14 DECEMBER 1945

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NEWS OF THE WEEK

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T HE new meeting of Foreign Secretaries at Moscow will be of critical importance—the more so if Marshal Stalin should decide to return to the capital while it is sitting. The...

America's Germany

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The contrast between French and United States views in respect to Germany is made clear by the American declaration of policy which has been handed to the British, Russian and...

Laodicean Tories

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Conservatives in the House of Commons have done their party a Singularly ill turn by their decision (which may conceivably be changed between the writing of, these lines and the...

France's Fears

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The disagreement between France and the United States over the establishment of a centralised German administration raises one of the fundamental difficulties of Four-Power...

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Crime and the Police

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It is difficult, in the absence of reliable statistics, to estimate significance of the " crime wave " which has assumed su prominence in the Press in recent weeks. One is...

From Army to Industry

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The employment return issued by the Ministry of Labour t) Tuesday is in many ways encouraging. What is requisite in th change-over from war-industry to peace-industry is to...

The Dockers' Decision

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Today, a national delegate conference of union representatives will decide whether to accept or reject the Evershed Committee's recom- mendations on wages in the dock industry....

The Palestine Commission

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By a suggestive coincidence Mr. Kevin announced the composition of the Anglo-American Commission on Palestine on the same day- Tuesday—on which Lord Samuel made a valuable,...

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AMERICA AND THE LOAN

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HILE this is being written, Parliament is debating the V V American loan and the Bretton Woods Monetary Plan with which it is so intimately connected. The loan and the plan have...

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There can be no doubt, in retrospect, that last week's

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vote of censure did the Opposition more harm than good, and the Govern- ment more good than harm. The speaking, so far as the Front Benches were concerned, was, surprisingly...

I quoted last week the Colonial Secretary's statement in the

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House of Commons that between 1922 and 1944 the number of Jews who emigrated from this country to Palestine was 2,482, which, I observed, was at the rate of little more than too...

A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK

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T HERE has been something dramatically undramatic about the Joyce appeal in the House of Lords this week. The red benches in the Robing Room where the Lords now meet are well...

As I move about I find some perplexity and a

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good deal of regret at the rarity of any word of counsel or admonition from the Arch- bishop of Canterbury on great public issues. Respect for Dr. Fisher is universal,...

There was a curious confusion of vowels in Hansard for

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one day last week. The report of an answer by the Minister of Health runs : " What I have done is to inform doctors that it is highly improbable that I will permit the sale and...

I wonder very much whether it is wise to make

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the King's Christmas broadcast a permanent institution. If King George feels he has something he wants to say to his people at Christmas that, of course, ends the matter. No one...

The controversy about the seat of U.N.O. will probably have

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ended in a definite decision one way or the other by the time this appears, but some of the propaganda has gone a little beyond the mark. An article in last Sunday's Observer by...

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THE PRICE OF THE LOAN

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By HUGH GAITSKELL, M.P. T HE Washington talks have ended, and, by the time this article is published, what the negotiators agreed will almost certainly have been approved by...

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FARMING IN POLAND

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By H. D. WALSTON T HE war and its consequences have hit Poland's agriculture very hard. Some of old Poland—but not a very large proportion— was devastated in the actual...

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AIR TRANSPORT AND R.A.F.

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By NIGEL TANGYE C ONSIDERABLE alarm is being expressed in all quarters at the shocking number of fatal accidents involving R.A.F. Trans- port Command and that section of Bomber...

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CZECHS AND GERMANS

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By DENNIS BARDENS y WAS sitting in my room at the Esplanade Hotel, Prague, when I I came across the statement—made quite dogmatically and with- out the least...

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OMBRE

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By A. H. N. GREEN-ARMYTAGE " H ER favourite poem," says Elia of Mrs. Battle, " was The jj Rape of the Lock. She often played over to me, with the cards, the celebrated game of...

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It is not, of course, a new proposal. The idea,

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in its modern form, was first promulgated by Count Coudenhove-Kalergi, and was in 1929 adopted by Briand as the basis of a European order. The Briand plan did not materialise,...

MARGINAL COMMENT

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By HAROLD NICOLSON M LEO A114ERY, in a lecture which he delivered recently to the United Nations University Centre, had some important things to say upon the theme of " British...

Without some initial sense of cohesion, no institutional devices, no

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blue prints, will in the end prove effective. The element of cohesion is provided by an instinctive sense of unity, which derives from something more than a vague identity of...

Such a European patriotism could be based upon a common

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desire for peace and prosperity, and a common cultural and ethical tradition. The Swiss have been the first to realise the importance of this solidarity. - A " Green Cross"...

While admitting that the word " Europe " is no

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mere geographical expression, but implies " a moral and cultural entity with a character and life of its own," he contends that Russia and Great Britain, while closely concerned...

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MUSIC

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A New Composer. ANTONY HoPtcno is a new name to me, but, after hearing his cantata, "Crown of Gold," at Mr. Jani Strasser's concert last week, it is a name that will arouse...

ART •

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i! William and Mary Scott." At the Le g er Galleries.—“ Picasso and Matisse." The Victoria and Albert Museum. THE reader is certainly familiar with the names of Picasso and...

THE CINEMA

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The Rake's Progress." At the Odeon. DIVERTING as it was to find The Lost Weekend (The Diary of a Dipsomaniac) hailed as evidence of a Hollywood artistic renaissance, the...

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Stx,—I am grateful to the Dean of Wells for his

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letter on the Apostles' Creed, which clears up the possible misconstruction of a small part of my earlier letter. That letter was already long enough, and I was only concerned...

YOUTH AND THE CHURCHES

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SIR, —As an undergraduate of s81, may I endorse all that " Student " says about the inadequacy of the religious teaching of the Church today to satisfy the demands—and...

SIR, —May I be allowed space for a word of sympathy

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and counsel to the writer of the letter signed " Student " in your issue of December 7th —of sympathy because he is obviously unhappy, .groping for a synthesis which at present...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

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UNITED NATIONS H.Q. SIR, —There are probably others besides myself who would be glad of enlightenment on the following points in connection with the choice of a site for the...

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PSYCHOLOGIST AND PRIEST

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SIR, —With reference to the article in your issue of November 3oth, "Psychologist and Priest," it may be of interest to draw attention to nvo facts. (a) The Archbishops'...

Sat,—Mr. Rumbold writes: " What we do and what we

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are, are deter- mined by our hereditary dispositions," and, a few lines further on, continues, " if our view of the universe and our adult behaviour are conditioned 'by heredity...

OLD AND MODERN FILMS

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Sat,—I am a young man of twenty years. Recently I was taken to see my first silent film, " The Birth of a Nation." I will confess I went expecting the worst, probably badly cut,...

ZIONISTS AND PALESTINE

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Shat, — " Janus " cites the figures given in the House of Commons in answer to a question as an indication that English Jews are not sincerely interested in the establishment of...

SCIENCE AND MAN

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Sts,—As a technician, the next best (or worst) thing to a scientist, may I sincerely endorse the sentiments expressed by Gordon Miller in " Science and Man "? I have repeatedly...

THE FIGHTING IRISH

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O'Casey says he thinks that Mr. Ervine hates the Irish. Of course he does. There never was a more virulent case of Eireophobia. or that reason it was hardly fair to ask Mr....

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Sut,—" Janus " thinks it a little anomalous that the

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House of Commons should contain some seventy lawyers, but not one scientist. It strikes me as still more anomalous that, when housing is of first priority, the number of...

COUNTRY LIFE

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Zr is welcome news, as I learn from one of those concerned, that much of the scientific work of Dr. Durham is to be preserved at King's - College, Cambridge. It would have been...

• The Best Jelly The war has taught most of

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us that a number of despised kinds of fruits are edible and worth preservation. Among a number of experi- menters one tells me that he considers the quinces, borne by the orna-...

LUTHER AND HITLER

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Stn,—Your reviewer, Mr. J. 0. Cobham, has attacked me with a sur- prising vehemence in his review of Gordon Rupp's Martin Luther. I hope you will generously allow me to defend...

SCIENTISTS AND PARLIAMENT

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SIR,—Surely " Janus " cannot be allowed to write of Sir J. B. Orr, M.P., and on the same page say there are no scientists in the House of

Cock Builders

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It seemed to me a curious and unexampled freak that a green wood- pecker (as reported by a Sussex rector) should so loudly and persistently hammer at the oak tiles of a church...

In My Garden A beautiful bowl of roses was flourishing

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at the end of the first week of December, and a mixed vaseful of iris, yellow jessamine and primuti suggested spring in the midst of frost. Herbaceous borders with clumr of...

The Warm Spell It will have been noticed that this

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year, as in 1943, Buchan's warm spell (which should have been given as beginning on December 3rd) was particularly cold and frosty. However, no reports have reached me from...

Postage on this issue: Inland, ild.; Overseas, id

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The Salvation at Dunkirk

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Dunkirk. By A. D. Divine. (Faber and Faber. 15s.) AT the time, the evacuation of the B.E.F from the beaches of Dunkirk seemed a miracle. Now, more than five years after the...

BOOKS OF THE DAY

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Mr. Connolly The Condemned Playground. By Cyril Connolly. (Routledge. 10s. 6d.) ESSAYS, 1927-1944, is the sub-title, and there is a three-page intro- duction which wholly...

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What, No Trains ?

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The Lear Omnibus. Edited by R. L. Megroz. (Hutchinson. 6s.) A Christmas Carol. By Charles Dickens. Pan Books Ltd. (Collins. 4s. 6d.) The Magic Bedknob. By Mary Norton. (Dent....

Reason and Belief

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Does God Exist ? By A. E. Taylor. (Macmillan 7s. 6d.) °has a few days separated the publication of the book I have reviewed and the death of its author. There could hardly be a...

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Our Timber Reserve

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Wood from the Trees. By Richard Jefferies. (Pilot Press. 9s. 6d.) IN this book, which consists of five chapters of 546 pages, thc author presents a most interesting and...

Fiction

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The Shadow Throwers. By Bodo Uhse. Translated by Catherine 3. Hutton. (Hamish Hamilton. 10s. 6d.) THESE four books have certain things in common. They are about war, a war in...

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SOLUTION TO CROSSWORD No. 351 SOLUTION ON DECEMBER 28th

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The winner of Crossword No. 351 is MRS. H. B. ROBERTS, Pinehurst, Milford-on-Sea, Hants.

" THE SPECTATOR " CROSSWORD No. 353 IA Book Token

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for one guinea will be awarded to the sender of the first correct glutzon of this week's crossword to be opened after noon on Tuesday week, December 25th. Envelopes must be...

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FINANCE AND INVESTMENT

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By CI'STOS THERE is only one thing less pleasant than being in need of large- scale financial help and that is not being able to get it. As to this country's need for a dollar...

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COMPANY MEETINGS

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CONSOLIDATED GOLD FIELDS OF SOUTH AFRICA PRESENT-DAY PROBLEMS THE. ordinary general meeting of the Consolidated Gold Fields of South Africa, Limited, was held on December 6th...

FERRANTI, LTD.

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GREAT WAR ACTIVITY THE ordinary general meeting of Ferranti, Limited, was held on December 6th in London, Mr. V. Z. De Ferranti, M.C., M.I.E.E. (chairman and managing...