21 SEPTEMBER 1951

Page 1

ELECTORS' CHOICE

The Spectator

T HE Prime Minister has acted wisely in deciding on a General Election, and deciding on getting it over quickly. It is in the interests of his own party, threatened with a...

Page 2

The B.B.C. Strikes Snags The B.B.C. may have sailed into

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clearer waters with the pub- lication of the Beveridge Report, but the Corporation's annual report and accounts for 1950-51 indicate that the course is still not free from...

To Buy Or Not To Buy?

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If Mr. Dalton could be regarded as an advocate of common sense in economic affairs, it might be just possible to treat his advice to consumers to postpone purchases of textiles...

Towards Malayan Independence

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' The new Independence for Malaya Party of Dato Onn Bin Ja'afar has had almost too auspicious a start. Its energetic founder can count on the support of distinguished men in...

'Obligatory Pause

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Neither the British nor the Persian Government seems 'to have any very clear idea about what to do next. To fill in the time they are plaguing each other with economic assaults,...

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ORGANISING EUROPE

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T HE decisions taken by the Foreign Ministers of Britain, France and the United States regarding the future of Western Germany, if reinforced by decisions which it is hoped the...

Page 4

I recently made some reference to Dr. C. D. Boltwood.and

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his College of Spiritual Science. Dr. C. D. Boltwood, on his side, has made some reference to me in his Intuitive Interpreter. I am glad to quote a passage. It might come in...

A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK

The Spectator

I , T is very right that the nation should have been told at once what there was to tell about the King's health. Sinister rumours spread fast, and it is well to hold them up...

A word more on Veni, Creator Spiritus. First of all,

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I inadver- tently gave the first line of Bishop Cosin's translation as " Come Holy Ghost our hearts inspire," instead of " our souls inipire." Second, and more, important, I...

Many pertinent observations might be made about that great paper

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the; New York Times, but perhaps the observation with the most sardonic sound to a British journalist is that the paper celebrated its centenary with an issue of 589 pages. Our...

Politics is often described as a game, and I am

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glad a Times leader-writer thinks it so. All the same, I find the metaphor be permitted himself a little obscure. Mr. Attlee, he wrote, " has decided, it would seem, that he can...

I read that the list of proposed invitations to a

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lunch in honour of Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh at Vancouver has been reduced from 300 to 140 " when it was found that etiquette requires that no one may sit...

Page 5

West German Youth

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T HE mere fact that the Communist Youth Rally in East Berlin has provided so much food for thought in the United Kingdom ought to provide additional food for thought on the same...

Page 6

“La. Propriete, c'est le vol"

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By HONOR CROOME ROUDHON'S intellectual descendants do not go quite so far nowadays as Proudhon did. The simple creed that property is theft would be too awkward. for supporters...

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. .

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Competthon from Japan By Professor G. C. ALLEN * D URING the nineteen-thirties the expansion of } Japan's international trade was viewed by many Western persons with hardly...

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The Making of Maps

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13y PROFESSOR FRANK DEBENHAM E all need an atlas, many of us love an atlas, but the trouble is that we each want a different atlas. Worse still, the same man wants a different...

Page 9

The Disappearing Horse

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By PEGGY STACK T T noon, on regular days of the week, the big brewer's van rounds the corner of this unimportant street, and pulls up across the way. The two horses are given...

Page 10

UNDERGRADUATE PAGE

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Whose Peace? By W. H. STEVENSON (Edinburgh University) I HAVE never been so pleased to see Martin Luther in all my life. We were walking round the ruined streets of Berlin, the...

Page 11

MARGINAL COMMENT

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By HAROLD NICOLSON D URING the past few weeks I have seen, both on the news-reels and in the illustrated papers, piotures of men and women emerging from the sea. These Channel...

Page 12

CINIEIKA

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a The Magic Box." (Odeon.)—" Mr. Belvedere Rings the Bell." (Odeon, Marble Arch.)--“Behold the Man." (New Gallery.) THE film industry's Festival production, The Magic Box, lays...

CONTEMPORARY ARTS

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THEATRE 44The Tempest " (Mermaid Theatre, St. John's Wood.) THE second experiment in Bernard Miles's back-garden Globe is not as happy a choice as the first, Dido and...

MUSIC

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IT is an odd fact, not by any means creditable to concert-promoters, programine-builcters, the public or whoever else can reasonably be considered responsible, that Racine...

Page 13

How depressing it is to see hardly anything but the

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baler in the harvest fields and stacks like piles of boxes! The arm of the machine jogs up and down like an animated or rather clockwork signpost. No wonder thatching is dying...

The Rake's Progress.

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Muca was expected of Stravinsky's new opera, The Rake's Progress. But even now that it has had its first performance (at the Venice Biennale under the composer's direction on...

A Night Visitant

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How different the conduct of a familiar of the night watches I have just lost! This was a Clouded Border moth (Lonastilis marginata) that used to visit my bedside during that...

In the Garden

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The apple-harvest is very late this year, but Beauty of Bath was ready in mid-September. I had one, but cut it down as uneatable. In our curious age apples are sold rather for...

COUNTRY LIFE

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IN spite of what the Cotswold folk used to call " casalty" weather. September has been a waspish month, both literally and figuratively. W. H. Hudson had a soft spot for wasps,...

Page 14

SPECTATOR COMPETITION No. Si

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Report by R. Kennard Davis There must be many ideas for which at present there is no single word in the English language, and which therefore have to be expressed by...

SPECTATOR COMPETITION No. 84

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Set by Guy Kendall The following is an extract from Baedeker's Manual of Con- versation (in four languages) published in the last century : " Postilion stop : we wish to _ get...

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Gerald Finzi

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am astonished to notice that in your music critic's account of the Three Choirs Festival the name of Gerald Finzi is not included in his list of representative West Country...

SIR,—Tvio things. strike me as a result of your articles

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What .Way for Youth? and the comments and correspondence arising out of the question of the Berlin Youth Rally. (1) The terror of Communism is that it is a militant, crusading...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

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t 4 What Way for Youth ?" SIR,—In the fanfare of publicity which greeted the East Berlin Youth Festival the deliberations of the 600 youth leaders from sixty-three different...

Page 18

Equity and American Artists

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his letter published in your issue of September 14th on the subject of the unfortunate dispute about the appearance in this country of Miss Barbara Perry, Mr. Bruce Belfrage...

SIR,—Apropos of the Rev. Mervyn Stockwood's article, Disappearing Clergy, I

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write in ignorance and for information. As a lay member of the Church of England, I think that many of us feel that, before an appeal is. made for more money, the existing money...

Disappearing Clergy

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Sot,—The key to Mr. Stockwood's thinking seems to be this: " This country . . . pays for schools and teachers and doctors. . . . If it believes in the Christian religion it must...

Sm,—Unlike your correspondent, the Rev. K. C. 'Stuart, the Rev.

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Mervyn Stockwood did not cause me any distress by his article, although I deplore with your correspondent the suggestion that legislation should be introduced making a...

SIR,—The Rev. Mervyn StockwoOd, in his article, Disappearing Clergy, says

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that " the State, in spite of popular fallacy, does not contribute a penny" towards the Church of England. This is not the case. The State contributes to all charities in direct...

Page 20

A Future Life in the O.T.

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Sat.—Janus states that in the Old Testament there is no belief in a future life. I suggest that this statement is incorrect. Perhaps the most familiar statement of belief in a...

Busy Bees

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SIR,—Is Bombus, the male bumble bee, the worker Mr. Richard Church makes him in his pretty poem ? ,The males of Apis, the honey-bee, pever do a stroke from the time they are...

Trio

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SIR—In the course of his very interesting article; The Interpreter, Mr. Gordon remarks, "It is the rarest achievement for anyone to be able to appreciate two conversations...

Labour Policy

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Sat, —I have enjoyed listening to the Television Programme " In the News." 1 have heard one of the Socialist speakers, John Hynd, tell us that Socialist policy for dealing with...

Gerontology

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Sta.—Janus is not quite correct in stating that the aim of those working in the science of gerontology is " to make people live longer and longer." The purpose of gerontology is...

"ripe itopectator:' finptember 20tb, 1851 WE have received a voluminous

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mass of correspondence and papers from the Cape colony, on the alarmingly critical state of affairs there. Time and space are net left us for any attempt at giving even the...

James Stephens' Letters

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SIR,—We should be grateful if any of your readers who possess letters from the late James Stephens would send them to this office for possible use in a memoir. They would be...

Visitors to Rockall

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Sut,—Seton Gordon is not correct in stating that my friend R. M. Lockley and I visited Rockall together in May, 1949. Lockley, with Stephen Marchant, visited Rockall by trawler...

The Happiest People

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SIR, —Janus tells us that Dr. Gallup mentioned to him an attempt in the United States to discover who were the happiest people, and gives some of the conclusions that were...

Postage on this issue:" Inland Overseas lid.; Canada (Canadian Magazine

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Post) id.

Page 21

Reviews of the Week

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The Function of a Historian History and Human Relations. By Herbert Butterfield. (Col- lins. ios. 6d.) THE " schools" of history in this island during the last half-century,...

Refinement of Passion Letters to Merline, 1919-i922. By Rainer Maria

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Rilke. Translated by Violet M. Macdonald. introduction by J. B. Leishman. (Methuen. los. 6d.) by Violet M. Macdonald. introduction by J. B. Leishman. (Methuen. los. 6d.) How...

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In The Mountains HERE are three first-class books, to be

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enjoyed not only by the mountaineer but by everyone who enjoys reading of mountains and of strenuous adventure. Mountains with a Difference is a treasure4muse, -eight essays...

Page 24

The Spirit of Europe

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Tins, is a book of the best intentions. Through nearly, 250 photo- graphs, it aims dt showing the rich diversity and underlying unity of Europe. Its moral is that Europe must...

A Prison Reformer

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Paterson on Prisons. Being the collected papers of Sir Alexander Paterson. Edited by S. K. Ruck, with a foreword by the Rt. Hon. C. R. Attlee, P.C., M.P. (Frederick Muller....

On Portmanteau Words

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The Structure of Complex Words. By William Empson. (Chatto and Windus. 21..) NOTHING written between the wars had a greater effect on the reader's response to poetry than Mr....

Page 26

For Discophiles and Others

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The Record Guide. By Edward Sackville-West and Desmond Shawe- Trus is much more than a guide-book to the gramophone repertory at present available in this country, though it is...

Charlie -Chaplin

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The Little Fellow. The Life and Work of Charles Spenc — er Chaplin. By Peter Cotes and Thelma Niklaus. .(Paul Elek. CHARLIE CHAPLIN, who went on the stage before he was eight,...

Page 28

Fiction

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IT is hard to read Mr. Charles Morgan's brief and tightly knit story of adolescent passion without thinking of the last descendant in a line of family portraits, where the...

kTo Puffin, A White Cat

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ON the dark blue rug that makes a midnight sky The creamy saucer fills its heaven like a moon, And over it a cat's white face Basks in a muted ecstasy, Lapping the milky way to...

Page 29

FINANCE AND INVESTMENT

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By CUSTOS Crnt confidence in an early Conservative victory at the polls is now finding a clear and striking reflection in markets. Prices of industrial ordinary shares, which...

Page 30

THE " SPECTATOR " CROSSWORD No. 644

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[A Book Token for one guinea will be awarded to the sender of the first correct solution opened after noon on Tuesday week, October 2nd, addressed Crossword, 99 Gower Street,...

SOLUTION TO CROSSWORD No. 642

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n nnonnnn vmna n nm nnn mmmnm amhmmnenn n nnmnonn :Ammannamm marlin n mm nun P.Innmmmenn mon namannan arinunninn r, r3 E3 1E3 M 19 lama nmonmnamma SOLUTION ON OCTOBER 5 The...