T HIS week has seen M. Nehru defy the Security Council by his incorporation of Kashmir into India and the General Assembly sternly bidding Israel to withdraw behind the 1948...

SPECTATOR ESTABLISHED 1828 - NUMBER 6710 - FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1957 - PRICE NINEPENCB

It is the glory of the Constitution under whi( h we live that no man can be punished without guilt, and this guilt must be publicly demon- strated by a series of clear, legal,...

Tim KID from Bermondsey knocked 'em in the old Mayfair Road last night. . . Young Tommy Steele had a smart audience clapping and cheering wildly as he rocked and rolled in the...

OBODY knows,' Mr. Angus Maude writes on • N another page, 'whether Nasser will allow our ships through the Canal when it is reopened. and whether we care (or even want) to do...

By RICHARD H. ROVERE New York T HE Middle Eastern crisis, which for so long seemed to Americans an unreal crisis in an unreal part of the world, is at last at the centre of...

By ERSKINE A PERIOD of great frustration is at an end for Jordan. There is now a positive desire to merge an artificial country in some larger Arab unit; the nationalism that...

India has also been having her troubles with the UN, being astonished to find that the Security Council was consistent enough when debating Kashmir to reaffirm the need for a...

By PETER BENENSON Beirut T HERE are thirty-six daily newspapers in this city, and another thirty-nine appear at inter- vals of less than a week. The paper with the largest...

'IT is not the Government's wish or intention—or cer- tainly my intention... .' There is no mistaking the tone, let alone the undertone; the voice of Mr. Butler is heard once...

EASTERN POTENTATES used to con- struct their palaces sp that no single member of their household would know all the passages and chambers —and all the secrets. The oil com-...

practically no crude oil is shipped to Europe from the United States; the operation had to start almost from scratch. If early hopes have not been met, it is mainly because of...

the day gradually learned two lessons. The first was that, as Castlereagh (no friend to the press) more than once pointed out, the question is not whether a libel is deserving...

to achieve since her return from her jaunt to Port Said. Everybody knows that the original Government figures of Egyptian casualties were far too low; but her own figures are...

welcome to King Saud has evoked a quan- tity of comparable incidents ranging from Big Bill Thompson threatening to punch King George 1 1 on the snoot to the defenestration of...

expressed I should put this, found in t leader-column of Monday's Daily Express: Why, it will be urged, should Britain perst with this project whcn the Americans alrea have a...

further series of rulings on professional conduct and etiquette. For example, the pri or consent of the Bar Council is now required before a barrister, cloaked in anonymity, may...

I have been looking at Hansard to see how press and Parliament got on . in the past; and the subject is full of interest. What most clearly emerges is -that privilege has...

By ANGUS MAUDE, MP Nevertheless, this ugly rush to the High Com- missioners' offices must be taken seriously. No doubt, when the would-be emigrants have spent six . months or...

By ANTONY FLEW O N the tenth of August, 1901, two English ladies paid a visit to Versailles which was to become famous. For they afterwards came to believe that on that visit...

By JOHN BETJEMAN S OMETHING happened a fortnight ago which must be unique in England. The Mayor of Woodstock gave a civic party to celebrate the removal.of pylons and overhead...

By HUGO CHARTERIS O N the ship's chaise-longue an ageing colon (colonial) fans herself apprehensively : 'Ce n'est pas un pays de merveilles. .' The first marvel is that one's...

The snow has vanished now from Hermon's slopes. High rides the August sun. The opiate song Of loud cicadas mocks our human hopes, And dulls the will of faith to challenge...

the House of Commons; but not, I fancy, Peers. Yet I am sorely tempted to do so. Next Tuesday they will be called upon to discuss the Committee stage of the Shops Bill : that is...

HEINE'S first ball, a fast one and shortish, all but got through, May nicking it off the inside edge past the off stump. Daily Telegraph, January 26. MAY reached well outside...

William F. Pickard, D. W. Pye Fair Deal for the Clergy Sir Alfred C. Bossom, MP Refereeing Rugger Daphne Fanwood Government by Old Etonian R. W. Wood, Prof J. G. Bullocke...

civilisation of Egypt when he recalls the national jubilation that followed an assassination. —Yours faithfully, D. W. PI% The College, Llandovery, Carmarthenshire

SIR,—In practically every national daily newspaper considerable attention is paid to claims for increased pay for busmen, doctors and many other classes in the community while...

SIR,—I read with delight the essay on 'Refereeing Rugger' by Oliver Edwards in The Spectator of January 18. It reminded me in its scope and thought- provoking power of Hazlitt's...

Euston 3221

SIR,—May I pass a few comments on the letter of Mr. W. E. Kaye who so fervently defends public schools and their products? Britain vitally and ur- gently needs scientists and...

but I should be grateful for a little more space. I am not concerned to `defend' myself, as none of your earlier correspondents have attacked me to any purpose. May I firstly...

Chinese, Indians and Negroes in the various places where he worked. Or, I wonder, have I been peculiarly lucky? For twenty-nine years, less seven periods of six months each...

SIR,—In his review of Professor Auden's inaugural lecture at Oxford Mr. Quennell writes that 'not since 1857, when Matthew Arnold held the chair, had this key position been held...

'place-name people' of January 25 con- fines himself to men; there is an equally entertaining set of women to be found. Sible Hedingham (Essex) and Greta Bridge (Yorks) arc an...

SIR,--Leslie Adrian is right in stating that I was one of the 'antis' in the matter of Dr. Yudkin's new house. He is, however, wrong in his implications about the difficulties...

S18,—The man who painted his tractor turquoise blue may not be as foolish as Miss Sparrow imagines. Bright colours arc more quickly picked out by on- coming traffic than are...

the fact that the sons of the newly rich receive a good education at Eton? Would he rather that they went somewhere else and received a bad one? Is not the bringing of them into...

SIR,—Pharos, in his typically superior manner, has chosen to belittle and ridicule the Prime Minister's recent broadcast speech. It would be interesting to your readers and, I...

SIR,—In his article on 'The Sterling Area' Mr. John Wood suggested that no adequate book on this sub- ject has been written by a Commonwealth author, and ascribes this to...

SIR,—Did Admiral Sir W. M. James in his younger days never hear of 'Bloody Balfour'?—Yours faith- fully, 3 Rose Crescent, Cambridge R. H. STEVENSON

SIR,—Surely Mr. Betjeman's game of place names can be played in reverse? I, for one, am well acquainted with the charming village of Compton Burnett (Dorset) and its neigh-...

FEBRUARY 4, 1832 ON Thursday, the House of Commons ex- hibited one of those scenes of impotent bluster and safe menace that have long been banished from every other assembly...

No Laughing Matter. By Armand Salacrou. (Arts.) —The Two Gentlemen of Verona. By William Shake- speare. (Old Vic.) ANYONE going to the Arts in the expectation of wallowing in...

Abstract Art Today THE present exhibitions at Tooth's and at the Institute of Contemporary Arts de- scribe the present condition of non-figurative art, the first by showing...

AFTER Covent Garden's last disastrous Wagnerian venture in Tannhauser, the new pro- duction of The Mastersingers is a comparative success. One of its virtues is that in accord-...

Two British films raise the question of nationality this week, one being a genuine, the other a spurious, local product. Anyone who wants to see the English- ness (not the...

Hilaire Belloc BY D. W. BROGAN H ILAIRE BELLOC was the first practising author that I took physical notice of. Here was a man who wrote books, who knew so much and, above all,...

THIS volume completes one of the most important historical achievements of our generation. Thirty years ago we knew little more about the Parlia- ments of the reign of Elizabeth...

The Penguin Book of French Verse. 3. The Nineteenth Century. Introduced and edited by Anthony Hartley. (Penguin Books, 5s.) Tuns is an excellent anthology. Anthologies arouse...

To those of us who have been brought up in what we consider to be normal conditions, in moderate wealth, health and happiness; to those of us who like to believe we are endowed...

Canaris. By K. H. Abshagen. (Hutchinson, 18s.) Secret Weapons—Secret Agents. By. Jacques Bergier. (Hurst and Blackett, 18s.) Great True Spy Adventures. Selected by Alfred...

THE operation slip is signed, sealed and delivered the lights are on and the instruments laid out the heavy breathing of the surgeon mingles with the hiss , of the steriliser;...

The Haven-Finding Art: A History. of Naviga- tion from Odysseus to Captain Cook. By E. G. R. Taylor. (Hollis and Carter, 30s.) PROFESSOR TAYLOR has borrowed the title of her...

The Fountain Overflows. By Rebecca West. (Macmillan, 16s.) This Side of Holmin's Hill. By Frank Freedman. (Seeker and Warburg, 12s. 6d.) Kampong. By Ronald Hardy. (Muller, 13s....

My Life and Crimes. By Reginald Reynolds. (Jarrolds, 18s.) AT the age of six, the author heard his parents discussing Original Sin. Under the impression that this was...

Lector, si monumentum requiris, circumspice. So ends the short, proud, Latin epitaph the younger Wren had inscribed on his father's tomb in St. Paul's. But while circumspection...

WITH Jordan and Israel in uneasy peace, silence still reigns over the wilderness of Judaea, and a visitor to Qumran and the caves of the Dead Sea finds nothing but solitude and...

ACROSS 1 Iced escallop in trifles (12). 9 It's funny, but those who indulge in it aren't peevish (5-4). 10 1 halt for the big stick (5). 11 not to make reply' (Tennyson)...

In Dr. Archibald Henderson's ininiense new biography of Bernard Shaw, recently pdblished in the United States, occurs this extract from a letter by CBS: 'Yesterday, at...

Clematis which bloom on new wood flower, in the main, from July to September, and these should be cut back on old flowered shoots to within six inches of the ground. Lar g...

Somehow the collection of rainwater trom the roof is considered old-fashioned. Civil en g ineers and the like only think in terms of catchment areas in remote situations A...

BY PHILIDOR No. 87 H. W. BETTMANN BLACK (5 men, WHITE to play and mate in two moves. solution next week. Solution to Iasi week's problem by Larsen R- B 8, no threat. I B-Kt 4;...

BY IAN NIALL SHEPHERDING, which is amon g the oldest railin g s in the world, has always had its own s ort of drama. Guardin g the flock from the beast is an old Biblical...

like some in the far north. Salmon are not cau g ht until well into sprin g and those in the river now are sickly fish fallin g back to the sea to return again only if they...

Hans Breitmann and his bibulous reminiscences. For memories which need refreshing, here is the opening of his 'Ballad of the Mermaid' : Der noble Ritter Hugo Von...

The usual prize of six guineas was offered for a translation of Ronsard's sonnet: Le Julie m'a trompe; ma Maitresse m'enserre Si fort en sa prison que fen suis tout transit La...

By NICHOLAS "DAVENPO RT I T used to be said of economists, and can now be said of bankers, that when five or six are gathered together six or seven different opinions will be...

By CUSTOS PRE" fresh . fall in the Treasury bill rate to £4 I Is. per cent. and the continued .strength of sterling have kept the boom in the gilt-edged market on the boil....