20 MARCH 1942

Page 1

AUSTRALIA AND AMERICA

The Spectator

T HE whole war in the Pacific up to now has been a race against time on the part of the Japanese, whose aim has been to overwhelm Allied bases before heavy reinforcements of all...

Mr. Curtin's Appeal to America

The Spectator

The broadcast to " the people of America" by Mr. Curtin, the Australian Prime Minister, was a spirited statement of the Position in which Australia finds herself on the eve of...

Hitler Explains

The Spectator

In the speech he made in Berlin last Sunday Hitler had much to explain. The Russian armies which he claimed to have annihilated last autumn are still fighting and giving a good...

Page 2

The Yield of the Land

The Spectator

The yield of the land in war-time ranks with the yield of the mines, since the more we can produce of the food which is indispensable to existence the less shipping shall we...

The India of the Princes

The Spectator

It is no bad thing that while we await news of Sir Stafford Cripps' arrival in India we , should be reminded, by the meeting of the Chamber of Princes and the resolutions there...

To Increase Coal Production

The Spectator

In a debate last Tuesday the House of Commons showed itself keenly alive to the gravity of the situation in the coal- mining industry. Up to the present the mines have contrived...

Consumption and Shipping

The Spectator

Further restrictions have been announced during the last week which will have the effect of compelling the public to reduce private consumption. The basic ration of petrol is to...

The Minister of Production

The Spectator

The Prime Minister gave some account last week of the powers which will be assumed by Mr. Oliver Lyttelton in his new capacity as Minister of Production, with chief...

Page 3

RECONSTRUCTION POLICY

The Spectator

M UCH of the old world is crumbling before our eyes, and vaster military efforts will have to be made before we can oegin to roll back the tide of invasion ; yet few today will...

Page 4

At a time when the birth - rate — so at least we are

The Spectator

often told — is kept down by economic pressure, there is encouragement in one example that has just reached me of the effect of the application of income-tax to wage-earners....

Our Tortured Tongue

The Spectator

" Operational area defence officers are given power to arrest without warrant any person who may have reasonable ground for being suspected of having committed an offence...

The most distressing feature of Mr. Dalton's statement about the

The Spectator

cut in clothing-coupons was the appalling sentence " there has been a certain amount of talk that clothes are going to be up-pointed." Trousers, it appears, are not to be...

A SPECTATOR 'S NOTEBOOK

The Spectator

S PEAKING to the Royal Statistical Society on Tuesday, Sir William Beveridge (incidentally he and Sir Stephen Tallents, who have now been appointed to frame a scheme of fuel...

It would help a lot in waging this war if

The Spectator

facile left-wing writers and speakers could acquire a sense of responsibility sufficient to restrain them from embellishing statements of fact with (if I may adapt a historic...

Malayan planters have come under a good deal of criticism

The Spectator

one way and another the last few weeks, but the charge that they are receivers of stolen goods is rather new. You will find it in John Gunther's new book, Inside Latin America....

Page 5

A GREAT WINTER CAMPAIGN

The Spectator

By STRATEGICUS W INTER officially ends on Saturday, and very soon now we shall see what force Hitler is able to lead back from winter-quarters to resume the task he failed to...

Page 6

CEYLON ON GUARD

The Spectator

By J. TUDOR JONES T HE appointment of Admiral Sir Geoffrey Layton as Com- mander-in-Chief, Ceylon, with full power over the civil authorities, is significant evidence of the...

Page 7

OURSELVES AND RUSSIA

The Spectator

By A DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENT A LL is not well with Anglo-Russian relations. We can ignore that or gloss it over ; or we can face the fact frankly and set about seeing how to...

Page 8

COLOSSAL AMERICA

The Spectator

By ERWIN D. CANHAM By Air Mail. W HAT is happening in America today is one of the most stupendous things in history. I can find no better word to describe this event than those...

Page 9

WHAT THE WORKERS EARN

The Spectator

By TOM HARRISSON M ANY people believe that the average worker in a munitions- factory is making big money and possibly doing little work for it. Mass-Observation (the social...

Page 10

MARGINAL COMMENT

The Spectator

By HAROLD NICOLSON I N my article of last week I made a passing reference to the " war-guilt clause " contained in Article 231 of the Treaty of Versailles. It has been...

In the years which have elapsed since as a young

The Spectator

man I worked in the British Delegation to the Peace Conference, I have constantly considered what were the essential mistakes made by those who in that hurried and distressing...

I recall with dismay a scene which took place at

The Spectator

the session of the Conference at which the terms to be handed to the Germans were for the first time officially communicated to the smaller allies. One after another, the...

fo

The Spectator

It had, in fact, brought into the open that division of principle which rotted the whole Beace Conference, and which the states- men tried to conceal from each other, and,...

Page 11

THE THEATRE

The Spectator

Professor Mamlock." At the Stein Hall.—" The Knight of the Burning Pestle." At Raynes Park County SchooL- "Happidrome." At the Prince of Wales. . it a timely gesture of the...

THE CINEMA

The Spectator

All That Money Can Buy." At the RegaL " Keep 'Em Flying." At the Leicester Square. All That Money Can Buy is a film version of Stephen Vincent Benet's novel The Devil and...

HYPERION TO A SATYR

The Spectator

I AM your Ganymede, page, buffoon, Your satellite and mirror-moon, The light reflecting stream wherein Your changing image may be seen, Your Echo and your Psyche true, Your...

Page 12

Sia,—What a deplorable and saddening response to your stimulating article

The Spectator

" Braced and Compact? " four out of the six letters from correspondents you publish in extenso in the issue of March 13th exhibit. What a relief to find one among the six over...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

The Spectator

" BRACED AND COMPACT ? " Sta,—I have read with interest the letters last week on " Braced and Compact? " In particular, Mrs. W. R. Tarr's letter interests me as expressing the...

have taken The Spectator for years, and appreciated reading it.

The Spectator

I am therefore shocked to find that you have published the letter signed W. R. Tarr, 16 The Highlands, Rickmansworth. Why you gave it room in your paper makes one wonder....

Stn,—In reply to the letter by M:s. Tarr, published in

The Spectator

last week', Spectator, a few comments suggest themselves. (t) Most of us have recognised that much is " rotten in the State o: Denmark." But fortunately most of us prefer other...

SIR,—It would be difficult to find a letter more replete

The Spectator

with fallacies than that of your correspondent, Mrs. Tarr, in last week's issue. The assumption that present-day conditions must be permanent and that the present war is sure...

Page 13

THE REAL VICTORIANS

The Spectator

Bannard says: " They might believe like Robert Brown- ing that—' God's in his Heaven—All's right with the world.'" But what evidence is there to show that Browning did believe...

StR,—After reading the letter of your correspondent " Private Soldier

The Spectator

" in your issue of the 6th March, I am left wondering whether he has made any application to the Education Officer of his unit. It is this officer's responsibility to make...

ENTERTAINING THE FORCES

The Spectator

SIR,—Your correspondent " Private Soldier " is obviously unaware of E.N.S.A.'s musical activities. In the last six months four symphony orchestras have been recruited from men...

THE TRAGEDY OF THE 'STRUMA'

The Spectator

Sm,—In the first post-Munich debate, Sir Sidney Herbert limped into the House and attacked the Government with fiery indignation. The burden of his speech was this: " What have...

WHO WAS MRS. WALFORD ?

The Spectator

Slit,—Mr. Edmund Blunden, in his admirable study of Thomas Hardy, which I have Just read with immense pleasure states that Coventry Patmore once appraised a number of English...

Page 14

" THE DOCTOR'S DILEMMA"

The Spectator

Ste,—I much enjoyed Mr. Basil Wright's perceptive review of this play. As far as I know, he is the first critic to point out that by allowing Colenso, the self-complacent...

COUNTRY LIFE

The Spectator

A SUGGESTIVE query has reached me from an observer of birds whose Observation Post is a bedroom in a southern sanatorium. She writes: "Do birds actually lose their voices during...

In the Garden A number of gardeners have doubtless received,

The Spectator

as I have, a little card bearing the notice " We regret we have now sold out of leek and have no suitable substitute "—that from the greatest of our seedsmen. What are we all,...

WEATHER-WISE BIRDS

The Spectator

Sue,—I read with interest the account di The Spectator of Decem- ber 19th, 1941, of " A Weather-Wise Bird." Here on Vancouver Island the Indians call the Pileated Wood- pecker,...

Prairie England

The Spectator

The statisticians tell us that in 1939 Britain included a round two million fewer acres under cultivation than in 1914. The plight of these scorned acres revealed some very...

Native Fuel

The Spectator

Among country words—of which a number were quoted last week —" elden " is particularly topical and it might well be extended from the local focus, for in this time of war...

Postage on this issue : Inland and Overseas, Id.

The Spectator

Page 16

BOOKS OF THE DAY

The Spectator

The New Society Conditions of Peace. By E. H. Carr. (Macmillan. 12s. 6d.) IN writing this book Professor Carr has rendered a great service. He designed it as a call for the...

Page 18

A Theatre Pioneer

The Spectator

The Scene Is Changed. By Ashley Dukes. (Macmillan. 12s. 6d.) "How lucky we were,. we men now in the fifties, to have known what the world was like before 1914." So Mr. Ashley...

Looking Backward

The Spectator

" ELLA MAILLART," says the casual reader, " wasn't she the girl who went with Peter Fleming across China? " But Ella Maillan has no need to stand on any one else's shoulders ;...

Page 20

Angles and Angels

The Spectator

To interpret a new spirit, non-political but radical, as it will be applied to various phases of modern life is the aim of the new series called Bridgeheads, edited by Misses...

What is Man ?

The Spectator

Diagnosis of Man. By Kenneth Walker. (Cape. los. 6d.) THE development of photography has made it possible for the single living cell, many times magnified, to be observed and...

Fiction

The Spectator

A Stricken Field is a desperate book ; or perhaps it would be truer and braver to say that were we not at war at last, were not humanity, cumbrously, blunderingly but at least...

Page 21

tt THE SPECTATOR" CROSSWORD No. 158 B,ok Token for one

The Spectator

guinea will be awarded to the sender of the first correct ,, awn of this week's crossword to be opened after noon on Tuesday week. metopes should be received not later than...

SOLUTION TO CROSSWORD No. 156

The Spectator

SOLUTION ON APRIL 3rd The winner of Crossword No. 156 is Mrs. Mellanby, Westwood, Bridge-of-Weir, Renfrewshire.

Page 22

FINANCE AND IN

The Spectator

By CUSTOS WHAT with sombre war news and the steady movement towards " fortress economics " at home, markets are doing well enough in holding their ground. So far as new buying...

Page 23

COMPANY MEETING

The Spectator

LONDON BRICK COMPANY INCREASED TRADING PROFIT THE forty-second annual general meeting of the London Brick Com- pany Limited was held on March 17th at the Connaught Rooms,...