T HE election programme set out in the Labour Party pamphlet "Labour Believes in Britain" will raise in an acute form the more important question whether Britain believes in...

The writer of an article on the L.C.C. elections which appeared in the Spectator three weeks ago suggested that the government of London would be healthily stimulated if...

It would be difficult to exaggeratc the importance of the Common- wealth Confsrence which opens next Thursday. Practically, if not quite, the only business is the future...

There was a time when it was very difficult to judge from county council elections which way the political wind was blowing, since local issues and personalities were often...

The Corfu Channel Case was a tough test of the competence and integrity of the International Court of Justice at The Hague and the Court must be held to have done well in the...

As a military problem, the crossing of the Yangtse increases in difficulty as the river rises, a seasonal process which normally begins about this time of year when the Tibetan...

Count Sforza, in his reasoned argument for the return to Italy of her former colonies, talked of his country's "colonial mission" in Africa. He is so far the only interested...

Marshal Tito's speech of last Saturday, in which he condemned the Soviet Union for its campaign of lies against Yugoslavia and the West for vulgar stupidity in thinking that...

M ORE Members than usual were in the House last Friday, but a glance at their constituencies in Dod's Parliamentary Companion showed that comparatively few of them were...

Nothing which has happened since the Chancellor of the Exchequer presented the Budget last Wednesday has altered the basic truth that, given the Government's plans for spending...

The founders of the British Labour Party constantly claimed the right to work. The present Labour Government constantly—and rightly—emphasises the duty to work. And yet it...

W ITH the promulgation of the Occupation Statute for Western Germany a new chapter for the bulk of the German people should open. Not, unfortunately, for all Germany. Out of the...

up a football pools coupon correctly, and should have netted £26,750. But the envelope in which he posted his coupon got caught up in the folds of a parcel in the course of the...

internal report by a competent committee, to be taught manners would be most unjust. Civil servants have perfectly good manners. But they are often rather unimaginative manners,...

little less than astonish- ment to a new Sir Stafford Cripps on Tuesday night. A greater contrast than between the speech with which the Chancellor opened the Budget debate and...

on Friday (confirming the finding of the Court of Appeal, which had confirmed the finding of Mr. Justice Jenkins) is likely to take its place in the select category of leading...

court at Nurem- berg has given a fairly clean sheet to Herr von Weiszacker, State Secretary in Germany from 1938 to 1943, whom I used to know reasonably well. That, in spite of...

have forgotten the other Sir Stafford—till Mr. George Benson recalled him on the second night of the Budget debate. The Hansard record reads thus: " Of Sir Stafford [Hon....

notable historian, a notable Liberal in something much larger than the pure party sense, and a man of unswerving intellectual integrity. He came of a fine Oxford vintage—among...

By G. H. CALPIN Durban, I T was interesting for some of us in South Africa to see the reactions of the British Press to the news that Dr. Malan accepted the invitation to the...

By HORACE ALEXANDER I SUPPOSE 'most English people, when they think of Pakistan, picture a territory that formerly covered die north-western part of undivided India—in fact,...

By RAWLE KNOX M R. JAMES DILLON is a man unafraid of making enemies. This is as well, since he delights in provoking his opponents with most outrageous taunts about their...

By W. H. EDWARDS W HENEVER the reaction of public opinion, of politicians or of cross-sections of the population of Western Germany to current events baffles or amazes foreign...

COMMUNISM IN MALAYA By SIR ERIC MACFADYEN C HINESE Communism first put itself on the Malayan map' with the series of big dock strikes which paralysed the port of Singapore in...

By PENELOPE HOUSTON T HE older universities still boast (and how soon will the boast become a confession 2) that they teach one how to live, but not how to make a living. They...

By DEREK HUDSON A N artist once drew for the Graphic an impression of Tennyson in his old age sitting in his handsome study at Aldworth, near Haslemere. He has a book in one...

STUDENTS OF CALIFORNIA As might be expected from one's observations of the British university, the greatest influence on the life at California Institute is the presence of the...

By HAROLD NICOLSON T HE decorous mansion now tenanted by the National Book League at No. 7 Albemarle Street was once the most fashionable hostelry of Regency London. It was...

ON April 6th, in the small hall of Morley College, I received a revelation almost as unlikely as Solavyov's vision of Holy Wisdom in the British Museum Reading Room. " Ancient "...

" Germany Year Zero." (Curzon.) " Captain from Castile." (Odeon, Marble Arch.)—" Give My Regards to Broadway." (Tivoli.) To say what I have to say about M. Roberto...

THE THEATRE " Maiden's Prayer." By Robert Charles. (Playhouse.) WE all know, or we all think we know which is much the same thing, what a raw deal playwrights get in the...

SUBSCRIPTION RATES Ordinary edition to any address in the World. 52 week. £1 10s. Od. 26 weeks 15s. Od. Air Mail to any Country in Europe. 52 weeks £2 7s. 6d 26 weeks £1...

says that he is pestered for advice on the subject of commercialising the private garden, and especially the herbaceous border. Another garden critic avers that after the first...

Au. the tags from all the poets of spring will apply to the eve of this Easter, but especially the Roman Redeunt jam gramina campis, if we include that supreme grass (a close...

The creation of national parks is said to be imminent. One district, never mentioned as a candidate, is already a national park, which has now been most seasonably increased by...

number of the Countryman (now edited by the son of the Chancellor of the Exchequer) of an old and maimed elm in which nested the barn, the tawny and the little owl, a kestrel,...

MANY exhibitions in London clamour for attention, from the London Gallery's Early Chirico (to which an entrance charge of one shilling seems rather exorbitant, notwithstanding...

COLONIAL SELF-DETERMINATION SIR,- -The late arrival of the Spectator in some of our colonies may deprive those most concerned of the benefits of informed debate in your columns...

atheist Communism or, for that matter,sclevil-wofship Should not have its martyrs, though in practice it might not be easy to 'cite any. Sainthood is a completely different...

Sta,—This discussion appears to be shifting its ground. It began with the question whether King Charles_I had been canonised, .and evidence was brought forward to show that he...

the opportunity to reply—belatedly, I fear—to certain letters which arose from my article, Four Races in Kenya. The letters from Mr. Gordon Smith and Mr. R. C. Wigg are...

Sifi,—Your contributor, Mr. M. D. Butler, in the Spectator of April 1st, referring to conditions in Ontario, wrote: " In no sphere was there, or indeed, I believe, will there...

Stn,—Mr. Day complains that you have given no guidance to the wavering middle voter. His own solution is far from helpful. In this country, rightly or wrongly, we prefer a...

Si;—! have read with considerable interest your contributor's, Mr. J. B. Atkins, comments on Punch in his new garb, and I agree substantially with his viewpoint. I wish,...

SIR,—In his latest letter I am glad to see that Sir Angus Watson has abandoned the irrational attitude which was my main objection to his previous presentation of .his case....

Sta,—The information on Guy's Hospital given in my original letter was obtained direct from the hospital by telephone last month ; Dr. Evans's correction is, however, most...

SIR,—As a villager may I support Mr. Milburn's plea for more con- siderate treatment of the villages by public bodies ? At the centre of the village in which I live is a...

SIR,—I notice in your comment on the letter " Overhead Lines " you quote the reply given in Parliament by the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Town and Country...

Age of the Tyrants IN the last New Year letter which Hitler wrote to Mussolini at the end of 1944, he remarked : " One thing is certain, and that is that neither Fascism nor...

Mrs. Arthur Strong : A Memoir. By Gladys Scott Thomson. (Cohen and West. 7s. 6d.) IN the latter part of the nineteenth century. and the first thirty years or so of the twentieth...

INTEREST in William Blake is increasing steadily, and investigators pore over the symbolic books of the poet in the hope of solving the great riddle. These latter-day scholiasts...

IT says something for the perception of Theodore Roosevelt that he was one of the first to befriend Edwin Arlington Robinson and to recognise the virtues of the obscure young...

Essays on Local Government. Edited by Charles Wilson. (Basil Blackwell. 18s.) INTRODUCTIONS to other parts of our political system are not too frequent, but about once a year...

The Diary of Antoine Roquentin. By Jean-Paul Sartre. Translated by Lloyd Alexander. (John Lehmann. 9s. 6d.) Randle in Springtime. By Geoffrey Cotterell. (Eyre and Spottiswoode....

The Modern Theatre. By Eric Bentley. (Robert Hale. 12s. 6d.) MR. BENTLEY has written a wise, witty and forthright book. He is no trimmer and knows no compromise. He sees his...

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one guinea will be awarded to the sender of the first correct solution of this week's crossword to be opened after noon on Tuesday week, April 26th. Envelopes must be received...

6d.) Tins is a chaotic strident sermon on the education of children, saying the same thing again and again, fulminating against present society and traditional school methods....

12s. 6d.) IN his warm appreciation of Franck's best music and his champion- ship of even the admittedly unequal the author does a great service to a composer whom a school of...

By CUSTOS INvEsroas' second thoughts on the implications of Sir Stafford Cripps's Spartan Budget have brought disappointment to the stock markets. While there has been no...