is frequently alleged that the present oreign Secretary is merely a creature of s officials, dutifully reading out the efs the Foreign Office provides for him. is seems...

Elucidating Enoch AUBERON WAUGH Anyone concerned with politics nowadays is invariably asked from time to time what chance he gives Mr Enoch Powell of coming to power. It is a...

Appeasement in our time GEORGE GALE Most of us realise perfectly well that it is good for us to remind ourselves, or to be reminded, from time to time of the tyran- nous and...

Who'll be boss? KULDIP NAYAR Neu• Delhi — The Congress party has looked like breaking up for years—indeed right back to the days of those legendary heroes such as Mahatma...

CHRISTOPHER HOLLIS Parliamentary security has been lightened following the showing on television of a 'bomb' in the cellars of the House which had been planted there,...

Vox pop PAUL COOPER Rome—The battle that has been going on in Italy for the last two months between employers and labour unions is the fiercest the country has known since the...

Investigating the investigators ROBERT ODAMS )bert Odams' is the pseudonym of an cial of the Supplementary Benefits Com- scion. His previous articles on 'The wel- t' rackets'...

he marries you this time.'

J. W. M. THOMPSON I don't know whether other people have had the same delusion, but there have been some days lately when I have felt that I was being positively surrounded by...

Private charity or public squalor PEREGRINE WORSTHORNE Most members of the Labour party have now accepted the economic need for in- equality. Few would deny that if top m...

Poison for all PETER J. SMITH If there be any truth at all in the dictu that what happens in America happe here five years later, it has surely b confirmed by the widespread...

BILL GRUNDY Nobody in his right mind would dream of judging a paper after only two issues, but nobody in journalism is in his right mind anyway, so I'm going to. But before I...

Beyond a doubt? GILES PLAYFAIR Recently, I received a letter from an inmate of the Special Security Block at Parkhurst Prison. The writer, Dennis Stafford, in- formed me that...

Second opinion R. A. CLINE If Mr Attic Hinds had launched his celebrated libel action today he would not have met with the same success. It will be recalled that although he...

On saints and sinners, etc. MERCURIUS OXONIENSIS GOOD DROMMIR LONDINIENSIS, I thank you heartily for your long letter of the lath inst. Such news from your swirling...

LORD EGREMONT I have an old-fashioned, inherited, natural accent. I go on using it because it is the only unaffected accent I've got. Those on the listening end generally hoist...

From the 'Spectator', 20 November 1869—The Suez Canal was opened, as promised, on the 18th inst., that is to say, a Russian steamer drawing 17+ feet, and the Empress Eug6nie's...

ANTHONY KING 7 he Making of the President 1968 Theodore H. White (Cape 45s) It is becoming the fashion every four years to compare Theodore H. White's new book u nfavourably...

Precious artifice HENRY TUBE The Green House Mario Vargas Llosa, trans- lated by Gregory Rabassa (Cape 42s) Calla Alberto Bevilacqua, translated by Harvey Fergusson II (Allen...

AUBERON WAUGH ravels with my Aunt Graham Greene Bodley Head 30s) Ir Greene's latest novel is a puzzling book review. If its intention is primarily amorous, then one can only...

FELIX MARKHAM George III and the Mad-Business I McAlpine and Richard Hunter (Allen I.: The Penguin Press 70s) This is an important book, of interest bo to physicians and to...

Round and about PATRICK ANDERSON Travel books, guides, accounts of sojourns abroad accumulate on one's table. Where much is good one has to pick and choose amongst the highly...

LAURENCE MARTIN The Coming War Between Russia and China Harrison E. Salisbury (Seeker and Warburg 42s) The manner of Mr Salisbury's book does not belie its sensationalist...

Art marts PETER PARLEY cuts with Pistol Gavin Lyall (Hodder d Stoughton 30s) he Changeling Niobid Mary D. Anderson Chatto and Windus 25s) nquiry Dick Francis (Michael Joseph...

Against the grai JOHN HIGGINS It is not easy to fashion a dull and leade footed thing from the overture to 11 barbie di Siviglia, but this is what happened on t first night of...

HILARY SPURLING It is so seldom that the National Theatre has appeared in a great play, and so long since they last performed one with any special excellence, that one is...

Pastures and masters BRYAN ROBERTSON You still need the digestion of an ox and the mental stamina of a Whitehead to steer your way through the present spate of shows, so rich...

Tremendous din PENELOPE HOUSTON Women in Love (Prince Charles, 'X') The Magus (Rialto, 'X') Age of Consent (Metropole, Ken Russell's Women in Love must rate, I suppose, as...

NICHOLAS DAVENPORT In our recent Financial Survey I commented on Labour's avowed intention, expressed in he pamphlets of their national executive, to e xtend the public sector...

BULL A partieularly useful guide to equity-linked kie assurance has just been published by Fundex Liraited—Equity Linked Assurance. The l'969 edition reviews seventy contract ,...

From Professor A. J. Ayer, J. R. L. Can ningham, Michael Armstrong, Paul Code nette, John Crookshank, Dorothy Dickson Beverley Nichols, Lady de Zulueta. Mar garet Knight,...

Sir : Peter Daubeny (8 November) says I was quoted in a misleading context in Sheridan Morley's r hook about Noel Coward. What I told Sheridan was that I remembered two...

Sir: Mr Todd (Letters, 15 November) chal- enges my interpretation of the GCE results f Professor Pedley's sample of uncreamed omprehensive schools. His arguments are nconvincing...

Sir: J. W. M. Thompson's comments (Spectator's notebook', I November) on the 150 mph train in relation to new airport sites raises the whole question of the lack of coordination...

Sir: Miss Hereward's letter about student grants (1 November) does I feel contain some dangerous half-truths. Whether a student has 'won' a grant as of right, or whether one...

Sir: I believe that Sir Robert Birley was somewhat harsh in his review of my book The Afrikaners (8 November). For example. he says: 'No attempt is made to show what the Great....

Sir: To Mr Stephen Gardiner (15 November) and his readers 1 would suggest that where new buildings are- as the Surrey University was not—the result of an open competition, we...

Ir. Having read the letter from Ann - arvey (15 November) may I take this PportUnity of saying a brief word about he Children's Book Show? First of all, may extend my sympathies...

Sir: What an excellent press conference by% IRH The Duke of Edinburgh. but how dis- graceful that it should have to be on such an occasion—and in the United States—that Fist The...

Sir: I am planning to write a biography of the -We Henry Morris. A large number" of papers and letters. has already been collected by friends and made available to me, but if...

Sir: In his review (15 November) of David Williams's Too Quick Despairer, Martin Seymour-Smith says that 'Clough, under the strict tutelage of Matthew Arnold's father ......

Sir: Have any of your readers had recent dealings with loan brokers or mortgage brokers? We are doing some research into the activities of these brokers—to find out what...

No. 580: Rave review Set by W. F. N. Watson : Richard Williams's review, in a recent issue of Melody Maker, of the Lennon-Ono 'Wedding Album' includes a lyrical rave about...

PHILIDOR M. Zucker (Schoch, 1959). White to play anp mate in four moves; solution next week. Solution to no. 465 (Markwick): Kt-B5., threat Q x B. 1 . . . Q xPch; 2 Kt(5)x Q...

Across I Guide of the fire-breathing type with Mum in his grip (8) 5 Country air? (6) 9 Quarrelled about everybody in a well-bred way (8) 10 James's papers are dramatic (6) 12...