UROM a man who claims to believe that 1 'the process over the past generation and more of granting independence to previously subject people and territories is one of the...

POLITICAL COMMENTARY, By ALAN WATKINS HE relief of . . . distress and the elimination of . . . squalor,' wrote Mr Anthony Cros- land in 1956, 'is the main object of social ex-...

Tiger, Tiger, turning right In the pitch on Friday night, Will tobacco, iron and chrome Somehow bring the bacon home? Where is Brown? and where's His Nibs? What's become of...

RHODESIA — 1 By SIR EDGAR WHITEHEAD T HE White Paper published by the Govern- ment after the failure of the 'Tiger' talks between Mr Wilson and Mr Smith is a most astonishing...

By SIMON CLEMENTS T rTHERE can be little doubt that when, as looks 1 probable, the time comes when it is apparent that UN sanctions are not going to crush Mr Smith into...

December 15, 1866 A very old paper is apparently about to dis- appear, the Evening Mail, a tri-weekly edition of the Times, established in 1790. The proprie- tors of this...

As I write, it's too soon to reach any precise conclusion about the escape from Dartmoor of Frank Samuel Mitchell, who reads like Stein- beck's Lennie to the life. But it's...

THE LAW By R. A. CLINE A uniouGn most of Her Majesty's judges sitting A the Common Law courts spend a great deal of their time and waste their talents in sorting out traffic...

THE PRESS By DONALD McLACHLAN I T is now D minus 25: that is to say, the representatives of management and unions will meet for the first time on January 9 to discuss what...

By ENA KENDALL T HE assembly hall of Merthyr College of Further Education has a fine new stage hung with flame-coloured velvet curtains. Already they have opened on as much...

TELEVISION By STUART HOOD We did, it is true, see David Frost giving what must on any count be reckoned a very brilliant performance. This was an interview in the best terrier...

AFTERTHOUGHT By JOHN WELLS (1936- ) SPECTATOR. Sean Kenny's mighty Cyclotron, then, if I may get straight into it, is a delight to behold and a massive stimulus to the...

By JOHN CROSBY `We asked Peter Sellers to say what he believes has that indefinable something called "style." These are his answers. My wife. A red Lam- borghini Miura. El...

ILIEctrif Eng, To THE EIDIFFN From : F. O'Hanlon, J. Clement Jones, T. C. Skellington-Lodge, Professor Paul Streeten and Roger Hill, Nicos E. Devletoglou, Mrs N. Szamuely, Mrs...

SIR,—Professor Bauer says we overlooked the fact that he did not discuss foreign aid. Yet he concludes an argument against planning by saying that India 'now depends on...

SIR,—Alan Watkins may write good English and at the same time write inaccurately and sometimes mali- ciously on political matters. How does he know what Mr Callaghan said at...

SIR,—I find myself at variance with the comment by R. A. Cline in his article on the Criminal Justice Bill (December 9). He welcomes the restriction on report- ing of...

development and ultimate growth has always been something of a mystery. Even today, we grope and hope. Perhaps the day will come when the dynamics of economic, social, politi-...

Sul,-1 derived real pleasure from Mr Burgess's witty and ingenious article 'Here Parla Man Mar- communish' (SPECTATOR, November 25). There is one point upon which I should be...

SIR,—Mr P. L. Harris writes (Leiters, December 9) . . if Freud has in any way made parents more alive to the extent to which they determine the be- haviour of their children,...

of whom have helped us in the past — that we still welcome gifts of books for the men of the Merchant Navy. Although most of the books which we supply to British ships are...

is honest enough to admit in the open that he likes a good tune in opera. I refer to Charles Reid's excel- lent review of Malcolm Williamson's The Violins of Saint-Jacques at...

is at his best with children' (Letters, December 9), but I think would like him better if he were at his best with diplomats. ROBERT HARTMAN Pedor's Close, Smithwood Common,...

THEATRE IN CRISIS —3 By HILARY SPURLING I the past ten years or so, the theatre in this 'country has undergone a shuffling and re- • grouping similar in scale, though not in...

BALLET R EBORN, refurbished, rethought, and re- housed in the efficient if austere little Jeannetta Cochrane Theatre, Ballet Rambert rides again, and we all—dancers, critics,...

MUSIC I F it wasn't for the fact that it was stolen,' said a trader under blinding electric bulbs in the Chapel Street market, a trumpet call away from Sadler's Wells Opera, as...

Franco-American OR a while now, it has been a standard com- r pliment to a film-maker to say that he films the way a novelist writes. Caught in its inescapable tangle of...

By DAVID REES Another Troy must rise and set, Another lineage feed the crow, Another Argo's painted prow Drive to a flashier bauble yet W. B. YEATS, Two Songs from a Play VER...

Life is a Four - Letter Word (Cassell, 42s.) is the first, long (530 - odd pages) instalment of Nicholas Monsarrat's autobiography. It is at once leisurely and impassioned,...

Russell's Despatches from the Crimea 1854-56. Edited and introduced by Nicolas Bentley. (Andre Deutsch, 50s.) THE Crimean War still holds an extraordinary fascination....

Winter's Tales 12. Edited by A. D. Maclean. (Macmillan, 25s.) Exiles. By Gordon Meyer. (London Magazine Editions, 6s. 6d.) The Fencing Master. By Gilbert Rogin. (Cape, 21s.)...

The new girl with violent hair Ignored me daily on the stair Her glance-away was like a stare 1 make my own disasters Across the sky I saw her hand A bundle into a waiting hand...

Survivors of the Armada. By Evelyn Hardy. (Constable, 30s.) LIKE so many national occasions, the Armada crisis is often misunderstood. The Spanish threat survived 1588; James...

WITH the Arno's muddy overspill, as with the red-hot rake of liberation twenty-two years ago, we have been reminded that to be an Italian is to live, and die, in an art museum....

spending. funds would not object to being directed—up to, E r RE ECONONV VNEE COIT say, £250 million a year—into the new financial By NICHOLAS DAVENPORT TT is always...

By JOHN BULL MHE rise in building society deposit rates I now scheduled for January 1 means that savers must rethink their strategy. At present the usual return is 4 per cent...

By CUSTOS F oRGE - rrrtsto Rhodesia and encouraged by the exceptional trade figures for November the new account on the Stock Exchange opened firmly with an increase in...

Brandied Goods By LESLIE ADRIAN No, much more misleading are the labels that claim that the mixture is 'flavoured with brandy' or simply say 'and brandy.' I understand that if...

BLACK (IO men) No. 313. R. L. SPENCER PALMER (Problemist, July. 1966) winTa to play an...; force Black to mate him in two moves solution next week. Solution to No. 312 (Gruber)...

Upper. at Persimmon. 12 Tweenies. 13 Balder. 55 Peel. 16 Asd. 17 Lotto. 20 Nifty. 21 01110. 22 Ans. 24 Ludw ig . 26 Organdie. 29 Ambiguous. 3o Perdu, p Bats. 32 Pennyroyal....

ACROSS I. Literary gents? (7) 5. Intoxicated by illicit spirits? (7) 9. Dizzy we ! (7) to. Hairdo for the stony? (7) it. Brave princess (to) 12. 'Oh never - Was lost here but it...