17 FEBRUARY 1956

Page 3

SPECTATOR

The Spectator

ESTABLISHED 1828 No. 6 6 6 0 FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1956 PRICE 7d.

NO MORE APPEASEMENT

The Spectator

B RITISH Middle Eastern policy is a failure. That is the lesson of the Washington talks. Out of all the discussions between President Eisenhower and Sir Anthony Eden has come...

Page 4

JOCKEYING FOR POSITION

The Spectator

TN February last year, seventeen months after the Royal 'Commission on Capital Punishment had submitted its report, the Home Secretary said that the Government had provisionally...

THE NEXT STEP

The Spectator

T HE results of the Maltese referendum have naturally been claimed as a victory both by the supporters and the oppon- ents of integration. Mr. Mintoff, indeed, only polled 45...

THE TREASURY'S SPLIT MIND

The Spectator

RITAIN'S overseas trade fared badly in January. The D import bill was the highest on record for any month, with the exception of March last year. Exports still showed little...

Portrait of the Week

The Spectator

T HE cold has been international this week. There have been disastrous avalanches in Yugoslavia, the Spanish orange crop has been ruined, and US transport aircraft have been...

Page 5

MacArthur and Truman

The Spectator

By RICHARD H. ROVERE G ENERAL of the Army Douglas MacArthur has for many years been addicted to the conspiracy theory of history. MacArthur is a True Believer—not a rank-...

During the printing dispute some readers may find that copies

The Spectator

of the Spectator arrive late. We regret any short- comings in this issue and also any inconvenience that may be caused by circumstances beyond our control.

Page 6

Political Commentary

The Spectator

BY HENRY FAIRLIE T the moment of writing the debate on capital punish- ment has not been held, but whatever the result of the free vote, it seems clear that much will depend on...

THE SCHOLAR TIPSY

The Spectator

BY CHRISTOPHER HOLLIS Go, for they call you, Sparrow, from the Hall. Go, Sparrow, and collect your promised votes. The traffic makes life hideous in the High, And all the...

Page 7

A Spectator's Notebook

The Spectator

LOVERS OF CIVIL LIBERTIES will, no doubt, be suitably pained to learn that Donald Maclean should have been followed by plain-clothes policemen wherever he went before his flight...

IN Disenchantment C.E. Montague described the odd process by which

The Spectator

military leaders , gain and keep their reputations: Haig's, for example—'Wherever he was, nameless waves of some sort rippled out through an uncharted ether, convexing some...

DR. G. M. TREVELYAN is eighty this week and the

The Spectator

Regius Pro- fessor of Modern History at Cambridge writes about him on another page. Sir Winston Churchill. Sir George Clark, Professor Butterfield among others intend to...

I FEEL rather sorry for Sir Robert Fraser. A few

The Spectator

days ago he tried to prove, in a letter to The Times, that commercial tele- vision is doing as much for the serious viewer as the BBC. His thesis was turned upside down, shaken,...

MUSCOVITE INTELLIGENCE MOSCOW'S NATIONAL HOTEL. with its Edwardian furnishings. is

The Spectator

the last place 1 should have expected Burgess and Maclean to choose for their reappearance. — Daily Telegraph. February 13, p. 6. THE Room in which we met was heavy with...

Page 8

I WONDER whether Sir Robert greatly enjoyed the tribulations of

The Spectator

Mrs. Kirk last week. Searching for a topic to chill the hearts of viewers as morbidly as the BBC's Quatermass serial, Associated Rediffusion have lighted upon the Law. Last...

The Politics of the New Estate

The Spectator

BY CHARLES CURRAN I N a previous article I attempted to outline the New Estate of the realm that has been created by the great resettlement of wealth and population in Great...

`IT WILL be as well to remember that capital punishment

The Spectator

is a penalty. . . Telegraph, February 11. PHAROS

Page 9

George Macaulay Trevelyan

The Spectator

E XACTLY one hundred years ago, at the :end of . January, 1856, Macaulay went down from the .Albany to Kensington to view Holly Lodge, which he proposed to buy; with him went...

Page 10

The Chair of Poetry

The Spectator

By OXONIAN IF EW recent events in Oxford—not excluding even the' great road question—have made more of a splash in the outside world than the closely contested election on...

Page 12

H. L. Mencken

The Spectator

By D. W. BROGAN ARYLAND, my Maryland,' has lost its most famous M son and the chief city of the Free State its most devoted citizen. For above all else, Henry Louis Mencken was...

Page 13

City and Suburban

The Spectator

By JOHN BETJEMAN T he recent keen frosty air has made me acutely aware of London's skyline. Things stand out sharply and I wonder whether we arc right, even in the acute housing...

Page 14

Sir,—I have every sympathy with the objects of the John

The Spectator

Gordon Society, but is the Society in danger of encouraging the very evil that it hopes to defeat? Sometimes an attack on an undesirable book serves as an advertisement. I know...

Letters to the Editor

The Spectator

The New Estate Charles Curran Burke or Gallup ? William Gregory The John Gordon Society Christine Thomson, A. Livesey, Peter Wildeblood, Helen Montgomery War Correspondents '...

THE JOHN GORDON SOCIETY Sir,—A large number of applications have

The Spectator

been received for membership of the John Gordon Society. Individual replies will be sent as promptly as possible, with an invitation to attend the first General Meeting of the...

Sir,—Your correspondent Mr. Graham Greene, who told your readers last

The Spectator

week of his intention to form a John Gordon Society, must have been surprised to find himself being reviled in the Sunday Express by the very object of his admiration. A...

99 Gower Street, London, W.C.1

The Spectator

Euston 3221

BURKE OR GALLUP?

The Spectator

Sir,—In discussing the general principle in- volved—that politicians should act on their own judgement and not 'abdicate their responsibilities' to public opinion polls—it is,...

WAR CORRESPONDENTS Sir,—My old friend and colleague, Gerard Fay, is

The Spectator

a distinguished journalist who, when he laid down his pen for a while, soldiered with distinction. So there is double weight behind his attack on war correspondents (in review-...

Sir,—May I applaud the formation of the John Gordon Society

The Spectator

and make formal application for membership? In appreciation of the wholesome work undertaken, I should like to present a portrait of Mr. Gordon to be hung in the Society's...

Page 15

Sir,—'To decide to launch a great programme of technology,' says

The Spectator

Mr. Wilson, 'or indeed of anything else simply because the Russians or the Americans have launched a bigger one, is to do it for the wrong reason.' Why? What about competitive...

Sir, — The answer to the question at the end of Mr.

The Spectator

Harold Danby's letter in your issue of February 10 is 'yes'. An altar is a place of sacrifice. At the Reformation the sacrifice of the Mass was rejected by the Church of...

THE WILLIAM TEMPLE ASSOCIATION .

The Spectator

SIR,—Some of your readers may have been interested in the remarks of Mr: George Goyder in the discussion, 'Root of All Evil,' which was broadcast on the Home Service on December...

THE ALTAR Sir,—Lord Grimthorpe was hasty in ruling that there

The Spectator

is no altar in the Church of England. While the Prayer Book always refers to the Holy Table, and employs no other term, the Coronation Rites which arc formularies of the Church...

SIR,-1 have had a letter from Hong Kong dated December

The Spectator

27, 1955, from the wife of Archdeacon Donnithorne. This lady has been able, through money specially given for the purpose in response to my urgent appeals, to help some of the...

NIGERIAN UNITY

The Spectator

SIR,—One sentence in Roger Falk's very in- teresting 'African Journey' may perhaps cause misunderstanding. He mentions the possibility of 'the coming end of Nigerian unity.' Let...

Page 16

Operatic Revivals

The Spectator

The revival of La Traviata at Sadler's Wells is as thoroughly satisfying a 'presentation of this opera as any London has seen lately. It holds a nice balance between the...

English Surrealist

The Spectator

F E. MACWILLIAM, who is holding a large exhibition of his recent sculpture at the Hanover Gallery, is a very serious, gifted and imaginative artist whose work has not received...

Contemporary Arts

The Spectator

'Erst kommt das Fressen, dann kommt die Moral.' Famous words, which affect any of us who have read about the Thirties like some- thing dimly remembered from the Berlin of Sally...

Page 18

Time for a New Look

The Spectator

ONE of our modern poets, it may be remem- bered, was moved to describe the English Mid- lands as 'sodden and unkind.' This evening, however, ITA shock-troops are due to bring...

American Idyll

The Spectator

PICNIC. ..(Odeon.)—THE Rosa TA1700. (Gaumont.) JOSHUA Lobst4,• who is famed for his stage productions in America, has transferred Daniel Taradash's Picnic, which he directed in...

6pertrifor

The Spectator

FEBRUARY 19, 1831 WORKHOUSE MERCIES.—A person nettled Hughes, master of Hackney Workhouse. wa s on Monday charged before the Magistrates of Worship Street with flogging a...

Page 20

BOOKS

The Spectator

Close Thy Wells BY MICHAEL OAKESHOTT p ROFESSOR BARRACLOUGH is a pugnacious writer. In each of the papers he has gathered together in this book* he enters the ring for another...

Page 21

Life for the Tsar

The Spectator

PETER THE GREAT. By C. de Grunwald. (Douglas Saunders with MacGibbon and Kee, 21s.) M. DE GRUNWALD is an old hand at the popularisation of Russian history. Rather too old a...

Page 22

The Story of Minnie

The Spectator

MARIE CORELLI : The Story of a Friendship. By William Stuart Scott. (Hutchinson, 16s.) THE late nineteenth century in England produced a plethora of women writers, good, bad and...

New Despotism

The Spectator

ONE of the Professors of History at Yale University has been so much impressed by the historic importance of the actions of the Chinese Communist Government that he has devoted...

Untergang

The Spectator

THE RISE AND FALL OF NAZI GERMANY. By T. L. Jarman. (Cresset Press, 25s.) MR. JARMAN has given us a competent history of the Third Reich in The Rise and Fall of Nazi Germany....

Page 24

Victorian Theology

The Spectator

ENGLISH THOUGHT, 1860-1900: THE THEOLOGICAL ASPECT. By L. E. Elliott-Binns. (Longmans, 28s.) THE opening chapters of this book are concerned with the impact of natural science,...

Aspects of James

The Spectator

SELECTED LETTERS OF HENRY JAMES. Edited and introduced by Leon Edel. (Hart-Davis, 16s,) OUT of James's 7,000 extant letters, a selection of 120 can only in the sketchiest way be...

King Coal

The Spectator

COAL IS OUR BUSINESS. By Norman Dennis, Fernando Henriques, and Clifford Slaughter. (Eyre and Spottiswoode, 25s.) SoctoLoolcm. studies are not everybody's literary meat, but...

Page 26

Investors' ABC

The Spectator

BEGINNERS. PLEASE. (Eyre and Spottiswoode for the Investors' Chronicle, 30s.) • QUESTIONS from keen shareholding readers, and answers from the staff of the investors'...

A History...Completed

The Spectator

Tim RESTORATION OF CHAitt.ti§ II, 1658-1660. By Godfrey Davies. (0.U.P.; 55s.) IT, is nearly a hundred years since S. R. Gardiner began to write his History of England from the...

. New Novels.

The Spectator

'His early works,' we read in the introduction to Junichiro Tanizaki's novel, Some Prefer Nettles (Seeker and Warburg, 12s. 6c1.), `were written under the influence less of...

Page 27

PRISON WAS MY PARISH. By the Reverend Baden P. H.

The Spectator

Ball, (Heinemann, 18s.) MR. BALL has led a dedicated and interesting life. Joining the Church Army, he testified from Hyde Park to Blackpool and from Waikaremoana to Dartmoor....

HARDY FISH

The Spectator

We kept an aquarium for a long time and had perch and later goldfish. For a brief period we even had tropical fish. In spite of warnings about temperature changes they did well,...

ADMINISTRATION OF WAR PRODUCTION. By

The Spectator

J. D. Scott and Richard Hughes. (H.M. Stationery Office and Longmans, 37s. 6d.) THIS is a detailed and comprehensive review, in the series The History of the Second World War,...

OLD FRUIT TREES

The Spectator

Old fruit trees are sometimes ringed and sometimes root pruned. In general, to prune cut half the main roots one season and complete the next. Fibrous roots are never touched...

Country Life

The Spectator

BY IAN NIALL I HAVE just received a reprint copy of The Country Code and, if volumes more could be written to establish common ground between, townsman and countryman, at least...

IVOR BROWN as an annalist adds to the usual contents

The Spectator

of a theatre annual his own highly individual impressions of the plays and his own selection of contributions from people Who are supposed to know about one side of the theatre...

ASH FOR A QUEEN

The Spectator

Logs of beech wood burn too fast, There's a fire that will not last. Chestnut's only good they say, If for long it's laid away. Poplar makes a bitter smoke, Fills your eyes...

Chess

The Spectator

BY PHILIDOR No. 37. K. A. K. LARSEN (1st Prize, `Good Companions' 1920) BLACK (12 men) WHITE (11 men) WarrE to play and mate in two moves. solution next week. Solution to...

Page 29

EXPORTS AND AN AMERICAN RECESSION •

The Spectator

By NICHOLAS DAVENPORT AMERICAN economists are busy debating the question whether there will be a recession in the United States this year. The answer is of vital interest to...

COMPANY NOTES

The Spectator

By CUSTOS THE outstanding feature of the stock markets has been the slump in Government credit. This is not the usual way to describe a fall in gilt-edged stocks but it follows...

Page 30

SPECTATOR CROSSWORD No. 875

The Spectator

ACROSS 1 Underground route to the Oval in August perhaps,(4, 4). 5 He was charged not to scorn the sonnet (6). 9 A clean sweep round a northern deity makes for culture (8)....

Solution on March 2 Solution to No. 873 on page

The Spectator

2 31 The winners of Crossword No, 873 are: Dr. H. S. Gerrard, 30 Oflerto il Road, Hazel Grove, Stockport, and Mrs. A. Robinson , 4 HollysliaW Crescent, Whitkirk, Leeds 15,

Landor Amended

The Spectator

A prize of £5 was offered for an alternative version (not a.. parody) of the first two lines of Landor's famous quatrain I strove with none; for none was worth my strife;...

A prize of £5 is offered for a translation into

The Spectator

English verse of the following (no line limit, but conciseness will score): Ecce auctor magicus, quo non expertior alter delectare animos lion inum risusque movere. nainque...