the negotiations conducted by M. Potemkin, the Vice-Com- missar for Foreign Affairs, in the course of his journey to Ankara, Bucarest, Sofia and Warsaw, whence he returned to...

T HE negotiations with Russia are being conducted behind a veil, and both Soviet perversity and British infirmity of purpose have been charged with the unfortunate delay in...

of weakness in saying, " is not worth a war." The Times has admittedly brought itself under suspicion in such matters, but in this particular case it was discussing the...

fortu- nately been avoided, largely owing to the statesmanlike attitude adopted both by the Croat leader, Dr. Matchek, and the Regent, Prince Paul, who has made a personal...

Ministers of the three Scandinavian States—Norway, Denmark, Sweden— and Finland issued a joint declaration refusing Herr Hitler's offer of a non-aggression pact. The declaration...

Pope broadcast a message which vividly expressed the desire for peace which animates all the peoples, if not all the Governments, of Europe. These words have been backed up by...

less over- shadowed by foreign policy the establishment of holidays with pay would be recognised as an innovation of first-rate importance in the field of industry. It is over...

to produce a further improvement in the employ- ment and unemployment figures for April. Employment rose by ro8,000 to 12,511,000, an increase of 270,000 since April last year ;...

years, chiefly because of the growing tendency of Government Departments to draw them in so restricted a form. The all-night sitting on Monday arose out of a money resolution,...

the Conscription debate, said, in so many words, that without Russia's aid disaster for us was inevitable. His support for the Bill was, of course, welcomed ; but there is...

the House of Commons about the directorships held by the Lord President of the Council, Lord Runciman. The rule that Cabinet Ministers should not hold directorships has been...

not until Wednesday that the House was given any information on the subject which, in spite of the importance of the Defence debates, has interested them most in the last few...

colleagues, Mr. Robert Mackay, " the Printer of The Spectator," died last Saturday, four days before his 65th birthday, after a lifetime spent in the service of the paper, which...

as the present there is something unreal about the complaints heard nowadays about " alarming news." Most of the news is a plain record of facts giving good grounds for alarm....

T military alliance which the Foreign Ministers of Germany and Italy concluded at Milan on Sunday has provoked little emotion except in the countries directly concerned. It has...

T HIS week London has the honour of entertaining a visitor who is not only America's greatest architect but one of the representative men of his time. Yet his name will be...

I T is obviously absurd to talk of the B.B.C. " banning " the Duke of Windsor's broadcast from Verdun on Monday. If the Duke had suddenly announced his desire to broad- cast to...

but also a dangerous, institution. That was rather disturbingly exemplified on Friday of last week when, in the course of interrogations about Russia, Mr. Gallacher asked the...

and they do not invariably realise that the impression they create is a matter of some import- ance. Here for example, is a paragraph from a recent private letter from a...

fairness to acknowledge. Through German sources we learn much which we should otherwise have hardly even sus- pected about our own country. My own immediate debt is to the...

of the convoy system in the Great War, had just died as Vice-Admiral Sir Reginald Henderson, K.C.B. That needs correction. I find that about a month before his death he was...

they reached me, not claiming to be able to vouch for their veracity, is in a quite incredibly exalte mood, more firmly convinced than ever that Great Britain will in no...

By MAJOR B. T. REYNOLDS T HE pressure of events is forcing the pace of military development in this country in a way that makes the soldier feel slightly giddy. At the...

By ERWIN D. CAN RAM B Y the sudden transfer of the American Fleet to the Pacific, the United States accepted more dearly and more vigorously than for years past a large share...

H ERE in Moscow it is rather curious to watch the London newspapers and radio try to make the best of Anglo- Soviet negotiations generally and the fall of Litvinov in par-...

O FFICIAL Germany today smiles at the world with a sense of satisfaction. The new German-Italian political and military pact has just been initialled, there is a feeling that it...

By MAX BELOFF T HE verdict of history "—a phrase for politicians and leader-writers. For the well-bred professional his- torian, a ridiculous conceit. For the sixth-form...

By ALISTAIR COOKE T O the accompaniment of waving flags and bowing diplomats, speeches, salutes and the dancing of forty national troupes ; to the sound of the noble trombones...

By SEAN O'FAOLAIN I N the sales ring there is no class-distinction. When the mares and the geldings break in and out of the ring of buyers and watchers—in from the stables,...

FRANCE ACROSS THE SEA By D W. BROGAN "D ON'T you think that we have made a success of it? A century ago there was nothing, nothing, swamp and desert." The French business man...

which separates those who believe in appeasement from those who believe in the policy of collective resistance. Each side ardently desires the same object, namely the avoidance...

doc- trine of appeasement changes its formula in condonation of each new aggression. When Herr Hitler seized the Rhine- land, Austria and the Sudetenland, we were told by the...

divergence of method? I see two fundamental differences ; first, a differ- ent interpretation of Herr Hitler's mentality and intentions ; secondly, a different conception of the...

these sombre falsities and to feel the breeze of England fresh upon one's cheek. I sailed down, that sun-splashed afternoon, from Southampton to Portsmouth. Here at least was...

Herr Hitler possesses sufficient self-control to avoid an unsuccessful war. But it is not possible to contend that a successful war does not appear to him as a delight far...

By HAROLD NICOLSON I the Sunday Times this week there appeared a short 1 but foolish article from the pen of Monsieur Pierre Etienne Flandin—at one time a regrettable, but now...

their treatment of the home front. The public are not being informed of the extent or the imminence of our pre- sent danger. In their desire " not to alarm the country," or to...

" The Oklahoma Kid." At Warner's.—" The Lone Ranger." At Gaumont News, Shaftesbury Avenue.—" Tall Spin." At the New Gallery. I OPEN the only Western I have at hand, and come...

OPERA Mozart and Verdi Bum Mozart and Verdi have been commonly regarded as intuitive composers, who without taking thought poured out their souls in song, the one in numbers...

Official Portraiture Tire vast majority of exhibits in any exhibition of the Royal Academy are painted to suit the taste of the artist as a private person and intended to...

[Von einem deutschen Korrespondenten] ADOLF HITLER soli Vegetarier sein. Falls er es ist, so diirfte ffir ihn der Vegetarier eine Art kategorischer Komparativ zum einfachen oder...

A more specialistic group than the mere tourist or holiday- maker is up in arms. The fishermen are alarmed ; and they are a valuable company, not because they catch trout, but...

A " Kindred Point " Any lover of the English landscape or of its birds is advised to visit Baggy Point in North Devon, which has just been given by two generous ladies to the...

It remains to secure for the nation that yet finer bit of coast by St. David's Head, in Pembrokeshire. When secured, as I must believe it will be, it will form the nucleus of a...

What is a garden city? I drove last week through some houses that were given the name, and they seemed to me to constitute a particularly good specimen of riband development. It...

England. The " Friends of the Lakes " (whose friendship is very jealous) are not a little disturbed by the emulsification, so to say, of one, at any rate, of the streams that...

Students of birds have become so ardent that the minutest point is not omitted. Here are two examples of the thorough- ness of observation. Thorburn, that most faithful of...

In the orchard counties a good many experiments are being made by private growers, as well as at the research stations, in regard to fruit-tree pests. One very expert...

SIR,—Although I landed at Harwich only three months ago, and thus being a refugee who certainly does not know much about England and her people, I venture to refer to Mr....

Mr. Reed's letter on the subject of immigrants to this country and his suggestion that they should be compelled to serve in the armed forces? We already know from Mr. Reed's...

[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...

endorse Mr. Douglas Reed's letter. I am afraid I still regard the case for wholesale refugee- immigration to be non-proven. However, as you maintain that the immigrants will...

Sta,—Having for some years been thrown into constant contact with British diplomatic officials, I read with profound interest and hearty concurrence the two articles on the...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR, — May another traveller add a line to the true and timely article which appeared under this title in your April 28th issue? Like the...

B e doyere says that when he proposed we should give Germany political control of some of the terri- tories in which raw materials are found he "was not thinking specifically of...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—M. de la Bedoyere, when his broad statements are criticised in detail, pushes the discussion back into vague pro- positions. I suggest that...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—In a letter in The Spectator of April 28th I accused official Zionism of indifference to the future of the Arab small cultivator displaced...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—Mr. Worsnop, far outdoing in scientific caution the Medical Research Council, to whose report he refers, dis- misses Mr. R. M. Moore's...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—On March 4th, a British financier visiting Norway informed an Oslo banker, quite definitely, of the German intention to occupy...

Boutelleau on Conscription interests me greatly, since I myself will be called up for service in two years' time. And if I thought that a correct impression of conscription was...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—Conscription appears to be accepted by the vast majority of the population; and this is so much to the good. But there is a rift in the...

Dictatorship in Newfoundland (Sir John Hope Simpson) 811 Indian Pilgrimage (F. Yeats-Brown) 812 Daughters of Queen Victoria (Christopher Hobhouse)... 813 Seventeenth Century...

Indian Pilgrimage. By Ranjee G. Shahani. (Michael Joseph. 15s.) MR. EDWARD GARNETT told Dr. Shahani that " an ounce of truth is worth a gallon of gush." The latter has taken...

Queen Victoria's daughters even approached to her in force of character and personality_ Though their father was a man of great distinction, all five of the daughters (two of...

MR. MACLYSAGHT'S book is not merely another contribution to the already overcharged list of works on social, life in the seventeenth century. His subject is unusual, his...

The Real Robinson Crusoe : Being the Life and Surprising Strange Adventures of Alexander Selkirk of Largo, Fife. By R. L. Megroz. (Cresset Press. 128. 6d.) Ma. R. L. MEGRoz's...

English Captain. By Tom Wintringham. (Faber. us. 6d.) From Spanish Trenches. Edited by Marcel Acier. (Cresset Press. 3s. 6d.) Boni these books are behind the times. The first...

" WHY," asks the author of this admirable book, " is it so hard to write a dull life of, say, Byron, and so easy to write a dull one of Burns? "—and this notwithstanding Burns's...

Finnegans Wake. By James Joyce. (Faber and Faber. 25s.) REALLY all a reviewer without a month's leisure can do is to describe externals : Finnegans Wake is 628 pages long, it is...

By KATE O'BRIEN Beware of Pity is a novel of unusual interest and merit. In a foreword its author explains how recently in Vienna he met an Austrian officer who had covered...

First of all it should be explained that Ride to Battle (Iles, its. 6d.) has plenty of ride in it, but no battle. But Miss Stevenson felt, as she rode through the border country...

After more than thirty years in the East End of London Sir Reginald Kennedy-Cox has written a book (Michael Joseph, ins. 6d.) in which quietly, and with little dogmatism, he...

The Memoirs of Admiral Sir Lewis Bayly - For the President of the United States to write a more than formal Foreword to a British admiral's memoirs there is surely no precedent,...

PEACE WITH GANGSTERS? By George Glasgow Mr. Glasgow has been for many years a contributor to the Observer and the Contemporary Review on international affairs, and Peace with...

Alfred Wegener, who led the German expedition to Green- land of 1930-31, died on a sledge journey over the ice-cap, but the expedition completed its work of measuring the...

The New Tax Although at first glance the new car-taxes seem calcu- lated to defeat. their own object and diminish rather than increase the revenue, I do not believe that they...

By CUSTOS MARKETS have made so many attempts at recovery in recent months, only to run into the brick wall of European politics, that one feels hesitant about even whispering...

It is always good to see a bold policy of price reduction bearing fruit, especially when it is put through in bad times. When Mr. Edward Wilshaw, the Cable and Wireless chair-...

If I am right in thinking that the fall in gilt-edged has now been effectively halted, the present should be an oppor- tune time to examine the fixed-interest group as a whole...

THE LICENSES AND GENERAL INSURANCE COMPANY A YEAR OF PROGRESS PRESIDING at the forty-ninth ordinary general meeting of The Licenses and General Insurance Company held in...

in the sense that they are not paying good dividends—they most certainly are—but from the standpoint of capital value. At the moment investment and speculative fashion has swung...

DIVIDEND OF 5 PER CENT. THE twenty-ninth ordinary general meeting of the Bikam Rubber Estate, Limited, was held on May loth at t9 Fenchurch Street, E.C. Mr. H. Eric Miller...

It is as well in these days of defeatist talk about the Empire that we should be reminded of our solid achievements. A glance at the record of the Calcutta Electric Supply...

IMPERIAL CHEMICAL INDUSTRIES DIFFICULT TRADING CONDITIONS COMPETITION IN OVERSEAS MARKETS IMPORTANCE OF NYLON LORD McGOWAN'S REVIEW THE twelfth annual general meeting of...

BRITISH STEEL PRODUCTION IF evidence be needed that a high level of industrial activity is being maintained, notwithstanding share market inactivity, it is provided by the steel...

THE ninetieth ordinary general meeting of the Gresham Life Assurance Society, Limited, was held, on the 4th instant, at the head office of the society, 188-190 Fleet Street,...

MID-EUROPEAN CORPORATION MR. NORMAN HOLDEN ON GENERAL CONDITIONS THE fifteenth annual ordinary general meeting of the Mid- European Corporation, Limited, was held on May 9th...

proprietors, have made arrangements to finance their capital requirements up to an amount of £2,000,000. Mr. Simon Marks, in making that announcement at the meeting on Tuesday,...

After a year of great difficulties the North British and Mercantile Insurance Company ended its year with figures which must have been gratifying to the members. Lord Wakefield...

CABLE AND WIRELESS, LIMITED (The Operating Company) FOUR MAJOR STEPS IN 12 MONTHS MR. EDWARD WILSHAW'S REVIEW THE tenth ordinary general meeting of Cable and Wireless,...

Mr. Norman Holden, chairman of the Mid-European Corporation, is to be congratulated on speaking his mind. It is not everybody's mind, but it is not everybody who is confronted...

In June last year Reckitt and Sons, the soap and polish manufacturers, and J. and J. Colman, the mustard and starch firm, pooled their businesses in the new firm of Reckitt and...

MR. SIMON MARKS REVIEWS THE PROGRESS OF THE BUSINESS IMPROVED VALUES IN MERCHANDISE 94 PER CENT. OF MANUFACTURED GOODS BRITISH MADE CO-OPERATION WITH SUPPLIERS CAREERS OPEN TO...

The Guardian Assurance Company's quinquennial valuation falls due at the end of this year, and at the meeting on Monday Colonel Lionel H. Hanbury warned policyholders that the...

Sir Malcolm Robertson, the chairman of Spillers, assured the shareholders at Saturday's meeting that the company, in common with the other millers who were co-operating with the...

the last few weeks has been the development of a sudden boom in the raw sugar market. Cuban raw sugar rose from 6s. 61d. per cwt. at the beginning of April to 8s. 41-cl. last...

SPILLERS, LIMITED THE CHAIRMAN'S REPORT THE Right Honourable Sir Malcolm A. Robertson, chairman of Spillers, Limited, presiding at the annual general meeting of the company on...

Rolls-Royce, now perhaps more famous as the makers of aeroplane engines than as motor-car manufacturers, have pro- duced a remarkably good result for 1938. The net profit,...

Few insurance company chairmen have this year been in the fortunate position in which Mr. W. B. L. Barrington found himself last week. He reported that the Gresham Life...

LORD MESTON (Chairman of the Corporation) presiding on May 8th at the annual meeting of the Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation, Limited, said that the sales of current in 1938...

ALLIANCE ASSURANCE SATISFACTORY RESULTS THE annual general Court of the Alliance Assurance Company, Limited, was held on May ioth at the Head Office, London, E.C. Mr. Lionel...

NORTH BRITISH AND MERCANTILE INSURANCE COMPANY LORD WAKEFIELD'S SPEECH THE one hundred and twenty-ninth annual general meeting of the North British and Mercantile Insurance...

The full accounts of Stewarts and Lloyds, the steel tube manufacturers, show that profits have again sharply advanced. The result is highly creditable in that it covers the year...

companies in 1938 was distinctly uneven, but Alliance Assurance is among the most fortunate. Mr. Lionel N. de Rothschild announced at Wednesday's meeting that the year's new...

of Bikam Rubber Estates on Wednesday, expressed his continued faith in the use of rubber as road surfacing material. He claimed that Lombard Street in the City of London and the...

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

The winner of Crossword No. 9 is Mr. Ernest Carr, 14 Beaumont Road, Purley, Surrey.