A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK O NE important speech made at the Chatham

House dinner on Monday has not, so far as I have seen, been reported anywhere. The head of the Indian delegation to the Commonwealth Relations Conference, now sitting at Chatham House, Sir Mohammed Zafrullah Khan, made what I believe is a new, and is certainly a very interest- ing, proposal for the solution of the Indian difficulty. Why, he asked, should the British Government not announce that it would imple- ment any agreements Indians might reach among themselves by the end of a year after the conclusion of the war ; that if by that time they had reached no agreement Britain would decide on a constitu- tion; but that if at any time after this Indians reached agreement on something different it should be accepted? Certainly the first two sections of this proposal are Well worth discussing ; the difficulty about the third is that you cannot keep on changing constitutions. But even here too, there is at least a basis for discussion. Several Cabinet Ministers, including Lord Cranborne, heard Sir Zafrullah's speech, so it may be hoped that attention will be given to it in the right quarters.

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Here is a passage from the last issue of the New York Nation to reach me. It occurs in an article from Athens by a writer with the good, detached name of Constantine Poulos.

"They [the British Prime Minister and Foreign Office] believe that only the British royal family's poor relative, King George, can keep Greece on the straight and narrow Whitehall road, and not let it be seduced by its great big, attractive co-religionist in Moscow. Starting from that completely erroneous and un- justified assumption', Churchill and the British Ambassador to Greece, Rex Leeper, have used every possible method, all possible tricks and tactics, to force George back on a people determined not to have him."

It would be difficult to look much more foolish than events have made this writer look. But I am not sure that one or two British writers have not succeeded even in that.

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I have been reading with much interest and some depression a booklet on the population question, written by Mr. L. J. Cadbury, and published (at 6d.) by the News Chronicle. It argues no disrespect to Mr. Cadbury's handling of the subject, which is admirable, to say that the arresting feature of the booklet is the coloured map of Europe, showing net reproduction rates for the years 1930-1935.

The yellow—indicating actual failure to maintain the population- level (prospective)—covers all Scandinavia, Germany, France, Great Britain, Switzerland, Austria, Czechoslovakia. Holland alone in western Europe north of the Pyrenees is succeeding in repro-

ducing itself. Hence my depression, coupled with the fact that Mr. Cadbury, like every other authority I have read, has no remedy to suggest that carries conviction. He seems to think it may be possible to create a social conicience in the matter, and being (as he does not mention) the father of five, he may claim to be setting a stimulating example. Most advocates of large families (like Hitler) are celibate.

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A paragraph in a letter in The Times by that well-known authority on Spain, Mr. Gerald Brenan, raises a question which has always rather perplexed me. A Fascist regime in Spain, he writes, "is bound, so long as it lasts, to be a permanent source of discord and infection in Western Europe." The question whether Fascism is infectious is of considerable importance. There is not much reason ii on the face of it why persons who rule one country dictatorially ti should be much concerned about how other countries are run, except / in so far as fear and hatred of democracy form a common bond. In any case, the practical question is whether a Fascist Spain would be in a position in any case to do much harm in Western Europe. What- ever harm it could do in Portugal was obviously done long since, and no one has much complaint to make of the state of Portugal. It is hard to believe that there is any serious danger of post-war France going Fascist, and impossible to believe that anything that happens in Spain will affect either Belgium or Holland. That Fascism has been, and is being, bad for Spain is no doubt true enough, but outsiders have no more title to try to save Spain from Fascism than they have to save Russia from Communism or Britain from democracy—if they happen to harbour a dislike of these systems.

* * * * The fortunes of U.N.R.R.A. are a good deal under discussion at the moment. One factor that may affect them a good deal is the appointment as second in command of the whole organisation of a man who has already done some remarkable pieces of work in this war, Commander R. G. A. Jackson. Commander Jackson, who is a Tasmanian by birth, began the war in the Australian Navy. He was seconded to the British Navy, and during the thickest of the attack on Malta took a prominent part in organising the defence of the island, particularly in the matter of supplies. He was, I believe, at one time directing the whole convoy system. Later he went to the Middle East Supply Centre at Cairo, first under Mr. Oliver Lyttelton and then under Lord Moyne, finally becoming Director- General of the Centre. Now at the age of 33 he is acquired by U.N.R.R.A., and since the Director, Governor Lehmann, is not him- self primarily an organiser, the advent of Commander Jackson should be of peculiar value.

* * * * Here is a question to which I can give no answer, though I have no doubt definite rulings on the subject have been given. How can you sell a house, in a county where no land-registration exists, when all the relevant deeds have been destroyed by enemy action? The owner of the particular house mentioned to me had the deeds of it destroyed when his office was blitzed ; if there were duplicates, which is uncertain, they were with his solicitor, whose office was also blitzed. He himself was killed by enemy action. His executors are now told they cannot sell a house to which they can show no title. This seems to be clearly wrong—but I should like to know what the clearly right answer is.

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Though the fund for the Malta Shrine of Remembrance is theoreti- cally closed, it is gaining considerably in interest through belated contributions coming in still from distant subscribers. One post this week, for example, brought subscriptions from Northern Rhodesia, Southern -Rhodesia and Vancouver ; and there have been many others. The balance above the " target " total will quite certainly be needed.

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Arnold Bennett once delivered himself of an aphorism which certain poker-backed attitudes in France make relevant: "It is only a small man who needs to stand on his dignity."

jANUS.