The basic dilemma in Kenya becomes more sharply defined. The upsurge of barbarism called for severe measures, and they were taken. But the arrests, interroga- tions, "...

T HE leading article under this heading in last week's Spectator has proved only too well justified. It is no use to speak of the United Nations suffering from a certain...

In Korea desperate local fighting cont:nues for the possession 0 „f three or four hilltops, which change hands almost daily. At P a nmunjom truce discussions have stopped. In...

The South African Prime Minister's announcement that, to avoid a complete constitutional deadlock, he will accept the decision of the Supreme Court of the Union (upholding a...

Whether the result of the first ballot for membership of the Labour Parliamentary Party is to be regarded as satisfactory ' or unsatisfactory depends on the point of view. Mr....

So 'gratifying is the spectacle of the Greeks electing j strong Government, with a large Parliamentary majoi for the first time for twenty-four years, that nobody, excci1'...

Tuesday's proceedings in the Bundestag are to be deplored so far as they threaten to open a rift, or widen whatever rift already existed, between Germany and France, but no...

I T was not for nothing that one of the Brontë sisters sub- scribed to a testimonial to Hudl on, the Railway King. Playing at trains (and at lorries, too) is a national...

Those clauses of the Town and Country Planning Act of 1947 which provided for the transfer of the development value of land to the State were based, among other things, on sound...

The new EduCation Bill whose text was published on Tuesday holds to the compromise between State and 'Church education arrived at by the Act of 1944 and its subsequept...

I F there i's one great danger in British politics that is uni- versally and publicly recognised at this moment it is the possibility that the parties may spend valuable time...

S UCH reviews of Mr. G. M. Young's Baldwin as I have read—and I have read a good many— have been more discussions of the man than comments on the book. On the Whole they have, I...

Wrench last Friday in celebration of his birthday was the crowded state of the House of Commons dining-room, where the function was held. But that was in fact a merit, since it...

did not at all know who Mr. Edward Martell was till I read some particulars about him at the head of an attack by him on Lady Megan—a column and a half of it—in the extremely...

stical historians by his defiant declaiation that the Church of England is not Protestant. Strictly speaking he may be right, though that seems a little doubtful, but in any...

enlivens his discourse with as brilliant a jeu d'esprit as the translation into rhyming Latin of the " young lady of Riga " Limerick which Professor T. J. Haarhoff introduced...

One, Walter de la Mare, who is only 79) giving their views on life in the Home Service on Wednesday evening, missed a good deal. Each had a distinctive contribution to make....

By D. W, BROGAN Seattle W HEN the election results kept rolling in and Governor Stevenson finally conceded, a young woman burst into tears, and more objective observers noted,...

by WALTER TAPLIN The questions had to be put with some care, of course. Most Pinns do not find it in themselves to be great talkers. As one of them put it, as -we drove, with...

the Sala depended on the development of a United Europe. Dr. Adenauer agreed. " With the coming integration of Europe the Saar problem will by itself lose its poison. It is...

" The Spectator's" German Correspondent, Herr Ernst Fried- laender, has monthly broadcast discussions with the Federal Chancellor, Dr. Adenauer, on current German policy. " The...

the recent talks on the Saar had been disappointing. Dr. Adenauer said : " The way to a' United Europe is full of obstacles. The Saar problem is one of the obstacles, and a...

ay ST. JOHN ERVINE I N a recent Spectator, Janus, speculating on the failure of the Shaw Memorial Fund, raised a question which must have puzzled many people : about the...

By PETER Fl EMING HERE are a number of ways in which the modern Territorial Army differs from the various types of land-forces which in the past have been raised and . trained...

With Twelve Candles • By CHRISTOPHER MORLEY SHAKESPEARE IN JUNIOR HIGH I'm reading Shakespeare, Fourteen Years confessed: He's tops! I don't suppose in Junior High We get it...

By NICHOLAS MONSARRAT INETEEN-THIRTY-TWO was a tough year. London was cold, wet and hungry. I just had this one room, over a shop in Harrowby Street off the Edgware Road. It...

By LORD TWEEDSMUIR T HIS is the story of the twilight of a people*. The time is the present—the mid-twentieth century, that has seen the twilight of so many peoples. Their...

The Great Salmon . By JACQUETTA HAWKES I N a certain country there was a famous salmon-river. Starting from one of those dark mountain tarns whose beds were torn out long since...

By SIR HFNRY BASHFORD 0 student, • unencumbered with a knowledge of .history and archaeology, can doubt that Wiltshire , and DOrsetshire were once , visited by a.supreme poet....

" Popuhis qui sedebat iu tenebris vidit lucent magnain " Lord, Whom the breathles Shepherds sought, Child King, to whom the wise men brought, Their tribute from afar, Deny not...

By Sir FREDERICK WHYTE, K.C.I.E.* I T is fitting that the Spectator, true to the tradition of Christmas, should salute the reindeer at this,season. The modern child, no doubt,...

By TOM HOPKINSON A HANDFUL of gravel against the window-pane woke me up. Down below in the frosty night a man was standing. " There's a lad missing from t'village. Started out...

By HAROLD NICOLSON I N these days, when poetry has become esoteric and fiction abstruse, the common reader turns to biography, hoping to find therein both instruction .and...

THEATRE THRILLERS are coming as thick as the clichds of which most of them are largely composed. This latest one has a plot which is ingenious in parts and one or two scenes...

THE most outstanding performances of the week were those gi‘eli by the B.B.C. Symphony Orchestra under Sir John Barbirolli at 1.10 Festival Hall on November 12th. Berlioz's...

does credit to everybody—to Henry Sherek for finding the play and a new dramatist ; to the Bristol Old Vic coin - pony for an excellent production ; and to the Arts Council for...

The Pickwick Papers. (Gaumont.) Miracle of Milan. (New Gallery.)—The Snows of Kilimanjaro. (Leicester Square.) BEING one of the many highly intelligent people who have never...

Ballet. Imperial, Apparitions and Job. (Royal Opera House.) MONDAY night's programme at Covent Garden comprised the work of three choreographers of widely varying styles and...

I'm dismayed by the current decline in the use of invective, That invaluable corrective For sin, pomposity, rectitude, and, more than all, For this mould-growth of tolerance,...

clearly attracted the best brains, for all the entries received were so very good that one would like to be able to say that everybody had won and everybody would get a...

Set by C.S.W. For a prize of £5, which may be divided, competitors are invited to make a list of Christmas presents to be given by any one of the follow- ing to each of the...

article in the Spectator of November 7th are answered in the title: " America's Choice." I find another answer in the opening lines. I sought for a word, the right word, to be...

Mau Mau and Kikuyuland. SIR,—I refer to a letter signed Stephen Martin in your issue of November 7th. He states: " The facts today are that, whether it was intentional or not,...

Snt,—Mr. R. J. Lorimer's analysis of the causes of juvenile criminality and his suggestions for curbing it will not bring much comfort to the coshables because his remedies can...

correspondence on " crime and . punishment ": the disputants seem to be writing at cross-purposes. The idealistic reformers (otherwise called sentimentalists) point out,...

those whose fear and emotion preclude wise judgement. Sound laws are born not of emotion and fear but of objective reasoning, in the light of which flogging must be considered....

SIR,—I am sure that all ornithologists will be delighted—if somewhat surprised—to learn that an abundance of bearded tits is to be seen close to the door , of Mr. Ian Niall's...

its abolition caused the increase in violent crime. But at a time when violent crime is indeed increasing alarmingly, it is remarkable that the offences which used to be...

SIR,—Among other things, ammunition for reformers is provided in Mr. Gillie's excellent article. To he effective, however, such ammuni- tion must be unquestionable. Alcoholism...

so silly as what your corrrespondent from Farnham has allowed herself to write about the Rev. Mervyn Stockwood ?—Yours faithfully, Cheyney . Court, Winchester. ROVER LLOYD.

SIR,—Your correspondent M. M. Gardiner has every right to express her personal views on. Mervyn Stockwood's political activities,.but to describe him as a " lick-spittle parson"...

SIR,-1 am amazed and pained by Mr. Harold Nicolson's comments on Mrs. Dale's Diary, and feel at present that I can nevel again read his Marginal Comment with that admiration and...

pleaded guilty to stealing a till containing 2s. 5d.- The lad was old in crime: he had been summarily convicted eleven times.- Mr. Sergeant Adams said, in this case he had not...

Writing about the stoat I mentioned recently, a friend in the south suggests that it may have been emboldened to attack because it was a female with young close at hand, and the...

Relationships in the village and round about are involved. So maol l cousins, twice and three times removed, complicate matters greatly when it comes to conversation that takes...

IN his seventy-fourth year W., who used to be a blacksmith and now retired to do all kinds of odd jobs from helping at harvest tO laying out gardens, is as strong as the...

A .gale changes the countryside. The hedges give most of thelf leaves to the rushing wind at this time of year; the seeds of weeds are hammered out and scattered, and in the...

These early winter afternoons are ideal for tidying up in the garden' Loosen the soil of borders. Trim perennials such as Michaelmas daisie s which are beginning to brown....

THREE ASPECTS OF THE NOVEL The novel still remains the form of literature with the widest appeal. For this Christmas. Number the " Spectator has invited Emyr Humphreys, one of...

By Alvin Whitley University of Wisconsin. AMERICANS have of late learned to recognise and even to worship their particular "myths." Closely associated with them is the lesser...

By Joyce Cary CERTAIN novels have the reputation of being in the Spirit of their period. These are not historical novels in the ordinary sense of the word. If we want to know...

Mr. Maugham's Essays The Vagrant Mood. Six Essays by W. Somerset Maugham. (Heine- mann. 12s. 6d.) Tins book of various essays is held together by the strength and interest of...

The Man Whistler. By Hesketh Pearson. (Methuen. 18s.) MR. HESKETH PEARSON is an accomplished biographer who can be trusted to make the coat fit the man, instead of the man some...

A People's Conscience. By Strathearri Gordon and T. G. B. Cocks. (Constable. 21s.) FEUDS of politicians and political parties can tempt one into momen- tary disgust with the...

Augustan Satire. By Ian Jack. (Clarendon Press, Oxford. 18s.) MR. JACK carries gracefully and lightly his considerable learning ; he writes to instruct that we may get all the...

The Decline of Imperial Russia, 1855-1914. By Hugh Seton-Watson. (Methuen. 32s. 6d.) As Professor Seton-Watson pertinently remarks, "though Russian history is little known it...

BEFORE 1914 the Albert Hall and Queen's Hall programmes styled him Frederick. Later a public of unguessed dimensions changed the name to Freddy ; and Freddy now tells...

THE gallant men whose books I am going to write about have one thing in common. Gay in the midst of a worsening and outrageous world, they are resolved upon bringing us the...

Hamlet Through the Ages. By Raymond Mander and Joe Mitchen- son. Edited by Herbert Marshall. (Rockcliff. 35s.) THIS book is fascinating, and important—as any commentary upon...

The British Impact on India. By Sir Percival Griffiths. (Macdonald. 45s.) THE author of that brilliant (and in parts acrid) book The Auto- biography of an Unknown Indian names "...

Selected Writings. By Paul Eluard. French Texts with English Translations by Lloyd Alexander and Introductory Notes by Aragon, Louis Parrot and Claude Roy. Selected Writings:...

The Ruling Few. By Sir David Kelly. (Hollis and Carter. 25s.) A DIPLOMAT leads a life so different from that of most of his con- temporaries at home that he is tempted, perhaps...

The Finish. By Sir Alfred Munnings. (Museum Press. 30s.) "AFTER dinner I watered some of the plants in the/garden and enjoyed the freshness of the air, the verdure and the...

THE old-fashioned word, gentlewoman, has to be revived to describe these two autobiographers. They both were born into a comfortable and cultured class, before the final...

The Boat. By Walter Gibson. (W. H. Allen. 5s.) EACH of these books is a fragment of autobiography, recounting a voyage at sea, although Melville's White Jacket is slenderly...

HERE is a practical dictionary, without frills. It omits etymologies, and does not use the International Phonetic Alphabet ; one regrets yet approves the omission, and only a...

AN Austro - American journalist writing for Good Housekeeping and the curate of Torre del Lago might be expected to write comple- mentary studies of Puccini's character; and in...

Walden. By Henry David Thoreau. Introduction by Basil. Willey. (Eyre and Spottiswoode. 21s.) JUST over a century ago H. D. Thoreau started an experiment in living according to...

Don't Look Round. By Violet Trefusis. (Hutchinson. 16s.) THIS is a sparkling—no, a glowing—autobiography, which spans the vast chasm of our times, the Grand Canyon which...

Tales of Adventurers, By Geoffrey Household. (Michael Joseph. 12s. 6d.) There was a father who had three sons. The two eldest were tall and tough and strong, but they were both...

UNUSUALLY and pleasantly, this is an English month, with the better detection' coining from our side of the Atlantic, and three books to start with whose construction. and...

Towards Fidelity. By Hugh I'Anson Fausset. (Gollancz. 15s.) MR. FAUSSET has written an account of his faith, and of the way he found it, for the comfort of a friend who has...

WHEN Wilfrid Meynell died at the age of ninety-six some four years ago, he left behind him a large unsorted correspondence, and some notebooks, drafts of poems and...

available for Christmas are a new and handsome illustrated edition of Bernard Berenson's The Italian Painters of the Renaissance (Phaidon Press. 30s.) ; a reissue with...

By CUSTOS FROM apprehension to hope—and then back to apprehension—such has been the chang- ing mood of the investment world in recent months. At the moment there is a mild...