In raising the question of balance between Cabinet and Parlia- ment in the House of Commons on Wednesday, Lord Cecil di.: not, as he might have done, give his motion classical...

A HOPEFUL and highly significant reaction to the announce- ment of the French proposal for the single control of coal . and steel production in France and Germany has been the...

A Budget with as many faults as the one which Sir Stafford Cripps presented a month ago should have stimulated keen Parliamentary argument, spurred the Opposition to search out...

The Russian Government's treatment of the East German Government has become increasingly contemptuous in recent weeks. The Chancellor, Otto Grotewohl, explained last week in...

Electoral landslides are among the recognised features of parliamentary government, but it is perhaps unfortunate that one should have resulted from Turkey's first genuinely...

It may be remembered that a number of mothers making a great parade of their solicitude for their children were prominent In the Communist May Day disorders in London. A few...

Though its implications are tragic, the spectacle of Czechoslovakia putting the clock back is not without its ludicrous side. You cannot turn a man into a lunatic by forcing him...

As the date for the imposition of the new General Schools Examination approaches educational authorities of all kinds are very ri g htly g ivin g increased attention to the...

being put on the rack by divisions it is lar g ely occupied with the lees of le g islation. No doubt, one or two useful little Bills are being advanced to the Statute Book, but...

In two hours in the House of Commons on Monday some very profound morals were pointed by the case of the dentists, who are about to take a second cut of 10 per cent. in their...

T HE conferences in London and in Sydney are interlocked. The prime task of the former is to check the spread of Communism in Europe, and the latter the much harder task of...

Hulton Picture Post and of the Odhams News Review by the Odhams Illustrated—were announced on the same day this week is a signifi- cant demonstration of the difficulties which...

p,vilion was caught and bowled by the latter."—Manchester Guardian.

on the Continent coming. The Organisation for European Economic Co-operation announces, among other things, that its member countries will try to make the tourist-allowance...

T HERE has been a particularly distinguished party of Germans at Wilton Park this week—officials of the Federal Govern- ment at Bonn, Ministers of various Land Governments,...

and speak about something ; sometimes, out of sheer weakness I go. It is an odd thing, this demand for garrulity, but it exists, and I suppose it has to be satisfied. At any...

for tens of thousands of people who are not Congregationalists. For that matter the building was not, I think, identified specifically with any one denomination, though it...

F ROM time to time something occurs in France to remin 1 one that the spirit of the Resistance movement has not been exhausted by the restoration of French sovereignty. It may...

By MARK ARNOLD-FORSTER Berlin, May 1,5 T HE Germans , are addicted, as a rule, to big political ideas, to sweeping statements of policy and to schemes which sound simpler and...

24th, Empire Day, General Smuts celebrates his eightieth birthday—truly a significant landmark in that evolution from Empire to Commonwealth in which he has grown to his present...

By GILBERT L. JESSOP G. L. Jessop, who was famous as the hardest hitter of his generation, first played for Cambridge in 1896. In the following year, playing for Gloucestershire...

By J. M.COHEN T HE pain nagged away at the other end of my body, pulsing like one of those persistent enemy planes whose noise always seemed to fill the sky and which seemed at...

ENGLAND has renewed diplomatic relations with Spain ; Lord Palmerston having accepted the overtures of our restored ally, in a characteristic manner. The overtures were made in...

IT is an ancient sky tonight, the vault Crusted with nebulae and planet-pocked, Weathered by patience and the slowest sands That creep. Our sepulchre is richly roofed With...

Travelogue By J. STUART MACLURE (Christ's College, Cambridge) C c OFTEN think," said the director's wife, looking round at the starving tourists attacking their afternoon tea,...

By HAROLD NICOLSON I WAS present last week at a lecture given by M. Andre Siegfried at the French Institute in London. I always enjoy listening to M. Siegfried, since he is so...

THEATRE `4 The Holly and the Ivy." By Wynyard Browne. (Duchess.) THE Christmas cards are serried upon the vicarage mantelpiece, holly adorns the picture-frames and waits prowl...

A CONCERT given on May 10th by that admirable musician, Carl Dolmetsch, and devoted to music for the recorder, either with harpsichord or strings, was interesting historically...

" The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad." (London Pavilion.) Wabash Avenue." (Leicester Square Threatre.) " The Capture." (London Pavilion.) JUDGED by the most exacting of...

From the Persian of Nlshani, seal-cutter to the Emperor Akbar (1556-1605) THE old Enchanter, in his patchwork cloak, Sits weaving spells to bind us to his throne, While, seeing...

THIS week Ham House, Richmond, and Kenwood House, Highgate, have opened and reopened their doors to the public under more or less official managements. The Iveagh Bequest at the...

to suppose that the flying saucers are aircraft from Mars equipped with cameras, and that Martian intelligence officers are engaged in interpreting good-quality large-scale air...

SUBSCRIPTION RATES ORDINARY EDITION by post to any part of the World AIR EXPRESS By Air to nearest Airport and then by ordinary mail. Canada and United States ... Australia...

Report by Gwendolen Freeman A prize of £5 was offered for a comment by Tennyson, Browning or Matthew Arnold on the 1950 Royal Academy Exhibition. There was not a very large...

SIR,—It is a pity that the Derbyshire Education*Committee has not taken advantage , of the opening, which Janus gave it a month ago, to justify its " singular proposal " to...

White and Black telling the British public, as he did in his recent article in the Spectator, that their kinsfolk in Southern Rhodesia are pursuing a policy regarding Africans...

SIR, —What they want is simply a government which is capable of recog- nising that enactments just and workable in London or Manchester are not reasonable in the Highlands and...

Mr. Cotton's : Englishmen of his type are always made to feet at home with us. To " the wretch," on the other hand, who not only does not burn at the thought of returning to his...

SIR,—You are right in saying• that " the Government had no idea of the troubles it was imposing upon itself," when it nationalised the railways. Even now, to judge from...

the Spectator of April 28th, Sir Harry Gilpin remarks: "The fair rent to the investor must take into account the real capital represented, as against the nominal capital of the...

Cup Final has been brave enough to put into words something that has troubled northern football followers in relation to southern clubs for some time—the seemingly increasing...

Stn,—It seems to be assumed that those who receive dividends as income are the " rich " (if any of these are left). Actually, distributed dividends are paid in small amounts to...

SIR,—May I suggest that Miss Wiskemann in her review of Germany, What Now ? by Basil 1;tavidson has, well directed though her criticisms are, missed one, essential' point ? This...

SIR. — Cultural endeavour is one of the best ways to foster understanding and mutual respect between nations. We take the view that culture is truly international because it is...

SIR,—I always look forward with great pleasure to Mr. Mallalieu's delight- ful accounts of cricket and football matches in the Spectator, but what was.the matter with him at...

Now in mid-May the claims of the land dispossess those ofsthe river. The cow's parsley is flowering among the nut bushes, dandelions in the orchard ; and both must be...

Our garden this spring Idoks forward to the fulfilment of two long- disappointed hopes. Years ago an old lady in her nineties, visiting our house, recalled how, as a small...

Sta.—The following passage from Aubrey's Brief Lives suggests one way by which these widespread reports of " flying saucers " may arise: " His [Sir Thomas More's] discourse was...

SIR,—Nicholas Louvaris, Professor of Philosophy in Athens University and Minister of Public Assistance iu John Rallis's Government in 1943, is called " light-minded " in last...

To one country household at least May 19th is a red-letter day, to be celebrated more quietly, if all goes well, but not less fervently than May Day itself in less favoured...

Magazine Post) Id.

House and garden are islanded by a flowing moat ; on one side by the natural course of a small river, on three sides by a channel dug by unknown hands not less than seven...

T least since the Renaissance and the revival of classical learning it has been possible to study the development of European thought from its first sources and natural...

Homage to the Elephant Elephant Bill. By Lt.-Col. J. H. Williams. (Hart-Davis. i8s.) IT will be remembered that when the Devil tried to get into the Ark, Noah told him...

Spain. By Sacheverell Sitwell. (Batsford. 16s.) SPAIN has once more become what it was before the Civil War— one of the most popular holiday-grounds in Europe. i n has the great...

Defence of the West. By B. H. Liddell Hart. (Cassell. a 25. 6d.) As if arranged by an adroit stage-manager, Captain Liddell Hart's study of the defence of the west appears at...

BEING myself an anthologist, I am an impenitent relisher of such garlands, not only from what might be called professional interest, but in the belief that my fellow-seeker will...

Secret Service Unmasked. By Tristan Busch. (Hutchinson. 26s.) THE author of this book served in the censorship branch of the Austrian General Staff during the First World War,...

Uncle Samson. By Beverley Nichols. (Evans. 12s. 6d.) A GOOD many different and true things could be said about this book. But the first thing to say is that it is a sensible...

THE dangers of versatility are well-known to authors as they are to other artists. The public likes to have its painters and actors and writers neatly docketed so that it may...

A Fro . ; on Ice, and Other Curious Expressions. By C. E. Funk. (Murray. los. 6d.) MR. PARTRIDGE has won for himself an impregnable eminence in the world of words, or perhaps...

IT seems, from past eihmple, that the most valuable translations of poetry in our language have come from translators who, were attracted towards one particular poet or poetic...

much— that Colonel Dickson has every qualification except that of literary artifice for describing the life of the Arab Bedouin. Born in Syria and nurtured on tribal milk, he...

Poor Man's Orange. By Ruth Park. (Joseph. los. 6d.) The Widow. By Susan Yorke. (Lehmann. 9s. 6d.) Prelude to Jesting. By Mary Mitchell. (Methuen. 9s. 6d.) (Richards Press. 7s....

‘i -- '' N 1 I /2 1 /3 _ ___A ____ I i I . -- 1 -- __ 11 1 /.9 , I o I 22 8 0,5] " x/8 I • 23 1 24 L 32 \\\ DOWN Loud- q uiet: nothin g to choose between them. (3.)...

`6 c Kr A ir., II) I w11 : 1! 1 7 T al v ullioillo4.1:s &APART N.N11110 , WI-1'E' P E L N ,L1 • E S H:EiR I F o abl IF L E -e ▪ RIE N 14,E 1.11 - jeR SIK E TIEIR e!li A A A L...

Lysenko has been carried on to some extent in the dark, because it was difficult to know at first hand what exactly was being done and said in Moscow. The darkness was deepened...

the United States is so great that no single anthology could be adequate. Yet it is a tribute to Mr. Browne's collection that a definite character emerges. Perhaps it is that he...

By CUSTOS THE 1949 report of Imperial Chemical Industries, Britain's largest industrial company, is a massive and impressive document. In the accounts there is full...