'Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather The multitudinous seas incarnadine There was a potent irony in the fact that...

New look at the corporations? ANGUS MAUDE, MP It is generally agreed that the Conservative government's honeymoon period will be at an end when Parliament meets again on 27...

Willy Brandt's Modern Europe GEORGE GALE Politically and economically the Federal German Republic is the greatest success of the postwar world. The condition of Germany in...

CHRISTOPHER HOLLIS Policies of William Craig Seems to be a trifle vague— Thinks that Clark should get the sack— Will not knife him in the back— Loyal as he's always been,...

The seeds of soccer violence MICHAEL WYNN JONES No doubt the Home Secretary had his party's election promises on law and order in mind last week when he summoned the heads of...

Where the cuts could come RHODES BOYSON The educational world is agog with talk of cuts. The issue is not whether the Govern- ment will cut expenditure but whether education...

A jury of the people MURRAY KEMPTON New York—Mr Nixon's capacities have never included much ease with small talk, and every patriot must be grateful that Harold Nicolson never...

CHRISTOPHER BOOKER The grim saga of what is happening to New York has become one of, the great morality stories of our time. For four or five years now we have been accustomed...

In love with an island EMYR HUMPHREYS on the mainland side of the Menai suspen- sion bridge which is now the single slender ca rry into Anglesey, there is a bold legend which...

From one extreme to the other JOHN ROWAN WILSON A friend of mine recently went into hospital for the treatment of depression. She had been admitted for the same condition a...

A long view at the 'Times' DONALD McLACHLAN Having just paid ninepence instead of six. pence for a bus ride from Waterloo to Vic- toria, I think I would in due course pay...

The dilemmas of London LIONEL BRETT 'We are in the infancy of discussion about the nature we would have our cities take as the tides of men flood out of them. We have been...

Apologia pro vita sua DENIS BROGAN On 11 August 1970 I reached my seventieth birthday. So far, I have not found old age, which I have now officially reached, quite as...

BARRY COLE My brain sewers broke just after dark on Sunday. Before that, my thoughts moved swiftly, passing Through the main outlet without hindrance, following a path well...

TIBOR SZAMUELY Between 1941 and 1944, at the height of the war, when Russia was fighting for her very existence, large numbers of crack Soviet troops were kept busy hundreds of...

EDMUND CRISPIN First on the Moon: A Voyage with Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, Edwin E. Aldrin Jr written with Gene Framer and Dora Jane Hamblin, epilogue by Arthur C. Clarke...

MICHAEL FRIED The Visit lan Hamilton (Faber 15s) The poems in Ian Hamilton's first collection. The Visit, are relatively short. Within a given poem the lines are usually of...

Rough justice Maurice CAPITANCHIK The Hanging Lillian Halegua (Peter Owen 32s) . The Circle Elaine Feinstein (New Authors Limited 30s) Oh My Darling Daughter Eric Malpass...

JOHN TERRAINE History of the British Army edited by Peter Young and J. P. Lawford (Arthur Barker 63s) The British army does not lack its histories, but this latest addition to...

Strine crime CYRIL RAY A Gathering of Eagles Edward Linda!! (Col- lins 25s) Death by Demonstration Patricia Carlon (Hodder and Stoughton 25s) The Last Man's Head Jessica...

ANN WORDSWORTH D. H. Lawrence: The Critical Heritage edited by R. P. Draper (Routledge 63s) Swinburne: The Critical Heritage edited by Clyde K. Hyder (Routledge 60s) Mrs...

KENNETH HURREN A long-held belief that all work and no play makes a dull drama column puts a 'blight upon my natural elation at being appointed to review the theatre in these...

Abduction from the small screen RODNEY MILNES The only indication that the German film version of Mozart's Die Entfiihrung aus dem Serail, which opened a season of opera films...

Farewell to grace PENELOPE HOUSTON La Chinoise (Times, Baker Street, `AA') Sunflower (Leicester Square Theatre, 'A') When last heard of earlier this summer, Jean-Luc Godard...

Kingsize BRYAN ROBERTSON The very bad and wholly misleading exhibi- tion at the ICA at Nash House entitled British Sculpture out of the 'Sixties (which might more accurately...

JOHN BULL The opinion polls may have been pretty un- kind to the Conservatives before the elec- tion, but they seem to be making it up now. The latest poll comes from Business...

NICHOLAS DAVENPORT As Mr Mark Brady, in a letter to the SPECTATOR, complained, the term 'Fried- manites' sounds like a species of monster from Dr Who and in deference to his...

Sir: If Giles Playfair has been misunder- stood (Letters, 8 August), he has no one but himself to blame. It is he, not his critics, who chose to draw a parallel as between, on...

From R. Moss, Sir Frederic Bennett MP, Dr I. B. Walsh, Sir Denis Brogan, Enid Lakeman, Arthur Rowland Goodwin, George Chowdharay-Best, David Cheshire, Sir Walter Howard, the Rev...

Sir: I read the article on Northern Ireland by Martin Wallace (15 August) with con- siderable interest. It is true, as he says, that many people welcomed the intervention of...

Sir: Mr Coleman (Letters, 15 August) in his attack on my aesthetic judgment perhaps has not noticed the care with which I chose my adverb and adjective: 'absolutely first class...

15 August). This fits in well with the Tories' unjustified and widespread con- demnation of our last government (in which she joins) and their failure during the general...

Sir: The record must be set straight about Elliot Silverstein's Cat Ballou with which his latest film A Man Called Horse has been compared by nearly all the critics—including...

Sir: The difference between American whites and negroes in respect of intelligence (Frank Hung. Letters. 8 August) clearly can- not be explained entirely by reference to...

Sir: 'A general election is a far more ac- curate public opinion poll than any public opinion poll', says George Gale (8 August). That depends on what one is polling. As regards...

Sir: In his article 'More gas and gaiters' (15 August) Mr Peter Paterson, explaining the filling of episcopal vacancies, writes of 'Filling vacancies for suffragan (assistant)...

Superfreak JOHN WELLS Some concern is being expressed by classical comic strip enthusiasts in the United States at the present tendency of the publishers, faced with falling...

Sir: It would seem that Mr George Gale has missed his true vocation. He should have been a philosopher—of the village inn variety. In 'Violent men and armchair men' (18 July)...

No. 618: On the hoof With angry passengers demonstrating against new fare increases on London's buses and Underground and 'quality' rail commuter routes, this week's...

PHILIDOR J. G. Martin (1st Prize, KW Tourney 117). White to play and mate in three moves; solution next week. Solution to No. 503 (Ducker—BB2q3/1n2N1p1/ 5b2/1pr...

Across 1 Cloth tops call forth censures (8) 5 A sphere fixed in ice (6) 9 Tie up that garden intruder, polygonum (8) 10 No pot-hunter, this racehorse! (6) 12 Flight between...