* * * * The Tax on Letters The profits of the Post Office continue to grow, and 'in the last financial year reached a record figure of over £11,000,000. If the practice of...

Austria and Geneva Since there is now little doubt that Austria will apl)peal to the League of Nations against German attempts to influence her internal polities improperly it...

Migration Within the Empire The unofficial committee to which Sir Henry Page Croft alluded in the debate last week on Empire migration has no doubt submitted its proposals to...

* * * * January Unemployment It would be wrong to be unduly depressed by the steep rise in the unemployment figures for January as compared with December-165,000 more...

Sir Herbert Samuel's Programme Sir Hierbert Samuucls speech at Manchester last Saturday is to be regarded as a first instalment in a pronouncement on the policy of the Liberal...

Speaking up for the League The ideal solution of the question of the manufacture and sale of arms and the best practical solution wh%-icil the Powers can be induced to agree...

New Humour My Life and Hard Times. By James Thurber. (Harpers. 6s.) L1-Moult is sometimes referred to as irresistible; the epithet has in this connexion a somewhat menacing...

A Modern Mind It's A Battlefield. By Graham Greene. (Heinemann. 7s. Gd.) Tn- high level of competence to which English novelists have attained is not a matter for much...

The nwv l nem-jijovj(mcnt Bill has not had a good time in Committee. F ineibl)crs understand it, and many are therefore in a econ(ditioni of intermittent re v olt against the...

Broadcasting on Foreign Affairs There is no getting away from the fact that when foreigners hear an Englishman broadcasting upon some question of international policy, they are...

The Cost of Litigation The Earl of Listowel called the attention of the Lords last Tuesday to the limit of jurisdiction of the County Courts in Civil proceedings. Though the...

The Week in Parliament Our ParliamentiaiV Corresp)ondnet writes: The event of the week hais beeni tle (lel)ate on the British D)isarmament menmioranduimii, hidlch met with...

A Hops Board Monopoly It is a good thing that a danger inherent in all the agricultural marketing schemes should be brought out now in its simplest and clearest form in regard...

Anmong unofllicial speakcrs, Sir Austen Chamberlaill was pre-eminent. lie lhas, at least, the larger vision in foreign affairs, and Ils point thlat foreigners miust trust to...

Bankers and Industry VIEWS OF AIR. BEAUIMONT P)EASF.. THERE were several oiftstanding features in MvI. Beaumont Pease's address to shareholders of Llovds Bank. but I would...

Finance Bankers' Views on the Outlook WITH the meeting of the shareholders of Lloyds Bank, which was held last week, the series of annual meetings of the joint stoek banks for...

Plain Facts About Gold W E may be forgiven our bewilderment at the W v tempestuous financial cvents of the past few days. The American President makes some pronouniement ,about...

SENSE AND POETRY [To the Editor of TiE SPECTATOR.] S.i.-I nmst apologise to Mr. Sparrow for a slight error in mathematics, which does not affect my accusation that to indicate...

BRITISH COAL AND ITS USES [To the Editor of TImE SPECTATOR.] SIn,-Mr. Hugh Nicol's letter in your last issue is illunminating as showing the scant consideration given to coal...

POISONS FOR SALE [To the Editor of TILE SPLCTAVTOi.] SiR,----The Battle of the Barbiturates, in which you join in the paragraph headed " Poisons for the Asking," in your issue...

DISARMAMENT AND BOYCOTT [To the Editor of TIE SPECTATOR.] SIR,--The XWhite Paper on the British Proposals for a Disarmamient Convention seems to pivot upon the principle of...

CARE COMMITTEES IN BOW CREEK [To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] Sii,-Thle charming article in The Spectator of January 26th called" Shrimping in London " must have drawn the...

A THREAT TO EDUCATION IN SCOTLAND [To the Editor of THF. SPECTATOR.1 Siti,--Thc situation revealed by Sir Robert Rait's article in last week's issue of The Spectator is even...

AN INTERNATIONAL FORCE [To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] Sit,-The letters of Admiral Lawson and Captain Mumford in your issue of January 26th begin to clarify the situation...

Letters to the Editor (iorresp)ondlens are requested to keel) their letters as brief as is reasonably possible. The most suitable length *is that of one of ont " News of the WI...

Fiction BY BONAMrY DOBREfE The Brass Knocker. Bv Edward Rathbone. (Cape. 7s. 6d.) Waterfront. B;y John lTrophy. (Cape. 7s. 6 1 . ) Gentlemen, I Address You Privately. By...

Samuel Butler Further Extracts from the Note-Books of Samuel Butler. Chosen and Edited by A. T. Bartholomew. (Cape. 7s. Ud.) ONE knows the man well in his suit of scrubby...

Study and Society Ideals of a Student. By Sir JIsiahl S tamp. (]Retail. ss. WVE are alwavs readv to li.4cn to a man who has achieved(l sonIethinr. Tlc man of' affafis will...

A Swallow's Larder A strange little story reaches me from the neighlbourhood of Ipswich ; and I give it for what it is worth; but there seems to be little doubt that the...

Bird Psychology I know no other exmiple of intensified observation with a scientific thesis that imay compare with this. Mr. Chanix.c made not one dliseovery, hut a succession....

The Cuckoo's Secret A good many years ago there appeared in The Spectator the first reference to a real discovery in the habits of that immoral, but, at the worst, interesting...

An Observing Friend We are apt to think that zeal for the observation of birds is more or less new. Certainly the cult grows; but the countryman, especially of the landlord...

The Sussex Model Now one immediate reason for urging the creation of such magazines is recent knowledge of the demise of some county societies and the debility of others. My...

Country Life County Chauvinism Regional planning and zoning and scheduling and such beneficent operations have helped to stimulate county consciousness, so to say. The...

A Sporting Offer The general terms are that lie is willing, indeed anxious, to bet anyone who cares to accept the challenge, that ho will not disprove in 1934 or 1935 Mr....

A Sexless Tribe! -- 11 -..1 1..-.~4 full r~p Some modern observer' of 1)irds are almost as nil of imaginative theories as the riodern physicist. We had the other day an...

Training Young Nazis: Storm Troop and School By H. POWYS GREENWOOD [Next week Mr. Greenwood, wcho has been investigating the situation in Germany for Tirs SPECTATOR, will...

Christianity and Patriotism By LORD HUGH CECIL [This' ijs thefi)orth article in a series (in Chrixtianityi and Conduct.'' The Bishop of Bradford it'll write in 'next weektx...

A DISTINGUISIIM) CAREER. Sir Alfred Lewis's career has, indeed, been a distinguished one. Beginning as a Junior in the old Birminghain Midland Bank (now the Midland Bank) hie...

SIR ALFREI)D Litx is. Followving immediately upon the tribute paid to Sir Harry Gosehen in the course of his speech to shareholders of the National Provincial Bank, Mr. Colin...

Financial Notes GOl.D AT £7 PER OUN-CE. INTEttEST in. the stock markets during the past week has mainly centred in- Gold Mining shares, where there have been further excited...

AN IMPORTANT PRINCIPLE. Quite apart, however, from the special circumnstances which have led the directors of the National Provincial Bank to appoint Sir Alfred Lewis as a...

The Official Life of Queen Elizabeth By G. B. HARRISON T1imitE: is no better subject for the biographer than Queen Elizabeth. The good stories of her sayings and doings are...

Art French Landscape IN, writing lately of the exhibition at Burlington House, I indicated a distinction which might be drawn between English and French landscape painters,...

Mr. Elliot's Schemes: II-Reduced Supply or Increased Demand? By H. V. HODSON THIE bare bones of lprinciple or the agricultural marT keting schemlles, on -which the flesh of...

The Cinema "The Girl from Maxim's." At the Leicester Square 'I'lTcatre Alit. ALEXANDER NoRtDA miuist surely have had moments of anxiety while h as niakiiig this film. Can we...

"Thc Right to Ro)mancc." At the Capitol DOCTORS o01 the screen are nearly always virtuous, often heroic, but they have a lhrdt il he. If the doctor is a Inan, lhe toils in the...

STAGE AND SCREEN The Theatre "Spring, i6oo." By Emlyn Williams. At the Shaftesburv ANN BYRD, who is (" of course," as the Taller would say) the daughter of William Byrd the...

ROAD DANGERS AND RAIL SAFETY I To h Jthe dilor of THE SPlCTr.Aolt.] SMn,-The ] 933 increzisc 0i1 easualties and fatalities on the roads, following upon prev ious appalling...

STATE HOSPITALS [To the Editor of Til SPE.CTATOR.] SIR,-AS a life reader of your paper, I hope you will allow me to point out that your article on page 71 in your issue of...

THE DEATH PENALTY [To the Editor of TILE SPECTATOR.] SiR,-Sir Samuel Hoare's statement in Parliament that " disciplinary action had been taken " on the officials responsible...

PUBLIC LIBRARIES [ To the Edlitor of TnLE SPECTATOR.] Sill,- According to a r(,((!it hlite Paper, 136 million books were issued bly the 1 ilm ti l'uhlic Libraries of England...

Mlr. Baldwin has cast vicariously on Miss Helcn Waddell, best known, I suppose, as the author of HIHloise mid Abelard, the same benediction as converted Mary Webb into a...

At fewv days ago, as the British Press sedately recorded, Queen's MNary's motor broke down between Ely and Camibridge, and the Queen was driven on to the latter town in a...

A Spectator's Notebook THE average citizen who thinks of Lord Hugh Cecil T wriniarilv as a brilliant free-lance anmong politicians has little colnceptioln of the position le...

I anm interested to see that ',r. Giles Playfair, who has already made himself a good deal more than merely Sir Nigel's son, intends to stand for Parliament as a Left Wing...

* * * * I w ishl Mr. B3ernlard Slhaw would seriornsly- consider going into a Trappist monastery for a space. Thel desire is inspired largely, though not solely, by his...

BOUCHIER AND BEAUVAIS By Maurice Block Mr. Block's panlplhlet, Fran(ois Boucher and Ihe Bfeauvais 'I'aj)c., ries (IHoughlton fMitliin). dppears to be (lesigned not as a...

THE PERIODICALS 7'te Nineteelt (Century opens with an article bs- Sir Arnold Wilson, MI.P., on D)ivorce Law Reforms." Sir Arnold quotes the New 'Testament to showv that Jesus...

Current Literature CLAUDE MONET AND HIS GARDEN By Stephen Gwynn Mt)onel, Clenienrceaf and their Wlater Lilies would perhaps have been a - fairer title for Mr. Stephen...

The British Disarmament Plan The (questionllaire on disarninlmLenlt ad(lresse( 1)b Geryman to France is largely siq)erseded. by the INew British plroposals, tholugh, it...

News of the Week MJ[DOUMEIRGUE'S consent to form a government in M . France has ease(d the imllmne(liate situation, but the fundamental causes of the upheaval remain. IM....

Trhe draft maN I 1'" o tnv a Ala IiNIIitC(1, o1 aISs .. . li i e , . a Ic ' limlhited1, mleiasui re o(' r (st pl i( Thi\ Hat delpCl)e(d on tol: rictioII taken tin(erltei- ) of...

Judgment for the Defendant The Jew Today. BY Didiiy ])airk. (Nicholson and Waisoln. 8Ss. bI.L) 'T1 ii. iliost astounding, jlieiionieion of history is that there Should still...

The Myth of the Red Clyde By the Rt. Hon. THOMAS JOHNSTON A CENTURY ago and half a century ago, Scots coal A and iron capitalists aand railroad contractors, (lesperately...

Mr. Creevey Again Creevey's Life and Times: a Further Selection from the Correspondence of Thomas Creevey. Edited by John (Gore. (John Murray. 1Ss.) AT least one reader...

The Nonesuch Coleridge Coleridge: Select Poetry and Prose. Edited by Stephen Potter. (Nonesuch Press. 8s. 6d.) HAD there been no such things as pen, ink, paper, the printing...

Shakespeare 'a Paris [D'UN CORRESPONDANT FRAN9AIS.] IL ne sernit pas exagori6 (e (lire que kI saisonI tlCatraIe (I' Paris a (Wt, ecttc anlllce, ilmarquCe par 111k veritable...

Another War Diary Four and a Half Years. By the Right Hon. Christopher Addison. Vol. I. 1914-1916. (Hutchinson. 18s.) DR. ADDISON damaged his prestige almost irreparably...

Myth and Religion in Polynesia Religious and Cosmic Beliefs of Central Polynesia. By R. XV. Nilliallmsoll. (Cambridge University Press. 50s.) 'T'ii., religious stories of...

Juveniles and Jobs By FRANK SENDALL FROMr 1928 to the end of 19:33 there was in England b)oth too little juvenile labour and too much. There was too little in and about London...

Odd Thoughts at Paestum By ANTHONY BLUNT THE railway journey from Naples to Paestum is not T at the moment convenient. The service having been altered without notice by the...

The Future of France D EMtOCRACY, if it wvere overthrown in France, would lose its last foothold amiong the greater nations of the maidland of Europe. And it is om1inously...