21 MARCH 1947

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NEWS OF THE WEEK

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I N June, 1945, in a political broadcast, Mr. Attlee, the leader of the Labour Party, raised the issues of the General Election of that time to a higher plane of party...

Conscription or — ?

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The new National Service Bill continuing conscription for another five years after the expiration of the present National Service Acts at the end of 1948 is meeting a double...

Food in Perspective

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It is well over a year since the " dried egg crisis " shocked the British public into a realisation of the seriousness of the world food position. Since then the wheel has come...

Page 2

A Second Spain ?

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The argument over the effect of President Truman's message pro- ceeds with remarkably small reference to the internal affairs of Greece. Last week's Commons debate on the...

The Trader's Van

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During the debate on the second reading of the Transport Bill Mr. Barnes held out some hope that material amendments might be made during the committee stage. The decision to...

The National Accounts

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The tale of the Civil Estimates of proposed expenditure in 1947-48 is at last complete, and together with the Service Estimates which have already been presented in the House of...

MacArthur on Japan

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At a Press conference which must have left the bewildered corre- spondents with a singing in their ears, General MacArthur announced in Tokyo on Monday that the military...

Page 3

The R.A.F.'s Future

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This week's debate on the Air Estimates was, inevitably, incon- clusive and scrappy. It is still much too soon to indicate in even the broadest outline how the Air Force will...

Controversy Ad Lib

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The B.B.C. has taken up controversy in broadcasting with the enthusiasm of the convert. The success of the two improvised broadcasts of the editors of five political weeklies...

AT WESTMINSTER

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I T is strange how successful Parliament is in alternating its moods. After the storm comes, habitually—though, I think, in the main fortuitously—the calm. The still, small...

Page 4

WASHINGTON AND MOSCOW

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A T Washington as well as Moscow the re-shaping of the world is going forward. The fate of President Truman's bold initiative is still uncertain. The assent of Congress to the...

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When our Parliamentary Correspondent wrote a week or two ago

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that if the Colonial Secretary had been a gladiator in the Roman arena the assembled spectators would have turned their thumbs up and left him to his fate it was assumed by...

The name Hornbostel caught my eye at once when I

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saw it in a Vienna telegram in the Manchester Guardian on Tuesday, for I have memories of a very pleasant meeting with Herr Hornbostel at lunch at the British Legation at Vienna...

A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK

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I T seems strange that Lord Tyrrell should have been best known to nine-tenths, or nineteen-twentieths, of the people of this country as a name on the certificate shown on the...

I am indebted to several friends and readers for copies

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of the latest circular issued by Tote Investors' Limited, Chairman, Lord Milford. I agree that it is a most interesting document: What could be more engaging than the opening...

I am grieved to have grieved those whom I should

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grieve to grieve. But it seems that I have. A few weeks ago, writing on something concerning Cambridge, I added incidentally, " I note without comment that Cambridge heads the...

The new Governor of the Sudan will not have a

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job comparable to that of the new Governor-General of India, but it will be a formidable enough task, none the less, with the Sudan—or rather the conditions of Sudanese...

* *

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" Comment is free," as C. P. Scott, the great Editor of the Manchester Guardian, observed in a dictum that has become classic. It is proper therefore that the Guardian should...

Page 6

WHY TURKEY NEEDS HELP

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By DEREK PATMORE M ANY people must have been surprised to hear, in President Truman's speech to Congress, that Turkey needed material aid from the United States. Unlike Greece,...

Page 7

ALTERNATIVES TO COAL

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By E. STANLEY TUCKER C OAL production, unless there is a miracle, will fall short of requirements for some time to come. The 1947 target output of 200,000,000 tons is...

Page 8

INDIA REVISITED.-I

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By SIR JOHN THORNE* A RAPID survey extending in six weeks from New Delhi to Trivandram and from Calcutta to Bangalore affords scant authority for considered judgements on...

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ALARM. IN WASHINGTON

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By. WILLSON WOODSIDE A LARM is growing in Washington concerning the American political and economic position in the world today, which can be compared only with the alarm over...

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A POLICEMAN'S LOT

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By BERNARD J. FARMER R EPORTS still show that the Police are not receiving the number of recruits they require ; many men who were formerly in the Police before they joined the...

Page 11

LA FOCE

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By R. S. JENKINSON I UR leading platoon marched along the hot, dusty road one afternoon in June, 1944, to occupy the Tuscan hill-town of Montepulciano. Battalion headquarters...

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MARGINAL COMMENT

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By HAROLD NICOLSON 1 N the striking contribution which he made to the B.B.C. sym- posium on Atomic Energy, Bertrand Russell drew a sudden picture of an England from which all...

Page 13

MUSIC

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AT the London Philharmonic Orchestra's concert at Covent Garden on Sunday I had the great and rare pleasure of hearing a work hissed. I happened to agree with the hissers, but...

CONTEMPORARY ARTS

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THE THEATRE "Peace Comes to Peckham." By R. F. Delderfield. (Princes Theatre.) IT is not so much with the advent of .peace as with the return of Master and Miss Palfrey that...

THE CINEMA

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ing " (Gaumont, Haymarket and Marble Arch Pavilion). ONE can hardly imagine a more difficult task than that of translating Nicholas Nickleby to the screen. This is the youthful...

Page 14

GRAMOPHONE RECORDS

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THE most interesting records that I have received in the last two months are those of Prokofiev's Alexander Nevsky cantata, made for Columbia by Eugene Ormandy and the...

ART

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RECENT paintings by Ivon Hitchens are now on view at the Leicester Galleries. For Hitchens the material starting point is the most slender of excuses, soon to be left behind for...

ON THE AIR

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Slowly, step by painful step, we progress—or do we? Political broadcasts, of a mildly controversial character, have begun this week, and a somewhat enigmatic statement by the...

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MAGISTERIAL REFORM

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SIR,—As Janus says, it would, indeed, be most regrettable if - persons over sixty were to be ineligible for the Bench. Under such a rule school- masters, bank managers and Civil...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

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THE FUTURE OF KOREA SIR,—Korea, jutting out southward from Manchuria into the sea, is a nation of 30,000,003 homogeneous people. With an independent national history of...

THE NURSING CRISIS

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SIR,—Dr. Somerville Hastings has diagnosed most of the symptoms of the nursing crisis but not all. Talking over our training days with a former matron of a large hospital, we...

THE TOURIST IN BRITAIN

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Sts,—Professor Brogan's injunction to begin a national wash-and-brush-up in preparation for the tourist season this summer is both entertaining and timely ; for one can imagine...

SIR, — I was very interested in your article The Nursing Crisis,

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by Dr. Somerville Hastings, M.P., especially the paragraph on the recruitment of women with any nursing training for part-time work in hospitals. I wonder what scale of...

Page 16

UPROOTED HUMANITY

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Stn,—Mr. Tracy Philipps is right: the Jewish race is not easily absorbed by any other nationality, and the Brazilians, by birth, culture and religion, are not likely to be more...

LUXURY IMPORTS

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Sift,—If we are to understand Sir Stafford Cripps aright, it is not the policy or intention of the Government to control the importation of either films or tobacco. We have...

SIR,—Professor Brogan's admirable article points to one side of the

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question only : encouragement of the wealthy tourist for the hard currency which he will bring. Foreign travel should nowadays be regarded not as a luxury, but as a prime...

PARASITES AND POOLS SIR, —Your editorial note with this heading wisely

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emphasises the scandal revealed in the Report of the Churches' Committee on Gambling. We are, as a country, failing to exert our utmost productive effort while several hundred...

Page 17

SNORE-LIKE SOUNDS

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Sm,—Did Mr. Harold Nicolson really mean to suggest that the Economic Survey and the Battle for Output were " two most stertorous warnings " ? One might well agree that they...

THE HIGH COST OF POSTAGE

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Sta,—Mr. D. Groyther Moore does well in calling attention to the profiteering of the Post Office which, in spite of a surplus of £36,000,000 in 1945-46, still charges 21d. for...

In My Garden

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Since some doubts are felt by gardeners as to the hardiness of that most lovely shrub the camellia, I make no apology for giving further details from a successful cultivator....

WHITE MAN AMONG BLACKS

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Sta,—On March 7th you published a letter from Stanley G. Evans about the prosecution of the Rev. Michael Scott for taking up residence in a native village without the required...

Catastrophe of the Bee

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During one of the brief spells of sudden warmth in the midst of the long frost, the bees, whose hives were in a suntrap, came out in numbers and died from the change that...

The Age of Trees An ingenious arboriculturist in Surrey has

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been arriving at certain conclusions which should interest the "Men of the Trees," who are reviving their summer meeting (at Cheltenham). He has been studying yews, the most...

A PARCEL OF BOOKS

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find it difficult to decide what books to put into a parcel that I am sending to a German friend now head of the English Faculty in a university in the American zone. I would...

Postage on thus issue' Inland, lid.; Overseas, Id.

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COUNTRY LIFE

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IT is generally thought and said among country people that a late spring is desirable. In some regards it is. The hybridisers of apples, for example, have been concentrating on...

PAYMENT BY RESULTS

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Sta,—What is not generally apparent in current articles and corre- spondence, and is ignored by the T.U.C., is the fact that some years ago Stalin and his Comintern found it was...

Kiwi Redux It is, I believe, a surprise to many

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New Zealanders, as to most of us in their Antipodes, to know that the kiwi, which has become a sort of national symbol, is not extinct nor now likely to become extinct. It has...

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BOOKS OF THE DAY

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A Theme for Gibbon ONCE again a plain story of what actually happened outrages all the canons and conventions of fiction. Not even the astrologers, gaudiest of modern augurs,...

The Silurist

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Henry Vaughan : A Life and Interpretation. By F. E. Hutchinson. (Oxford University Press. 15s.) IN most men's minds the name of Henry Vaughan is associated with a few memorable...

Page 20

Fine Profusion

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The Hunters and the Hunted. By Sacheverell Sitwell. (Macmillan. 15s.) THIS book is an outpouring of imagery, fantasy and strange and scat- tered learning. It has no subject ; it...

Montgomery in the West

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IN this volume Field-Marshal Montgomery presents a " factual account, based on his personal papers, of the campaign in North-West Europe from the landing in Normandy to the...

Page 22

Hunteriana

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John and William Hunter. By Jane M. Oppenheimer. (Heinemann. 25s.) Joins HuNTER's influence on surgery, as we know it today, has perhaps been more profound than that of any man...

Exploring the Pacific

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Cook and the Opening of the Pacific. By J. A. Williamson. (English Universities Press. 5s.) Pacific Horizons. By Christopher Lloyd. (Allen and Unwin. 10s. 6d.) THE Pacific...

Page 24

Literature to Eternity

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Poets and Pundits. By Hugh I'Anson Fausset. (Cape. 12s. 6d.) MR. FAUSSET is an essayist whose knowledge has not made him lose heart. So often literary specialists, diving...

A Rural Elegy-

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Where Man Belongs. By H. J. Massingham. (Collins. 12s. 6d.) THE transformation of the predominantly rural England of the past into the predominatingly urban England of the...

Page 26

Fiction

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Medusa. By E. H. Visiak. (Gollancz. 7s. 6d.) Children of Wrath. By Edmond Buchet. Translated from the French by Marjorie Gabain. (Collins. 7s. 6d.) The Web and the Rock. By...

Shorter Notices

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Living. in Time. By Kathleen Raine. (Editions Poetry. 6s.) THESE poems show a delicate sensibility and good taste. None of them falls below a fairly high standard. Miss Raine...

Page 28

Book Notes

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ARTHUR SCHLESINGER'S The Age of Jackson, which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1945, is introduced to English readers by Herbert Agar. The book, which is not a biography of...

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THE SPECTATOR " CROSSWORD No. 417

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[A Book Token for one guinea will be awarded to the sender of the first correct solution of this week's crossword to be opened after noon on Tuesday week, April 1st. Envelopes...

SOLUTION TO CROSSWORD No. 415

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P:0 v A ft Its S S'Ali °MUM MA CONNIE S.H o A T PM5 S R 5 LNHIIV s 'A E L Roa,m, N AT o P•o Ei 1'A PalcilliOnElai ID . 12 ' N'E HIS0u5 i :■■■ G a V I- ,_cpE , N ,...

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FINANCE AND INVESTMENT

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By CUSTOS WITH the Budget casting its first shadows across the market it is not to be expected that there will be any great exuberance in Throg- morton Street for some little...