22 DECEMBER 1944

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,--' 1 4 194 N E WS OF THE WEEK HE latest

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news from Greece suggests tome small improvement in the ;in.ilZilitirlsottr - its-palitical and its military aspects, apart from the unfortunate capture of the rear...

The Franco-Soviet Treaty

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The Franco-Soviet treaty, whose terms were published last Sunday, is regarded with the utmost satisfaction in this country, as in France and Russia. Its provisions, valid for a...

American Foreign Policy

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After each of the nominees for the new appointments to the American Department of State had been subjected to searching questions by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the...

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The New Diplomacy

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The debate on Foreign Office Reform initiated by Lord Perth in the House of Lords last week served a very useful purpose. As private secretary to more than one Foreign...

Democracy in Jamaica

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The process of evolution in the practice of democracy in British colonies is significantly illustrated in the example of Jamaica. The island's new constitution provides that...

Progress in Burma

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The military operations in Burma, which get less than their share of attention in the Press and on the wireless, not only cover a vast area, but engage large numbers of troops,...

Community Centres -

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A pamphlet on Community Centres just issued to local authorities by the Ministry of Education opens with an essay on " the needs and uses of leisure." It might be supposed that...

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THE SIXTH CHRISTMAS

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T 0 have reached the sixth War Christmas provokes sobering reflections. A year ago we could trust there would be no sixth War Christmas, and have reason for our confidence. Why...

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There is going to be trouble about " spitchered." The

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author of the recently published official booklet on Malta says the word is RA.F. slang, and denotes anything completely smashed up ; it is even added that it comes from the...

It is a strange coincidence that there should be such

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a mortality among well-known writers—Philip Guedalla, Robert Nichols and Francis Yeats-Brown—within a week. Major Yeats-Brown was at one time assistant editor of this journal....

* * * * In presenting Leith Hill Place, and

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47o acres attached, to the National Trust, Dr. Ralph Vaughan-Williams has saved from desecra- tion one of the fairest slopes in Surrey. The estate is within easy reach of...

A SPECTATOR 'S NOTEBOOK

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T is curious that on the day on which the death of Philip Guedalla was reported the Washington Post should have used (in connexion with American foreign policy) the phrase "...

I said last week that I should discontinue importunity regarding

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the Malta Shrine of Remembrance Fund, but that is no reason for- not stating facts. And the facts are (i) that the number of sub- scribers to date is r,000, and the total...

Mr. Seymour Cocks has summed up a horrid picture of

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mutilated M.P.s—one might say, indeed, of mutilated Members with mutilated members. Speaking in the debate on the Address, he declared, " I would rather this right hand of mine...

There is, I suppose, a common assumption that single women

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have no dependents, and many of them are paid accordingly. The National Federation of Business and Professional Women's Clubs has been securing information on the subject from...

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RUNDSTEDT'S COUNTER-OFFENSIVE

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By ST RAT EG ICUS T is not easy to discover the full purpose of the surprise counter- ! offensive which was launched by Marshal Rundstedt last Satur- day morning. The security...

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THE FUTURE OF HOSPITALS

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By GORDON MALET H AVING accepted the principle of a universal comprehensive health service, the Government has had to devise a policy to translate the aspiration into reality....

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THEATRE PROSPECT

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By NORMAN SCOTNEY T HE prospect opening up for the British theatre is encouraging. There are signs of a considerable shaking up in matters theatrical ; signs, also, of answers...

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SHEFFIELD'S WAY

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By J. L. HODSON S HEFFIELD folk, for all their kindliness, can be difficult to get to know. A man who is a leading citizen today, and who in his time has worked in the Far East...

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LOVE SONG

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No May night was ours Through the soft shades sighing, But storm, storm, storm, And a wild wind crying. No shadowed tryst was ours, No wood birds calling, But a broken world,...

LAMBETH DEGREES

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By MAJOR CEDRIC GLOVER T HE new Archbishop of Canterbury will find that consecration has endued him not only with the spiritual and administrative functions associated with his...

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In seeking to justify on purely legal grounds the common-sense

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attitude adopted in such matters by the Government, Sir Donald Somervell employed arguments which were not unassailable, although from the moral and reasonable point of view his...

* * * * Such a case is that of

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Mr. P. G. Wodehouse, which has received considerable publicity in the Press. There is a danger, as matters stand, that the public may either exaggerate or minimise Mr....

The second question is whether in these broadcasts he said

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any- thing either in favour of our enemies or in dispraisal either of our- selves or our Allies. In his broadcast of July 9th, Mr. Wodehouse contrasted the conduct of the French...

* * * *

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The fourth question is whether the German authorities them- selves regard the Wodehouse series as being to their advantage. It is significant that Mr. E. D. Ward (the American...

By HAROLD NICOLSON

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1[ 4 AWYERS, especially elderly lawyers, are sensible people, and I am not among those who believe that the law is a fool. It is on the face of it unlikely that generations of...

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THE CINEMA

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Dreaming." At the Empire.--" Out of Chaos." No release arranged. I SPENT a very pleasant evening recently with the Film Appreciation Group of a Technical Institute in South...

THE THEATRE

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" Hamlet." At the Bristol Grammar School.—" Peter Pan." At the Stoll Theatre. Tag annual dramatic performances by the boys at Baynes Park School were of such an unusually high...

DEFECTS OF LONELINESS

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From my domestic prison I may range As Fancy leads. I watch the curdling sea That rims a foreign shore, or pluck the strange Persimmon from its boughs of ebony. The moon that...

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WHAT THE SOLDIER THINKS

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SIR,—Were I writing from the House of Lords instead of from the Western front, I should no doubt be able to view " Captain, B.L.A.'s " letter with the same calm contempt as Lord...

SIR,—On September 8th you were good enough to publish a

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letter I sent you concerning the composition of the E.A.M. in Greece. May I ask your indulgencep publish this letter in reply to your article " Govern- ments and Disorders " in...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

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THE TROUBLE IN GREECE sm,—I wish to correct a considerable inaccuracy in the letter you were kind enough to publish from me last week. The E.L.A.S. Com- mander to whom I...

Ste,—I hope you will allow me a little space in

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which to take up a few of the points made by my friend Mr. Utley. His statement of the doctrine of legitimacy and non-intervention is impeccable in so far as it relates to...

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SIR,—May I encroach on your space to make one or

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two observations on Lord Winster'S second letter? I cannot agree that I have misinter- preted his original one, or that I have linked him with " Captain, B.L.A.'s " analysis of...

TEACHERS' SALARY SCALES Sm,—Having had considerable experience as head mistress

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of secondary schools, I feel that there are points in the proposed new salary scales for teachers, the effect of which, though very important, may not be appreciated by the...

SIR,—I think those of your readers who were disturbed by

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" Capt. B. L. A.'s " letter should realise that Servicemen are bound to experience periods of mental depression, especially the men who have been away from home life for five...

" INDIA : THE NEXT STEP " Si ,—Z's. plea

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for the immediate setting up of a Constituent Assembly in India with " the necessary assurances as to the destiny of its decisions " is both timely and wise. Equally wisely, he...

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FRANCIS YEATS BROWN

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SIR,—The sudden death, after much sufferin g , of Francis Yeats Brown is a very real sorrow to those who worked with him on The Spectator staff from January, 1926, to March,...

COUNTRY LIFE

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WHAT may be called an arbitration award, ar g ued out in the most scientific manner, has been published (in the Estates Magazine) in the battle that has been proceedin g , most...

An Avicultural Jubilee A g ood many field naturalists feel a

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certain hostility towards avicul- turists ; and it is, of course, true that the ca g in g of birds may be brutal, since birds are of the air, aerial. In Spain I have seen French...

A New Bird Species A recent "bird - letter " from Al g eria

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particularly interested me because it was lar g ely concerned with a species that may become a re g ular English visitor. It is, I am told, increasin g very rapidly in its more...

SIR,—" Janus " writes in your issue of December 15th,

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" So far there is no evidence whatever that the patients as a whole, meaning the voters of the country, are in the least opposed to the National Health Insurance scheme." The...

In My Garden In plantin g new fruit trees—pears, plums and

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cherries, not Iess than apples, it is necessary to follow such advice as is admirably boiled down in a little leaflet republished by the John banes Horticultural Institution...

DOCTOR AND PATIENT

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SIR,—It is the accepted practice in medicine that a new treatment is never adopted on laboratory evidence alone ; it is first put to ri g orously controlled clinical tests on a...

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England Against Napoleon

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Years of Victory, 1803-1812. By Arthur Bryant. (Collins. 12s. 6d.) THIS book has the larger merits and lesser defects of the first volume of Mr. Bryant's history of the war...

BOOKS OF THE DAY

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Planning Diplomacy Diplomacy in Fetters. By Sir Victor Welles:ey. (Hutchinson. 16s.) SIR VICTOR WELLESLEY, who has had a life-long experience of diplomatic practice, has had...

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A Chinaman in Oxford

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The Silent Traveller in Oxford. .By Chiang Yee. (Methuen. 16s.; The Silent Traveller is evidently the English translation of Mr. Chiang Yee's name. According to the author's...

Mrs. Hamilton's Reminiscences

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Remembering My Good Friends. By Mary Agnes Hamilton. (Cape. 12s. 6d.) TRANSLATOR of Dibelius, Governor of the B.B.C., devotee of Henry James and Tilman Riemenschneider, Labour...

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G. for Genevieve." By Fl. - Lt. Herbert. (Polish Book Depot. I

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Is. 6d. THIS is a remarkably interesting book by a Polish flying officer, who early in the war escaped from Poland through Rumania to France, and then after the collapse of...

No More Than Human. By Maura Laverty. (Longmans. Es. 6d.)

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HITHERTO when Miss Kay Boyle has written about human love— the major and testing theme for every novelist—her approach to it has been through symbols, by the way of the poet,...

Shorter Notices

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Windfalls. By R. C. Trevelyan. (Allen and Unwin. 8s. 6d.) ONLY 350 copies of this book have been published, and these have presumably been snapped up,some weeks since. Let...

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SOLUTION TO CROSSWORD No. 300 SOLUTION ON JANUARY 5th, 1945

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The winner of Crossword No. 300 is Lt. N. A. BREEZE, R.N.V.R., I I.M.M.T.B. 777, c/o G.P.O., London.

THE SPECTATOR" CROSSWORD No. 302

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[A Book Token for one guinea will be awarded to the sender of the first correct !.ilution of this week's crossword to be opened after noon on Tuesday week, ?armory 2nd....

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FINANCE AND INVESTMENT

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By CUSTOS SIR MONTAGUE EDDY'S eagerly awaited account of his achievements on behalf of the Argentine railway companies provides grounds for cautious hope but not for any...

The Golden Carpet. By Somerset de Chair. (Faber and Faber.

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15s.) THIS volume contains Captain de Chair's narrative of the British expedition to Baghdad in 1941, and the subsequent campaign in Syria, which appeared originally in two...

Harriet and Mary. Edited by Walter Sidney Scott. (Golden Cockerel

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Press 3s.) THIS is volume three of a trilogy of books about Shelley, his two wives Harriet and Mary, and his friend, T. J. Hogg. It is edited by Mr. W. S. Scott, who married a...

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COMPANY MEETING

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BARCLAYS BANK (DOMINION, COLONIAL AND OVERSEAS) POST-WAR POSSIBILITIES THE ordinary general meeting of thz. stockholders of Barclays Bank (Dominion Colonial and Overseas) will...