12 SEPTEMBER 1940

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NEWS OF THE WEEK

The Spectator

T HE stern gravity of the Prime 'Minister's broadcast on Wednesday admirably befitted the occasion. The supreme merit of Mr. Churchill's speeches is that they never minimise a...

Revolution in Rumania

The Spectator

The Hungarian march into Translyvania, the assumption of full dictatorial powers by General Antonescu, the abdication of King Carol in favour of his young son Michael and his...

Movement in America

The Spectator

Step by step the logic of facts is producing its sure effects on the mind of the American people. They have already gone beyond the first stage when they recognised that the...

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The R.A.F. in Germany

The Spectator

It must not be forgotten that whilst London is being sub- jected night by night to the most ruthless indiscriminate bom- bardment from the air, against which at present no...

A Council of the Allies

The Spectator

A month ago The Spectator advocated the creation of an Allied Council in London. The case for such a step becomes stronger as time passes. We have assembled in the chief city of...

Japan's Demand on Indo-China

The Spectator

In regard to Indo-China, Japan has to balance her desire to take advantage of the weak position of the French in that country against her fear of driving the United States to...

The Vichy Government

The Spectator

Whilst the Vichy Government in France continues to try to justify its existence by vilifying its predecessors, it misses no opportunity of seeking to ingratiate itself with...

Italian Demands on Syria

The Spectator

Much as the Vichy Government desires to keep on good terms with Germany, its affability does not extend in the same way to Italy, and it must feel uneasy at her attempts to...

Reinforce rnents for Egypt

The Spectator

The announcement of the heavy reinforcements which both our Mediterranean Fleet and our land forces in the Middle East have received in the course of the past week is...

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Recently two other Departments, the Ministry of Labour and the

The Spectator

War Office have been brought into the field. It will be for Mr. Ramsbotham to explain (what is now obscure) how he proposes to give these 21 million young people, and especially...

In 1937 the Government set up a National Fitness Council,

The Spectator

which was suspended at the outbreak of war. Considerable interest in the whole question of physical training was aroused, but there were many serious objections taken to the...

Alarm and Alert Signals

The Spectator

In his speech last week Mr. Churchill said that changes would have to be made in the arrangements for air-raid warn- ings so as to prevent unnecessary interference with war pro-...

At the outbreak of war a National Youth Committee was

The Spectator

formed, with the full co-operation of all education authorities and voluntary societies. Each authority was invited to set up its own Local Youth Committee, and the response was...

At the age of fourteen nine-tenths of British children go

The Spectator

to work. There are about 3,000,000 young people between the ages of 14 and 20, of whom 500,000 are attending some form of full-time education. This leaves us with 11 million...

Parliamentary Notes

The Spectator

From our Parliamentary Correspondent: If Parliament is able to meet next Tuesday there will be a debate on the announcement, made by Mr. Ramsbotham, President of the Board of...

The Spectator

Planning the Post-War Britain

The Spectator

In a letter to The Times last Tuesday Lord Balfour of Burleigh, writing as chairman of the 1940 Council, pleaded that whilst we are organising for war it is not too soon to be...

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A DECISIVE HOUR

The Spectator

T HIS has been described as the most critical week in the history of our realm, and impossible though it is to pass completely dispassionate verdicts in the midst of crisis,...

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* * * * If it is true that the

The Spectator

R.A.F. have set fire to the Reichstag their achievement should create a singular fellow-feeling between them and Marshal Goering, who did the same thing himself some years ago....

A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK

The Spectator

T HE efficiency with which daily papers are facing the present 1 abnormal situation is remarkable. But the weeklies have their difficulties too, and it would not be astonishing...

Magnificent as the conduct of all the civilian services has

The Spectator

been through the ordeal of the past weeks, all the men and women staffing them are human, and a time must come when fatigue and sleeplessness have effects that are irresistible....

Curious rumours slip through about General Weygand. The fact that

The Spectator

I mention them does not mean that I give them credence. The late (whether he is also the present is not quite clear) commander-in-chief has left the Vichy Cabinet and is to go...

What the national petrol stocks are I do not know,

The Spectator

but in spite of the admitted fact that there have been some losses by enemy action they ought to be good, for the Government obviously budgeted for a very extensive consumption...

Sir John Anderson has come under heavy criticism, some of

The Spectator

which should clearly have been addressed to the War Office, for his handling of the aliens question, but he is to be very warmly congratulated on the Committee he has appointed...

A notable fact regarding our airmen—I fancy the Minister for

The Spectator

Education referred to it in a speech within the past week— is that the great majority of them must have been born in or immediately after the last war. We used to be told in a...

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THE WAR SURVEYED : APPROACHING THE CLIMAX

The Spectator

By STRATEGICUS T T is a month since I suggested that we were approaching the 1 crisis of the war and outlined the course which the cam- paign might be expected to follow. This...

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THE AUSTRALIAN ELECTIONS

The Spectator

By It. W. G. MACKAY A GENERAL Election will be held in Australia on Septem- ber 21st. The Constitution provides for elections every three years, so Parliament cannot extend its...

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INDIA AND THE PRINCES

The Spectator

By RANJEE G. SHAHANI " IL est mal connu," said Voltaire of Shakespeare. This is I perhaps truer of Indian Princes. Greater nonsense has been uttered about them than even about...

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THE HIGHER BUMBLEDOM

The Spectator

By W. HORSFALL CARTER I N his statement made to the House of Commons on August 22nd the Home Secretary went some distance to meet the clamour of criticism provoked by the...

TOO FREE FRENCHMEN

The Spectator

By PHILIP HEWITT-MYRING " You're steering straight for Southwich at the moment," I replied in the ripest accent of the Cannebiere that I could assume. They stopped in their...

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THE CINEMA

The Spectator

A Disappointing Report THE notorious inefficiency attaching to the official use of films during the first eight months of the war clearly justified an investigation by the...

STAGE AND SCREEN

The Spectator

THE THEATRE g , The Infernal Machine." By Jean Cocteau. English version by Carl Wildman. At the Arts Theatre Club. THE name of Mr. Oliver Messel is printed as large as the...

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THE ARMY'S PART

The Spectator

SIR, —With reference to your note in your issue of September 6th, 194 0 , concerning the Army's part, I must congratulate you on sounding a note of warning against such a...

SIR,—It is quite possible for the intellectual hunger, which, as

The Spectator

the author of the article in your issue of last week rightly says, may be felt by all ranks in the Army, to be at all events partially satisfied, if the existing machinery is...

THE FUTURE OF INDIA

The Spectator

Sta,—The minority problem has been put forward as the cause retard- ing India's progress. I wish to lay before the readers a solution coming from the Congress in the...

ARE WE TOO QUIXOTIC ?

The Spectator

Snt,—A thousand houses have been wrecked by air raids on the open town of Ramsgate. The bombing was, of course, deliberate and could not have been due to bad aiming, or...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

The Spectator

[In view of the paper shortage it is essential that letters on these pages should be- brief. We are anxious not to reduce the number of letters, but unless they are shorter they...

Sm,—The peoples of India quite naturally want to rule their

The Spectator

own country and affairs, and in present conditions have demonstrated their sympathies to be identical with those of the British Commonwealth. The British Government during the...

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THE SCIENTIST'S MIND

The Spectator

SIR.—" Janus," writing of Sir J. J. Thomson (The Spectator, Sep- tember 6th), refers to the " scientist's one-track mind." It would be interesting to learn what he would have us...

SIR HENRY WOOD AND THE 44 PROMS " SIR, —The enclosed

The Spectator

cutting from your paper has been sent to me to- gether with a letter which embodies a very unhappy suggestion that I have been a party to having failed to broadcast the...

THREEPENNY BITS IN SCOTLAND

The Spectator

SIR,—" Janus"' observation about the number of threepenny bits in Scotland may be neither clever nor funny (why should it be either?), but it does happen to be true; there is a...

USE OF THE FEET

The Spectator

am a single woman, unfit for regular work, who walks and loves what little remains of unspoilt country. Lately I crossed about four miles of moorland in the small mid-Wales...

SIR,—An explanation of the greater use of threepenny pieces in

The Spectator

Scot- land was given me a few years ago by a Professor of Currency and Finance who was in close touch with the Bank of England and the Treasury. This was that the Mint sent...

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" NON-ARYANS "

The Spectator

Sist,—I call your attention to an unfortunate usage which sometimes, though rarely, appears in your columns. On page 235 of your issue of September 6th in a paragraph on "...

Fewer Birds From an eminent scholar comes to me an

The Spectator

ode, in Latin alcaics, on Daedalus, and a query about birds. The air-raids suggested the ode, and the continued brilliance of the rowan berries the question. The berries have...

Daedalus A word about the natural history of flight. A

The Spectator

number of people through the ages have prophesied the conquest of the air from the Daedalian myth to Roger Bacon and Tennyson, whose " airy navies grappling in the central blue...

COUNTRY LIFE

The Spectator

Sensitive Ducks The manager of a home farm got into trouble because the ducks made so much noise that they kept the household awake! His apology was that the birds could not...

THE FEEDING OF EUROPE

The Spectator

your paragraph . on American opinion regarding the Hoover proposals for the feeding of countries occupied by the Nazis you say that a Gallup Poll showed that 62 per cent. of...

Drought - Loving Plants That best of all dahlias, at least to

The Spectator

those who are not particularly fond of dahlias, the Bishop of Llandaff, has discovered a new virtue this year. It has flourished beyond the ordinary in a drought that has...

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Housman the Man

The Spectator

A Buried Life. Personal Recollections of A. E. Housman. By Percy Withers. (Cape. i s .1 THE combination of scholar and poet is in itself hardly frequent. and when the...

Books of the Day

The Spectator

The British Empire A Hundred Years of the British Empire. By A. P. Newton. (Duckworth. i5s.) Tins volume is one of a series which deals with the progress of various sciences...

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Lions as Pets

The Spectator

Lions on Trust. By Cleland Scott. (Michael Joseph. 12s. 6d.) MANY of us have our own special hobbies, some favouring dogs, others cage birds or carnations. One has even met...

A Poem by Mr. Eliot

The Spectator

East Coker. By T. S. Eliot. (Fabpr. To say that Mr. Eliot's latest poem is characteristic may serve equally well for commendation or censure. He has a true poetic sensibility,...

Stalin and Socialism

The Spectator

Stalin's Russia and the Crisis in Socialism. By Max Eastman. (Allen and Unwin. 7s. 6d.) ANYONE who still thinks of Stalinist Russia as a model for this country to follow, and...

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Ancient Highways

The Spectator

Old Routes of Western Iran. By Sir Aurel Stein. (Macmillan. 42s.) IN this work Sir Aurel Stein embodies the last of four fruitful journeys in historical Iran that were made in...

The Wolves and the Bees

The Spectator

Tats important book, first published in 1916, enlarged in 19 1 9 , and lately reprinted for the twelfth time, may or may not seem entirely satisfactory to professional...

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FINANCE AND INVESTMENT

The Spectator

By CUSTOS MARKETS have entered another period of stern test, and are facing new problems with remarkable calm. So far, the physical handicaps on business have not interfered...

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“THE SPECTATOR" CROSSWORD No. 80

The Spectator

IA prize of 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 o pened. Envelopes should be manked"...

SOLUTION TO CROSSWORD No. 79 SOLUTION NEXT WEEK Road, Chester.

The Spectator

The winner of Crossword No . 79 is Miss B. Jarvis, to, Percy