18 SEPTEMBER 1959

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The Spectator

The Spectator

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1959

—Portrait of the Week— THE MOON, and the prestige of

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the United States, got a black eye at two minutes and twenty-four seconds past 10 p.m. on Sunday night. On Tues- day, Mr. Khrushchev struck while the iron was hot; he arrived,...

`THE SPECTATOR' continues to maintain its tradition of offering an

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election platform to each of the three parties. In the past, we have invited party leaders to have their say; on this occasion, how- ever, we have decided to ask three younger...

GOOD LUCK OR GOOD JUDGMENT?

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T HE Prime Minister's initial design, to make foreign policy the main plank in the Con- servative election platform, appears to have - been hastily shelved. The party manifesto...

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China, India and Russia

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T FIUNDER was heard to rumble over the distant mountain tops as the Security Council's ques- tioning quartet arrived at Vientiane airport on Tuesday. No doubt this was the...

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Canadianism 'Emergent

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By GEORGE EDINGER G ENERAL WOLFE `died happy' on the Plains of Abraham on September 13, 1759. His memory and his cause are lightly treasured in the Quebec he captured. A little...

Change of Climate

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By RICHARD A A ccoRDING to Gallup Poll figures released ..five days before Mr. Khrushchev's visit, 89 per cent. of Americans hope that he will be treated 'in a courteous...

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Election Commentary

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Advance from Blackpool 'WHERE the devil's Rab'?' 'Probably slapping Cross- bencher on the back.' 'Don't get you.' 'Didn't you sec his piece last Sunday?' 'Yes.' 'Oh, yes, I...

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IN OTHER LETTERS, 'Runnymede' mounts a per- sonal poison-pen attack

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on each member of the Whig Establishment separately; the one to Palmerston begins—'My Lord, the Minister who maintains himself in power in spite of the con- tempt of a whole...

A Spectator's Notebook

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auction : A Prime Minister in an easy chair, reading a French novel. What do you think of that lot? Three Secretaries of State, one odious, another contemptible, the third both....

MUST APOLOGISE To Sir Ian Jacob, Sir Robert Fraser. the

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party Whips, and the party leaders for asserting, wrongly, that the two corporations were not represented at the meeting held last week to settle outstanding problems of...

I NOTICE THAT the Conservative Party posters— 'Life's Better With

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The Conservatives—Don't Let Labour Ruin It'—have now disappeared from the hoardings; but they have been succeeded by posters put out by the National Union of Manu- facturers,...

THE CORPORATIONS CAN ARGUE, with some justice, that they have

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prevailed on the parties to accept great changes : that this General Election is going to be fought with different and much-improved TV coverage than any before; and that the...

Who was this scurrilous scribbler who so per- sonally, and

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with such appalling taste, scourged the heroes of the history books? At the time he wrote these outrageous columns, he was a journal- ist and novelist in his early thirties, who...

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STALIN MERELY SMILED

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By CHARLES CURRAN A T 8.15 a.m. on Monday, August 6, 1945, there was a dazzling flash of white light in the sky above the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The flash lasted for less...

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THE SPECTATOR

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Copies of the issues of the Spectator published during the printing dispute (June 26-August 7) may still he obtained by sending ninepence for each copy required to THE SALES...

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Roundabout

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Ar the 'Do It Yourself' exhibition there was enough variety to satisfy anyone who ever dropped a hammer. Do-it - yourself cars, hi - fi, louvre win- dows, concrete paving,...

The atre The New Heresy

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By ALAN BRIEN The Kitchen. (Royal Court, Sunday.) -- The Crooked Mile. (Cambridge.) — The Ark. (Westminster.) — Why the Chicken. (Edinburgh -Festival.) DESPITE the recent...

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Opera

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Justice to Stockholm By DAVID CAIRNS IN opera there are plenty of cases of music redeeming a poor libretto but none of the opposite process. if the music is poor, so is the...

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Cinema

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Fluid Form By ISABEL QUIGLY Ask Any Girl, (Odeon, Leices- ter Square.) — Gold of Naples. (Cinephone.) SHIRLEY MACLAINE is some- thing that makes me believe in that outmoded...

Television

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Play-Time By PETER FORSTER For twenty minutes The Silk Purse was quite brilliant. Granada is the most class-conscious of television companies, and this seemed the epitome of...

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Sport

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World Tennis, Inc. By KENNETH GREGORY WIMBLEDON is SW19. Each year at the All-England Club a ten- nis tournament is heltL Its importance to those who are dedicated 'to the...

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Consuming Interest

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Heating By LESLIE ADRIAN During the past few years a lot of work has been done on the small-bore pipe system of cen- tral heating, which is said to be cheaper and in many ways...

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1) , arty Political Broadcasts Livin g Among Asians Sir Ian Jacob

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George Edinger, David Morris R ecognition for the Good Driver Henry Scott Bradshaw, Michael Oxley, Michael Sherrard The Control of the Purse' Dr, Paul Einzig S hoppers' Guide...

RECOGNITION FOR THE GOOD DRIVER SIR.—Mr. Giles Playfair's proposal of

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an official 'badge of honour' (September 4), to be attached to the good driver's car, would, like the proposed forma- tion of a 'National Association of Good Drivers' to...

LIVING AMONG ASIANS

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SIR.—Two years ago I wrote in the Spectator that 1 , 11 . 1 "ce steps taken then would save us many British !Ives and territories. I listed them as knowledge of the local...

'THE CONTROL OF THE PURSE' SIR,—Mr. Davenport's review of my

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book The Con- trol of the Purse (Spectator, August 14) lays down a very dangerous constitutional doctrine which, I feel, must not be allowed to stand uncontradicted. It is...

SIR,—Earlier this year you were good enough to print my

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letter in which I claimed that it was easier for a British subject to find a job, and a wife, in Thailand than in the British colony of Singapore. Rather surprisingly, the new...

SIR,—. . . to introduce at this stage of our

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develop- ment a system of rewards for abiding by the rules of our complex society could lead to odd results. Would Mr. Playfair suggest a badge or a discount for shoppers who...

SIR,—Mr. Playfair's concern with 'criminally bad drivers' is justified, but

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I don't like the sound of his assessment of a good driver. Certainly there should he a corps d'elite of motorists, with a badge to show membership, and maybe privilege granted...

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CONSERVATIVE FUNDS

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SIR,—Now that a General Election is upon appeal to Conservatives to contribute generbuslY their Constituency Election Funds, and 1 request th who are able to subscribe to the...

SHOPPERS' GUIDE SIR,-1 really cannot follow Miss Garbutt's state- ment

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in your issue of September 4 that the Good Housekeeping Institute is 'the only body which guarantees to the consumer repayment of his money if he is not satisfied with the...

NOISE

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SIR,—Mr. L. E. S. Leese is unfair in asking Sir Ad' Boult to exercise control over the behaviour Promenade audiences since he last appeared as I ll principal conductor in 1947...

Vie 6pertator

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SEPTEMBER 20, 1834 A DUEL took place on Wednesday last week in F a r which was attended by singular circumstances. of the combatants having had the first fire, pia' himself in...

SCIENCE FICTION

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SLR, —Mr. Kingsley Amis takes a rather de haat bas attitude to my article on Soviet SF. He deck I have made some misstatements about American This js, he adds, because mine is a...

FALLING PRICES

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SLR, —In his article on falling prices in your 57th Financial Survey, Mr. Hollis appears to adopt an unduly defeatist attitude. During two periods in the history of this...

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BOOKS

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Batten Down the Hatches By BERNARD LEVIN A VERY distinguished political lady once button- holed me at a cocktail party and told me that I was a menace to democracy; so, she...

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Op. XVI

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A Heritage and Its History. By I. Compton-Burnett. (Gollancz, 15s.) ONCE upon a time, after the invention of the rail- way and the telegraph, before the motor-car and the...

Escape and Satire

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WHEN the first volume of this new translation 01 I f Casanova's memoirs appeared some months ae j I was struck by two things : by the vigour at' excellence of the narrative, and...

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Ring Round the Bull

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Gates of Fear. By Barnaby Conrad. (Michael Joseph, 35s.) The Horn and the Sword. By J. R. Conrad. (MacGibbon and Kee, 25s.) BARNA131' CONRAD 1S an American aficionado and...

Elizabeth Revisited

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The Reign of Elizabeth, 1558-1603. By J. B. Black. (Oxford History of England, 35s.) Six volumes of the Oxford History of England have now gone into a second edition, Professor...

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Ends of the Earth .

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FIRST-CLASS travellers first. The rest of us today travel for reasons : to acquire, to sell (already the verb means that in America), to discover or escape. We go to arrive. But...

Seventeen Stone of Spirit

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HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY was born in 1831 of a noble Russian family and, though in a characteristically frank aside she once called herself 'an old Russian savage,' her...

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Bits of Matter

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Physics and Philosophy. By Werner Heisenberg. (Allen and Unwin, 15s.) THOSE of us who, through ignorance of physics , are bogged down in the cultural trenches on the far side of...

From Log Cabin to Nirvana

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The Patchwork Hero. By Michael Noonan. (Heinemann, 15s.) . JAPAN GLOSSIF1ED found its way into the big American heart via the big glossies. Naturally, adjustments were made :...

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MARKETS BEYOND THE ELECTION

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By NICHOLAS DAVENPORT ADVICE to the investor on how to behave during an election is flowing fast through the finan- cial press. Tables appear show- ing the depths to which steel...

1

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PECTATOR CROSSWORD No. 1055 N ACROSS river (1a) Caduceus, perhaps, of pale copper Does justice to the ceremonies? Set points for family patrons (9) pesi gn of a classical...

SOLUTION OF CROSSWORD 1053 ACROSS.-1 Facial. 4 Evidence. 10 Scrooge.

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11 Lorelei. 12 Irishwoman. 13 Since. 15 Apricot. 17 Orisons. 19 Endorse. 21 Sponger. 23 Bows. 24 Grangerise. 27 Ingress. 28 Ortolan. 29 Fortress.' 30 Asides. DOWN.--1...

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INVESTMENT NOTES

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By CUSTOS F ROM the state of Stock Exchange activity no one would imagine that a general election is to be held in a few weeks. Speculative invest- ment, option dealings, new...

COMPANY NOTES

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rrttE chairman of Coast Lines, Captain A. R. S. I Nutting, advises that results for the first half of the current year do not show an improvement in general trading, but that...