12 MAY 1950

Page 1

A Loan for Burma

The Spectator

The loan of £3,750,000 to Burma, which the House of Commons approved—grudgingly, as far as the Opposition was concerned— on Tuesday represents rather more than half of a joint...

RAILWAYS IN THE DARK

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But even if the rank growth of executives and other central authorities could be cut away, the problem of making the railways pay would still remain. The criticisms produced by...

Help for the Emperor

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Once the Americans had recognised the regime of the Emperor Bao Dai in Viet Nam, it was difficult for them to reject the principle of providing him with tangible aid in the war...

Page 2

Students of Liberals

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Mr. Churchill's committee of two former Cabinet Ministers, a former Chief Whip, a son-in-law and a peer " to examine any possibilities which may exist of improving the relations...

Prisoners in Russia

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It is significant that the Tass Agency's statement that all German prisoners have been repatriated froni Russia, which is another way of saying that no more prisoners will be...

Light on the Docks

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Undoubtedly an important factor in the public's attitude to the recurrent strikes at the London Docks has been exasperation arising from ignorance And intensified by official...

The Brockway-Beaverbrook Axis

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Talk of a Government-guaranteed minimum wage grows steadily. Mr. Fenner Brockway introduced it in the House of Commons on. Monday with as strange a mixture of social-reformism...

Page 3

AT WESTMINSTER

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M R. CHURCHILL is attending the House of Commons more frequently than he did in the last Parliament, and the days are lighter and livelier in consequence. That follows as the...

Films for Children

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Children have notoriously bad taste, and enjoy many things, such as liquorice, walking in the gutter and loud noises, which their elders and betters abhor. For the most part,...

Mr. Dalton's Bonfire

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The Working Party on Building which published its report last week was obviously on safe ground when it recommended a reduction of the vexatious controls which, far from...

Page 4

M. SCHUMAN'S LEAD „

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T HE decisions we make in the next few months," said President Truman on Monday, " will determine whether there is to be a third world war." Some of those decisions are in...

Page 5

A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK A FEW days before the opening of the

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vitally important talks of the Foreign Ministers in London, Mr. Walter Lippmann has contributed to the Washington Post, and no doubt to other American papers, a forcible...

Last year the Winchester Reading Prize at Cambridge was thrown

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open for the first time to women, they having just become full members of the University. It was won by a Girtonian. This year women competed again : the prize went to a...

* * * *

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When luxury liners came back on to the North Atlantic they were first taken for rare and shining symbols of the return of peace. Now they are becoming an accepted part of the...

The Dean of Canterbury, in pursuit of his less ecclesiastical

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activities, told a Canadian audience on Tuesday (according to the Daily Herald) that the Archbishop of Canterbury was " illiterate about his own clergy and profoundly ignorant...

I have been sent from South Africa a copy of

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a Republican con- stitution for South Africa published in 1942 " with the permission and on the authority " of the Nationalist leader, Dr. Malan, today President of the Union of...

Mr. Douglas Jay is not, to put it politely, the

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happiest of the Government's platform speakers, and his remarks at the National Savings Assembly at Folkestone last week can hardly be ranked among his happiest efforts. " The...

How restaurants generally are reacting to the removal of the

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5s. limit on meals 1 have not discovered from personal experience, but the fact that the shares of both hotels and restaurants have risen as a result of the Minister's action...

Page 6

What the Scots Want

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By SIR WILLIAM Y. DARLING, M.P. T HERE is anxiety and apprehension in the minds of the English as to what the Scots want. This faithful partner of theirs who has been their...

Page 7

Turkey Goes to the Polls

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By LORD KINROSS p ARLIAMENTARY elections throughout Turkey this week- end will mark a milestone in the history of Ataturk's republic. For they will be free as never before. A...

Page 8

American Notes

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By D. W. BROGAN I T was raining in New York—and that was news. We all know that an island Is a piece of land entirely surrounded by water, and Manhattan is still an island....

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Maypoles and Puritans

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By LESLIE HOTSON W HEN Chaucer's restless spring comes round, I always long to go on pilgrimage in search of Shakespeare's - England ; and experience invariably turns my steps...

Page 10

The Old Oak

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By W. M. NEWMAN NE can grope back into the past by many routes, and those are safest which keep one's feet most firmly on the ground. Reasoning from the book may be right if the...

Page 11

UNDERGRADUATE PAGE

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Where Do We Go? By PETER TOWNSEND (St. John's College, Cambridge) O NE of the most dangerous, and yet most attractive, characteristics of young British people in the years...

Page 12

MARGINAL COMMENT

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By HAROLD NICOLSON T HERE come moments, especially when I have retired for a while from the multitudinous lure of London—retired for a space of fourteen days to work quietly...

Page 13

CINEMA

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"The Dividing Line." (Carlton.)•■■•" Ambush." (Empire.) AMERICA has never hesitated to show itself in an unbecoming light, and of late its films have exposed, with almost...

CONTEMPORARY ARTS

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THEATRE "The Cocktail Party." By T. S. Eliot (New.) Tins much-discussed play has been produced in Edinbbrgh, in Brighton and in New York, has been published in book form and...

BALLET

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Balabille." (Covent Garden.) MERE can be no two opinions as to whether or not M. Roland Petit is a man of the theatre. But the question: " What type of theatre ? " is not so...

Page 14

MUSIC

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SADLER'S WELLS have done an excellent thing in reviving Vaughan Williams' Hugh the Drover, probably the only English opera written between The Beggars' Opera and Peter Grimes to...

EXHIBITION

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London International Stamp Exhibition. (Grosvenor House.) PHILATELISTS, like bibliographers, thrive on printers' errors ; and for them half the fun of this stupendous exhibition...

Page 15

SPECTATOR COMPETITION No. 17

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Report by Hilary Brett - Smith The following have been tried out for the Third Programme. A prize of f5 was offered for extracts (not more than 200 words) from the Talks...

SPECTATOR COMPETITION No. 19

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Set by Mervyn Horder A journey up Regent Street at lunch-time these days, either on foot or in a vehicle, is full of incident, bizarre, colourful, hazardous —the very stuff of...

Page 16

The Servant Problem SIR,—In the Spectator of March 24th, Marghanita

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Laski discussed the need for competent domestic help for the middle-class professional woman with children. In that paragraph in which Miss Laski refers to the National...

SIR,—In your issue of April 28th, Mr. Harry Moore remarks

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that Professor Bowra does not include Dr. Edith Sitwell among the poets mentioned in his Heritage of Symbolism. It seems worth while pointing out that, after the appearance of...

SIR,—I am more than ever convinced by your article on

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Pastor Niemoller that too much reliance has been placed on this man. He did not quarrel with Hitler over the appalling brutalities but solely over the question of the State...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

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Featherbed Farmers SIR,—Much muddled uninformed thinking exists regarding farm profits. Some facts need stating. Wye College statistical department regularly collects the...

The Flying Sauceboat

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Sta.—Mr. Harry T. Moore wrote a very good-humoured letter. At the same time, to paraphrase a famous song: " We don't want any more, Mr. Moore." If he and your correspondent from...

Pastor Niem011er's Germany SIR,—Mr. Henry Colmar's article, Pastor Niemiiller's . Role,

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is of great if rather ominous interest. When considering the unification of Germany is it not well to remember that a " unified Germany " is a modern and a largely artificial...

Dun and Dum

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Stn,—Surely Janus is looking for something which is unlikely to exist when he expects some significance in spelling in this part of the world. I live in a house called Benreoch,...

Page 18

In the Donbas

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SIR, —The article entitled In the Donbas, by Jean Rounault, can only be described as sheer nonsense. The writer tries to suggest that the Soviet people are not solidly behind...

In Defence of the Dean

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SIR,—A more disgraceful paragraph can scarcely have appeared in the Spectator than that in which you attacked the Dean of Canterbury. Malice and calumny could scarcely go...

Marx on Russian Imperialism

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SIR,—The whole world is at the present moment confronted with the policy of ruthless Russiaexpansionism and annexations. This resembles very remarkably the " Ilussian projects...

Russia's Pre-War Foreign Policy

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SIR, Miss Elizabeth Wiskemann's letter in your issue of April 28th raises an interesting question. Like her, I wish I knew the answer. It is certainly true that by January,...

Page 20

Cup Final

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SIR.—Mr. Mallalieu's youthful imagination of what happened in the good old days has been running away with him. Marylebone Station was not opened till 1897, when the old...

In the Garden Catalogues may be very attractive things in

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themselves. One of the best is the two-shilling catalogue issued by the Cambridge University Press of the flower-books exhibited by the National Book League, and organised by...

Arabs and the West

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SIR,--1 venture to think that, after the letters from Professor Gibb and Mr. Hillelson, the views of an Arab will not be out of place in your columns. No reasonable Arab ever...

The Covenanters

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SIR,—The seemingly high proportion of Covenant-signatories to Cale- donians is partly explained by the fact that the organisers took consider- able pains, including the...

Maytime Threats

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From Chaucer to our latest Poet Laureate May has been more generally praised for its spring and summer charms than any month ; but the chief attribute of its opening fortnight...

Lea and Gade The most famous trout-streams belong to the

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West and some South and Midland shires ; but the fisherman's case is being fought out most saliently and definitely in Hertfordshire. The best known of its streams, thanks in...

COUNTRY LIFE

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WAR seems to bring out some of the most gentle and pleasing of English characteristics. Within a German prison camp Mr. John Buxton, organising his companions (sancta cohors...

"Vie ,pectator," Aar 11111, 1850

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ROYAL ACADEMY: STORY PICTURES FOR some years the distinguishing power of English art, beyond the province of landscape-painting, has shown itself in the treatment of what we...

Page 21

BOOKS AND WRITERS

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W HEN I write about a new novel by Miss Rose Macaulay I hope I shall be forgiven—by Miss Macaulay, among others—if I take a glance backwards in time. For Miss Macaulay belongs...

Page 22

Les Neiges d'Antan

The Spectator

THIS collection of essays and reminiscences is much better than its unfortunate title would suggest. A wide range of American writers has been called on to describe a wide range...

Reviews of the Week

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Ambassador to Greece QuR Ambassador to Greece in 1943 - 46, a much - maligned man, writes with imperturbable patience. Another, with lips at last un- sealed, would have...

Page 23

An Eton Character

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William Cory. By Faith Compton Mackenzie. (Constable. 2 WILLIAM JOHNSON, afterwards Cory, whom Herbert Paul considered as the most remarkable man he had ever met, is today...

Page 24

The Tenth Muse -

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The Gardens of Hampton Court. By Mollie Sands. Illustrated. (Evans. 2 I S.) THIS may not be the majesty of history, here unrolling itself, but why should Clio not be allowed a...

Page 26

Flaubert's Letters

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Gustave Flaubert : Letters. Edited by Richard Rumbold and trans- lated by J. M. Cohen. (Weidenfeld and Nicolson. as. 6c1.) I no not know why Flaubert's letters have never...

The Pastoral Dream

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England's Helicon. Edited by Hugh Macdonald. The Muses Library. (Routledge & Kegan Paul. 8s. 6d.) THIS Elizabethan anthology of pastoral lyrics was collected in 1600 from the...

Page 28

A Chilled Age

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MUSING near Aquapendente in 1837, Wordsworth sadly , observed: " The Stream Has to our generation brought and brings Innumerable gains ; yet we, who now • Walk in the light of...

Siaccess Without Security

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The Story of an Orchestra. By Boyd Neel. (Vox Mundi. los. 6d.) THIS is a remarkable success story, but told with such personal modesty and such exclusively communal...

Page 30

Fiction

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Lucia. By Gwenda Hollander. (Macdonald. 8s. 6d.) Brass Farthing. By Rupert Croft-Cooke. (Werner Laurie. 9s. 6d.) MR. ROBERT GRAVES seems to me far and away our best writer of...

SHORTER NOTICE

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As Cooks Go, By Elizabeth Jordan. (Faber. los. 6d.) THIS is the autobiography of a young married woman with two children who supported them and herself by going out as a cook....

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FINANCE AND INVESTMENT

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By CUSTOS Now that the Budget groundswell, which never reached impressive proportions, has subsided the City is attempting once more to appraise - the investment outlook. I...

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SOLUTION TO CROSSWORD No. 579 SOLUTION ON MAY 26

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The winner of Crossword No. 579 is Mac HARVIE, Bemersyde, 3 Victoria Drive, 1' roon, Ayrshire.

THE "SPECTATOR " CROSSWORD No. 581 [A Book Token f or

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one g uinea will be awarded to the sender of the fi rst correct solution noon on Tuesday of this week's crossword to be opened alter uesday week, May 23rd. Envelopes must be...