FAVOURABLE balance-sheet by sea in the Mediter- ranean comes as a welcome set-off to the news of the d operations in that area. The mystery, so far as it was a ystery, of the...

It is characteristic of the weight attached in these days to I PI° 111 atic agreements between totalitarian States that it occurs o no one to judge the Russo-Japanese treaty...

The news that the Duke of Aosta had requested a safe con- duct for an Italiatr aircraft carrying an envoy to Diredawa caused a breaking-off of hostilities in the air and on the...

In a letter to The Times, published last Wednesday, Mr. Herbert Hoover puts forward a reasoned defence of his scheme for permitting food to be sent to women, children and unem-...

It is not easy to gauge public feeling in France, where free- dom of speech alike in occupied and unoccupied territory is a thing of the past. But such evidences as the recent...

An agreement has been signed in Madrid, said Mr. Butler in a written Parliamentary answer,. providing for a B r i t i sh advance of £2,500,000 to Spain, to be spent in such man...

Broadcasting last Monday Mr. de Valera said that even the maintenance of neutrality will mean for Eire much hard- ship and privation. That is no doubt true. The economic...

Does unity in the face of the enemy mean that political and social questions should be left out of public 'discussion? The Labour Party is evidently uneasy lest the proceedings...

shape itself. The country has been transformed in one year under Mr. Churchill's leadership. There are no by-elections to record that transformation except as revealed by maiden...

anxiety over 'Hitler's unfolding plan to subjugate the British Empire. There will be murmuring criticism on smaller points and demands for speedier administration in...

eight months' bombardment is, after all, the shining example of spirit and tenacity in a great people. The task of Government is to be equal to that spirit. The United States...

or complacent mood, but realising more fully its tremendous responsibility. Every member is a master of some aspect, of public policy ; at any rate he is free to witness how...

now organised for victory? Is it not a fair judgement to say that every move made by the Government on the home-front might have been made a month earlier? If there be any truth...

Representatives of the General Council of the Trades Union Congress visited the Prime Minister last week to put before him their claim for amendment of the Trade Disputes and...

There is ample justification for the decision to publish the figures of merchant shipping lost once a month only, instead of once a week. In view of the fact that the figures...

Our Parliamentary Correspondent writes: Parliament has adjourned for a few days and most members are in their constituencies, helping in the blitzed areas, estimating the truth...

I T has not been a cheerful Easter, and nothing will be gained by representing a bad situation as anything but bad. In the Balkans the first phase of the German offensive has...

Party in Northern Ireland, in a Belfast newspaper a few days ago, suggests that the party truce in Northern Ireland has reached, or is nearing, its end. The thief indication of...

OME optimistic views on progress in antidotes to the night- bomber have been expressed in the last few days on the strength of German losses in what is described as the recent...

se strenuous days. They consist no longer in writing plays, but the much more absorbing diversion of counting the letter —individual characters, not epistles—in a page of The T...

try to leave France to join General de Gaulle of the fate they may meet with is singularly instructive. " Every day," it states, " boats try to leave for English ports from the...

received an appeal from one of them. The curious thing is that the only personality visibly behind it is one lady, living in a small Hampshire town, who is described as "...

By STRATEGICUS IF there is any conclusion we can draw with certainty from the events of the last week, it is one that is becoming so well-worn now that I hesitate to repeat it....

By ARTHUR MOORE (Editor of ,6 The Statesman," Calcutta) A T a time when people are looking for light on a problem that so far has remained unsolved a new volume of articles and...

By TYRONE GUTHRIE HERE is some likelihood that one of the casualties of war T may be the theatre: During the last war it was eclipsed. In the stress of practical affairs taste...

By M. K. KNIGHT M ANY writers, in The Spectator and elsewhere, have been discussing whether a truly democratic system of educa- tion can be established in this country after...

By STANISLAW KOZAKIEWICZ A LL through history there have been certain languages which have gained a special position by being used as a medium of communication outside their...

R ALPH BURNHAM closed the novel he had been reading in the air-raid shelter and looked at his watch. It was half-past ten; time to turn in. He yawned, stretching his arms, and...

du producer of the March of Time film, The Ramparts lir , Wa rck was wrongly given last week as Mr. de Rougemont.

" Comrade X." At the Empire. " Inspector Hornleigh Goes To It," At the New Gallery. " Second Chorus." At the Plaza. ALTHOUGH the present phase of the war throws a considerable...

" Wednesday After the War." At the New Theatre—" Orchids and Onions." At the Comedy. IT doesn't often happen that one reviewer finds himself com- pletely opposed to all his...

Britten's Violin Concerto BENJAMIN BarrrEra has been regarded for some years as the most promising % of the youngest generation of English composers. From the first his music...

SUNDAY OBSERVANCE su,—In a recent letter to The Spectator in support of Sunday obser- va nce the writer says: " What you fail to realise is that this question c uts far more...

Stn,—Mr. J. L. Hodson reminds one of the tourist who rushes round some country in a week or ten days and immediately on his return home rushes to print his expert knowledge. His...

Sne,—Though the recent debate in the House of Lords shows that the Government feel themselves unable to undertake a scheme of family-allowances on a comprehensive scale, on the...

a disserv:,:e by their protest against theatre-opening raises significant nature '[ he argument seems to be thai it is inconsistent with the "mare religion to plead against the...

Sm,—I am• extremely glad that Mr.-Bates has drawn attention to our Parish Councils, and to the way in which their meetings are ignored by both the villagers and the residents....

SIR, —I am sorry to prolong this correspondence, but I cannot- agree with Mr. Nutter that I- have given no " real evidence " that Dyer fell into the New River. To me it is...

Six, —Would not it be possible to - exclude those over 65 or 7o from the receneBudget proposal to reduce personal income-tax allowances? All older people are willing to shoulder...

Sm,—My attention has been called to the poem appearing on page 3° 6 of your issue of The. Spectator of March zrst The -heading, whirl reads "CASTLE HOWARD." Castle Howard, in...

SIR,—H. E. Bates's note on potatoes does a serious disservice to the country at a time when some of us are working all the hours there are to get an increased potato-acreage and...

subject—one too much neglected by the general public of this Kingdom—published as it was in your issue of April 4th, contains one rather surprising error, which in the interests...

Janus " complains that he can find no one to relieve him of old bottles. May I say that in this town we find that our erina rY , urgeon is most grateful for bottles of all...

A sweet-toothed friend asks after the possibilities of sugar-beet as a source of household sugar. I am sceptical, but a correspondent writes to say that she grew. sugar-beet...

which you published in the e of April 4th most ably states the case for an increase in the pay the jun:or officer, and it is to be hoped it attracts attention from appror...

am sorry that I misquoted Lord Elton as having used the highbrow. I am afraid that I must have been confused by rig, a: the same time as his books, an article about it in The...

m,—No doubt your correspondent was actuated by chivalrous rigs in writing to complain of the unfortunate experience of the all-nurse in travelling a long distance to apply for a...

hellebore. A correspondent reports the daphne as having' been very common, at one time on the Wiltshire-Somerset borders, and now says that he finds it very common in the...

ont of the ropoo ignorant ones referred to by " Janus" Your issue of. April 4th, perhaps he would kindly . inform us who 1"Janus " writes: I was, if I may confess it, one of...

Ley-Farming I recently noted the opinion of many farmers that the ploughing- up campaign seemed to be the result of a short-term rather than a long-term policy, and I suggested...

to convey really adequately what ley-farming is. Sir George Stapledon defines it as " that system which takes the plough round practically the whole of the farm, and which is...

The Nightmare of the Spirit Witchcraft. By Charles Williams. (Faber and Faber. 12s. 6d.) MR. WILLIAMS' previous work, the publishers claim, shows him to be the ideal author...

Sophocles, The Antigone. Translated by Gilbert Murray. (Alle ° and Unwin., 3s.) THIS is the nineteenth Greek play which . Professor Murray his translated ; of five of these...

Foreign Devils in the Flowery Kingdom. By Carl Crow. (Hamish Hamilton. sos. 6d.) READERS of Four Hundred Million Customers, the first of Mr. Crow's books, will find in this...

The Preparation of Peace. By Laurence Housman. (Cape. 8s. 6d.1 IT must have been towards the end of the last century that the reviewer, discovering Gods and Their Makers in an...

MORE than a quarter of a century has passed since Richard Hannay found the dead man in his flat and started that long flight and pursuit, across the YOrkshire and the Scotti-h...

Who are the Americans By William Dwight • Whert e y, (E yze and. Spottiswoode. 7s. 6d.) - - Tars book should have a very large sale. It is a fortunate chanc e that Major...

The Herr Witch Doctor. By Sarah Gertrude Millin. Heinemann 7s. 6d.) Nebraska Coast. By Clyde Davis. (Collins. 9s. 6d.) The Herr_Wirch- DOM)", is a very serious, indeed a...

By CUSTOS " Tam battle season has opened, and the resisting power of markets is being put to the test. So far, experience suggests very stro ng l y that the technical poSition...

6d.) THIS is a lamentable example of M.o.I. propiganda. There are 32 pages in this pedestrian account of the Indian war-effort ; the photographs are badly chosen and badly...

The German Mentality. By Verrina. (Allen and Unwin. pas. 6d.) Tim author joins Sir Robert Vansittart in drawing up an indict- ment against a whole people. German " national...

"lais L AIR!' iM 0 T w 119 1 7 11n i 61 1 21 119 SOLUTION ON MAY 2nd The %%inner of Crossword No. ro8 is Miss A. D. PATTERSON 45 Fairfield Lane, helm -:n-Furriess, Lanes.

1.4 prize o f a Book Token for one guinea will be given to the sender of the first c ored solution of this week's crossword puzzle to be opened. Envelopes should be ,,writed...