W ITH the application on December 4th of the British and French measures providing for the interception of German exports, the war will enter a new phase. Of the efficacy of...

T HE War enters its fourth month with all its immediate developments still obscure. On land no operation of any importance, apart from the considerable operations of getting the...

Russia's invasion of Finland by land, sea and air puts an end to all speculations as to whether the campaign of brutal menace was to stop short of actual gunfire. It is...

The change of Government in Rumania arises in the main from that country's determination to maintain her neutrality, and that is another way of saying her independence. M....

The amendment of the Defence Regulations after con- sultation with representatives of all political parties is a reward for the vigilance of Members of Parliament, and is...

No one will doubt the warmth of the sympathy felt by millions of people in the United States for those who are victims of the war in this country and France, and their desire to...

It is a tradition in the British Army that it is one of the first duties of officers to look after the welfare of their men; and though this may be restricted to the duty of...

In his annual report the Chief Medical Officer of the Ministry of Health affirms his belief that whatever we may think about civilised progress in other directions there can be...

Mr. J. M. Keynes, replying in The Times to the critics of his compulsory savings scheme, re-states his case in convinc- ing terms. He admits that the need for compulsory saving...

Those who listened to the broadcasts last Sunday and Monday, the one by the Prime Minister, the other by Mr. Herbert Morrison, must have been struck by the fact that there was...

Rationing for bacon and butter will be introduced on January 8th. Sugar will not be rationed, but consumers are asked to register with a retailer and to restrict their pur-...

T HE first three months of war have in more than one sense been days of trial. They have been days of suffering for a few, though in that respect, we have to recognise, only a...

made its last appearance under the editorship of Mr. Arthur Mann. His knowledge of journalism, wise judgement and fearless independence, in an editorship lasting twenty years,...

Anglo-French Co-ordinating Committee, which is to organise the whole of the joint Allied effort in the economic field is admirable. Actually M. Monnet was more responsible than...

IT is a long time since a series of articles has attracted such wide attention as the six, on conditions in Ger- many, which Mr. Oswald Garrison Villard has been con- tributing...

pronunciation of Bolivar, someone points out that to put the accent on the second syllable (which I suggest is right) would be to make Kipling's " Ballad of the Bolivar "...

bilities of closer Anglo-French relations, advocates as a beginning a Customs Union between the two countries— and the assimilation of British liquor-licensing laws to the...

An official publication (Short Vocabulary of French Words and Phrases with English Pronunciation, Stationery Office, id.), which is less generally known than it ought to be, has...

Nothing could have come to hand more aptly at this moment than Mr. W. Arnold-Forster's singularly lucid, sane and objective account of the Allied blockade, including reprisals,...

of economy, of slaughtering the two Chillingham cattle it has at Whipsnade disturbs me greatly. The Chil- lingham herd represents the only survivors of the real aboriginal wild...

gone, most of them heartbroken at having to leave their Hc:nzath. Our friend, Dr. L—, has the enviable lot of sailing for Germany in charge of more than a thousand...

By STRATEGICUS I F one may judge by the comment of all classes of the 1 population the war is indeed at sea. The newspapers, of course, give ample ground for the conclusion....

By OSWALD GARRISON VILLARD [Mr. Villard, who has just returned from a tour in Germany, was editor and proprietor of the New York NATION from 1918 to 5932, and is one of the...

By CANON ROGER LLOYD W HEN we say that in Britain we have a Christian Society we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. What we actually have, says Mr. T. S. Eliot in...

By DOROTHY L. SAYERS [These extracts from the war-time letters and papers of the Wimsey family appear weekly in THE SPECTATOR] 6. From Miss Katherine Alexandra Climpson to Lord...

By THE MASTER OF BALLIOL T SHOULD begin by saying how much I fi nd myself in 1 agreement in this matter with Sir Arthur Salter's opening article in this series. I agree with...

By SYLVIA LEWIN W E all know Mrs. Beeton. We know what she and her readers ordered—so lavishly—for dinner ; we know how well they cooked it, and how elaborately they served it....

AMONG the new land army of women workers are some who tell me that after the war they mean to become farmers. They have learnt to plough with a tractor. They have learnt to milk...

The kindly fruits of the earth are more fully appreciated in days of war. Recipes have reached me from various quarters concerning the desirable preserves to be made of crab...

The seagulls have been in flocks behind the ploughs in the midst of Bedfordshire and the neighbouring counties. They are no longer of the sea, marine. The black-headed species...

Among almanacs for the new year a special word must be said for the calendar put forth by the National Trust and procurable at 25. 6d. from any good stationer. If you want the...

federa- tion. The very first article which I contributed to this weekly was in praise of Count Coudenhove-Kalergi's scheme of Pan-Europa. I could scarcely endure the prospect of...

the minority moods which flicker like fire-flies above a marsh. There was some evidence, of course, of a Communist alignment expressing itself, on one occasion, in a question...

whether from a Regius Professor or from a young clerk in the Army Pay Department. It represents, I should suppose, some 70 per cent. of the opinion in the country in this winter...

did not agree that all this talk about freedom and democracy was mere eye-wash, and that what we were really fighting for was the mainten- ance of the old balance of power. This...

been so ably exposed by Professor E. H. Carr in his recent study of British Foreign Policy. There are many admirable people who still fail to realise that in this twentieth...

By HAROLD NICOLSON I SPENT most of last week delivering lectures and making .1 speeches. My audiences were numerous and varied. They included university professors,...

our past record and present intentions had produced some effect. What right had we, I was asked, who had conquered half the world by violence, to take so high a moral tone when...

SOUTH AFRICA AND THE WAR By G. H. CALPIN, Editor, " The Natal Witness " [Since this article was written negotiations between General Hertzog and Dr. Malan have reached deadlock...

" Golden Boy." At the Regal. " On the Night of the Fire." At the Leicester Square. " Where's the Fire ? " At the Gaumont. PERHAPS because the original play did not 'seem to...

MUSIC HALL " Black Velvet." At the Hippodrome BLACK VELVET (which the. King and Queen attended on Mon- day evening) is a triumph of personality. The sketches are nothing much,...

Two Shows and a Pamphlet MR. GRAHAM BELL'S intelligent pamphlet* about the relation- ship (or the lack of it) between the contemporary artist and his public is worth a lot of...

for a dissertation of not more than 35o words on the English Week-end, as it might be written by a foreign anthropologist. Judging from the rather meagre number of entries...

[Correspondents are requested to keep their letters are given a preference over those bearing a pseudo name and address of the author, which will be as brief as is reasonably...

was very much interested in your leading article on the public schools in your issue of November 17th. Many headmasters feel that it would be a great step forward if public...

SIR,—Your contemporary, Mr. Punch, on November 22nd recorded the fate of the Criminal Justice Bill in these words: " It is in a sort of coma, from which the Government may later...

Snt,—The blessings of war-time are few enough in all conscience, and the disappearance of any of them is to be deprecated. Just as the evacuation scheme is doing good to the...

SI11,—I have just returned from a ten days' visit to Palestine, in which I was able to carry out a concern that has rested upon my mind for many months, and that is to visit...

Sut,—We hear little of the unemployed now but many of them have not yet found work and there are tens of thousands who can never even hope to, on account of physical...

SIR,—Mrs. Chesterton, in replying to my criticisms of her article on Russia, expresses the wish that I could have " seen more of the life of the people as apart from the high...

SIR,—Reviewing Mr. T. S. Eliot's latest book in your columns, Mr. Charles Smyth says that " there are only two alternatives before our society—it must become either Pagan or...

SIR,—Is not Mr. Harold Nicolson comparing two recreations that are quite dissimilar in his delightful article in last week's Spectator? I share with him to the full his...

Sta,—May I point out that "Field-Marshal Goering's Swedish wife," to whom " Janus " refers in last week's Spectator, died in 1931? She was Karin von Fock, of Stockholm, and "...

Christ in Flanders," by L. W., which appeared in The Spectator in 1915, has been reprinted in leaflet form. Copies may be obtained from The Spectator Office, at is. for 12...

SIR,—Last year many of your readers gave generously to the Sudeten Social Democrat refugees who were in camps in various parts of Surrey. Many of these are still in the same...

SIR,—I have never felt myself so completely in accord with The Spectator as in last week's article on unity with France. An idea I nursed during the last War, I felt that if...

corner of the most august of our daily papers, a letter on some innocuous and irrelevant topic—such as woodcocks in St. James's Park, the correct way of making barley-water, or...

PROFESSOR ROBBINS is at all times a lucid, vigorous and stimulating writer, and his qualities show to special advantage where, as in the present case, he is restricted within...

A Man of Fashion Portrait of a Painter. The Authorised Life of Philip de Liszlo. By Owen Rutter. (Hodder and Stoughton. its.) PHILIP DE Laszth, who died two years ago this...

A Pacifist in Trouble. By W. R. Inge. (Putnam. 75. 6d.) THE contents of this book appeared first in the pages of the Evening Standard ; the chapters, therefore, are not steps in...

(Clarendon Press. 3d.) IT has long tormented those who knew Germany well that they were unable to induce the British people to look National Socialism in the face. Now that...

THE man-in-the-street reading his daily paper is apt to see foreign affairs as a series of detached events, and even if he could carry in his memory the main events of the last...

Columbus Sails. By C. Walter Hodges. (Bell. 7s. 6d.) THE name of Christopher Columbus, in that form, is a house- hold word and certainly no one would be more incensed at this...

Facts- and Features of My Life. By Sir George Franckenstein. (Cassell. iss.) Ste GEORGE FRANCKENSTEIN'S diplomatic career has spanned the gulf that divides two worlds. In both...

All Too Human : An Unconventional Autobiography. By Owen Berkeley-Hill. (Peter Davies. 8s. 6d.) I Haven't Unpacked : An Autobiography. By William Holt. (Harrap. 8s. 6d.) THOSE...

As far as I remember the matter of Mr. Weidman's earlier novel, I Can Get It For You Wholesale, it ended with its hero, Harry Bogen, scraping his way by sheer villainy out of an...

By CUSTOS STOCK markets are so thin and so unusually selective that it is impossible to disentangle anything worthy of the name of general trend. I suppose the behaviour of...

In these days industrial company earnings need to be good if investors are to be spared the Chancellor's swingeing increase in taxation. In one or two cases profits are shown to...

the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company has somehow managed to achieve an increase in its receipts for the year ended Septem- ber 30th. Voyage receipts, which are...

see that cash in hand and with the Bank of England and other London bankers, and money in London at call and short notice amount to almost sixteen million pounds, thus providing...

Turning to the balance sheet, we show under the heading "Liabilities " a moderate decrease, compared with a year ago, of £948,495 in deposits which stand at £68,973,438. Notes...

Bill holding) show a decrease of approximately £1,400,000. This de- cline reflects the shortage, nowadays, of the commercial bill.

I now beg to propose that the report, containing a statement of the accounts and balance sheet, be approved, and that out of the profits of the year a dividend at the rate of 17...

As regards our internal economic position, we have seen some advance in prices and wages in the last two months, giving rise to a belief in some quarters that inflation might be...

The net profit for the year at £605,719 is £7,538 less than the amount declared last year. This is after providing for all taxation, national defence contribu- tion and charges...

the country was overshadowed by war and preparations for war, we owe even more than usual to the general manager, assistant general manager and the officials and staff at the...

When I addressed you a year ago I reported an increase of fully one million pounds in our advances, and I am pleased again to record an increase of just over £678,000 in this...

ROYAL BANK OF SCOTLAND ANNUAL GENERAL COURT OF PROPRIETORS THE annual general court of proprietors of the Royal Bank of Scotland was held at Edinburgh on 29th ultimo, His Grace...

The business of the bank has been well maintained throughout the year, and that also applies to our associate bank, Williams Deacon's Bank, Limited, who report improved trade...

The directors are pleased to be in,a position to recommend that a dividend for the half-year on the capital stock, including the new stock issued in connection with the...

On previous occasions I have emphasised the necessity for Great Britain to expand its export trade by all means in its power. Today the need is greater than ever though the...

BANK OF NEW SOUTH WALES AUSTRALIA'S SUCCESSFUL YEAR MR. R. W. GILLESPIE'S REVIEW THE Ordinary General Meeting of the Bank of New South Wales was held in Sydney on November...

BANK OF NEW SOUTH WALES There is interesting material for all who are interested in the war-time financial problems of Australia and New Zealand in Mr. R. W. Gillespie's review...

Australia is at present faced with the problem of diverting resources from production for peace to production for war. Some reduction in the standard of living appears to be...

In New Zealand perhaps the most notable development was the establishment of exchange control. This action was taken to preserve London funds, which had been greatly depleted...

forward by the Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry at Wednesday's meeting of the Royal Bank of Scotland, fits in well with the launching of the National Savings Campaign. He looks...

MITCHELLS AND BUTLERS LIMITED PURCHASE OF NEW PROPERTIES THE INCREASE IN DUTIES THE CHAIRMAN'S REPORT THE fifty-second annual general meeting of the ordinary stock- holders of...

The brewers' reaction to the heavy taxation which their industry is called upon to bear is already well known. Their discomfort has probably not been lessened by Sir John...

Very many industrial companies are now finding it impos- sible to complete their reports and balance sheets at the tisual date. United Molasses Company, which not only conducts...

THE UNITED MOLASSES CO., LTD. THE directors beg to notify stockholders that in consequence of conditions created by the war it has been found impossible to complete audited...

Rubber during the past week has again been advancing : it touched 1Iid. per lb. and now seems to have settled down at about II id., a level which has not been seen since the...

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[A prize of a Book Token for one guinea will be given to the sender of the first correct solution of this week's crossword puzzle to be opened. Envelopes should be marked...