W HEN the personal conversations between Queen Wilhelmina of Holland and King Leopold of Belgium were suddenly announced on Tuesday two possible explanations suggested...

T HE fact that the attack on Herr Hitler's life in the Munich beer-cellar on Wednesday was unsuccessful does not destroy its significance. The official claim that it was the...

The eyes of all the world have been fixed upon the United States in the long-drawn-out conflict over the Neutrality Act and its amendment, for upon the issue depended the power...

The publication by the Viceroy of India of a Memorandum summarising his recent talks with Indian political leaders records their failure, and indicates clearly enough the cause....

General Hertzog, recently Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa, so far from accepting his defeat on the war issue by General Smuts, is now endeavouring to con- solidate...

Germany will get little aid or comfort from the proceed- ings in Moscow on the 22nd anniversary of the Bolshevik revolution. M. Molotov's speech was discreet rather in what it...

The annual Christmas Number of The Spectator, which appears next week, will be a greatly enlarged issue, published at the usual price. The prospect of a heavy demand empha-...

Mr. Harold Macmillan has been urging that the time has come to revise the policy of evacuation, and bring back to the towns the financial, commercial, and industrial enter-...

If the war on land seems to be marking time, there has been never a moment's respite in intensive war at sea. More men have lost their lives in the Royal Navy than in the other...

Herr von Papen has returned to Turkey in time to hear the news of the ratification of the Anglo-Franco-Turkish Pact by the National Assembly. There is probably not very much...

No propaganda promoted by the Allies m Germany can be so effective as propaganda by Germans who have a following in their own country. The " German National Council," now being...

The war in the air has become somewhat brisker in the last few days both in the North Sea and on the fighting front in France. On Tuesday there were a number of encounters in...

A RMISTICE DAY this year inevitably provokes reflections that we should be happier to evade. To those who viewed it rightly it was a commemoration not of victory, but of peace....

W HEN Parliament adjourned for the summer holiday the Prime Minister promised that it would be recalled if the situation became more threatening. The holiday proved a short one....

war and its sequel would be a good deal the better for defining. We are constantly being told that there must be not a dictated but a negotiated peace." What does, or can, " a...

tarily and visibly starts. Passing urchin: "It's all right, lidy. It ain't 'Itler, it's Gawd." JANUS.

COLLAPSE AFTER QUEEN'S VISIT according to the Daily Telegraph. I don't know that I should have put it quite like that. * * * *

in the matter of its " butter for Goering " story—to which I have referred in its earlier stages—is difficult to imagine. The Ministry, it will be remembered, circulated to the...

were recently sought for a certain Cabinet Minister and his personal staff, in the event of the Department leaving London. The choice, so the story goes, fell on a conveniently...

A CURIOUS and unintentional but most unfortunate ban on freedom of expression is resulting from the process whereby in the last few weeks almost every authority of any...

after all. There seems little doubt that the journey was definitely intended. It is fully in keeping with Herr Hitler's recognised methods. If something goes wrong, send someone...

By STRATEGICUS A T the beginning of last century there appeared a novel, The Riddle of the Sands, which John Buchan described as " the best story of adventure published in the...

By SIR NORMAN ANGELL [The next article in this series will be by Lord Eustace Percy.] T HE Premier has told us in a much-quoted phrase that our purpose in this struggle is to...

By C. D'O. GOWAN I is no secret that many of the Public Schools have for 1 years now found themselves in increasing difficulties. Almost all have been faced with financial...

Par UN SOLDAT FRANCAIS D EPUIS plusieurs jours une pluie fine et serree enferme la plaine au contour incertain dans les lambeaux flottants d'une brume humide et lasse qui...

By ROBERT R. HYDE A T the outbreak of War there is a common tendency to think that all human and social considerations can be abandoned in the effort to secure maximum strength...

By A POLISH FUGITIVE I ESCAPED from the tragic city of Warsaw when the Germans had already occupied all its suburbs. Having crossed the River Vistula I passed through Praga,...

By DEREK VERSCHOYLE M RS. VIRGINIA WOOLF has produced in pamphlet form a supercilious but elegantly phrased demand for the abolition of the reviewer. Its destructive arguments...

seen photographs and heard descriptions of that necklace of fort- resses. The actual details, the guns and the casemates, were more or less as I had imagined ; and in any case...

By HAROLD NICOLSON I FLEW to France the other day in a mood of melancholy. It was a wet and wind-swept morning and the wide wings of the aeroplane glistened with scudding...

us by the Ministers whom we saw. There was no sign of wishful thinking, of vapid optimism, of empty boastfulness. Before answering our many questions the Ministers would gaze...

always remain a mystery to me. How comes it that they are so disciplined as soldiers and so subversive as civilians? In Prelude to Victory General Spears has devoted some...

in living memory this gentle and pacific people should he exposed to outrage by the barbarians of the east. It seemed intolerable that a civilisation so ancient and yet so...

the discipline which pre- vailed. It recalled to us the discipline, not of some military unit, but of some well-organised hospital. The General who accompanied us spoke to the...

French Chamber, discussing with our colleagues the means by which we politicians might smooth the path of Anglo- French co-operation. I found that they were not unduly...

setting, seems as distant as Agin- court. Even the men are of different build. The " concrete boys," as they call themselves, bear but slight resemblance to their fathers. In...

Report on Competition No. 7 PRIZES of book tokens for £2 2S. and LI Is. were offered for Clerihews or Limericks introducing any of the thirteen gentle- men whose names recur...

" Daughters Courageous." At • Warner's.—" Poison Pen " and " The First Days." At the Regal. Daughters Courageous has three stars, and one of them is the cameraman, Mr. James...

THE THEATRE " Young England." By Walter Reynolds. At the Holborn Empire. IT is an odd fact about the English that they are the only civilised nation who really, at heart,...

the Berlin- Moscow pact, the Nazi-Soviet policy, and similar questions, turn on one central point : the German mind, or, rather, two German minds. The political mentality and...

[Correspondents are requested to keep their letters as brief as is reasonably possible. Signed letters are given a preference over those bearing a pseudonym, and the latter must...

SIR, —Either our entry into the war is justified by the highest moral principles, or else it is without justification. The Prime Minister's speeches have been ennobled by his...

Sta,—The strength of the Allied cause lies in the fact that so far Germany has been the sole aggressor. The present situation doubtless demands firmness and an imposing display...

of pleasure out of writing his article which I, for one, certainly do not grudge him. There are sections of the Left Wing, about whom he is so petulant, who undoubtedly deserve...

an appalling revelation. Speaking as an M.P., he says that " many depre- cated the debate in Parliament." In my view, and in that of many others with whom I have spoken or from...

that should be faced, that it may well be many, many years before "Hitlerism," in some form or other, is - destroyed in Germany. For " Hitlerism " means, surely, the reign of...

Sul,—Sir Rowland Sperling's persevering campaign against the rabbit puts the farmer much in his debt, and it is only in the interests of natural history that I feel obliged to...

SIR,—The recent debate in the House of Commons on the Order in Council made under the Emergency Powers (Defence) Act, 1939, was of vital importance to all lovers of liberty....

Sm,—The author of " Country Life " notes in your issue of October 6th discusses the question of whether foxes should be allowed to breed in war-time. In some districts the fox...

The Royal Horticultural Society is urging us all not to postpone our orders to nurserymen. It might argue its case with even greater urgency, for the last War provided an...

Some of us have been watching the total disappearance of one of our kindly fruits, the walnut. One tree in the Midlands has been the scene of a hot competition between grey...

SrR, — I write on Monday, October 3oth. We here have today received The Spectator dated Friday, October loth (eleven days, allowing for the fact that it was posted on the day...

A good dish of raspberries was gathered last week in a Warwickshire garden. What a high tribute we owe to " Lloyd George "! The loveliest flower, excepting chrysanthemum and...

De-urbanised Children We have heard too much of children and expectant mothers giving way to the nostalgia for the town. The following incident is also true. Half a dozen urban...

are offered for the best answers in not more than 30o words to the following question: " Which of the recognised classics of Literature do you most dislike and why? " The...

The Remnants of English Husbandry Country Relics. By H. J. Massingham. Illustrated by Thomas Hennell. (Cambridge University Press. t5s.) FIVE years ago Mr. Thomas Hennell...

Undeclared War. By Elizabeth Wiskemann. (Constable. 128.) IF tragedy is the conflict between right and right, this War is no tragedy, for it is a conflict between right and...

Munich : Before and After. By Hubert Ripka. (Gollancz. Ifs.) IT is unfortunate that an important piece of work, like this book of Dr. Ripka's, is presented as it is. For it is...

READING this survey, the eighth of the series of which it forms part, produces much the same effect on the reader as studying a map of Europe dating from the nineteen-twenties....

THIS book is a study of the German Army from the reign of Frederick the Great to the present day. It is tempting, but it wou:d be a great mistake, to start reading the last two...

Mrs. Miniver. By Jan Scruffier. (Chatto and Windus. 7s. 6d. HERE are the sayings and doings of Mrs. Miniver, familiar to some of us in more ephemeral form in The Times, now...

IN his preface to this lively and excellent biography Mr. Lambert makes a point so obvious that most of us have forgotten it. We tend to suppose that all the important people,...

A SENSE of futility touches a reviewer faced by a popular veteran. What purpose is served by noticing him? The reviewer's objections can be put down by a faithful public to...

By CUSTOS LIKE the war itself, these war-time stock markets are con- fotinding the prophets. Who would have guessed that within nine weeks of the outbreak Stock Exchange prices...

It is evident from the preliminary figures of the Austin Motor Company that until the outbreak of war this under- taking was well set for a new high record of earnings. For the...

IDEON THEATRES LIMITED PROFIT ESTIMATE EXCEEDED THE second annual general meeting of Odeon Theatres, Limited, was held on No% ember 7th at the Dorchester Hotel, London, W. Mr....

An important scheme for the rationalisation of the sugar industry in British Guiana was carried through last week when shareholders of Booker Bros., McConnell and Co. agreed to...

Like the Austin company Standard Mos.or was forging aheaa even in the nervous peace conditions of the year to August 3ist. Total income rose from £288,137 to £456,774 and after...

Perhaps, as the pessimists keep saying, we ought to with- hold judgement on such matters as the effects of war on the entertainment and luxury trades until the war has really...

IA prize of a Book Token for one guinea will be given to she sender of the first correct solution of this week's crossword puzzle so be opened. Envelopes should be marked...

SOLUTION NEXT WEEK The winner of Crossword No. 35 is Mrs. J. M. Phillips, 2 Upton Avenue, Cheadle Hulme, Cheshire.