19 JANUARY 1951

Page 1

PEKING'S COUNTER-PROPOSALS

The Spectator

I T is unfortunate that Mr. Dean Acheson, the American Secretary of State, shillild have hastened so precipitately to condemn the Chinese counter-proposals as completely...

Chinese Strategy in Korea

The Spectator

Late news, suggesting the. renewal of the Chinese offensive in Korea, leaves the situation still vague. There has been no relaxation of pressure by the North Koreans in the...

Kashmir Unreason

The Spectator

One unhappy failure has marred the otherwise uniform success of the Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conference. It is true that the Kashmir question was not discussed formally at...

Page 2

Dr. Adenauer's Problems

The Spectator

Dr. Adenaucr is so fully habituated to carrying on in an atmo- sphere of anxiety that the stresses to which he is being subject at this moment need not seem particularly...

Three-Power- Procrastination

The Spectator

Wherever the fault may lie, and it by no means lies with the British Government, the delay in reaching any conclusion about the Four-Power talks on Germany is - deplorable in...

A Good Start

The Spectator

General Eisenhower has now almost completed his tour of European capitals, and will shortly be returning to Washington to report to the American President and Congress on what...

Towards a Press Council

The Spectator

The formation of a General Council of the Press has always been dear to the hearts of Mr. Herbert Morrison and some of his friends and not very dear to anyone else's, though the...

Page 3

B.B.C. FOR EVER

The Spectator

T HE central question with which the Beveridge Committee on British broadcasting was expected to deal has been firmly answered. There is to be no fundamental change in the...

Page 4

Some few days ago Mr. I. J. Pitman, M.P., addressing

The Spectator

some feminine gathering, referred to the fuel crisis, and remarked in no profoundly serious vein that one remedy was for women to wear more petticoats ; he noticed that in his...

A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK

The Spectator

T HE Cabinet changes are important on both administrative and personal grounds. The separation of housing and health has long been widely advocated, and the Prime Minister's...

A man I know has been baffling his friends with

The Spectator

what would appear to be the simplest of questions. What is the missing word in the quotation " There were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over...

Flying Saucer literature multiplies. The Astronomer-Royal disposed of Mr. Gerald

The Spectator

Heard's Riddle of the Flying Saucers in the Spectator a month ago. Since then I have been reading Donald Keyhoe's The Flying Saucers are Real (Hutchinson, 2s.), pressed on me by...

Not everyone knows that there exists such a body as

The Spectator

the Reindeer Council of the United Kingdom (though I believe I have given it a little publicity before). The purpose of the Council, as I under- stand'it, is to acclimatise...

A limited company is said to have neither a soul

The Spectator

to be saved nor a body to be kicked. That can be said with, if anything, more truth of a Government department. Take the Ministry of Health. In the past many people paid...

Page 5

Defence and Controls

The Spectator

By LIONEL ROBBINS I N last week's Spectator Mr. Oscar Hobson made certain criticisms bf a recent statement of mine on defence prepara- tions. It is with reluctance that I enter...

Page 6

France's Fears and Hopes

The Spectator

By D. R. GILLIE Paris I OPES and fears in suitable proportions are certainly essential to a nation's health. The more realistic they are, no doubt, the better it is for...

Page 7

What'll be the Title ?•

The Spectator

(Philosophic Lyric for a Samba) 0 to scuttle from the battle and to settle on an atoll far from brutal mortal, 'neath a wattle portal I To keep little mottled' cattle and to...

Truth Behind the Curtain

The Spectator

T HERE are some signs that one of the New Year resolutions of the United States Government has been to step up its propaganda to the Iron Curtain countries. What President...

Page 8

The Church in China

The Spectator

By CECIL NORTHCOIT S British missionaries leave China on furlough, their visas are not being renewed for their return journey. Here and there a few specially qualified people...

Page 10

UNDERGRADUATE PAGE

The Spectator

The Hungarian Ticket- Collector By 1'. L. DORMANDY (Royal Free Hospital, London) I HAVE once, only once, solved the life-problem of one of my fellow-men. I say life-problem,...

Page 11

MARGINAL COMMENT

The Spectator

By HAROLD NICO1SON ORD HALDANE, in his autobiography, contended that, had L our statesmen been less " illiterate " about Germany, it might have been possible to avoid the...

Page 12

MUSIC

The Spectator

THE Macnaghten String Quartet at the Mercury Theatre and the London Classical Orchestra at Chelsea Town Hall have included contemporary works in their programmes this last week....

. 1 CONTEMPORARY ARTS

The Spectator

CINEMA T Sunday in August." (Academy.)-- ,, Branded." (Plaza.) HE charming fi lm at the Academy, which is written and produded by the author of Open City. Paisa and Bicycle...

ART

The Spectator

THE fifth column has struck and the enemy are within the gates. Behind locked doors the surrender was made. Not a shot wos fired, not a bridge blown. Overnight they appeared,...

Page 13

A Rustic Interior

The Spectator

At once we realise how violent a revolution has taken place during the past quarter of a century. I remember that just after the last war I lived in a small Georgian cottage in...

In the Garden One of the winter comforts for indoors

The Spectator

begins its routine in the garden.' I refer to the sawing of cord-wood for the open fires.' No matter how satisfactory a modern heating instalment may be, the English winter...

COUNTRY LIFE THE sense of stalemate following Christmas and the

The Spectator

New Year is dues) 1 suspect, to something more than the flood of bills and tax-claims. It is a sign of our origins, our relationship with nature and the four seasons ; a bond...

"The 6peetator," Januarp 18th, 1851 Reports have been floating about

The Spectator

relative to the Police arrangements in connection with the Exhibition in Hyde Park. On the one hand, it has been asserted that an importation of foreign detectives was about to...

Postage no this Issue: Inland & OVErle211 lid.; Canada (Canadian

The Spectator

Magazine Port) 1 cl,

Page 14

SPECTATOR COMPETITION No. 46

The Spectator

Report by A. D. C. Peterson One of the greatest difficulties of headmasters is the writing of testimonials which satisfy simultaneously their bearers and the truth. A prize of...

SPECTATOR COMPETITION No. 49

The Spectator

Set by Glyn Daniel Anthropology has been called, among other things, " the study of rude people by more rude people," and "the study of marriage customs by the unmarried and...

Page 15

The Whitechapel Gallery

The Spectator

SIR, It is pleasant that the Jubilee Exhibition of the Whitechapel Arf Gallery should be receiving the attention this great institution richly deserves, but I regret that your...

Doctors and Drugs

The Spectator

SIR,—I can support, from a long-experience, Dr. Lampard's diatribe againsf the waste of money in drugs. From the end of 1919 to the end of 1946 I was Adviser in Venereal...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

The Spectator

How to Get the Houses SIR.—The proposals for building more houses put forward by Robert W. 1 - arran in the Spectator of January 12th deserve serious attention, if not...

Sta.—As one who for years after the war was compelled

The Spectator

to .live in lodgings, having the privilege of a bath only when my landlady thought fit, and then, a year ago, was fortunate enough to secure the tenancy of a factory-made...

Page 16

Settlement in Nepal

The Spectator

Sta,.....yor editorial comments on India have been consistently cynical and wilfully perverse. lt seems to be a case " India is damned if she is perchance right and, of course,...

SIR,—The canon of writings forming the Ncw Testament was determined

The Spectator

by the Church. The summary of beliefs contained in those writings (known as the Creed) was also determined by the Church. Mr. Wilson Harris appears to accept the Church's power...

Sta.—The critics of Mr. Wilson Harris's personal investigations who use,

The Spectator

or who imply, the word " heretical " should read again Doctrine in the Church of England. pp. 81-83, and the chairman's remarks near the bottom of p. 12. Neither " dirty linen"...

The Mind of the Chinese

The Spectator

Sia.—Two statements of Mr. BLackmore's letter need correction. He says: (1) "It was Japan that attacked China and not vice versa." (21 That the advance of Ch'ien Lung stopped...

Shakespeare and all that

The Spectator

Sia,,7---My daughter (aged .14) and I have formed a New to read at least one worth while book each month of As there are so many books, I shall be very grateful in compiling a...

The Coalition Argumeni

The Spectator

SIR.—There are considerable murmurings of a coalition, but Janus has Made a very good point when he asks: "Would Cptain Thorneycroft, I wonder, welcome the idea so stropgly...

The Birth of Christ

The Spectator

Sia,—Accusations of heresy tend to be double-edged. The orthodoxy so • vigorously defended against Mr. Wilson Harris in his sincere and helpful article, The Birth of Christ,...

Page 18

BOOKS AND WRITERS

The Spectator

D A LEVERSON• and Ronald Firbankt were both writing during the 1914-18 war. They both belonged to the upper- class Edwardian world at a time when only the imaginative could...

Page 19

Reviews of

The Spectator

the Week Novelists and the Churches The Churches in English Fiction. 1.3) A. L. Drummond. (Edgar Backus, Leicester. 125. 6d.) THIS is an unusual book and, in some respects, a...

Page 20

Revolution in Asia

The Spectator

" I AM a reporter," murmurs the correspondent to himself, this being a talismanic phrase like "I am a commissioned officer," which implies that the speaker, though he may have...

Patchwork Shaw

The Spectator

Thirty Years with G. B. S. By Blanche Patch. (Gollancz. Its. 6d.) Miss PATCH became Bernard Shaw's secretary in 1920, and remained in his service until his death thirty years...

Page 22

Communism in England

The Spectator

1 Believed. By Douglas Hyde. (Heinemann. cos. 6d.) Tuts is an extremely important book. It is the best account yet published of how the Communist Party works in England • it...

Page 24

The Essence of Gandhi

The Spectator

The Life of Mahatma Gandhi. By Louis Fischer. (Cape. 2Ss.) MILLIONS of Hindus look on Gandhi as an incarnation of the divine ; some English and more Americans would agree with...

Music-hall Memories

The Spectator

The Melodies Linger On. The Story of Music-hall. By W. " WELL, we might trot round. to the Empire at about ten," Algernon Moncrieff remarked in The Importance of Being Earnest....

Page 25

THE " SPECTATOR " CROSSWORD No. 610

The Spectator

IA Book .Token for one guinea will be awarded to the sender of the first correct solution of this week's crossword to be opened after noon on Tuesday week, January 30th....

SOLUTION TO CROSSWORD No. 608

The Spectator

A Silo 101Z-,, E e '0 , . ) e:y N T opoN l" INEllivi wils aiR , A v 1 T I c I liMMIN•u ft. 141110 - tWINGE5 'ALADDIN 5 L la v Re t. Illa IF 5 E m P . () cep I... P 0 w E...

Page 26

Fiction

The Spectator

Three Ha'pcncc to the Angel. By Charles Harris. (Phoenix House. ios. 6d.) AFTER the spate of trash which is all that seems to be published immediately before Christmas, what a...

A Batch of Thrillers

The Spectator

The Simple Art of Murder. By RaymoneChandler. (Hamish Hamil- ton. los. 6d.) MR. RAYMOND CHANDLER is impressively sponsored; his dust-wrapper proclaims the superlative faith...

Page 28

SHORTER NOTICES

The Spectator

Winters of Content and other Discursions. By Osbert Sitwell. (Duck worth. 2 t S.) THIS book is a welcome reissue of Sir Osbert's Winters of Content (first edition, 1932)...

Alexander Pope. The Penguin Poets. Selected by Douglas Grant. (Penguin

The Spectator

Books. is. 6d.) IT must be confessed that Professor Grant is not so sure in his touch with Pope as he is with Thomson, as indeed might be judged by his introduction, which is...

Page 30

FINANCE AND INVESTMENT

The Spectator

By CUSTOS As I suspected, markets have needed very little time in which to shake free from the momentarily depressing influence of the sheet steel cuts. Buying, much of it of...