16 MAY 1958

Page 3

Privileged Classes

The Spectator

T 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....

FRIDAY, MAY 16, 1958

The Spectator

GENERALS STRIKE

The Spectator

T 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 Spectator

TN 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...

Page 4

Spring in America

The Spectator

By 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 Spectator

S 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 Spectator

D. W. BROGAN The Attack on the Supreme Court

Page 5

Westminster Commentary

The Spectator

Who 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 Spectator

G 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...

Page 6

READERS OF the News Chronicle have recently been enlightened on

The Spectator

various 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 Spectator

THE 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 Spectator

Select 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 Spectator

his 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 Spectator

pickings 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...

Page 7

I SEE THAT the decision to turn our Atlantic air-

The Spectator

craft 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 Spectator

mishearing 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 Spectator

By 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...

Page 8

Guano and Golden Eagles By JOHN BETJEMAN W ITHOUT a drop

The Spectator

of 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...

Page 9

From the Finland Station

The Spectator

By 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...

Page 11

Tbe *nctator

The Spectator

MAY 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 Spectator

By 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...

Page 12

Theatre

The Spectator

Backstage 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 Spectator

Champagne '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...

Page 13

Ghost-play

The Spectator

Variations 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...

Page 15

Cinema

The Spectator

The 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 Spectator

Economic 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...

Page 16

Consuming Interest

The Spectator

Promoting 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...

Page 18

A Doctor's Journal

The Spectator

Wonder 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...

Page 19

ENGLISH SPOKEN HERE Sia,—Strix wonders if etymologists have ceased to

The Spectator

emalleate certain words. May I express my pious hope that he at any rate will never suffer from pseudolitholychnostaurotic misosis, alopecothereuo- phobia or...

POLIO

The Spectator

SIR, —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 Spectator

press 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 Spectator

notice 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...

The Spectator

Page 20

A. E. HOUSMAN SIR,—I see that you entrusted my book

The Spectator

on 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 Spectator

SIR,—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 Spectator

Quigly'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 Spectator

SIR,—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 Spectator

SIR,—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...

Page 21

BOOKS

The Spectator

Brother 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...

Page 22

Traditional

The Spectator

MR. 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 Spectator

Power 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 Spectator

By 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...

Page 23

Waking Dream

The Spectator

Selected 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 Spectator

A 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...

Page 24

Second Heaviest

The Spectator

Bourbon 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 Spectator

A 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 Spectator

The 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 '...

Page 25

Corpse at the Carnival. By George Bellairs. (Gifford, 10s. 6d.)

The Spectator

and 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 Spectator

Othello, 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 Spectator

Mighty 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 Spectator

The 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 Spectator

6d.) 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 Spectator

Road-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...

Page 27

By CUSTOS

The Spectator

T 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 Spectator

By 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...

Page 28

COMPANY NOTES

The Spectator

N 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'...

Page 30

SPECTATOR CROSSWORD No. 992

The Spectator

ACROSS 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 Spectator

By 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 Spectator

SPECTATOR 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 Spectator

of 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 Spectator

II 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....