13 JANUARY 1961

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SWIFT AND STRONG

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H ERE we are, the Prime Minister said six months ago, and the question we have to ask ourselves is, where do we go from here? We have to give the answer in a spirit neither of...

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The Spectator

No. 6916. Established 1828 FRIDAY, JANUARY 13, 1961

-- Portrait of the Week IN FRANCE, on di: old; in

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the Congo, non; in Belgium, peut4tre; in Laos, all three; at "home, nothing. IN THE REFERENDUM 011 the future of Algeria, Pre- sident de Gaulle's policy, whatever that might...

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The Customers Can Wait

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o hell with the customers! We've got a strike I to win, and they can wait till we've won it.' The sentiment is not without precedent. What made it remarkable in the airport...

Bloody Noses on the Right

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From DARSIE GILLIE W HAT an election means is hard enough to tell, but a referendum can be an even greater puzzle. A shoemaker, for instance, went to the polls on Sunday to...

Return of the Prodigal?

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TF anybody had suggested ten years ago that _lithe Republic of Ireland might be induced to rejoin the Commonwealth he would have been laughed at, or dismissed as a crank. Even...

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The Last Colonies

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From PETER MICHAELS OCEANIA O NLY in one part of the world—excluding the Communist countries — is the end of im- perialism not immediately in sight : the Pacific. There, six...

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On with the Show

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From RICHARD H. ROVERE NEW l'ORK T nuKennedy administration is almost com- pletely organised now, and it is about as impressive a collection of men as the country could...

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Home Is Where Your Heart Aches

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From MORDECAI RICHLER MONTREAL A FEW days after our return to Montreal from London, where we had been living for several years, I vvelit with my wife to see the doctor. 'What,'...

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King Kong

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By PATRICIA WILLIAMS ' ING KONG' was always a movement and K never just a musical. It was the first show of its sort in South Africa. It was also the first time that white and...

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Welcome to Ba-ath, Sir

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By KENNETH GREGORY B ATH once afforded inspiration to the comic muse of Sheridan, Jane Austen and Dickens; it now continues the tradition by seeking refuge in Parkinson's Law....

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Science

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Animal Magnetism By JOHN WILLIAMSON It has always been assumed since that Galvani was right, and Mesmer wrong. Magnetism, it has been believed, is never produced by animals,...

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WHITEWASH?

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SIR,—About Under Ten Flags, a ridiculous film to spend paper on, but the epitome of a lot of current film notions: William Douglas Home, tireless apologist for his own...

CONGO RELIEF

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SIR, —May we appeal to your. readers on 'behalf of the hundreds and thousands of Africans who, through no fault of their own, are now experiencing starva- tion in the Congo?...

STAINS ON THE CARPET

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SIR,—I would have thought that Dr. Esfandiary would at least know whether or not elections in his country had yet taken place. He asks: 'Were the elections not . . declared void...

Pay TV Whitewash?

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Congo Relief Sir William II ayter and Canon T. R. Millard Stains on the carpet Michael Lea prnan Libraries and Authors' Royalties D. Barry, Hugh Popham Edward Samson Tony Parker...

Sta,--May a long-time admirer of Isabel Quigly's film reviews get

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into the act? Mr. William Douglas. Home, one of the script- writers of Under Ten Flags, disposes of himself with a final sentence to his letter which for sheer virtu- osity of...

SIR,—No one would claim that Dr. von Braun had as

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sensitive a political conscience as one might ideally hope, but Miss Quigly refutes herself with her comparison. To perform a non-criminal act (making weapons) in aid of a had...

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SIR,—Your comment on indeterminate sentences is welcome, but the criterion

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by which you suggest a man's release should be decided—is he fitted to be let loose?—is a dangerously thorny one. As if to underline the problem, there was a report in the...

LIBRARIES AND AUTHORS' ROYALTIES

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SIR,—May I reply to Sir Alan Herbert and to Mr. Forstcr (who I note has now abandoned his guise of impartial television critic on this issue). The Library Association has...

SIR,—There is one distinction between books and motor-cars, washing-machines, etc.,

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which, surely, even that author's friend, Mr. Barry, should be able to comprehend. Motor-cars and washing-machines are mass-produced in great numbers by a compara- tively few...

SIR,—Mr. Constantine FitzGibbon attributes to me strange remarks e M a

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Chelsea pub in November, 1942. I admire his memory and admit it is possible I was then in such a pub; I spent a week's leave from the Army with my brother and Dylan Thomas about...

COLOUR

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SIR,—Will you at this late date allow a comment on Dr. Leach's review of Man. Race and Darwin in your issue of December 2? I am there said to have recommended that coloured...

TEETHING TROUBLES

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SIR,—If dental health educationalists are to be con- vinced that their efforts are less than useful, it will not be by Monica Furlong's criticism of them, but rather because of...

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Ballet

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Vintage Tokay y ('LIVE BARNES Dancing the Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nut- cracker gives a dancer hardly any opportunity to do more than present her credentials. The role is...

Television

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A Look at Sound By PETER FORSTER SOUND radio has been attracting some attention of late. Mr. Patric Dickinson, poet and radio producer, wrote an article in the Times, sug-...

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Records

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Celebrated Ladies By DAVID CAIRNS' IN The Art of the Prima Donna (Decca, two discs, each available separ- ately) Joan Sutherland pays homage to the divas of the last 150 years...

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Theatre

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Plays and Players By ALAN BRIEN You always remember the last wave--the hor- rible, spumy, leg-en- tangling splodge of flot- sam and jetsam which swirls around Christmas. But as...

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Cinema

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Paris, France By ISABEL QUIGLY ONE of the questions that bothered me most when I was young was the one from in- terested adults: And what do 0 you people talk about (think...

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BOOKS

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Men Without Women By KINGSLEY AMIS A BRI TISH reaction to Dr. Leslie A. Fiedler's new volume* can get well under way before a Word of the text is read. Its mere physical bulk...

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Tea with Queen Victoria

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Lady Lytton's Court Diary, 1895-1899. Edited by Mary Lutycns. (Hart-Davis, 30s.) EDITH, widow of the first Earl of Lytton, became a Lady-in-Waiting to Queen Victoria in 1895,...

Lineaments of Faith

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So far Manniana is merely trickling out. It will hardly achieve the flood proportions of Rilkcana. It is intellectually more austere, at times orotund, partaking of the GOM and...

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Thin Partitions

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Some Reflections on Genius, and Other Essays. By Russell Brain. (Pitman, 30s.) I Do not conceive myself to be anything near the ideal reader for Sir Russell Brain's new book. It...

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Unflinching Tory

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Lord Eldon's Anecdote Book. Edited by A. L. J. Lincoln and R. L. McEwen (Stevens, 25s.) Tint liveliest portrait of Eldon is to be found in The Spirit of the Age, where Hazlitt...

Farewell to the World

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The Colossus. By Sylvia Plath. (Heinemann, 15s.) THE book which drew the blaze of world pub- licity on to Boris Pasternak in his last days was a novel; naturally, since this is...

Coloured Shirts and Corduroy

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Private History. By Derek Patmore. (Cape, 21s.) 'STANDING there alone in the centre of the darkened stage and dressed as a Teddy Bear I recited my little piece of four lines...

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Greater Guinness

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Guinness's Brewery in the Irish Economy 1759- 1876. By Patrick Lynch and John Vaizey. (C.U.P., 35s.) BUSINESS history in Britain is not in a particu- larly flourishing state....

Up the Rovers

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A Bad Streak, and Other Stories. By Brian Glan- ville. (Seeker and Warburg, I5s.) Nothing Important Ever Dies. By Romain Gary. • (Cresset, I5s.) SHORT stories rarely get their...

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Investment Systems (I)

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By NICHOLAS DAVENPORT A PRETTY dismal tale you tell, writes a disgruntled investor, of the economic and financial policy of this Government, but how can I escape it? How can I...

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Investment Notes

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By CUSTOS T REASURY mismanagement of the gilt-edged market was shown up this week when a long-dated stock—Treasury 53 per cent. 2008-12—fell to yield a full 6 per cent. flat....

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Company Notes

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M ANUFACTURERS Of plastics had a particu- larly good year in 1960. One of the leaders in this industry, British Industrial Plastics, scored a 3 3 per cent, increase in trading...

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Roundabout

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The All-Purpose Wife By KATHARINE WHITEHORN The Grannies are the Mums; When Bobby wants his homework done It's Dad who does the sums; For Mum makes cash and cash is what Keeps...

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Consuming Interest

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Boating About in Mess By LESLIE ADRIAN TifE: Which? type of analysis will not do for boats, any more than it did for beer, for personal fancy is decisive with both. This is...

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Postscript • • •

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BEING a Celt myself—my maternal grandfather was a rabbi in Cardiff— I am always sorry to see the Welsh making asses of themselves, which they are continuing to do over the Shell...