COUNTRY LIFE " 01 D I)cccmhers bareness cvcrywNhrce "-so Shakespeare saw thc - -' -It----- I twelfth month. Today most ot us are wondering at inc want ot iDacncs'. 'I hat...

In the Garden When the gardener wonsiders berry-bearing shrubs he has to think -I the birds as wcll an the plants. Onc famous gardener of shrubs cslimoned the winter population...

Sheep anli Grass The shepherd, accompanied by two good dogs, was watching a larpe flock of sheep which had been given admission to a golf-links on a common. One or two of the...

Groundnuts SIR.-The literaturc and hitory of Romc are olften not without a ms.lc for today. I)id not (C.atllls ssa t51. 128) . illis .1 lid 1i.Si fllu' . i'x ! Pyrrhic...

Book Jackets SIR,-In his Marginal (Co,,men't for October 14th. Mlr. Harold Nicolson quotcs me as saying in my hook 1/ie Art of Mi/e eak Jai Act (HI.M.S.O(): "Ihe Americ.in...

Frauile, Sonorous, Evocativc SIR.-Is it lot) late t) suggest a precdcrent for NIr. Mi. IH. NIiddleton's Conjunction of adjecti'es: "fragile, sonorous. coc~.tive"? I Mr....

Tree Verses '?When the Men of the Trees publish their calendar lor Inc year of 1951 1 would urge thcm to quote the following couplet: - The fading tree is tossed by mighty...

SHORTER NOTICES Mathematics and the Imagination. By Edward Kasner and James Newmmn. (Bell. I is.) FOR most people mathematics is a pill which no quantity ot jam can get...

Thoughtful Practice with a Dry Fly. By Arthur Wooley. (Al ill Redmnan. 8s. 6d.) MR. WOOLLEY writes quite frankly as a dry-fly purist, and although he is in favour, when there...

The Great German Mystics. By James M. Clark. (Basil Blackwell. i2s. 6d.) THE group of mystical writers centred on Strasbourg in the fourteenth century can be compared to our...

Mild Earthquakes The Condor and the Cows. By Christopher lhierwood. (Mth~ tutn. 2 1S.) IN the autumn of 1947, Mr. Isherwood and his friend Mr. Caskey, 'an accomplished...

Return to the World I leap Over the Wall. By Monica Baldwin. (I lalnih I lamtuilton. S.' |I To leave ordinary life in England in 1913, and to return to it inl 1941 would be...

The Blot in the Scutcheon SIR.--I notice in the .Spetzaor of Nmnember llth a lkiter from Mr. I (iresh.am criticising Janus's column. Since ms arrival in Canada two Ncars .-co...

SIR.- -I concur with Mr. P. R. Gresham of Salisbury. S. Rhodesia, looking I forward to each copy of Friday's Spectalor giving detailed accounts (if world news. I also agree...

Game or Vermin? 1? SIK.-The article in the Spcetalor of August 12th. Africans Perrk ProIlenj. reminds us that when the game wardens and the zoologists of Fast Africa have...

lohn Butler Yeats SIR.-On behalf of the many Americans who knew John Butler Yeats during the thirteen years that he lived in this country, I feel I must protest against the...

The Character of Prince Hal I SIR.-I am surprised to learn that Mr. Garrett. in his review of . p" are and his Critics in the Spectator of November 25th. finds r,,nc Henry's...

Work for Refugees SIR.-We have heard much during the last few weeks, of the plijF' of Arab refugees in Pahstine and Jordan, but very little about In schemes for starting them...

Scotland's Claims I SIR.-In the Speciator of Dccembcr 2nd, you observe that, :II.IKlIhI 250,000 Scots have signed the Covenant in favour of an indldtlh'I'i Parliament, - it is...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR The Prestwick Air Crash Sia.-I offer some comments on the Report of the Court of Inquiry into the accident to the K.L.M. aircraft at Prestswick on...

Roman Catholic Schools l SIR.-Let us suppose a community with a child population of 500 of primary-school age, and so divided that the parents of 250 dcsirc: denominational...

Holiday Camps in France I SIR,-The difference between French and English outlooks on holidlys, as brought up by your correspondent the Rev. Robert Hydc, need nilt be overlooked...

The Teaching Profession SIR.-I read with some misgivings Mr. C. H. Lewis's article on staff problems, for I have no doubt that he reflects faithfully the requirements -and the...

The Ex-Italian Colonies SIR.-In the Spectator of November 18th, in a paragraph comniling on the decision of the Political Committee of the General AssC,1mHlY regarding the...

SIR.-YOU are. I am sure. right in your belief that the great majority of serious persons north of the Border do not desire an "independent" Scottish Parliament. But that is not...

Granite and Dough I And how rarely is this to be found in radio drama ! (To which y1ou may reply that Mr. Eliot is a fairly rare commodity, any,%.Ni; and I shall not answer...

Alexandra Palace - . 6 : I - I Those who complain that television plays are often witictr rchcarsed-and they include not only the audience buthe jr ;orq who play in them-have...

RADIO Timr first quality fhat radio drama demands is the sheer and sinmple quality of writing. (What baffles me beyond belief is why t1liS applies even more so to television...

Ibsen and More Ibsen The announcement that the Third Programme is to devote a great deal of its energy, over the next six months. to Ibsen tills nw with a curious mixture of...

Man's Oldest Art Lascauxi A Commentary. By 4. H. Brodrick. (Lindsay Drimmumd. I o.) - ---. . . .- I Thc L..iscau-x Cave Paintings. By F. \VinlcIs. 4 Lj-aLcr. 4+z.)...

Royal Soldier 1 The Noble Duke of York. By Alfred I. Burne. (StaplS. 2 5- ) . . -L a .-t I ONE of the observable tendencies of modern biography for thc B twenty years has...

UNDERGRADUATE PAGE Try Publishing By JOHN POLIHILL (Wadham College, Oxford) 1 HE modern lIndergrad(laIte is freqzicntls blamed for his preoccupation %ith the fultire at the...

T The new House of Commons has now taken sufficient shape for clear idea of its characteristics to be formed. It stands on the me site as the old, but has the immense advantage...

Having some weeks ago criticised the action of the Hexham Labour Party for its decision to oppose the Speaker at the coming General Election, I must congratulate it on revoking...

Robert Bell, of the oib.%rv'r, was an old-time journalist of tho best type, and a very good type indeed that was. Going to that paper as assistant-editor two years before J. L....

A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK HAVE been studying with the attention they obviously deserve some remarkable figures in a leading articfe in last Sunday's Observer. The article is...

Death-watch beetle had been discovered in the rafters of tho College Hall, and the College Council had met to hear a report on the situation. The Bursar presented it, ending...

IIIle Campaign Guide published by the Conservative Central 4 lce this week is an immense affair', containing no fewer than ( IPNes (of the unusual size 9j by 41-the idea, I...

Which Way Australia ? By FRANCIS TORRINGTON A USTRALIA'S second post-war Federal election will be held on Saturday over the three million square miles of the 11 vast...

Old-Age in America Dy ROBERT WAITHMAN Wsh^uifinghl T HE nation-wide steel strikc in the United States had subsided with the vague public imprcssion that Mr. Philip Murray,...

AN ELECTION RAMP r v HATEVER the precise legal position may be if the matter is ever tested in the courts-and the vagaries of the law defy any predictions based on reasonthe...

South Africa's Rights The dipuLte between the Union of South Afiica and the United Nations needs to be followed with close attention, or fLkke conclusions may easily be drawn....

An Army for Germany A good deal of unnecessarty disturbance of mind has been caused by unfounded American reports that the Allied Powers, or the Lonn (Government, or someone...

The Proprieties of Comedy I Comedy and Conscience After the Restoration. By JaplMl Wood Krutd ). (Colunmia UIniversitI Press: Geoffrvy Cunierlege. 2 IS.) UNLIKE the Rev....

A Victorian Explorer Baker of the Nile. Ily Dorothy Middleton. (Falcon Press. 12s. 6d.) I SIR SAMUEL WhIITE BAKER in 1863 discovered one of the lak.,s which are the source of...

Nature for the Young Oxford Junior Encyclopaedia, Vol. 11: Natural History. (o0'.rI|l University Press. 305.) THE natural history volume of the Oxford Junior Encyclopaed'I....

The Fairy Tale Survives .Thc Blue and Green Fairy Books. lEfitedl by Amdrcw Lang. (I.ong- anu. i os. 6d. vach.) Hans Andersen's Fairy Tales. (DI)elt. i os. 6d.) Stories...

Wood in the Home Trecn, or Small Domestic Woodware Throughout the Ages. By IcIdard i{. IPinto. (Bitsford. 2 so.) Peopuxs will collect anything. Anatole France's gentle...

Fiction The Doctor's Wife Comes to Stay. By Frank Swinnerton. (fu(h1,Iill- I soil. l os. 6(d.) I The Cry of the Wind. Bv Stv% i art I miter. (Collins. i os. 6d.) I A Sncli...

MARGINAL COMMENT By HAROLD NICOLSON M ARCEL PROUST was a voluminous writer of letters. At an hour when all Paris was asleep he would he there propped upon pillows and scribble...

FINANCE AND INVESTMENT By CUSTOS As one suspected, the Treasury has lost no time in seizing the opportunity presented by the improvement in gilt-edged prices to rid itself of...

Debating in America Travelling Tongues. Debating Across America. By Kenneth Ilarri, \'ith a Preface by Arthur Bryant. (Johni Murray. 8s. 6(d.) OF making travel books about...

BOOKS OF THE DAY Shakespeare: Fact and Fancy Shakespeare's Sonncts Dated. Bly Leslie Hotson. (Hart-Davis. 2 is.) Sergeant Shakespeare. Byv Dulf Cooper. (Hart-Davis. 8s....

Fifty Million Trade Unionists The concept of an international organisation of trade unions is an old one. The Firsthlnternational was set up, in London, in 1864-four years...

Land to the Peasants The Italian Senate is now considering a Bill to expropriate 100,0M() acres of land in and around the Sila plateau in Calabria and divide it among the...

Everyday Atoms ' There was a time when every bore considered it his duly to make a tremendous and gloomy speech drawing attention to thle awful possibilities of atomic warfare....

Scandinavia and Sterling The caution with which "official circles" made it known that the British Govcrnment had made proposals to the Scandinavian countries for closer...

THE CINEMA -E Lst of the Rising Sun." (Mapirc.) "Martin Rounagnac." (R ialto.) -" Hounded." (Gaumnont and Marble Arch Pa'ilif I.) -" A Strangcr Walked In." (London Pan ilion.)...

MUSIC | G u;cK's Iph~ienia in Tauris lent itself extraordinarily well to 'tic restrictions of the Oxford University Opera Club's perforn:Lt-c The title-r6lc is the only female...

CONTEMPORARY ARTS THEATRE "Thc Philadelphia Story." By Philip Barry. (Dm-liecss.) TRAUY Loki) is the girl in the advertisements: not the advertisements for Night Starvation...

" A Mlonth in the Couantrv." Bs Ivzan Turvenic. (Nc~%%.) Tiir. pice of MI. Silint-Denis' production is langiuorous ; any play presented with such deliberation must be a very...

Local Councils and the Press I he report of the Consultative Committee on Publicity for Local Govornment must be read with a due sense of numerical proportion. It is...

Better Film Distribution With the Plant Report on the distribution and exhibition of films, following the Gater Report on production costs and the earlier 'al~che Report on...

AT WESTMINSTER I NDIAN debates have in the past produced greatt eloquence and fierce feeling. But the last ot thhi long serie, MNonda) s debato on thc Second Reading of the...

CHILDREN'S BOOKS SUPPLEMENT The Christmas Shelf Marooned in Du-bu Cove. By Evelyn Cheesenun. (1M-II. 8s. 6d1.) They Found a Cave. B5 N.,,, Clutillcy. (( ). I I . 1'. 6s.)...

The Restless Ibo r I By E. F. G. HAIG T HE Ibo of South-Eastern Nigeria, projected suddenly into the news by the Enugu riots, are, by common consent of those who know them, a...

The Two Safes By PETER ILEMING T HE man I am thinking of now used to be in the Secret Service. Lct us call him B The point about B was that he had a satc; and now I have a...

Varsity Match By J. P. W. MALLALIEU, M.P. T WICKENHAM can be bleak in December. Mists curl from the corners of the ground, the stands seem covered with an icc-blue film, and...

MIDDLE EAST DRIFT IF the United Nations is to be as powerless to shape the course of events in Palestine in the future as it has proved in the past, then there is little point...

IThe Nurse's Health I y I)R. MARGARET JACKSON P ARENTS of would-be nurses would be glad to know whether nursing training, and- particularly training for tuberculosis nursing,...

Wonder Books The Wonder Book of Animals (Ward, Lock, 12s. 6d.), which was the first of the well-known series of Wonder Books, reappears this Christmas in a revised edition-the...

Contraries IN this infant's gaze, Fixed on my grey head, Ancient wisdom broods, Though no word is said. Dare I tell that heart, Not yet scornful grown, How much untamed youth...

James at the St. James's The Complete Plays of Henry James. Idited witvi, liaroductionis 1y ILon Edel. (liart-Davis. 3 Ss.) WIIAr Henry James himself once described as his...