this issue of the SPECTATOR goes to ess it is uncertain whether or not the ouse of Lords will be successful in its tempt to frustrate the Government's I an to bounce Parliament...

Barbara gets her replay AUBERON WAUGH Perhaps it was inevitable that the present government should choose to make its last- ditch attempt to impose a pathetic, more or less...

A nation of democrats C. M. WOODHOUSE The withdrawal of Greece, under pressure, from the Council of Europe has led to many complacent comments in western Europe on the chronic...

Peace in our time GEORGE GALE err Willy Brandt when he was Lord Mayor West Berlin once said to me: 'I would e a future in which Berlin would not be point which attracted so...

Red army herring TIBOR SZAMUELY There is probably no area of Soviet politics about which so much nonsense has been written as the relationship between the Party and the Army....

Report from the battlefront FREDERICK FORSYTH To return to Britain after five weeks in Biafra, as I did a few days ago, is to be surprised yet again at the paucity of factual...

A plan to save the universities RHODES BOYSON The recent conference of the National Union of Students (whose membership fees are automatically paid by the government or the...

J. W. M. THOMPSON Relics of the Department of Economic Affairs in its heyday continue to turn up, like letters from the dead delivered after a melan- choly delay. I've just...

The pornographer's dilemma JOHN ROWAN WILSON 'She took me by surprise. While I was trying to unhook her bra she pressed herself against me and thrust her tongue between my...

Whitehall mess TERENCE BENDLXSON Mr John Silkin, Minister of Public Building and Works, wants to rebuild a large chunk of Whitehall and is setting about it like a supermarket...

Ono, not again BILL GRUNDY Those of you who are as well advanced into the sere and yellow as I am will need no reminding of the story of Miss `Gussie' Moran's knickers. But for...

HRISTOPHER HOLLIS A hundred Labour Members swear To sit on the pitch at Lord's next year Because they do not think it right That teams should be entirely white, Biters...

RODNEY ACKLAND There were published during the summer two books on the cinema, both concerned primarily with Hollywood but otherwise as dissimiliar in character, in style, in...

M. LLEWELLYN SMITH ikos Kazanizakis: A Biography Helen azantzakis translated by Amy Mims Bruno Cassirer 65s) he author of this memoir was Kazant- Ais's second wife. They lived...

JENNY STRATFORD The Complete Poems of Walter de la Mare edited by Richard and, Giles de la Mare (Faber 100s) Walter de la Mare's first published book of poems, Songs of...

LEONEE ORMOND The Aesthetic Movement: Prelude to A Nouveau Elizabeth Aslin (Elek '100s) 'How cheap even pretty aesthetical effe are—Japanese chintz curtains, mats & ts penny...

GEORGE ROWELL Houdini: The Untold Story Milboume Christopher (Cassell 42s) Barnum in London Raymund Fitzsimons (Bles 35s) Musical Comedy: A Story in Pictures Ray- mond Mander...

KENNETH ALLSOP Personal History Vincent Sheean (Hamish Hamilton 35s) Order to View Rene Cutforth (Faber 30s) Vincent Sheean, patriarch American foreign correspondent, says...

A. E. DYSON nglish Progressive Schools Robert kidelsky (Penguin 7s) amours were rife of godless orgies. When pastor visited Beacon's Hill, a naked teen- ge girl was supposed to...

Child's play PENELOPE HOUSTON Hugo and Josefin (IcA, Nash House 'U') Captain Nemo and the Underwater City (Ritz, 'U') The Magic Christian (Odeon, Kensington 'A') Last Summer...

BRYAN ROBERTSON On arriving at David Tremlett's first ex- hibition of sculpture at the Grabowski Gallery the sight which, from the start, does not so much greet as confront the...

From the 'Spectator,' 18 December 1869— Great Britain is not the only country in Europe with an Ireland. Every race except the Italian has made the effort to assimilate some...

MICHAEL NYMAN Musical instruments are made more fascinating by their many in-built properties. Some people find it difficult to listen to modern music written for conventional...

NICHOLAS DAVENPORT About a month ago under the heading 'The role of Big Brother' I reviewed a book by Mr Frank Broadway on State In- tervention in British Industry. I sent a...

Sir: May I suggest more constructive ac- tion for those genuinely concerned with race relations in South Africa than anti-Springbok demonstrations or banning the South African...

E.M.B. Each month the mandarins their fiddles play, Each night the people in their torture toss; Inflation fills the grim ballon d'essai, Taxation's levied on the ensuing loss....

From Charley Williams, George Chowd- haray-Best, Lawrence D. Hills, Dr Donald M. Bowers, T. H. A. Llewellyn, Paul Pulitzer, Professor Robin Pedley, John Laurence, Michael F....

Sir: As a self-employed free-lance editor with a gross income considerably below the national average wage, I find it difficult to sympathise with Marina Learmont (Personal...

Sir: Permit me to toss in my ha'penny's worth into the marathonic dialogue being orchestrated over the war in South Vietnam in general, and the more recently alleged 'massacre'...

Sir: Crabro's EEC article (6 December) does not mention that postwar Germany has become completely adult again and a major political and economic force affecting all Western...

Sir: George Gale's story (*Viewpoint'. 6 December) of the Poet Laureate's remark at the Great Exhibition ('What I want is a bottle of Bass') remains me of an experience that was...

Sir: Ther none so blind as he who does not wish see. However, accepting that John Todd cannot (will not?) understand what I thought was spelt out in my book in very simple...

Sir: As one who has actually written South African racial propaganda, examined it in depth on the spot, and had the first book on the subject published here kit year (The Seeds...

Women in peril JOHN WELLS Women who take certain newspapers may be in danger of chronic neurosis, hysteria and premature insanity. That is the shock revela- tion issued this...

No. 584: Initial difficultie s Set by Martin Fagg: Organisations %,ith identical initials proliferate in a most be- musing way. AA—once the preserve of the Architectural...

PHILIDOR S. Loyd ( St Prize, Charleston Courier Tourney, 1859). White to play and mate in four moves; solution next week Solution to No. 469 (Loyd): Q-RI, threat Q- Kl. 1...

1 Where Dad naturally gets a decoration! (6) 4 No nonsense about whiter than white for this princess! (8) 10 To win back make a second application (7) 11 It's vital in cargo...