22 JULY 1949

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FROM STRIKE TO CONFUSION T HE last thing that was wanted

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in the London dock strike was any confusion of purpose among the forces of order. From the moment that it became clear that the dockers had no right on their side but were...

Socialist Low Ebb

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If the survival of the present Government had depended only on the success or failure of its economic policy, the events of the last week would have brought it down once and for...

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American Foreign Policy

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Inured as British people have become to the hitches incidental to the American democratic process, there must have been some who felt an unpleasant shock when Senator Taft—an...

Colonial Welfare

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It is perhaps not altogether surprising that one of the most popular fallacies about Britain, to be found at home as often as abroad, is that the mother country draws direct...

Uranium, Bombs and Information

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The reasons for the fullest and frankest co-operation between the United States and Great Britain in all the operations leading to the production of atomic bombs are cogent and...

Japan in the Future

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Every now and then something happens—the most recent occurrence was, seasonably enough, a wave of strikes, partly Com- munist-inspired—to remind all responsible people that...

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AT WESTMINSTER

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I T is not for any Member of the House of Commons to question the decisions 'of the Speaker. Having made their own rules, they elect him to see that they are kept. Nevertheless,...

National Parks—Nearly

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Considering the report stage of the National Parks Bill on Tuesday the House of Commons gravely decided that it should be a penal offence to put up a " Beware of the BuU" notice...

Congress Troubles

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Most of the difficulties which would face Congress after the British had left India could be, and were, foreseen. But this did not mean that it was always possible to neutralise...

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CROSS OR SICKLE?

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T HE war of sickle and cross is fully joined throughout Eastern Europe, and there can be no question from which quarter the aggression comes. The example of Russia is being...

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" The aim of he and his colleagues. . ."

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wrote The Times in its Parliamentary report on Tuesday. The earth tremors reported by seismologists that day were caused by Barnes and Delane and several Walters turning in...

We are getting accustomed to the trading losses which Govern-

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ment departments are constrained, under pressure, to admit, but to be told that the Ministry of Food has dropped £650,000 on this year's new potato crop, "on potatoes which...

A fortnight or so ago an M.P. said to the

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Chancellor of the Exchequer in the lobby " I hope you are going to be able to stand all this physically." "Oh, I hope so," Sir Stafford replied with a laugh which suggested that...

Some fifteen years ago—round about 1934—a man was waiting for

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a bus in Piccadilly outside one of those shops which sold suits for next to nothing. The papers were full just then of photographs of eminent people wearing such suits and...

• a * *

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What may perhaps be termed without disrespect the outlying members of the Royal Family are not quite as well known to the general public as some of them deserve to be. Take, for...

A SPECTATOR 'S NOTEBOOK

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F ROM one point of view it is as well that the trial of John George Haigh only lasted two days, for the inroads reports of • the trial made on the popular newspapers' limited...

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TELEVISION AND THE B.B.C.

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By DENIS JOHNSTON W HEN the Television Service was reopened at Alexandra Palace after the war, one of the more important blocks of offices was approached by way of a muddy lane...

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THE REAL DOCKER

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By R. J. MELLISH, M.P.* The whole question of the number of men required in the industry is being actively considered and recruitment has tem- porarily ceased. When the books...

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MIDDLE-EAST POLICY

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By EDWARD HODGKIN 0 N Thursday the heads of British missions from all the Middle East States, and other senior officials, such as the head of the Middle East Office in Cairo...

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AMAZON PIONEERS .

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By WILLARD PRICE F AR up the Amazon we came upon a young Brazilian pioneer whose savings had just been stolen and whose house had been burned by river bandits ; yet he was...

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WISDEN*

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By J. P. W. MALLALIEU, M.P. W HEN I was a boy I was bad at arithmetic and could celdorn remember dates; but I could recite Yorkshire averages without effort ; and, almost...

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Undergraduate Page

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THESE ENGLISH By PETER FARQUHAR (London School of Economics) U NDERSTANDING the English is a formidable task. As a Colonial I labour under certain obvious disadvantages,...

" Opert at r " July 21, 1849

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RELIEVED fram the pangs of mortal hunger and despair, the Irish recommence the national sport of shooting each other. Much indignation is wasted on the conduct of the military...

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MARGINAL COMMENT

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By HAROLD NICOLSON T HE causes and effects of the dock-strike will, in their social, economic and political aspects, be subjected to many autopsies and form the theme of varied...

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CONTEMPORARY ARTS

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THE THEAT Tough at the Top." A Musical Play by A. 1'. Herbert with Music by Vivian Ellis. (Adclphi.) A PLOT is perhaps too Machiavellian a word for the frame within which Sir...

THE CINEMA

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" That Lady in Ermine." (London Pavilion.)----" Mr. Belvedere Coes to College. (Leicester Square.)—" Don't Ever Leave Me." (Odeon, Marble Arch.) That Lady in Ermine is a curious...

MUSIC

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THE Promenade Concerts, which start on July z3rd, were not designed for the jaded palate of the musical connoisseur. Their aim is to introduce a maximum number of those who, for...

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Who Does It as Well ?

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Now, I ask in my most melodious tones, which other broad- casting system spends so much time and talent on its neighbours or on international affairs in general ? The American...

Future for Mr. Barker Being nothing if not constructive, I

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should much like the Supreme Court of the B.B.C. to receive two submissions, and then draw a conclusion from them. The first is that Mr. Eric Barker's pro- gramme, which was...

THEY SINK SO DEEPLY INTO LIFE

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They sink so deeply into Life, the children, Poets, heroes, saints ; Sinking, sinking, each past his own reflected And foreign face ; Then deeper, past the suicide's forbidden...

ART

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THE exhibition of original watercolours, prints and books by Pierre Joseph Redoute (1759-1840), organised by Marlborough Fine Art in collaboration with the Luxembourg Society...

RADIO

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IT would be a salutary experience for listeners groaning under the B.B.C. monopoly to spend, say, six days glued to a radio set in some other country (I put six days as about...

France Without Tears I thought of this fact—elementary but widely

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unrecognised—last week on July 14th, when the B.B.C. devoted an evening to France's national festival. It is the sort of thing we take for granted from Broadcasting House ; but...

Flat Holland I found the documentary about Holland, Mcn Against

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the Sea, both over-dramatised and as flat as its subject. The Third Pro- gramme talks on the Colonies have been as good as they are necessary. For most of the rest, the mixture...

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NAZI OFFICIALS IN GERMANY SIR, —Herr Beckmann, in his letter published

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in the Spectator of July 8th, disagrees with my statement that competent trained German officials, untainted by National Socialism, are very difficult to find, and he quotes his...

Sta,—In your article on the dock strike you state: "If

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Communist candidates for Parliament can persuade a majority of the electorate to vote for them they have every right to be returned and sit. To deny that would be to deny the...

LETTERS TO

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THE EDITOR STRIKES AND DEMOCRACY SIR, —It was heartening to see from your leading article that you are not one of those who have been induced to believe that the dock strikes...

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GRADUATES AND INDUSTRY

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Sta,—Mr. B. R. 0. Bell raises old problems in an up-to-date guise. He asks, somewhat rhetorically, " Arc the needs of industry and commerce for management and administration...

TREE-FELLING IN GERMANY

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SIR,—Mrs. Buxton is hardly correct in her interpretation of my letter, as I did not view the above question merely from the point of view of material gain to this country. I...

TRANSLATING THE BIBLE

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SIR,—Canon Ellison takes me to task for lendering the last words of Judges, " when men lived by the best light they had." The passage, he says, "does not mean that in Israel's...

Sta,---Mr Bell's article, Graduates and Industry, in the Spectator of

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July 8th, prompts me to communicate with you on the subject. We shall be requiring, in the early autumn, some ten or fifteen young men in the late twenties to take up the work...

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JESUIT DOCTRINES

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Stn,—May I say how much I enjoyed Mr. Palmer's lively and profound article, Living in the Future, before querying a small allusion in it to " the Jesuits of the...

In the Garden Thanks to a kind gift I have

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grown a number of that rather strange hybrid, the cross between the carnation and the sweet-william. They are now in full flower. A number of the varieties (in which Allwood...

TIPPING AT AIRPORTS

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siR, - 1 see in The Spectator, of Friday, July 8th, there is a comment in the article, Our Visitors, that there is "open cadging for tips" in airports. I would like to point out...

COUNTRY LIFE

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JULY opened with the reaping of t wo here and there in the south, where, incidentally, a covey or two of partridges were strong on the wing in the first week of June. Both...

A Ruined Garden

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Most of us, including beyond question the poorest villagers, lament the evacuation of the large country house by the " feudal lord," as some urban politicians still say. Such...

SPECTATOR

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SUBSCRIPTION RATES Ordinary edition to any address in the World. 52 weeks Ll 10s. Od. 26 weeks I5s. Oil. Air Mail to any Country in Europe. 52 weeks L2 7s. 6d. 26 weeks LI 3s....

The Deserted House

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The recent vicissitudes of the house are worth the notice of the social historian. For the usual reasons the ancestral owner felt that he must sell house and lands. They were...

ENOSIS

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SIR,—Mr. W. L. Cuttle, in his defence of " Enosis," implies that because the living Greeks give no value to the rough breathings of initial vowels, modern translitcrary practice...

" OCCUPATION UNALTERED "

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Snt,—We read with some surprise the remarks by Janus in A Spectator's notebook on the leaflet, Occupation Unaltered, which was sent to you and distributed here and abroad It...

Road Dangers

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A motor-driver, very observant of those he meets on the roads, is continually pulling up to avoid young birds, not least young partridges, and on rarer occasions young mammals ;...

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Colonial America

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THERE has been in America a reaction against the "good thing" school of historiography and againit the imputation to the early settlers of virtues, achievements and views that...

BOOKS OF THE DAY

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A Rediscovered Master Georges de Ia Tour of Lorraine. 1593-1652. By S. M. M. Furness. (Routledge and . Regan Paul. 42s.) THERE is something providential in the rediscovery of a...

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Canada

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On Being Canadian. By Vincent Massey. (Dent. 12s. 6d.) Canada: An International Power. By Andre Siegfried. (Cape. 12s: 6d.) THE RIGHT HON. VINCENT MASSEY, from his wide...

New Zealand Soldier

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Infantry Brigadier. By Major-General Sir Howard Kippenberger. (Oxford University Press. 21s.1 Jr ordinary English soldiers in an ordinary English unit during Cie war were asked...

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Eccentrics

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Their Ruling Passions By Percy Colson. Foreword by James Laver. (Hutchinson. 18s.) MR. RICI-LARD ALDINGTON gives a good definition of eccentricity as " the comedy-farce of...

Portrait of a Scholar

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P. J. Hartog. A Memoir by his Wife, Mabel Hartog. (Constable. 10s.) THE subject of this memoir was the son of a poor but gifted Jewish family. He took his B.Sc. at Owens...

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Irish Temperament

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The Loud Red Patrick. Ruth McKenney. (Rupert Hart Davis. 6s.) Miss Runt MCKENNEY has written a hook which cannot fail to amuse anybody who has a taste for the Irish'...

Musical Appreciation

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The Orchestra. By Adam Carsc. Opera Comique. By Martin Cooper. (Max Parrish. 7s. 6d. each.) SINCE the war there has been no lack of so-called educational books on musical...

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Fiction

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Meeting on the Shore. By Robin Estridge. (Peter Davies. 8s. 6d.) COME , for once, behind the scenes with the reviewer. The parcel of books, solid, secure and, one cannot help...

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"THE SPECTATOR" CROSSWORD No. 539

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IA Book Token for one guinea will be awarded to the sena., of the first correct solution of this week's crossword to be opened after noon on Tuesday week, August 2nd. Envelopes...

SOLUTION TO CROSSWORD No 537 E E• i MIL '

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r il a 1 t S IAV ELoN plits•Q E•Alli yrE0Ou I S S U cs sl EN v DEM 1 'VAS I G LJ 0 0 5 d y, A Q D RilltELI SZET ii.11111111E 1,4"uSa -ehilTAriOrs 0k1 ti 5le MANP110 HADAPAANTH...

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FINANCE -AND INVESTMENT

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By CUSTOS INVESTORS' first reactions to the news' of the dollar import cuts have been almost unbelievably mild. I think it would be wrong to infer that there is any confident...

Shorter Notices

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Image. No. 1. (Art and Technics. 5s.) FOR the past two years a . quarterly with the somewhat repellent title of Alphabet and Image has been publishing a series of first-class...

Orpheus. Vol. 2. (John Lehmann. 12s. 6d.)

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THE new volume of Mr. Lehmann's ambitious "symposium of the arts " contains interesting articles on Edward FitzGerald and on the Greek peasant artist Theophilos (1866-1934), the...