ASSOCIATION FINISHED ? THOMAS HODGKIN: Africa Finds its History COAL: A MINER'S VIEW JOHN A.RLOTT : Goodbye to the Australians

No. 6 5 3 4 FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1953 PRICE 7d.

Of the 530 British prisoners of war from Korea who landed at Southampton on Wednesday, nearly a half were at one time unofficially reckoned to be Communists or to have "...

The Minister of Labour's wish that there should be a truce between the guerilla electricians and their employers while the Court of Inquiry sits has been respected. At the,...

T HE latest attack of " horrible irritation and fury " (Marshal Tito's phrase) over Trieste now seems to be abating, but it was hot while it lasted. It blazed up out of mutual...

At their rally in Chicago the leaders of the Democratic party disappointed their enemies by patching up, or appearing to patch up, the quarrel between north and south over the...

Mr. George Dawson is having the shining armour of a housewives' hero pressed upon him by events. This is quaint apparel for a hard-headed businessman who has said himself quite...

Lord Beveridge has always had the admirable custom of throwing himself heart and soul into some specific social problem of the day and never letting it drop until he has...

Measures to stop the rot in - Soviet agriculture which have already led to promotion for N. S. Khrushchev and a notable Ministerial reorganisation are a belated but realistic...

T the opening of the eighth Assembly of the United Nations in New York, Mr. Vyshinsky, without regard for the normal courtesies, jumped in to propose once again the acceptance...

T HE account of an unsuccessful Russian attempt on Everest from the north, published in an Italian Alpine review and summarised in The Times by its Geneva correspondent, is...

I saw a paragraph on the front page of a Sunday newspaper headed Harding Back At Work Soon," I found myself trying to recall what had temporarily diverted the Chief of the...

Somebody asked what was the French for a red herring (in the figurative, not the ichthyological sense). Nobody knew. Nor, when they came to think of it, did anybody know the...

one must accept Dr. Kinsey's point that; au fond, women are not really frightfully interested in men. But I think .he ought to have told us why they go on pretending to be."

being criticised in Russia; the critics maintain that its equipment was too heavy and that it was foolish to dispense completely with the services of Tibetan porters during the...

a suitable time to recall the incident of the Oxfordshire parachutist. On a fine morning about thirteen years ago an aircraft, of a type unfamiliar to the local Observer Corps,...

T HE more sophisticated sections of the American public reacted to the news from Germany with the feeling of relief that overtakes a parent as his small boy success- fully...

By THOMAS HODGKIN T O say that a nation has no history is like calling a man a bastard. Even if true, it is impolite. But this has not prevented the peoples of the world from...

By G. S. GALE 0 NCE upon a time there was a bull, a mighty creature, powerful and ponderous of movement, sudden and quick in anger. This bull had deep instincts, one of the...

problem of supplying the country's need for coal is one that has remained unsolved since 1945. Resort to imports has had to be made, despite the increase of output from 190...

Giants in the Earth By HILARY MILES (Newnham College, Cambridge) cc 0 you find yourself much troubled by Midgets ? " asked the woman in the Turkish Bath. Swathed in a cocoon...

SURPRISES AT STRATFORD THE PLAYS : The Merchant of Venice—King Richard III—Antony and Cleopatra—The Taming of the Shrew—King Lear. (March 17th to October 31st, 1953.) THE...

Three Choirs Festival—Arabella. By Richard Strauss. (Royal Opera House.) THE Three Choirs Festival at Gloucester went its normal and happy course in cloudless sunshine. There...

A Doll's House. By Henrik Ibsen. (Lyric, Hammersmith.) Penelope. By W. Somerset Maugham. (Arts Theatre.) THE blame for Miss Mai Zetterling's failure with Nora Helmer cannot be...

The Rake's Progress has stolen critical attention from Glyndebourne's other contributions to the Edinburgh Festival this year, neither of which is new. These are, however, worth...

Return to Paradise ; The Secret Four. (Odeon, Leicester Square.) The Master of Ballantrae. (Warner.)—Scandal at Scourie. (Empire.) THE South Sea islands, on the screen,...

Report by Joyce Johnson Readers were asked to' submit descriptions of new Looking-Glass Insects. Carroll's style was to be preserved but post-Carroilian data might be used, if...

Almost all the stubble in sight is bare - now. The sheaves have gone and the fields present a tidy appeafance they never seem to have at any other time of the year. The brows...

Now that the schools are open, the village streets are quiet for an hour or two both morning and afternoon, and the mothers of the children that were setting up a clamour to...

Walking round an outdoor display of rock plants that was illuminated by small strip lights on pairs of iron legs about eighteen inches long, 1' was intrigued to discover that...

There is always something that gets overlooked and this year we forgot to harvest the two walnut trees in the cottage garden when the crop was ready for pickling. The same thing...

and we are still talking of " preparations " to meet it. More than twenty years have elapsed since we first encountered this dreadful enemy; four years since it found our...

shrubs and roses. When con- sidering shrubs it is advisable to study the varieties of the particular kind chosen, for some take up more room than others and their root area...

Set by Allan M. Laing Memories are short these days and mnemonics correspondingly more useful. Competitors are asked, therefore, for the usual prizes, to compose neat, rhymed...

Hassett's Australians By JOHN ARLOTT T HE touring cricketers who next week leave us to our football will go down in the record books as " the 1953 Australian team." Their...

British Association for the Advancement of Science is to merit the continued support of the Press, it must do something to liven up its meetings. To those of us who are willing...

The British Association SIR, —The letter by Mr. John D. Hillaby entitled " The Old Age of the British Ass" in The Spectator of September 11th once again brings to the notice of...

criticising the recent meetings of the British Association for the Advancement of Science with much interest. As an American correspondent who has covered these meetings, I may...

of ancient cultures a place in modern education continue to set stumbling-blocks in the way of its defence. The chief aim of a teacher of " Classics," whether ancient Dr...

Snt,—From our young provincial lecturers we expect accuracy of statement at least, however young they may be, however provincial. Reviewing G. S. Fraser's Modern Writer and His...

SIR, —May one who, after his last term at school, is exactly half-way between the two principal stages of his directly classical education— and has therefore even smaller...

SIR, More and more often do we find book reviewers letting drop on incidental insult to adorn a few not very' pointed phrases. An ',sample comes in Mr. Donald Davie's review...

SIR,—In the course of his notice of the Edinburgh Festival in last week's Spectator Mr. Colin Mason refers to . . . " those strange products of the gramophone age for whom...

The Art of A Translator By RICHARD MURPHY F OR the convenience of living, we deceive ourselves that languages are translatable, yet wisely allow that no translation can mean...

ONE of the very few good things that can be said of King James the Second is that he appears to have held, though he could scarcely have deserved, the affection of his wife,...

English Furniture : The Georgian Period (1750-1830). By Margaret Jourdain and F. Rose. (Batsford, 3s,) WHEN Miss Margaret Jourdain died in 1951, this book was already in...

MR. FOWLIE is indefati g able in his researches into French poetry— recently he produced, as well as this book, an immense one on Mallarme. He has studied all the latest...

I AM prepared to call Dr. Plesch's bluff. It was a good hoax and one that almost deserved to win. Only it was a little too bare-faced. I can imagine Dr. Plesch, sceptical,...

DR. WOODWARD is really something of a portent, and his book of testimony is a significant sign of the times. For here is a qualified doctor and a Harley Street specialist in the...

A READING public for crime reports is one of the few constant factors upon which the publisher may rely, with the proviso that murder is always far more acceptable to that...

We will post the SPECTATOR to any of your friends residing in any part of the world at the following rates:— 52 weeks, 35s.; 26 weeks, 17s. 6d. In addition a Birthday Greeting...

Man and Two Gods. By Jean Morris. (Cassell. 12s. 6d.) The Story of Esther Costello. By Nicholas Monsarrat. (Cassell. 10s. 6d.) THE handicap of injured feelings is a theme to...

The Workers' Educational Association: The First Fifty Years. By Mary Stocks. (George Allen & Unwin. 12s. 6d.) THE W.E.A. is doubly fortunate in having, as its Deputy President...

for much congratula- tion. But suppose it were a minor Eliza- bethan ? In 1940 the British Museum acquired a little manuscript volume which engagingly declared itself to be The...

18s.) GLYNDEBOURNE made Fritz Busch a familiar figure to hundreds of English singers and orchestral players and to thousands of English music-lovers, making Germany's loss more...

Papuans and Pygmies. By Alfred A. Vogel. (Arthur Barker. 16s.) THE Papuans and Pygmies of New Guinea are still living in the Stone, Age : they are polygamous races,...

Naturalist Series, Collins. 25s.) • PROFESSOR HARVEY here reveals a dual per- sonality. As an ecologist, he presents a comprehensive and lucid survey of Dart- moor • its...

By CUSTOS THE private investor would do well to stay out of the stock market for the time being while the professional gentlemen make up their minds about the future. In Wall...

(A Book Token for one guinea will be awarded to the sender of the first correct Solution opened alter noon on Tuesday week, September 29th, addressed Crossword, and bearing...

The winner of Spectator Crossword No. 746 is: Miss MARGO f 2 Kcmnay Place, Arbroath Road, Dundee.