13 MAY 1938

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NEWS OF THE WEEK

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II ERR HITLER is said to have applied himself, immediately on his return from Rome, to the question of the Sudeten Germans. That is likely enough ; there are many signs that...

The deadlock on the Lunghai railway front continues, and neither

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side is able to make any progress. The Chinese can be well satisfied with the failure of Japan's great offensive on Suchow. This week, however, the Japanese have carried the war...

Abyssinia at Geneva The discussions on Abyssinia at the League

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of Nations Council will not have taken place till these words are in print. No one can hope that they will be anything but painful, and the only person likely to emerge from...

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Last week President Roosevelt's prestige appeared to have reached its

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nadir. Of his most important Bills some had been defeated and some shelved. In Congress the Conservative Democrats were jubilant at his defeat and both they, and the La...

The South African Election The Union of South Africa holds

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its eighth General Election next week. No great change is to be expected, though a certain interest is added to the polling by the fact that the United South Africa Party, which...

Poland continues her efforts to achieve " national unity "

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under an authoritarian regime opposed by the great majority of the population ; no doubt the Government is so persistent because Poland, like other Eastern European States,...

* * * * The Orissa Dilemma There should be

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universal recognition of the self-sacrificing public spirit shown by Sir John Hubback, the Governor of Orissa, in forgoing his leave in order to avert a political crisis in that...

-The Markham Disaster The disaster at Markham Colliery, Derbyshire, has

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filled everyone in the country with sympathy for the widows and children of the 79 men who have died one of the most terrible of deaths. But sympathy is not enough. Coal mining...

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Since he became a Member of Parliament five years ago

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Sir Arnold Wilson has accumulated an immense store of curious but useful knowledge. This week he has introduced a Bill to remove the disabilities of chimney-sweeps. Most of his...

There is considerable uneasiness, which is not confined to the

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Labour benches, over the new instruction issued by the Unemployment Assistance Board to its officers. Last autumn the officers were advised to increase the assessments in cases...

The Week in Parliament Our Parliamentary Correspondent writes : In

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the matter of Law Reform the Government has a highly commendable record. In recent years there has been a whole series of enactments designed to remove anomalies and cut away...

Planning Public Works For years economists have pointed out the

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necessity, in any attempt to mitigate the effects of cyclical unemploy- ment and economic depression, of planning a programme of public expenditure for a substantial period...

Aeroplane Orders In the House of Commons last week Mr.

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Duncan Sandys asked Lord Winterton, Under-Secretary for Air, how it was that, despite the difficulties experienced in fulfilling the air Programme, several firms were short of...

The Value of Life The law is often, if not

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always, an ass, and nothing could make it look sillier than a series of cases which have been brought before the courts since the Law Reform Act of 1934 provided that causes of...

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AT ROME AND MANCHESTER " I T has all been

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too beautiful," said Herr Hitler on leaving Rome after his triumphal visit last Week- end ; but his Italian journey had other objects than the contemplation of beauty. Official...

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THE SCOTS AND THE SABBATH T HE Empire Exhibition at Glasgow

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was shut last Sunday, the first Sunday after its official opening, and if present arrangements hold will remain shut on all the remaining Sundays of its existence. The decision...

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A paragraph from Dr. Seton - Watson's new book, Britain and the

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Dictators, which is, I believe, reviewed on a later page of this issue, is worth quotation here. It relates to the profits from Mein Kampf. " When I bought my copy in 1933,"...

With all the talk about foreign policy the average citizen

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has not much beyond the public speeches of politicians and leading articles in the papers to help him shape his views. A good many average citizens therefore may like to have...

French Ministers, it appears, are beginning to concern themselves with

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preparations for the visit of King George and Queen Elizabeth to Paris next month. They will be under no temptation, I hope, to try to emulate the recent celebrations in Rome....

* * * * When the book of a pageant

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is in the hands of Mr. E. M. Forster and the music in those of Dr. Ralph Vaughan Williams the result is likely to be something it will be worth making a considerable journey to...

A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK

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T HE reform of the House of Lords was declared an urgent matter by Mr. Asquith in 1909, and there is every sign that it will be still urgent and unaccomplished in 199o. But even...

Notes of two recent conversations on China. The first was

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with a very competent and well-informed Chinese now in Europe. " Are you going to be able to hold Soochow (the object of all the recent fighting in Shantung) ? " I asked him. "...

Not much news except censored news can come out of

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Vienna nowadays, but an instructive light on conditions there is thrown by a resolution, published in a Swiss paper, carried at a meeting of Austrian Nazis called to protest at...

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THE CHURCHES AND THE COMMON LIFE

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By CANON F. R. BARRY W HAT is the future of the Christian Churches ? Are they to become small self-conscious sects, highly organised for defence, preoccupied with their own...

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GERMANY AND EUROPE : III. IS IT PEACE ?

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By H. POWYS GREENWOOD I SUPPOSE the most burning question in foreign politics 1 today is whether the refrain, " For today Germany is ours, Tomorrow 'tis the world entire,"...

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YOUR SON'S CAREER : I

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By E. D. LABORDE* This is a general introduction to a short series of articles on conditions in the principal careers open to boys and girls front public and secondary schools....

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AMERICA'S PICTURE-NEWS

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I N the Bronx, in Massachusetts, in towns all over the Union, a recent number of Life has been sup- pressed because of its special supplement showing stills from a film The...

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A. R. P.

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By KATHARINE FRENCH " T SHOULD be glad, Officer, if you would give thy. exact 1 degree of freezing point for mustard gas." The little man in the second row from the front was...

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" INFLUENCED " BOOKS

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By EDITH LYTTELTON I WISH psychologists would seriously investigate and study the production of what I prefer to call influenced rather than inspirational books. I am not...

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Under Thirt\' Page

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THE USE OF LEISURE -I By F. J. ERROLL [The writer, a Cambridge graduate, aged 23, is an engineer] I T was a remarkable feature of the original Under Thirty series that so...

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Commonwealth and Foreign

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THE \\ EST INDIES AND THEIR PROBLEMS-H By SIR CHARLES HOBHOUSE EVERY schoolboy knew, and most men have forgotten, the story of the West Indian wars. They lasted over a hundred...

Colonel Seale's trumpery measure for allowing foreign corn to be

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ground in the Queen's warehouses for exportation, underwent its expected doom on Wednesday. The country gentlemen strangled the bill on the motion for the second reading ; their...

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THE CINEMA

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" L'Equipage." At Studio One-" The March of Tittle." At the Tatler-" Sh! The Octopus." L'Equipage is an undistinguished film, redeemed only by a few moments of sincerity. Its...

STAGE AND SCREEN

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OPERA 4 $ Der Rosenkavalier" at Covent Garden THE misfortunes that have overtaken Covent Garden during the opening week of the season are of a kind that cannot be escaped, so...

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CARL VON OSSIETZKY

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(Von einem deutschen Korrespondenteni WER ihn gekannt, geSelm, gehOrt, gelesen, der wird ihn nicht ver g essen, ihn, Herz und Him der Deutschen Republik. Er war ein Demokrat in...

ART

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An Ordinary Painter WHEN Gustave Courbet first showed his paintings the effect produced was as if the artist had taken off his trousers in a public place. The shock was...

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COUNTRY LIFE

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The Three Cold Saints I$ there any real justification for the standard weather prophe- cies—the prophecies that attribute particular phenomena to particular dates ? Buchan's...

* * * *

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In the Garden Each garden has its particular glory. The wide Hampshire garden at present before my eyes excels in trees and shrubs. It is so well sheltered and so well warmed by...

Resistant Flowers The botanists have made some attempts, not wholly

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without success, to discover why some flowers resist frost successfully and some do not. Kerner, who was very much interested in local opinion on the Drei Eismanner, alleges...

Building Material

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One of the common sights in my garden of late has been a hen chaffinch busily picking up the hairs left by a Tan el at a favourite sleeping and rolling place. The bird always...

* * * * A Danish Achievement An invitation has

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reached me to attend a ceremony that should really help to cure those who favour an urban civilisa- tion. The Danes are to celebrate in Copenhagen, that most beautiful northern...

Decorative Birds Most English students of birds know perhaps the

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ingenious frieze of bird portraits that decorate one of the rooms of the house by Hickling Broad, which is the greatest of our bird sanctuaries. Birds lend themselves to this...

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THE STATE OF ABYSSINIA,

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[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] Snt,—Illness having prevented my departure for Geneva as representative of Abyssinia at the Council, may I, as a private person, put the...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

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[Correspondents are requested to keep their letters as brief as is reasonably possible. The most suitable length is that of one of our " News of the Week " paragraphs. Signed...

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FOOD AND WAR [To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—Is

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The Spectator correct in stating " If purchases had been made earlier there would have been considerable economies in cost " ? The average price of wheat for the twelve months...

OURSELVES AND GERMANY [To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] Sta,—The

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success of the Anglo-Italian Agrcement and the London Talks naturally suggests the possibility of a still more decisive step forward in the interests of world peace. The three...

SCOTTISH ART [To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—In the

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last issue of The Spectator, described as a " Scottish Number," there is a reference to Sir William Llewellyn's announcement that the Royal Academy will devote its next Winter...

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ROAD IMPROVEMENT AND ROAD SAFETY

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[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—You commented in your last issue on the evidence given before the House of Lords Committee by the British Road Federation in favour of...

" GERMANY AND EUROPE "

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[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—Mr. Powys Greenwood in his article on the German Four Year Plan has unwittingly given your readers a confused impression of my various...

NELSON'S ARM

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[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—In the first article on " The West Indies and their Problems " Sir Charles Hobhouse is not correct in stating that Nelson lost an arm in...

CHINESE STUDENTS

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[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—Miss Galbraith's article, " China : The War and the Student," in your issue of April z9th must have removed any doubts in the minds of...

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR]

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SIR,—Amongst the various schemes for food supply in wartime the simplest one, storage by private individuals, seems to have been overlooked. I suggest that the big stores...

LITERATURE ON THE BATTLEFIELD

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[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] Sta,—In view of your recent review of There's A Devil in the Drum, it may interest you and your readers to hear that descrip- tions of...

ROUND OR ACROSS ?

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[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] Sia,—In the course of my Motoring Notes in The Spectator last week I dwelt on the pleasures of going round Scottish lochs rather than across...

THE CHOICE OF EVILS

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[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—In his last article Mr. E. L. Woodward says : " We have before us a choice of terrible evils ; war, or the degradation of our standards...

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BOOKS OF THE DAY

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Britain and the Dictators (Sir Alfred Zimmern) 873 That's Austria, That Was (Douglas Reed) .. .. 8 74 The Crumbling of Empire (Prof. W. K. Hancock) . • 874 Early British...

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THAT'S AUSTRIA, THAT WAS

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The Last Five Hours of Austria. By Eugene Lennhoff. (Rich and Cowan. 8s. 6d.) Twilight in Vienna. By Will Frischauer. (Collins. 12s. 6d.) - HERE you have the Austrian...

ARE EMPIRES OUT OF DATE ?

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STUDENTS of the making and breaking of empires are too frequently one-sided ; they are apt to view their subject either in terms of economic profit and loss (" the...

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BEFORE ADAM SMITH

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ADAM SMITH was—it is generally conceded—the father of political economy ; and comparatively few people bother to trace the pedigree further back. The Physiocrats, yes ;...

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THAT INTELLIGENT WOMAN

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" THERE seems," says Mrs. Cole, " to be some real difference between the two sexes, though it is not at present quite clear what it is." A remark so exquisitely Fabian could...

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MORE HOPKINS LETTERS

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Further Letters of Gerard Manley Hopkins. Edited by Claude Colleer Abbott. (Oxford University Press. 16s.) THIS latest, and probably last considerable, collection of Hopkins's...

POISONING FOR PROFIT

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I COUNT it among the finer privileges of my life that I have been on several occasions in the company of an eminent murderer, and that I have lived in the district where, for a...

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THE MASTER OF THE TEMPLE

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Looking Forward. By Harold Anson. (Heinemann. ros. 6d.) MENTIONING that he was the thirteenth out of fourteen children Canon Anson asks himself the searching question where he...

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THE MILITARY WAY

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A History of Militarism. By Alfred Vagts. (Allen and Unwin. 18s.) THE deplorable events of the last years have at least served to remind mankind that war, whatever its horrors...

HIGH LATITUDES

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PUBLISHED accounts of Arctic expeditions generally have a certain depressing sameness about them ; a monotony engen- dered by the endless, monochrome, greyish-white background...

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INTRODUCING THE BOOTS

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Scoop. A Novel about Journalists. By Evelyn Waugh. (Chapman and Hall. 7s. 6d.) MR. WAUGH has had his eye on the Press since (at the latest 193o, the year of Vile Bodies and the...

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FICTION

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By FORREST REID Phibbs. Engravings by Clifford Webb. (Golden Cockerel Press. 8s. 6d.) The Moon is Feminine is unlike any other novel by Clemence Dane I have read. It is a-...

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INVESTMENT FINANCE AND

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HAS M. Daladier saved the franc ? It is early to reply with an unequivocal yes, but at least one may say that for the present he is doing very well. Not merely has his bold...

BRITISH OXYGEN YIELD

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* * * * The British Oxygen profits are good, but holders of the ordinary shares who bought at high prices will legitimately ask : Are they good enough ? Having emphasised the...

LONDON MARKET ADJUSTMENTS While everybody will agree that a return

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of " bad " money to France is a welcome development and one which should ultimately benefit this country if it revitalises French trade, it will be all the better, from the...

RAIL PREFERENCE PROSPECTS Highest Current Price this Yield Price. Year

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0 £ s. d. L.M.S. 4 per cent. First Pref. .. 721 .. 82 .. 5 r t o 'L.M.S. 4 per cent. 1923 Pref. 544 .. 70 .. 7 7 0 L.N.E.R. 4 per cent. First Pref. 544 • • 68 • • 7 7...

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FINANCIAL NOTES

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SPILLERS' PLANS FOR EXPANSION IMPORTANT plans for extending the Company's flour mills and silo capacity were reviewed at the annual meeting of Spillers by the chairman, Sir...

NORTH BRITISH AND MERCANTILE INSURANCE

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The chairmen of two leading Scottish insurance companies last week devoted considerable space in their speeches to the decision of insurance companies not to grant " war risks...

COMPANY MEETINGS

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IDEAL BUILDING AND LAND DEVELOPMENT COMPANY THE annual general meeting of Ideal Building and Land Development Company, Limited, was held on May loth in London. Sir Thomas...

LICENSES AND GENERAL INSURANCE COMPANY

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TWO LAND MARKS PASSED THE forty-eighth ordinary general meeting of The Licenses and General Insurance Company, Limited, was held on May 11th at the company's offices, 24-28,...

Venturers' Corner

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I would still prefer not to attempt to put a date to American business recovery, but that there will be a recovery at some time or other all but the grimmest prophets of doom...

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COMPANY MEETING

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THE CALEDONIAN INSURANCE CO. FRESH LIFE RECORD DIVIDEND OF FIFTEEN SHILLINGS PER SHARE THE one hundred and thirty-third annual general meeting of the Caledonian Insurance...

COMPANY MEETING

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ALLIANCE ASSURANCE COMPANY ANOTHER SUCCESSFUL YEAR MR. LIONEL N. de ROTHSCHILD'S SPEECH Tan annual general Court of the Alliance Assurance Company, Limited, was held on May...

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COMPANY MEETING

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NORTH BRITISH AND MERCANTILE INSURANCE CO., LTD. GOOD RESULTS IN ALL DEPARTMENTS VISCOUNT WAKEFIELD'S REVIEW THE 128th annual general meeting of the North British and...

COMPANY MEETINGS

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SPILLERS LIMITED ONE OF THE MOST DIFFICULT YEARS EVER EXPERIENCED BY THE GRAIN TRADE THE Right Honourable Sir Malcolm A. Robertson, Chairman of Spillers Limited, presiding at...

GRESHAM LIFE ASSURANCE SOCIETY

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Tan eighty-ninth ordinary general meeting of the Gresham Life Assurance Society, Limited, was held on May 5th, at the head office of the Society, 188-190 Fleet Street, London,...

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ALLIANCE ASSURANCE COMPANY At the end of this year the

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Alliance Assurance Company will take its quinquennial valuation of its life and annuity funds upon which the bonus declaration will depend. At Wednes- day's meeting Mr. Lionel...

LICENSES AND GENERAL INSURANCE COMPANY

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The Hon. Reginald Parker, who presided at Wednesday's meeting of the Licenses and General Insurance Company, spoke with much optimism notwithstanding the change in industrial...

GRESHAM LIFE ASSURANCE The Gresham Life Assurance Society has an

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important branch in Spain, and naturally the chairman, the Hon. W. B. L. Barrington, devoted a considerable part of his annual address to the affairs of that section. He was...

BUILDING COMPANY'S BORROWING POWERS At special meetings on Tuesday, the

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Ideal Building and Land Development Company took powers to increase its borrowing by a further £500,000 up to £700,000, giving the preference shareholders participating rights...

CALEDONIAN INSURANCE COMPANY The chairman of the Caledonian Insurance Compar.y,

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Mr. A. Wallace Cowan, revealed a very strong position when he reviewed the company's affairs last week. Like other insur- ance chairmen, he was able to announce that the Stock...

FINANCIAL NOTES

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(Continued from page 892.) SCOTTISH UNION AND NATIONAL SHARE SPLITTING Mr. Harry Geo. Younger, the chairman of the Scottish Union and National Insurance Company, amplified the...

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LIIIV RIYIS T AI 13 L E

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AI RirMI E YI En7rPg CI HI 01 RI RI 1 I S LI U' RI RI 1 I Al S HI DI Al Y E DI TI RI E VI A 01 AI TI RI E E DIOI Ill T El R LA LI El El El VI El I I S; Y, RI 1 SI El NI AI...

" THE SPECTATOR " CROSSWORD No. :94

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BY ZENO [A prize of a Book Token for one guinea will be given to the sender (.; the first correct solution of this week's crossword puzzle to be opened. Envelopes should be...