I AST week a sudden and wholly unexpected stiffening of the J en6ny's resistance in North Korea inflicted sharp and costly local reverses on United Nations forces, some of whom...

It is always dangerous to draw simple analogies between the American and British parliamentary systems, but that will not stop people in this country from looking on Mr. Truman,...

Monday's debate on housing in the Commons proved to be largely an electioneering occasion. This was to be expected, and though Mr. Marple,s did his best to start it off as a...

• The war in Malaya is not going well. The best that can be said about it is that it is not going as badly as France's war in Indo- China ; there is at least no fear of the...

The meeting of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe at Rome last week-end was followed as usual by vigorous complaints by M. Spaak. The business of the Committee...

There was not much satisfaction to be got for anyone out of the debate on the cost of living on Tuesday. The Liberals tidying put the motion down, a third of the party abstained...

The Government is now committed to making permanent in peace-time many of the economic and administrative controls which were generally accepted as inevitable in time of war....

The defeat of the Government in the House of Commons on Wednesday on a question of procedure—the reintroduction of the un-miqutes rule, - under which private members can...

full shock of battle. The general debate on the Address last week fol- lowed a rather placid course. Certainly it was not stirring enough to tease members out of an acute...

The obvious conclusion from the report Children and the Cinema, made by the Social Survey Division of the Central Office of Infor- mation for the committee appointed by,the Home...

I F it were possible to know what Russia's intentions really are, and what the new China's intentions really are, and how close' the association between Peking and Moscow really...

Commons has been divided six to three in two critical debates in the House of Commons this week. In one case the three voted against the six, in the other the three abstained on...

live in attracted considerable attention, and in their printed form, ,The Nature of the Universe (Blackwell, 5s.) they are likely to attract more. I did not hear the broadcasts,...

Mr. Shaw lying dead set a precedent which I earnestly hope is not going to become a practice. There may surely be an escape from the Press photographer in the beyond. . . * * * *

the Chancellorship of Cambridge comes as a great relief to me per- sonally, for in a momentary blackout I asserted last week that B.A.s had votes in this contest, as they did in...

an end) prevented me from dealing last week with the word "propaganda," and replying to the various correspondents who have courteously pointed out that the origin of the word...

now and then a particular incident, like the removal of Tom Hopkinson from the editorial chair of Picture Post, gives it immediacy. The facts here are clear. A staff...

was an abundantly merited tribute to a great man. His competence in different fields—politics, philosophy, rrietaphysics, administration —is so unobtrusive that his brilliance...

T HAT Bernard Shaw has left a great deal of money may be taken for granted. He must have made a vast amount, and there is no reason to think he spent lavishly—quite the con-...

By ST. JOHN ERVINE W HAT was Bernard Shaw like 7-This is the question I have been most often asked, and it is the question I find hardest to answer. What was he like ? He was,...

They Try to Shoot Harr By ROBERT WAITHMAN Washington, D.C. I N retrospect, now that we know more about it than we did or the afternoon of November 1st, the attempt of the two...

By HONOR CROOME A LREADY a rising tide of small fry is beginning to lap round the toy counters, and the Santa Clauses of next month's Christmas-tree are drawing up lists and...

By WARREN POSTBRIDGE E VERYONE in a .sense is a private patient, in that he is a private person Who may at any moment become a patient and can then, under the National Health...

By DOROTHY EDWARDS I N the top room of No. 14 Barrow Court, a naked child, partnering her own reflection in a long mirror, postured and danced by candlelight. Outside in the...

The Dig By A. C. THOMAS (Corpus Christi College, Oxford) AR CHAEOLOG1STS, whatever their proficiency or status, tend to fall into one of two categories : those who command...

By HAROLD NICOLSON D URING the past week I have been reading with mixed feelings the obituaries published in honour of Bernard ' Shaw. It is in any case a dikult, and in some...

"The Mudlarlc." (Odeon.)—" Harriet Craig." (Gaumont and Marble Arch Pavilion.) - 4, Mr. Music." (Plaza.) TALL, handsome American Miss Irene Dunne is not the ideal actress to...

Markova-Dolin Festival. (Stoll Theatre.)--Sadler's . Wells. ONE night last week I left the Stoll Theatre in the state of exhilara- tion that can only be created by a deep...

THEATRE "Party Manners." By Val Gielgud. (Princes). ALTHotibit it must, however reluctantly, be admitted that this play offers agreeable entertainment and has, superficially,...

THE EGYPTIAN CANAL Stoke Newington, 7th November, 1850. Snt,—The important intelligence which has lately been com- municated - to the public that arrangements are likely to be...

NICHOLAS MEDTNER, who is seventy this year, has had the unique experience of being suddenly, in mid-twentieth century, adopted by a Maecenas rich enough to order recordings and...

THouuu nothing we think that we know May be really so, And even the song of the lark But a guess in the dark, _Need it thereicire be faithless to reason . Or foolish or wrong To...

Set by R. S. Stanier Reform of railway time-tables is in the air. • For the comfort of passengers it is surely just as important to know that a horde of school-children will...

Magazine PC'')

Report by Barbara Worsley-Gough A prize of £5 was offered for "Lines on the Prospect of the Festival of Britain" in the manner of Alfred Austin. Alfred Austin's stupefying...

Nicolson on one rather important point. In his kind allusion to my book Parliament House, in his Marginal Continent of November 3rd—and I am honoured to know that he has enjoyed...

Snt,—Janus deplores the enforced return of three M.P.s to the duties for which they were elected and for which they are paid, but he does not tell why it is necessary for the...

SIR,—Apropos of your paragraph under the above heading, should it be taken for granted, ill these days of generous educational facilities, that those who have been to a...

Stn,—Mr. Harold Nicolson is incorrect in thinking that the sub- stitution of "Foch, Joffre et Clemenceau" for "Madelon, Madelon, Madelon" in the final, verse of this favourite...

SIR,—Mr. George G. Hopkinson's letter on "Blue Moons and Green Light," with its quotations from Sir William Bragg, must have been welcomed by many beside myself. Mr. Hopkinson...

that the "green flash" at the instant that the sun sets in a clear sea is not seen in northern latitudes. In the course of seven summers spent in Brittany, near St. Malo, I have...

tion to be withdrawn from what everyone admits would have been an unfortunate contest at Cambridge will bring at least a faint blush to Janus's double face. With India teetering...

The Cambridge Chancellorship SIR,—Janus is quite correct in saying that the name of Pandit Nehru was not mentioned at the informal meeting at the Senate House. The name of Lord...

SIR,—In his "Country Life" notes in your issue of October 20th Mr. Richard Church asked if any reader could tell him how to preserve walnuts until Christmas. May I suggest...

While writing about life on the roads, I am reminded of its dangers. For me, as for many ether folk who love peace and quiet, the motor- bicycle is nothing but an evil. I do not...

" propagandas," now nosing its way into our language. There is an obvious analogy in the word " operas," well-established in its dramatic meaning, though deriving as a double...

Having supervised the re-laying Of the York stones on the hither-side of the ornamental pond, I have been sowing fresh lawn-seed where the grass was disturbed, and setting...

SIR,—I have always understood that Disraeli's memorable phrase, quoted by the writer of the above-named article in the Spectator of November 3rd, was: " a sophistical" (not...

SIR,—I have just addressed an envelope to one of my pupils now in the Royal Corps of Signals. 1 hope I have got his number correct ; it is 22404787. No. 22404787 may find the...

I talked with a countryman who is specialising. He has a small holding of twelve acres, and he grows flowers and vegetables which he sells direct to his neigh- bour who keeps a...

anthologies, the charm of their surprising and idiosyncratic inclusions—and in these Dr. Sitwell's little book is rich indeed—and that of their unexpected juxtapositions. Who...

Interplanetary Flight The Conquest of Space. By Willy Ley, with paintings by Chesley Bonestell. (Sidgwick and Jackson. 18s.) THE possibility of being able to make a voyage to...

Confident Morning. #y Sir Harold Butler. (Faber. it is: 6d.) THIS is an unusually stimulating book. It is not in the strict sense an autobiography. Persons concern Sir Harold...

Stolen Journey. By Oliver Philpot. (Hodder and Stoughton. ifs.) BY now there can be few people in England who have not read, or watched on the screen, the adventures of two of...

Independent Member. By A. P. Herbert (Methuen. 2 is.) As everyone who knows him realises, Sir Alan Herbert's command of humour conceals a great deal of earnest purpose. Proof...

IT is rumoured that publishers find short novels difficult to sell, and that if is not easy, therefore, to get them published. One regrets this, for the long-short story is a...

Poems: 5938-1949. By Robert Lowell. (Faber. 95. 6d.) THERE cannot be any doubt that Robert Lowell has a new and striking talent as a poet. It is not just that his poems are...

WHEN Berdyaev first became known in England he was iFidely acclaimed as one of the most important among contemporary Christian thinkers. Berdyaev died in 1947. Whether his...

The Diaries of Lady Charlotte Guest. Extracts from Her To many readers the name of Lady Charlotte Guest (Lady Charlotte Schreiber after her second marriage) will mean little...

White of Selborne. By Walter S. Scott. (Falcon Press. The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne made its first quiet appearance from the publishing house of Mr.. Benjamin...

Elizabeth's Irish Wars. By Cyril Falls. (Methuen. 2ss.) THE English have never been much interested in Irish history. This is a matter for surprise, for, although England may be...

Orchids: Their Description and Cultivation. By Charles H. Curtis. (Putnam. £4. 4s. od.) THE peculiar fascination of orchids is hard to define, harder still to explain. The Greek...

LONG barrows, dolmens and chambered cairns are the most vener- able and not the least imposing features of the British landscape due to man's activity. They were erected by...

THE volume of human emotion excited by military bands and church choirs (of every dericimibatioti) must"- be imrifeasurably greater than that excited by musical noises of any...

Thomas Hardy : the Novels and Stories. By Albert J. Guerard. (Oxford University Press. iis.) THIS book is one of three studies, on Hardy, Conrad and Gide, written to throw some...

Guthrie. (Methuen. 215.) GREEK gods are poetry in themselves and have become part of European literature as constantly recurring symbols. And there is the added interest of...

95. 6d.) DR. CRONIN has matured as a novelist. Though some of his early weaknesses remain, The Spanish Gardener is a real step forward in his career. From the beginning he has...

IA Book Token for one guinea will be awarded to the sender of the first correct solution of this week's crossword to be opened after noon on Tuesday week, Notember 21st....

T ia g F . A R 5 - r ot 1 4 al A 11111.1111e W_Z MV - t . c C A C . : ICE R I 'N; E 'e glE A i :IA L I :C iiT 411 , 41111Li, I T L :5 I E !MI E !AlTrl!V I E 411E 5 M I...

adver- sary, have again reared their ugly head this week and on Monday and Tuesday produced a fair volume of nervous selling. Gilt- edged stocks, which had been basking in the...