A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK

ISEE that the slightly slimy agent of the Gestapo at Lisbon is referred to somewhere as " that elderly rascal Baron Rheinbaben." I am surprised, on turning to the reference-books, to find that the adjective is as accurate as the noun, for Freiherr von Rheinbaben, former Secretary of State (his tenure of that office was very brief, but he has never for a moment forgotten it) is 65 ; when I last saw him he certainly did not look what must have been his age then. I used to know him fairly well, and with his rather insinuating bluff, which befitted a former naval officer who had taken to diplomacy, he could be superficially agreeable enough. He liked London, and in /938, when the Anglo-German Friendship Associa- tion (if that was its name) was working overtime, he contributed to a volume called Germany Speaks, in which all the leading lights of Nazism demonstrated their friendship for Britain. Ribbentrop in a foreword wrote that " The Fiihrer and Chancellor has re- peatedly referred to the importance attaching to Anglo-German relations for the peaceful development of Europe," and Rheinbaben himself devoted his talents specially to the question of Germany and England, in which connexion he mentioned that " he had the honour to be " a collaborator of von Tirpitz in the critical years before 1914. It is plausible, unconvincing stuff, but as propaganda a reasonably competent performance. I imagine many British members of the Anglo-German Friendship Association thought it

good. * * * *

The Prime Minister long ago turned our minds to events that would happen when the autumn leaves fell. Leaflets as well as leaves have been falling just lately. Some of them have drifted . down over Surrey, carried no doubt by the wind to a spot where they are little needed. They are, moreover, in German, and Surrey is rather weak in that language. But they are admirable leaflets, and in Germany, where no doubt the bulk were dropped by the good offices of the R.A.F., they must be doing a great deal of good. Another leaflet, in French, has reached me from Cornwall. It no doubt was meant to hearten readers on the other side of the Channel. Whether it would be calculated to have that effect it would hardly be becoming in me to say, for it consists almost entirely of a translation of a leading article in The Spectator of some weeks ago on the Allies and France. It is an interesting

addition to my archives. * * * * The Tory Reform Committee, whose manifesto was issued on Wednesday, has the advantages of youth on its side. Its members are, in fact, commonly known collectively as the Young Tories, and the name should be an asset to them. I find that the average age of the three officials who head the list of members is 37, and among the rank and file are several still more immature—in the matter of mere years. On the other hand, several well-known names that catch the eye suggest that the average of the whole must be at least 45. What the average for Parliament as a whole is I have no idea. Some diligent but leisured statistician might investigate.

I should suppose not less than 55. * * * * A great many people who are not Liberals, and not Anglo-Indians, and not members of Chatham House, though perhaps all those especially, mourn the death of Lord Meston. He was a notable success in India as Finance Member of the Viceroy's Council, having been previously Governor of the United Provinces ; he came from India" in 1917 to sit as a member of the Imperial Con- ference and the War Cabinet. It was characteristic of him that, on returning to this country finally in 1919 without any particular party affiliations, he unhesitatingly identified himself with the Liberal —the Asquithian Liberal—Party, whose fortunes were then almost at their lowest ebb, and had given unsparingly of his energies to that cause ever since. Only in the last few months had he begun to look anything like his 78 years. _ * * * - * I see it suggested that the basic petrol ration may shortly be restored. That seems unlikely. It could not be made high enough to tempt many cars out of storage, and in these days of shortage the existing method of allotting petrol^ only to applicants who can make a good case for it is the fairest. But there are other con- siderations than that. It is announced that a petrol-cut is being

made in the Western States of America, and certain Senators have been complaining (quite unjustly, as President Roosevelt showed) that Britain has been drawing heavily on American petrol instead

of drawing on her own from the Middle East. The resumption of a baic petrol ration here at this particular moment would inevitably stir American critics still further.

* * * *•

I quoted last week a classic little verse on a Fellow of Trinity. A sometime Fellow of an adjacent college of which I cannot write

without great warmth of heart sends another like it which he prefers. Chacun a son goiit. Anyhow, here it is :

There was an old Fellow of Trinity, A Doctor well versed in Divinity ; But he took to free thinking And then to deep drinking, And so had to leave the vicinity, —leaving, no doubt, his college for his college's good. * * * *

The publishers are pushing their demands on the Paper Controller hard, and getting some considerable support for their case that the nation cannot in its own ...interest let good books go out of print and remain unobtainable indefinitely. I -am glad, moreover, to see that a writer in The Times had put forward what looks like a per-

fectly sound scheme for dealing with " free-paper " publishers.

When the weekly reviews have been given a little more paper, I hope the publishers will get more, too. * * * * Self-propelled guns have been prominent in the news lately, and I have been making some enquiry about their self-propulsion. As I

expected, it seems not to exist. Whatever they are propelled by, it is not themselves. But then neither did Augustine Birrell's Self- Selected Essays do their own selection. At least, I assume not. And where it is a question of the English language, what was gond

enough for Bitten Ought no doubt to be good enough for Grigg. * * * * There is, I understand, in the County of Morayshire a parish called Belie. I had nothing to do with naming it ; I have nothing to say about its name. But I cannot but express satisfaction that the Church of Scotland should have manifested such a sense of

the proprieties as to appoint to it a little time ago a Minister named