume of Wilde's writings is...

Shorter Notices Poems. By C. W. Brodribb. (Macmillan. 6s.) THIS verse has nothing of great emotional import to convey, but it pleases by a gentle wit and neatness. Mr....

THE PATH TOWARDS SELF-GOVERNMENT Sir,-The Times Correspcndcrnt at Dar-es-Salaam reports on November ist a new stage in African self-government "-the Sukumaland Federation....

FREEDOM OF THE PRESS SIR,-During the debate in the House of Commons last Tuesday, Mr. Michael Foot, M.P., invoked the name of some of the great independent editors of the past...

PENAL REFORM SIR,-After some years as secretary of this hostel, which attempts to assist men who have been sentenced to terms of imprisonment for antisocial activities, and...

ARMY EDUCATION SIR,-As a full-time lecturer to H.M. Forces who for the last five years has been privileged to take part in that great experiment which we call Army education, I...

Periodical Prejudices Writers of Today. Edited by Denys Val Baker. (Sidg 'ick and Tackson. 8s. 6d.) New Writing and Daylight, 1946-VII. (John Lehmann. lOs. 6d.) The New...

When Doctors Differ Natural Theology. Comprising "mNature andl Grace," bv Professor Dr. Emil Brunner and the reply " No! " bv Dr. Karl Barth. Translated from the German by...

BOOKS OF THE DAY A Price on His Head Mission to Tashkent. By F. MN. Bailey. (Jonathan C(ap.. l5s.) THIS is a remarkable story. In i9i8 Lt.-Col. Bailey was despatched from...

Chanson Triste de la Lorraine Journey Down a Blind Alley. By Mary Borden. (Hutchinson. 21s.) THIS book is too long by half. Lady Spears has much in her memory and is loyal to...

AT WESTMINSTER THOSE people-and they are probably a majority-whose minds are conditioned by the school term calendar, generally think of the Parliamentarv Session as having...

Trade and Employment There is something uncanny about the way British opinion returns to the fear of unemployment. The point in Tuesday's debate on overseas trade which got...

Towards Church Union The Archbishop of Canterbury's University sermon at Cambridge last Sunday, with its challenging references to the possibility of new advances towards...

MUSIC La Bohllme. At Covent Garden. THERE are times when we enjoy a performance that is full of blemishes more than one which is comparatively blameless. The production of La...

ART IT is instructive to compare the drawings and note-book sketches of Graham Sutherland, Jankel Adler, Anna Mayersohn and Raoul Ubac, who each have a wall of the same room at...

THEATRE "V Vanity Fair." Dramatised by Constance Cox. At the Comedy Theatre- THE regiment marches in half an hour! " The statement strikes us at first as over-sanguirne, for...

THE CINEMA " A Matter of Life and Death. " At the Empire. THUS is the critic confounded. For the last two weeks I have lamented the decay of the cinema, complained bitterly of...

THE SECOND CHAMBER SiR,-Mr. Eric Suttcn raises the question of criticisms of the House of Lords by foreigners Or British citizens unaccustomed to British peculiarities. I think...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR CRISIS IN GERMANY SIR,-It is with no desire to belittle the admirable work done by Military Government Officers (now Civil Affairs Officers) in the...

SIR,-In your interesting article on Germany you mention the difficulty for the British Government in finding the necessary expert staff for the administration there. May I...

SiR,-Your admirable article, " Crisis in Germany," prompts me to send you these sidelights on the subject: - i. Extract from a letter from a member of the Occupation Forces...

SIR,-It is no doubt regrettable that Mr. Williams should have had to stand between Newton Abbot and Plymouth, but I fail to see what bearing it has on Mr. Manley's complaint....

SCARCITY IN ART EQUIPMENT SIR,-With reference to Mr. Brooke's letter concerning the shortage of artists' materials, this matter has been the subject of constant negotiation...

FIRST-CLASS TRAVEL SIR,-The specious plea for the abolition of first-class railway travel is another example of the prevalent levelling-down doctrine which is the bane of...

THE TORY PROGRAMME SIR,-I much regret that Lord Winterton thinks I misrepresented him. I am fully aware of the courageous stand which he made on behalf of the I935 Bill....

THE LIFE OF LORD MONTGOMERY SIR,-You publish in your latest issue a letter from Mr. George Bigwood, in which he declares that I have discredited Field Marshal Montgomery in my...

SIR,-If Mr. Colclough were a trifle better informed, it might perhaps have occurred to him that my reason for sing~lng out Mr. Eden in my letter in your issue of October 28th...

A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK THE position in regard to the Curtis Report on " Deprived Children " is not very satisfactory-through no one's fault in particular. Obviously the...

Given some increase in consumer goods, what kind of consumer goods do people most want? Col. Frank Byers, the Liberal Whip, raised that question in an interesting context in...

The University of North Madras appears to be a fertile step- mother of graduates (so to speak). I referred last week to the Edinburgh Theological Hall, affiliated to the London...

The fate of another class of children looks like being more for- tunate. The attention that has been drawn to the undesirability of allowing-or rather compelling-the fact of...

* * * * I rejoice to see that the ghastly widow who has disfigured the hoardings for the last few months in the alleged interests of road safety is to disappear. If there had...

Though not, perhaps, venerable by the standards of these islands, Christ Church, 400 years old this week, may be said to have reached a respectable age. In the history of her...

Fiction Children of Vienna. By Robert Neumann. (Gollancz. 7s. 6d.) The Great Promise. By Noel Houston. (Aldor. 12s. 6d.) Doctor Carmichael. By Juliet Rhys-Williams....

Westminster Ways rhe Point of Parliament. By A. P. Herbert. (Methuen. 6s.) EVERYONE knows the Junior Burgess for Oxford University's wit; not everyone knows his erudition...

THE NATIONAL ANTHEM SIR,-May I be permitted to express my cordial agreement with the sentiments expressed by Janus regarding our most dismal National Anthem? It has long been...

SIR,-It may interest readers of The Spectator to know that the present artistic achievement in Greece described by Mr. Derek Patmore is not confined to the spheres he...

Untimely Fruits On the edge of Cotswolds last year an ardent botanist discovered a cowslip in full flower. Another near the same place has done the same this year; but then...

War-shy Birds The war affected our birds in many ways, not least, it appears, in the Channel Islands. A dweller in Alderney, who fled without any possessions to speak of,...

COUNTRY LIFE FOR a great many years, perhaps a score or more, I have been urging the preservation of Braunton Burrows in North Devon as a natural-history sanctuary, though I...

In My Garden The sudden sharp-and very white-frost in the last week of October revealed the not always realised fact that peas are hardier than beans, either French or runner....

MODERN GREEK ART SIR,-There is just one point in Mr. Derek Patmore's otherwise excellent article on Modern Artists of Athens on which I should like to comment. He says that...

The Necessity of Braunton It is of interest to know that of late, since the discovery of penicillin, research workers have been concentrating much attention on the essential...

Palestine Policy The rule that all news about Palestine is bad news has been at least partially broken in the past week. It is true that terrorist outrages continue and illegal...

NEWS OF THE WEEK IF the measure of progress at meetings of the United Nations and of thz Council of Foreign Ministers Xwere a matter of clauses examined and agreements...

Disarmament Proposals That the question of disarmament should be placed on the agenda of the United Nations Assembly is obviously important. That it should be placed there at...

BLIND BEING blind, I hear the silent wines of swallows And feel the shingle breathe beneath my feet. For leagues the tide is shifting in the shallows. Where tern and pipit,...

ON THE AIR LOOKING back over the past week's listening, I find that the items I remember with most pleasure are not the big, ambitious productions, but some of the smaller,...

Book Notes THE fascination of the unfamiliar will be the dominating note in this column this week, whether it be the fabled strangeness of inaccessible Tibet or the largely...

MARGINAL COMMENT By HAROLD NICOLSON N September, I943, I paid a flying visit to Stockholm. I met there one evening a Swede who had for years been a professor at Berlin...

LABOUR TORYISM By SIR NORMAN ANGELL W ILL Britain continue to reject the readiest means of solving W or easing her most serious problem, and of regaining thereby much of her...

Whitehall and the Navy Statesmen and Sea Power. By Admiral Sir Herbert Richmond. (Oxford University Press. l5s). "IT is the duty of the statesman to assemble superior forces...

German Aggression Exposed The Nuremberg Documents. By Peter de Mendelssohn. (Alimn and Unwin. 12s. 6d.) THE author of this book has boldly jumped the queue of the Nuremberg...

AMERICAN PROSPECT THE temporary revival of interest caused by an impressive Republican victory at the Congressional Elections cannot hide the fact that the British public is...

HOW DID ROME HAPPEN? By D. R. GILLIE T HE most extraordinary political creation in human history was Tno doubt the Roman State with its infinite capacity for absorption,...

FINANCE AND INVESTMENT By TERENTIUS ON Tuesday of this week the market recovery had brought the indices within striking distance of this year's "highs." A more restrained note...

THE FRENCH SITUATION By D. W'. BROGAN BY the end of the French Rcvolution the French people were so fatigued and bewildered that thev ceascd to vote. Since the Liberation the...

A FLEET WITHOUT A SAIL By NIALCOLMI K. MNACGMILLAN, NI.P. TO those who, throuTgohit their childhood, watched at dusk-fall the russet-golden sails of the little island fishing...