11 MAY 1951

Page 1

A Question to Russia

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It is significant that M. Gromyko, who was presiding by rotation at the Conference of Foreign Ministers' Deputies in Paris on Wednesday, should have adjourned the meeting after...

NEWS OF THE WEEK

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T H(' examination of General MacArthur before the Senate 4rmed Services and Foreign Relations Corn- ,...- . mittees has done precisely nothing to commend . his case for an...

Dr. Mossadaq's Dilemma

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The Government of Dr. Mossadaq is beginning to discover some of the difficulties which lie in its path of nationalising the oil industry. It is anxious to proceed with the...

Page 2

Jordan Waters

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• The Security Council has called on Syria and Israel to bring to an end the fighting which has been going on in the demili- tarised zone on the borders of the two countries. As...

Priceless Health

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When the Prime Minister said at the week-end that the pro- posed charges for teeth and spectacles under the health scheme raised no question of principle he was speaking the...

A Neo-Nazi Victory

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That the limited success secured by the neo-Nazi Socialist Reich Party, led by the former associate of Hitler, Otto Remer, in the Lower Saxony elections this week should have...

Marking Time at Strasbourg

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It has already been sufficiently firmly established that the Council of Europe should not try to run before it can walk. If it had not been, then the quiet way in which the...

Page 3

More Taxes—Less Freedom

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In Tuesday's debate on the second reading of the Finance Bill the Chancellor of the Exchequer baldly described Clause 32 of that Bill as a measure directed towards stopping the...

A Plea for Puritanism Among the varied proceedings of the

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Congregational Union at its meetings in London this week publicity has been given in particular to the demand by the Secretary of the Union, Dr. Leslie Cooke, for what he called...

AT WESTMINSTER .

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p ARLIAMENT has approached the Whitsuntide recess' floodlit without and riven by discord within. To be exact. one is thinking of the House of Commons, for the House of Lords...

Page 4

PRESSURE ON CHINA

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HE Korean War is being prosecuted at Washington and Westminster, and in a less degree at Lake Success, as well as around the 38th Parallel. Around the Parallel, Indeed, there is...

Page 5

The fact that last week I said that Charles Wesley

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died in 1688 (which would have been surprising, since it was a good many years before he was born) has not gone entirely unnoticed. How this singular statement emanated from my...

* * * * The once persistent question. "Are we

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down-hearted?" seems to have dropped, temporarily at least, out of the English- man's vocabulary. But it has not necessarily become irrelevant. An observant and experienced...

A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK I T is a pity that Mr. Churchill

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has postponed—if not cancelled—his visit to the United States. The reason he has given, the precarious condition of the Government here and the possibility of its fall, is...

Mr. Morrison seems to have been in a singularly peevish

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mood on Wednesday. After he had answered a number of interroga- tions on Festival of Britain food prices, Mr. Eden's question whether some other Minister than the Foreign...

The Army must have training-grounds incontestably—bul always somewhere else. Let

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it want a part of Dartmoor. The response is certain. Yes, of course, a training-ground is essen-' tial ; no one would question that ; but with the whole of the United Kingdom...

What is the most entertaining chapter in the Bible (not

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that the Bible exists for entertainment)? There may be a stronger candidate than the seventh chapter of Proverbs, but if so I shall

The short but very interesting debate in the House of

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Lords last week on the Fraudulent Mediums Bill was reported in the Press as adequately as present conditions permit, which does not mean adequately in any normal - sense. The...

Page 6

MacArthur Prosecutes

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By ROBERT WA1THMAN Washington HE Defence is now putting its case ; and any estimate of the chances of conviction or acquittal can be no ntore than a guess. What is beyond much...

Page 7

On Show for the Festival

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li) DEREK HUDSON I S it not surprising, in this year of exhibitions, that so little attention seems to have been paid to what Mr. Stephen Potter might term Visitorship? I mean...

Page 8

Joi nt nt Control in Germany

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By ERNST FRIEDLAENDER Hamburg A PIM.. 1951, will stand out as an epoch-making month in the history of post-war German legislation. The highly controversial'...

Page 9

A Decade of Jets

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By PETER KING T EN years ago, on May 15th. 1941, the first successful flight of a jet-propelled aircraft was made from Cranwell Aerodrome. The aircraft was known as the E28/39...

Page 10

Siam Faces West

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'By ANGELA LEGG I T is a little over a year since Siam recognised the Bao Dai regime in Vietnam and set her face towards the West. It was a bold moVe for a small Asian Power,...

Page 11

UNDERGRADUATE PAGE

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Englishman in Exile By J. B. BROADBENT (University of Edinburgh) T HE exiled Scot is a bit of a bore, but we hear less of the exiled Englishman. Nowhere can be home to the Scot...

Page 12

MARGINAL COMMENT

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By HAROLD NICOLSON I T has been remarked that the opinion of a person visiting a place for the first time is often of more value than that of the oldest inhabitant. The latter...

Page 13

CONTEMPORARY ARTS

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THEATRE "Three Sisters." By Anton Chekhov. (Aldwych.) WHAT at first seemed "so casual, inconclusive, and occupied with trifles" reveals itself in the light of understanding as...

BALLET

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Markova and Dolin Festival Ballet Company. (Stoll Theatre.) MARKOVA and Dolin have returned to the Stoll Theatre with their Festival Ballet for a season planned to last a couple...

CINEMA

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THE amount of suspense in The Scarf is not great because there is really never any doubt that the unfortunate hero (Mr. John Ireland) has not committed the crime for which he...

Page 14

MUSIC

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AT last we have a new concert-hall. I have hitherto attended only one concert there, and this suggested that there were perhaps grounds for some of the many criticisms launched...

ART

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UNRUFFLED by all the magnetic disturbances of Festival year, sheets bellied out by the trade winds, the Royal Academy sails happily' into its 183rd summer exhibition along...

Page 15

"MO spectator," Iliap 10th, 1851

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THE CANTERBURY COLONISTS OF 1851 THE founders of the Canterbury Settlement proceed steadily with their work. Their first body of colonists sailed in September last, and news of...

A prize of £5, which may be divided, is offered

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for a (non.: scurrilous) analysis of the mental processes which led Janus to state mendaciously last week that Charles Wesley died in 1688. Limit 200 words. Entries must be...

SPECTATOR COMPETITION No. 62 Report by D. R. Pcddy

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It was unfortunate for the newsprint-starved British Press that the news of General MacArthur's dismissal and the discovery of the Stone of Scone coincided with the reporting of...

Page 16

Parish Magazines

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SIR, —May I say how much I appreciate the sections of the Spectator which deal with "Reviews of the Week" and "Contemporary Arts"? It is no small compensation for having almost...

Capital Punishment

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SIR,--it is indeed true, as Mr. Gold says, that " if this [the decline in the murder-rate] were arrested through a change in the punishment factor (the other factors being...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

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The New Feminism SIR.-I unfortunately missed Honor Croome's review of The Art of Being a Woman, but there are some points in Mrs. Henrey's letter which require further comment....

SIR, - IS not Mrs. Henrey a bit dismally restrictive in her

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definitions of femininity and feminine functions and interests ? Fashion and make-up, cookery, sewing, knitting, romance and counting linen ? Is she as ruthless with men ? I...

Page 18

Village Amenities

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Those who lament that we are far more dependent upon others for our amusements than our ancestors were might find a little consolation from the study of village-life in some of...

In the Garden

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There is one pleasing result of spring's late start. Some flowers are now appearing at their normal time, but others, due several weeks ago. are just at their best, and so there...

COUNTRY LIFE

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UNTIL mid-May is well past the crop Is never safe. From ti. point of view therefore, unsettled weather is an advantage. So we are glad to welcome "Folkestone ladies" from our...

A Changing Scene The view I command from my windows

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changes from Moment to moment. At one time the air is. full of house-martins ; then later on none are to be seen. On the ground at one time the garden seems to be full of...

Guidance at Ebbw Vale

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SIR,—Comment on Janus—in his final paragraph in the Spectator of May 4th—is certainly not impossible ; but for my part it is comment of regret and surprise that he should so...

A Strange Piece of Country

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The other evening a friend and I ascended the steep western slope of our valley. A strange new world opens out at the top on a well- wooded uninhabited plateau, four hundred...

Prices in France

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was much interested in Dr. Glyn- Daniel's article, Prices in France. Having just returned from a Mciforing holiday in France, I And myself in complete agreement with hint: '...

Page 20

Single-Seater Fighter

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PIERRE CLOSTERMANN was a single-seater fighter pilot ; but the day of the single-seater fighter seems to be drawing to a close. The supremacy of the light, fast and handy...

Reviews of the Week

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A Life-Size Shakespeare Shakespeare of London. By Marchette Chute. k'Necker and War- burg. ifs.) $hakespeare Survey 4. Edited by Allardyce Nicoll. (Cambridge University Press....

Page 22

The Russian Problem

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THESE two books have each a contribution to make, though greatly differing in degree, to our study of the Russian problem. Neither is affected by the "visa-consciousness" which...

Root and Branch

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A GROUP of collaborators, formerly of the Haldane Society and now of the Society of Labour Lawyers, here range over the whole field of English law and offer a blue-print of the...

Page 24

Teaching as an Art

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The Schoolmaster. By Aubrey de Selincourt. (John Lehmann. Si. 6d.) THERE are many books, often more useful than pleasurable, about the methodology of teaching. About teaching as...

The Philosophy of Godwin

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William Godwin: A Study in Liberalism. Li) Da% id I ( Urn and Urnyin. us. 6d.) PEOPLE commonly think of William Godwin as a Romantic political philosopher, especially if they...

Page 26

EiWY certainly, malice probably, and as likely as not all

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unclurit- ableness pursue the really successful, the really popular writer. Yet there is, heaven knows, nothing censurable in success and nothing inherently inartistic in the,...

Kailyarders

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THE best criticism is not written by pitsOns who dislike their subject, and Mr. Blake was not perhaps the ideal choice for a work on Barrie and the Kailyarders, both of whom he...

Page 28

Shorter Notices

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rhe History of Capital Punishment. By Tins long book falls into two parts some- . what carelessly mixed. One is a full and able survey of capital punishment as now inflicted in...

,MR. HARROD has collected some of the topical articles which

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he wrote between the Autumn of 1947 and the summer of 1950. Most of them are concerned with the economic landmarks of that period—Bud- gets, Economic Surveys, white papers and...

Page 29

FINANCE AND INVESTMENT

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By CUSTOS APART from occasional pauses for a breather, the market has continued to move into new high ground. Since Budget Day the average rise in industrial equities has been...

Page 30

SOLUTION TO CROSSWORD No. 623

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THE " SPECTATOR " CROSSWORD No. 625

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[A Book Token for one guinea will be awarded to the sender of the first correct solution of this 'Leek', crossword to be opened after noon on Tuesday week, May 22nd. Envelopes...