I ABOLITION ANI) AFTER ISIt.--- 'Perhal 1s I nMy l1C allowed lo rccdll fhe case of Alessandr()o Serci lli and St. Maria IG orcti (callolli set on Jilinc 24, 1950). Without...

;A DEAR EDDIE SIR,-In his notice of my book Lord Edward i, FitZgeral(d in the issue of February 10, your reviewer statcs that he does not 'know' of any authority for my...

St,--As a sincCrc member of the John Gordon ground that in recent issues it had been 'usually or trequently indecent or obscene.' In these o irctaenices I am resigning my...

i'[HE JOHN GORDON SOCIETY Sip,-It would scem that Mr. Greene has now got a society of fifty people who are so afraid of the emotions within themselves that pornogra-lphiC or...

Letters to the Editor Book Sales Research Dear Eddie Abolition and After The John Gordon Society Cooled Cat Murder in the Glens Leonard Russell Patrick Byrne Michael Mard-Ion...

I COOLED CAI' SIR,-Mr. John Rosselli's admirable review of Tennessee Williams's play, Cat on a Ilot Tin Rool, began with his supposition that the Lord Chamberlain would almost...

Glubb Pasha Byt A CORRESPONDENT G LUBB PASHA has'for so long been associated with Jordan and its Arab Legion that it is not surprising that I j his unceremonious dismissal has...

T m1 The Atomic Wall ['or Western Europe as a whole, ai defensive system of this kind would require the erection of an atomic wall which Could be neither turned nor tunnelled....

The John Gordon Society BY GRAHAM GREENE I HE inaugural meeting of the John Gordon Society was held in London last Tuesday evening. Over sixty people .&attended. Letters of...

Whigs and Tories ENGLISH POLITICS IN THE EARLY EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. By R. R. (O.U.P., 18s.) Walcott. SoME years ago, Professor Walcott, a distinguished American historian,...

New Novels INNOCENCE is, next to genius, about the hardest quality to make credible in fiction, and innocence in the hands of depravity, unless handled with exceptional skill,...

Mother of God THE VIRGIN MARY. By Giovanni Miegge. (Lutterworth Press, 21s.) THE HANDMAID OF THE LORD. By Adrienne von Speyr. (Harvill Press, 16s.) DR. MIEGGE is Professor...

Y AVNT LUCILLE. By Rose C. Feld. (Gol- IanCz, 13s. 6d.) her portrait of her Aunt Lucille, a FrenchM. an married to an uncle living in Paris, p8 Fseld, who is American, offers...

Country Life BY IAN NIALL BEFORE the thaw came I spent a good part of a day watching the behaviour of birds on a patch of grass 1 had baited for the purpose with raw suet,...

SOWING TIME March for sowing if the weather is, ad all suitable, I was always told, and this applies to the vegetable garden, where lettuce, summer cabbage, brussels, early...

DOG AND MASTER Both the man and his dog were of ample proportions. The man, who was wearing breeches, big brown boots and stockings which showed beneath not one but two...

FIRELOGS Several readers have written to point out that a mistake was apparently made in a line of verse on the subject of firelogs. This should have read, 'Logs of birch wood...

The Mixing of Formations It is, of course, possible-in theory-to turn to another Solution: The Western Forces should be disposed with all their motorised formations so close to...

COMPANY NOTES By CUSTOS I Tile Macmillan squeeze and the Near East war alarms served to knock the bear market down to its lowest level so far. As I write the Financial aimes...

SQUEEZING THE TREASURY By NICHOLAS DAVENPORT THE Treasury is now properly caught up in the barbed-wire entanglement of dear money which. it has been throwing round the economy...

Canadian Raid I1-PE AT DAWN. By R. W. Thopipson. (Hutchinson, 15s.) - LHOUGii it is neither graceful nor succinct in style, this is a 'MOVing and exciting account of how two...

Hal f-Blaked THULE POETIC PA'1ll.RN. By Robinl Skelton. (Routledge and Kegan 1111S book gets off on the wrong track with unparalleled rapidity: no later than the first word...

IT WAS A PITY that, because of the printing dispute, the New Statesnian and Nation was unable to celebrate its twenty-fiftlI birthday with a special issue. The most remarkable...

READING MAJOR WEjINSTIIN'S article. 'Security Without Suicide.' I was inclined to discount his opening supposition that 'a few enemy atomn bombs [could dam] the Rhine by...

A Spectator's Notebook WIHlEN C(MMERCIAL TELElVISION began last September it was I anIIouLnced that the procec(Is of the gala opeing night would go to clharity. On this...

I REMARKED the other day that 'the staff of the BBC's French I ' services is popularly believed to be considerably larger than its S listening public.' The BBC has kindly...

I Headline of the week EDEN SUMMONS GLUBB HOME News Chronicle, March I.

IT HA ENinsnewvsasir*, ek FrtIlart IT BIlAS BEEN in somle ways al Stirling week. First I learnt that 'Advance news can now be given of an event ULinparalleled in human history...

The President LINCOLN THE PRESIDENT. VOL. IV: Last Full Measure. By J. G. Randall and Richard N. Current. (Eyre and Spottiswoode, 45s.) PROFESSOR RANDALL did not live to...

Ladies and Gentlemen STRAWBERRY FAIR. BY Osbert Wyndham Hewett. (Murray, 18s.) MY DEAR DUCHESS. Edited by A. 1. Kennedy. (Murray, 21s.) Now it became the one topic. Lady...

Sir John Himself AN ASIAN PRIME MINISTER'S STORY. By Sir John Kotelawala. (Harrap, 15s.) THE politicians of Asia do not often write very entertaining reminiscences. A few have...

Theories In view of the great cordoning-off potentialities inherent in the dropping of an atom bomb on West German territory, the fundamental question is: To what extent can...

Security Without Suicide By ADELBERT WEINSTEIN LElT us take the supposition --well vitliin the bouLnds of itOnlic possillifity----lAlat a few ellnly atoni bonmbs have dammied...

Political Commentary BY HENRY FAIRLIE T HE treacherous dismissal of General Glubb-the epithet may seem unnecessary, even unhelpful, but it at least puts the incident in...

ADENAUER'S ISOLATION Bi' Our German Correspondent Bonn THERE was a broad smile on the face of Mr. Zorin when Ton Monday he stepped out of the Pan-Aiiierican clipper \,Which...

- RESTRICTIVE PRACTICES SJI-ORTLY before the Commonis debated the Restrictive Trade Practices Bill, housewives in Sussex were given a practical demonstration of the need for...

SLEEVELESS ERRAND NEGOTIATIONS between the Colonial Secretary and Archbishop Makarios have broken down in a smokescreen of verbiage with each side accusing the other of having...

GRADUATED DETERRENCE A YEAR ago the Spectator, disturbed by the complete unreality of the Commons debates on the Defence Estimates, asked a number of distinguished cmntributors...

Untellability NOC lAMBULI S. (Covent 3ai-doll.) SINCi. time began-well, since about RIuv when time began in the world of ballet' choreographers have been insisting on tellidl...

MURDER IN THE GLENS SIR,-'Great Britain,' writes Strix in a mood of justifiable indignation, 'is the only civilised country in the world where there is no close season for...

MUSCAT AND OMAN FIELD) FORCE Su.-The imjplicationl containlCeI in the use of' the phrase 'tribal levies' ('Portrait of the Week.' Dccember 23, 1955) is distasteful to us. The...

Contemporary Arts Mere Actors THE RIVALS. By R. B. Sheridan. (Saville.)THE WALTZ OF THE TOREADORS. By Jean ANOUILH. (Arts.) IN a letter to the Sunday Times, Michael Benthall...

CIRANKS. (St. Marliln's.) TMis 'reVLlette'--tO Coil a nauseous woid-is the Paris-cabaret idea brought cross-chliannel and drenhced in thc mood of contemporary English...

BOO 0 KS Historical Truthfulness B1 J. W. N. WATKINS W HArT HA unifies these essays* (except an isolated gem, 'Latter-Day Napoleon Worship') is Professor Geyl's concern with...

The Seasons IN the second of its exhibitions of invited work, the Contemporary Art Society has advanced in boldness from such a non-committal requirement as 'Figures in a...

The Rats in Room 101 1984. (Warner.}-A TOWN LIKIi ALICE. (Odeon, Leicester Square.)-- FIREI IN THE SKIN. (Marble Arch Pavilion.) 'I'M terrified,' murmured my neighbour at the...

A Continuous Front First of all, therefore, both sides must agree to accept as axiomatic and mutually binding the principle that the use of these terrible weapons shall be...

WHILE JORDAN ROLLED T-" HE dismissal by the Jordan Government of Glubb Pasha and other British officers of the Arab Legion is a slap in the face for British policy. Jordan is...

Portrait of the Week T HIS week has been a bad one for Western foreign policy. In the Middle East the arrival of Mr. Selwyn Lloyd in Cairo coincided rather unhappily with the...

THE BRAKES GRIP TTNDER Mr. Macmillian's firm direction, the Government UJis gradually regaining control over the British economy. There has been a slight rise in the gold and...

s City and Suburban I BY JOHN BETJEMAN )N OTHING is more delightful at this time of year than to throw responsibility to the winds and take a day off by train. I did this last...

Walking It BY RICHARD H. ROVERE New York T HREE weeks ago, in a different age, it was hard to find anyone in Washington who took seriously the idea that the President might...

Graduated Deterrence-The Next Step BY REAR-ADMIRAL SIR ANTHONY BUZZARD O N December 8. 1955, Mr. Dulles stated that 'we have developed, with our Allies, a collective system of...