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Privileged Classes
The SpectatorT HE London Electricity Board privilege case has become so complicated that even papers of the calibre of the Manchester Guardian and the Observer seem to have misunderstood it....
GENERALS STRIKE
The SpectatorT HE competition in chauvinism which has been going on in France has had its logical result —a military coup. In view of the inflamed state of public opinion in Algiers, the...
Portrait of the Week
The SpectatorTN French North Africa, war; on British Rail- ways, peace. While a gang of soldiers, their Patience exhausted, seize power in Algeria, a single British soldier, his patience...
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Spring in America
The SpectatorBy RICHARD H. ROVERE T HE morning papers carry some mildly en- couraging recession news. The Labour De- partment reports a drop in the number of unemployment-insurance...
Peace with Honour ?
The SpectatorS 112. BRIAN ROBERTSON spoke his last word—an increase in the railwaymen's pay of roughly 7d. in the pound, to start on June 30—and the unions went off to consider the offer in...
NEXT WEEK RANDOLPH S. CHURCHILL The Privacy of the Individual
The SpectatorD. W. BROGAN The Attack on the Supreme Court
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Westminster Commentary
The SpectatorWho blew his brains out on his bedroom floor And still behaved exactly as before. The fact remains that, barring what Mr. Mencken called acts of God of a revolting and unprece-...
Tuesday in Paris
The SpectatorG EORGE B1LAINKIN writes : At eleven a.m. in the office of Monsieur Rank, of Jours de France, I was surprised to see a procession of Young men and pretty girls on their way to...
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READERS OF the News Chronicle have recently been enlightened on
The Spectatorvarious aspects of Liberal policy. I am privileged to bring this enlighter ment to a different audience. The 1.,*b*r*1 leader answers your queries on party policy. Ask 3*...
A Spectator's Notebook
The SpectatorTHE HOMERIC LEGENDS which the French have woven about sonic of their latter-day military comman- ders usually leave me unmoved, except to admire the Gallic skill of obliterating...
THE MINUTES OF EVIDENCE submitted to the House of Commons
The SpectatorSelect Committee on the Obscene Publications Bill make marvellously funny reading to anybody who does not worry about the fact that a remarkable degree of cen- sorship is being...
AS FOR Sir Theobald Mathew, the Director of Public Prosecutions,
The Spectatorhis evidence made that of Sir Frank Newsam sound sensible, open and reasonable. It reached its nadir when he solemnly announced that when he was recently requested —not,...
TAXI DRIVERS tell me that they are not earning further
The Spectatorpickings because of the bus strike. 'Ordinary people,' they say, squinting at me with one eye through the driving mirror to see whether I am actually wearing a top hat or...
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I SEE THAT the decision to turn our Atlantic air-
The Spectatorcraft carriers into helicopter carriers for anti- submarine work has caused some surprise at NATO headquarters; the only really surprising thing about the decision, I would have...
His name is Eugene lonesco, and many a puzzled wife
The Spectatormishearing the gabble at a green- room cocktail party has confused him with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cul- tural Organisation. Leslie Mallory in the News...
The Failure of President Benes
The SpectatorBy SIDNEY Z. ELLER* T EN years have gone by since the iron cur- tain came down along the western border of Czechoslovakia; and twenty years since disturb- ances broke out in the...
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Guano and Golden Eagles By JOHN BETJEMAN W ITHOUT a drop
The Spectatorof Scotch (does one say `butterscottish' or 'double scottish'?) blood in my veins I take up my pen. The National Trust for Scotland, under the chairmanship of the vigorous and...
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From the Finland Station
The SpectatorBy D. C. WATT T HE outbreak of revolution in Russia in March, 1917, found Lenin in exile in Switzerland. The story of his return to Russia through Germany 'in a sealed truck...
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Tbe *nctator
The SpectatorMAY 18, 1833 THE Ministerial plan for putting an end to slavery is at length fairly before the public; and if we are to believe the West Indian proprietor on the one side, and...
Blood out of a Stone
The SpectatorBy PETER FLEMING I N Operation Sea Lion (Oxford University Press, 305.) Mr. Ronald Wheatley presents a detailed study, and an objective interpretation, of the German plans for...
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Theatre
The SpectatorBackstage in Moscow By JOAN LITTLEWOOD THE building itself stands in a busy side-street off one of Mos- cow's main boulevards. It is pale green, the colour typical of the...
Roundabout
The SpectatorChampagne 'I'M A displaced person all right. But I've been displaced to some- , where I like more than I liked .2; where I used to be. It's only due to a ridiculous mistake on...
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Ghost-play
The SpectatorVariations on a Theme. By Terence Rattigan. (Globe.) I Do not often agree with Mr. Harold Hobson. Too often he plays the advocate rather than the judge, decorating an irrelevant...
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Cinema
The SpectatorThe Nature of Love By ISABEL QUIGLY The White Nights. (Curzon.)—A Dangerous Age. (Academy.) LOVE stories, you might think, are two a penny in the cinema. Not a bit, if you...
Music
The SpectatorEconomic Realities MASON By COLIN TEN new Verdi productions were what Covent Garden originally hoped to put on this season for the centenary of the theatre. As with any dream...
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Consuming Interest
The SpectatorPromoting Good Design By LESLIE ADRIAN THE Council of Industrial Design's exhibition 'Designs of the Year' has had a panning from the design critics. Speaking not as an expert...
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A Doctor's Journal
The SpectatorWonder or Die By MILES HOWARD TN an American news magazine I saw a report of 'some work being done by Hans Selye and his team in Montreal on the causes and prevention of...
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ENGLISH SPOKEN HERE Sia,—Strix wonders if etymologists have ceased to
The Spectatoremalleate certain words. May I express my pious hope that he at any rate will never suffer from pseudolitholychnostaurotic misosis, alopecothereuo- phobia or...
POLIO
The SpectatorSIR, —Pharos mentions that the polio problem has been treated with sensationalism by some of our politicians, but surely the press is not blameless? The fact that the disease...
Sin, — It is to be hoped that recent correspondence in the
The Spectatorpress about that splendid feat of arms, Zeebrugge, will end the distortions of the facts: dis- tortions which are undignified, add nothing to the stature of the gallant...
THE GOLDEN NAZI SIR,—Mr. R. C. Blackham objects to my
The Spectatornotice on The Young Lions as 'a political diatribe.' The Young Lions has political implications that can be dealt with only in political terms. The Christian charity he mentions...
Letters to the Editor
The Spectator'My Books of the Year' English Spoken Here Zeebrugg e Polio The Golden Nazi F luoridation A. E. Housman The Shock of Innovation Stress Disorders Cicero T. Ritchie I. C. Wells...
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A. E. HOUSMAN SIR,—I see that you entrusted my book
The Spectatoron A. E. Housman to one of your angry young reviewers. I say nothing of Mr. Thwaite's personal judgments, though it would be a simple matter to confute them all, but I am...
FLUORIDATION
The SpectatorSIR,—Leslie Adrian invites me to comment on the views put forward by Mrs. Grant on fluoridation in the same issue (May 2). It would be very unwise to do so. Scientific issues of...
SIR,—II seems hard to believe that anyone could attack Miss
The SpectatorQuigly's restrained and reasoned review of The Young Lions. (a) Considering that the world is enchained by ideologies, you can hardly think out- side them. (b) The world is in...
THE SHOCK OF INNOVATION
The SpectatorSIR,—Mr. Graham Hutton, in his interesting articl e 'The Shock of Innovation,' seems to underestirna te , the attention that economists have given to industri a ' innovation. In...
STRESS DISORDERS
The SpectatorSIR,—Your correspondent Miles Howard, in bi g , report of the SPR Conference last week, did no emphasise, as I think he might 'have done, Ib e direction of change in the...
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BOOKS
The SpectatorBrother Savage B Y BERNARD LEVIN T HE law is a ass,' said Mr. Bumble. 'And the . Worst I wish the law,' he added, 'is that he should have his eye opened by experience.' It Is a...
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Traditional
The SpectatorMR. REEVES has selected a hundred-odd tradi" tional poems from the notebooks of Cecil giving unexpurgated texts as Sharp could not. result is delightful, and this book,...
Against Kennan
The SpectatorPower and Diplomacy. By Dean Acheson. us. 6d.) THE political position of Mr. Dean Acheson is probably well known in this country. On the one hand, as Secretary of State of the...
Make it Simple, . Make it Quick English Philosophy since 1900.
The SpectatorBy G. J. Warnock. (Home University Library : O.U.P., 7s. 6d.) THE scope of Mr. Warnock's little book is very much more restricted than its title would suggest. In his first...
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Waking Dream
The SpectatorSelected Writings of Gerard de Nerval. Translated with a critical introduction and notes by Geoffrey Wagner. (Peter Owen, 25s.) pelui . . . qui veut ecrire son reve' (declared...
Flower of Cities
The SpectatorA History of London Life. By R. J. Mitchell and M. D. R. Leys. (Longmans, 25s.) The Royal Albert Hall. By Ronald W. Clark. (Hamish Hamilton, 25s.) MISS MITCHELL and Miss Leys...
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Second Heaviest
The SpectatorBourbon Leader: Grover Cleveland and the Democratic Party. By H. S. Merrill; edited by Oscar Handlin. (A. and C. Black, 18s.) GROVER CLEVELAND was the second heaviest President...
Right TrueIdiom
The SpectatorA Dictionary of Abstract Painting. By Michel Seuphor. (Methuen, 42s.) ' Brancusi. By David Lewis. (Tiranti, 18s.) DESPITE the detractors and resisters, there's little doubt...
Ghostly Eminence
The SpectatorThe Political System of Napoleon III. BY Theodore Zeldin. (Macmillan, 24s.) peculiar drawbacks, and the same restless Ye le a personal centralised autocracy; only to be - r e '...
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Corpse at the Carnival. By George Bellairs. (Gifford, 10s. 6d.)
The Spectatorand The Grey Stranger. By Frances Crane. (Hammond, 10s. 6d.) If carnival means 'Nice' to you, and port 'Oporto,' then these detective stories about carnival at Douglas, loM, and...
The Sound of Shakespeare
The SpectatorOthello, Troilus and Cressida and As You Like It. Recorded by the Marlowe Society on Argo Records, £23 (approximately) in total. EQUITY has charged the Marlowe Society of Cam-...
Imperial Preferences
The SpectatorMighty Fallen. By Charles Whiting. (Cape, 15s.) 14 3 1 Mother was Hanged. By E. S. Willards. (Heinemann, 13s. 6d.) I ' ROUBLE in yet another Arab State. The insurgents ave...
It's a Crime
The SpectatorThe Tiger Among Us. By Leigh Brackett. (Boardman, 10s. 6d.) Powerful piece about young American who gets wantonly beaten up by gang of youngsters, for fun. The attack is so...
The Bachelors of Broken Hill. By Arthur Upfield. (Heinemann, 12s.
The Spectator6d.) Newly published but patently earlyish adventure of the half- Australian aboriginal detective Napoleon Bona- parte. Instead of the sun-blasted outback about which Mr....
A Shriek of Tyres. By Douglas Rutherford. (Collins, 10s. 6d.)
The SpectatorRoad-racing thriller—Silver- stone, Le Mans, the Mille Miglia—by a writer who deals superbly with speed and action. Not so good on human relationships as his excellent previous...
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By CUSTOS
The SpectatorT HROGMORTON STREET never lost its faith in a settlement of the wage crisis on tilt railways and the marking down of prices in the gilt-edged market was very moderate. The new...
`WAITING FOR GODOT' AT THE TREASURY INVESTMENT NOTES
The SpectatorBy NICHOLAS DAVENPORT WAITING for Godot' would be a good title for the present economic policy of the Treasury. The trouble about 'Waiting for Godot' is that if you wait...
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COMPANY NOTES
The SpectatorN ORTH Central Wagon and Finance Coll' pany has produced some impressive fig r es do for 1957. Amounts reserved for future profits stt at over 121 per cent, of the hirers'...
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SPECTATOR CROSSWORD No. 992
The SpectatorACROSS 1 Escape as depicted by Turner, for example? (8) 5 Suffering seems to be involved for this heathen (6) 9 No thoroughbred this appetiser (8) 10 So to be found twinkling...
Chess
The SpectatorBy PHILIDOR No. 153. Specially contributed by H. AHUES (Broiler ) ) BLACK (10 men) WHITE (8 men) WHITE to play and mate in two moves: solution tog! week. Solution to last...
Serendipity
The SpectatorSPECTATOR COMPETITION No. 428: Report by Papoose My copy of Chambers's Dictionary has a habit of opening at the page whose first entry is the word 'serendipity.' This always...
The name of a racehorse is often an ingeni 0 combination
The Spectatorof those of its sire and dam (thus, ti foal by Petition out of Footbridge was none': Brief Span). Competitors are asked to invent set of three literary titles, each stemming...
SOLUTION TO 990 ACROSS.-1 Batiste, 5 Pit-a-pat. 9. 10 Introductorily,
The SpectatorII Aunter. 12 By-passed. 14 Realm. 15 Swellings, 18 Cairngorm. 20 Nomen. 22 lzvestia, 24 Pistol. 26 Carinthia, 27 Onset, 28 Sledded. 29 Tintern. DOWN. — 1 BrIcabrac. 2 Titania....