10 OCTOBER 1952

Page 1

PRESIDENTIAL POLLS

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LOWLY but surely, as the days of the American Presi- dential election campaign run out, the results of the public opinion polls are looming larger and larger. And there is no...

Bargain with Dr. Moussadek ?

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Since there have been other occasions on which Dr. Moussadek seemed willing to discuss the possibility of restarting the Persian oil industry, and since there have been plenty...

The Wealdstone Tragedy

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One thing the appalling railway accident at Wealdstone brings home to every traveller is the risk he runs every time he makes a journey by rail. Statistically it is almost...

Page 2

After Morecambe

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Quite the most sensible comment on the disaster of the Morecambe conference of the Labour Party has come from Mr. Hugh Gaitskell. He said, in effect, that if the non-Bevanite...

Yoshida v. Hatoyama

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On October 1st Japan voted decisively for co-operation with the West. Its absolute rejection of Communism at the general election (in which seventy-six per cent. of the...

Financial Progress Report

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The Chancellor of the Exchequer in his Mansion House speech on Tuesday achieved a just balance between congratu- lation concerning the past and warning of the difficulties...

Egypt's Troubles

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The resignation of Mustapha Nahas from the leadership of the Wafd was such a simple and sensible move that it is only surprising that there was ever any hesitation about it. Now...

Page 3

THE RUSSIAN RIDDLE

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M ARSHAL STALIN has written an article of fifty pages in the magazine, Bolshevik, on Russia and the world in general; M. Malenkov, his potential suc- cessor, has discoursed to...

Page 4

Having (alone in the Press, so far as I know)

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kept battering away at the B.B.C. for months, if not years, in the face of its obdurate insistence on invariably calling Dr. Adenauer Herr AdenaUer in'its news bulletins, I am...

I see George Santayana referred to in an American maga-

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zine as " an esthetic and a skeptic." This is the English language transatlanticised. There is no reason why it shouldn't be. Americans are as much entitled to spell in their...

The appointment of Sir Ian Jacob to succeeed Sir William

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Haley as Director-General of the B.B.C. ought to be received with general satisfaction. If it is not, the reason can only be that Sir Ian, who has never sought publicity of any...

Out of the six by-elections now pending only one, Wy-

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combe, will cause any excitement. One seat, Sir Hugh O'Neill's in North Antrim, is safe for the Conservatives, and four- Farnworth, Cleveland, Hayes and Harlington and Small...

The Westminster City Council has not, as I write, voted

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on the recommendation of its Town Planning Committee that all advertisements, particularly the illuminated signs, in Trafalgar Square shall be removed and hereafter remain...

A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK

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T HE Prime Minister's broadcast on the King George VI Memorial campaign was both stimulating and reassuring. There was some reason for anxiety as to what form the memorial...

Page 5

Morecambe in Retrospect

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By LORDPAKENHAM T HE Labour Party must find a policy and find it soon and be seen to have found it. That was my clearest reflection as I came away from Morecambe. The Bevanites...

Page 6

Eisenhower the Pawn?

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13) ROBERT WAITHMAN T HE complaint that the Presidential election campaign has degenerated into a dirty fight now rings through the land. Each side has accused the other of...

Page 7

Ralph Vaughan Williams

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By MARTIN COOPER I E would have satisfied even Plato; and of what other composer now living can that be said ? On the occasion of his eightieth birthday paeans of Englishry and...

Page 8

The Mau-Mau Terror

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By FRANK ASHTON-GWATKIN T HE recent outbreak of savagery among the Kikuyu tribe in Kenya has been confusing to our minds in England. It is not an organised rebellion with a...

Page 9

Revolt Against Revolt

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By SYLVIA SPRIGGE F OR one shilling a copy of that lively French review Arts may be bought from almost any newsagent near Picca- dilly Circus. A recent number (dated September...

Page 10

UNDERGRADUATE PAGE With term now beginning the "Spectator's" Undergraduate Page,

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slightly intermittent during the vacation, will, it is hoped, appear regu- larly as usual. That, however, must depend to some extent on the quality of the contributions...

Religious Jargon

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By SIR WILLIAM HAMILTON FYFE T HERE has been discussion lately in the Spectator and elsewhere about translations of the Bible into modern English. It set me wondering what is...

Page 11

MARGINAL COMMENT

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By HAROLD NICOLSON I HAVE heard it asserted by wise and well-intentioned men that war will only be rendered impossible when the nations learn to " understand " each other. I...

Page 12

CONTEMPORARY ARTS

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THEATRE MR. BERNARD MILES'S gaily gilded approximation to an Elizabethan playhouse, in the garden of his home at St. John's Wood, assumes a greater importance with this...

ART

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OF rock and tree-bole, cromlech and bollard, smoothed by the wind and the years, Barbara Hepworth has many memories ; of the human spirit and predicament none. Through her...

MUSIC

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THE new production of Mozart's Seraglio—I wish a proper English title could be found for it—will have some surprises for experienced opera-goers, but it will wholly delight...

AN IDEAL BIRTHDAY GIFT

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We will post the SPECTATOR to any of your friends residing in any part of the world at the following rates:- 52 weeks, 35s. ; 26 weeks, 17s. 6d. In addition a Birthday Greeting...

Page 13

CINEMA

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Les Inconnus dans la Maison. (Curzon.) The Happy Time. (Carlton.)—The Merry Widow. (Empire.) LIKE exiles returning home, the frustrated patrons of the Curzon can now at last...

BALLET

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WHEN Paula Hinton and Walter Gore packed their trunks and sailed to Australia, the world of ballet regretfully said " au revoir " to two of its most lively personalities. But...

Page 14

SPECTATOR COMPETITION No. 136

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Report by Alan Brien The usual prizes were offered for excerpts from Johnson on Boswell, Pope on Johnson, Goethe on Eckermann, General Gordon on Lytton Strachey, or Zola on...

SPECTATOR COMPETITION No. 139 Set by John Usborne The usual

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prize is offered for the best fable (Kiplingesque) explaining one of the following : a dog's circumambulations before curling up bt' the fire ; the cuckoo's parasitic habits ;...

Page 15

Hamlet's Succession

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SIR.—Janus rightly corrects me for writing that the question of Hamlet's succession to the throne of Denmark was " discussed " in my father's biography. At most, it was raised....

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

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London Housing Standards SIR,—I read with interest your article on the housing situation, and I should be grateful if you would permit me to publish in your columns this...

A Bet on the General

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SIR,—A friend of mine recently told me that he had seen an item in a New York newspaper that the betting odds in England as of now were three to one on Governor Stevenson. 1 can...

The Harvest Scheme

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SIR.-800 German students arrived in this country recently to help British farmers with the potato and sugar-beet crops. Once again the Harvest Scheme has been organised by...

Page 16

Re-establishing the Tradition Sm,—May I briefly explain the point of

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the Looking Forward exhibi- tion at the Whitechapel Gallery. It seems to me that Mr. Middleton missed it. He complains that I " released no new hares from the trap." Yet such a...

The Church of South India

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SIR,—May I thank Bishop Hollis for his moving account of the first five years of the Church of South India. I believe that many laymen like myself see in the great act of faith...

The Japanese _ SIR,—Those - who remember Japan as our

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brave and loyal comrade in the First World War will have read with regret the calumnies directed by Strix against the Japanese people in the Spectator of September 26th. None of...

Mr. Kirkup's Poems

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SIR, —May I be allowed to correct Mr. Abercrombie on a purely fac- tual point ? In his amiable notice of my book, A Correct Compas- sion and Other Poems, he gives the impression...

The Clergy's Wage

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SIR,—In your paragraph The Clergy's Wage " last week, concerning a " solution "(?) of the problem, a friend tells me of a method used in another province of the Anglican...

Divorce

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SIR,—May 1 add evidence to what is stated by Professor Norman Sykes and the Bishop of Down and Dromore in your issue of September 3rd ? In 1917 Archbishop Davidson not only...

66 B.M.G."

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Sia,—Surely the symbol " B.M.G." (Balfour Must Go) was the cause, not the consequence of the Conservative debacle of 1906. After the debacle Mr. Balfour made a striking return...

Sinclair Lewis

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Sia,—Under the will of Sinclair Lewis all of his manuscripts, letters and other private papers were bequeathed to the Yale University Library, and, under a contract which the...

Page 18

COUNTRY LIFE

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DOWN in the gully, overhung by an ash-tree and two or three clumps of gorse, there was little but a floor of broken rock, limestone that had crumbled from the sides of the gully...

Flood and Fish.

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From nothing much more than a trickle, I have seen the river rising to almost a flood. A fortnight ago the rocks were showing, and the boulders were coated with green slime. At...

Wasps and Winter.

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Wasps are seeking shelter and warmth everywhere. Like flies that take to the sunny side of a tree-trunk and bask on the bark, they are to be seen on a wall that throws back...

Lift Gladioli.

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Lift and dry out the corms of gladioli before they are forgotten and lost. It is easy to forget such things, but the sight of a tray of tulip-bulbs helps to remind one that...

Digging out a Ferret.

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Two men were digging in the bank, throwing up a great mound of red earth containing the roots of blackberry and dog-rose. I watched for a while and smiled. They had been trying...

Page 19

BOOKS OF THE WEEK

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A Claim For Browning Robert Browning. By J. M. Cohen. (Longman. 10s. 6d.) YES, it is true: "No major English poet is worse served by the anthologist than is Robert ....

What Lincoln Fought For

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Abraham Lincoln. By Herbert Agar. (Collins. 7s. 6d.) CHANCE plays a strange part in human affairs. Abraham Lincoln splitting rails in Illinois bought an old barrel full of...

Rose Macaulay, C. E. Vulliamy and Seton Gordon wt7l be

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among the reviewers in next week's "Spectator."

Page 20

• North And South

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Aspects of Provencg. By James Pope-Hennessy. (Longmans. 18s.) "Goon landscape writing . . ." states Mr. Pope-Hennessy, "makes public a personal interpretation of the place...

Happy Families

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Period Piece: A Cambridge Childhood. By Gwen Raverat. (Faber. 21s.) Tins is a happy book that will give pleasure to thousands. Nearly all of us would find it easy to cover a few...

Page 22

Church Tourists THE habit of making excursions in the countryside,

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pausing to visit every parish church encountered, goes back at least well into the eighteenth century. Such " church crawling," to those addicted to it, is one of the purest of...

Page 24

The Humanism of Erasmus

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Erasmus of Rotterdam. By J. Huizinga. (Phaidon Press. 12s. 6d.) AMONG a number of pictures with which this valuable book is illus- trated, there are three portraits which...

Fiction

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The Commander Comes to Dine. By Mario Soldati. Translated from the Italian. (Lehmann. 12s. 6d.) FIVE sound, intelligent volumes of fiction. Each of them, I fancy, somebody's...

Page 26

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Silver in Society

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THE collector of old silver probably gets better all-round value from his acquisitions than the connoisseur of any of the other applied arts. As an investment silver is safer...

A Doubtful Quantity

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Shaw's Corner. By Stephen Winsten. (Hutchinson. 18s.) THREE years ago, while Shaw was still alive, his neighbour, Mr. Stephen Winsten, published a book of conversations with him...

Page 28

MY adult conduct ? Let's not . have any last minute

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heckling. Could 1 live my youth over again I doubt I'd alter it by an iota. I'm not a girl who wastes time looking over her shoulder. Remember what happened to Lot's wife ? Do I...

Marriage and Society. By E. 0. James. (Hutchinson's University Library: ,

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18s.) PROFESSOR JAMES, in this scholarly book, argues that marriage is a social as well as a private affair, and his chapters oh the history of marriage in hunting, agricultural...

Shorter Notices THE last number of Mr. Robert Harling's Image

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coincides with the first appearance of Chance. It is a great pity that Image has had to cease publication. This occasional magazine has filled a need for those with a broad...

SRI AUROBINDO, the Indian teacher who died two years ago,

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gathered around him in the traditional way a number of followers, Indian and European, whom he taught by word of mouth and by example. His stand- point was the pure Hindu...

Page 30

FINANCE AND INVESTMENT

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By CUSTOS THANKS to a crop of encouraging news, markets are holding their ground. On the external front the achievement, now disclosed, of balance in the United Kingdom's...

Page 31

Solution to Crossword No. 697

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THE "SPECTATOR" CROSSWORD No. 699

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IA Book Token for one guinea will be awarded to the sender of the fiat correct miation opened after noon on Tuesday week, October 21st, addressed Crossword, 99 Gower Street,...