23 DECEMBER 1955

Page 3

SPECTATOR

The Spectator

ESTABLISHED 1828 No. 6652 FRIDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1955 PRICE 7d.

UNITY

The Spectator

c HRISTMAS is a season of peace and unity, and in this respect it may be said, without undue irony, to be in- creasingly distinctive as the years go on. It is not, of course,...

Page 4

MEDICINE AND MIRACLE

The Spectator

By a Correspondent T WELVE months and eight days after the event, and a full three weeks after a popular illustrated weekly scooped the news, the 'vision' which is supposed to...

CEMENTING PRICES

The Spectator

I T is good to see the relationship between wages and prices being.discussed dispassionately before actual wage disputes begin to boil up in the New Year. PEP have recently...

THE SAAR

The Spectator

rrHE victory of the pro-German parties in the Saar elections, I though by no means as sweeping as had been expected. nevertheless sets the seal on the rejection of the Saar...

THE GHOST OF CASEMENT

The Spectator

Afraid they might be beaten Before the bench of Time They turned a trick by forgery And blackened his good name. W AS the diary found in Roger Casement's luggage a forgery? Or...

Page 5

The SPECTATOR is published a day earlier this week

The Spectator

Portrait of the Week

The Spectator

A TTENTION has once agairist been focused (not to say riveted) on the Middle East this week. What with the Muscat and Oman tribal levies carrying all before them and chasing the...

Page 6

Political Commentary

The Spectator

BY HENRY FAIRLIE T HE decision to replace Mr. Butler at the Treasury by Mr. Macmillan has been taken, but at the moment of writing it has not been officially announced, and the...

RACIAL INTELLIGENCE

The Spectator

`MR. MARSHALL, born in Iraq of Iraqi-Jewish parents. . . —Daily Mail, December 17 (p. 2). `PRESS CONFERENCE featured Mr. David Marshall, a lyrical, dedicated Celt. . . 2—Daily...

Page 7

Herr Krupp Gives a Party

The Spectator

I N 1947 Alfried Krupp von Bohlen and Halbach was con- demned to twelve years of imprisonment by an American War Crimes Court at Nuremberg for the plundering of occupied...

Page 8

IN THE Sunday Express last week there was an article

The Spectator

called `Is Life too Lush for the Lawyers?' To select a few eminent QCs, think of a large figure to put down as their income, and fail to point out that tax on most of these...

PROPRIETY OF ADOPTING PARENTS HAVING OWN CHILD —The Times Law

The Spectator

Report,December 20. AND WHAT about the propriety of three types of ambiguity in a single headline in The Times? PHAROS

`HISTORIANS KNOW a lot about Davy Crockett, more, perhaps, than

The Spectator

the cinema would appreciate,' comments The Times's critic reviewing Mr. Walt Disney's film on this American folk hero. Quite right, and among the things they do know is that...

I HAVE been reading The Great Spy Scandal, a comprehensive

The Spectator

account of the Burgess-Maclean case, published by the Daily Express at 5s. It contains a facsimile of the Express reporter's shorthand notes of the disputed interview with Mrs....

A Spectator's Notebook

The Spectator

`THINGS HAVE moved on.' 1 read with some complacency in last Thursday's New York Herald Tribune, 'since D. H. Lawrence wrote Lady Chatterley's Lover and the censors of Great...

LAST WEEK I wrote about the inconvenience caused to people

The Spectator

in some parts of wildest Surrey by the cuts London Transport has been making in the country bus services. Something of course had to be done about the most unprofitable...

Page 9

The Mystery of a Diary

The Spectator

BY ADMIRAL SIR W. M. JAMES I N Last Changes, Last Chances H. W. Nevinson wrote : `Yet I still believe Casement's life would have been saved by the appeals but for the action of...

Page 10

Keyhole View

The Spectator

BY D. W. BROGAN S OME years ago I was being driven down a main highway in a midwestern state on a grey winter day. On each side were the white, attractive wooden farmhouses,...

Page 11

Winter Sports

The Spectator

BY ERNST VON GLASERSFELD* N OT so long ago the word 'skiing' conjured up in Britain a picture either of decorative children tumbling in the snow, or of daring young men flying...

Page 12

His Word His Bond

The Spectator

BY IxN FLxMxNG* Chapter XIX YMCA AGAIN ! T HE whole room smelt of the Mexican. `Take him away,' said Bond, as he straightened his Old .Mauresques tic. 'His iggula's broken....

Page 13

City and Suburban

The Spectator

T HE villages of Willingale Spain and Willingale Doe in Essex have two churches in one churchyard. The vil- lagers have very rightly protested against the proposal of the Epping...

APOLOGIES FOR MISS MxRGxNxTA LAxKx

The Spectator

I didn't mean to get them published in book form, but People don't take the Observer seriously. One doesn't want to be mistaken for a journalist, does one? Journalism pays,...

Page 14

Strix

The Spectator

The Man in the Wheelbarrow I WOULD not describe the BBC as a popular institution. We take its virtues and achievements very much for granted, but lose no opportunity of fuming...

Page 15

Christmas Questions

The Spectator

Set by Six Fellows of St. John's College, Cambridge 1. What have the following in common? ' a. William Jaggard, Edward Blount, Isaac Smiths- weeke, William Apsley b. Tennyson's...

Page 18

CENTRALISED ART

The Spectator

SIR,—Amid the political comings and goings of the past fortnight and other spectacular items of home news, one announcement of considerable importance has not perhaps had the...

CYPRUS

The Spectator

SIR,—After Lord Stanley of Alderley's evasive reply to my argument about h plebiscite in Cyprus, I feel obliged to ask once more for hospitality in your columns. 1. Lord...

NORTHERN IRELAND

The Spectator

SIR,—I am surprised that no reply should have been published in the Spectator to Henry Fairlie's account of his excursion to Northern Ireland (Spectator, November 25). A brief...

The Spectator

Letters to the Editor

The Spectator

The Royal Family and the Church Randolph Churchill Centralised . Art Basil Taylor Northern Ireland Patrick Lynch Cyprus Spyros A. Kyprianos A Standard Solution Muriel Bowen...

A STANDARD SOLUTION S1R,—Mr. William Douglas Home refers to try

The Spectator

report in the Evening Standard in which he is wrongly mentioned as among those present at a charity ball. I was told that a table was reserved in the 1 name of Mr. William...

Page 19

Art

The Spectator

ITALY is now, I suspect, a more fashionable source of artistic modes than France; the use and appreciation of Italian products, whether they be clothes or china by Fornasetti,...

Contemporary Arts

The Spectator

Christmas Theatre SINCE this is the time when ttirkeys are being trussed (if that is what you do to turkeys), holly being basted (if that is what you do to holly) and...

U-SENSE v. COMMON SENSE •

The Spectator

SIR,—The high standard of ignorance within English aristocratic circles is proverbial out- side them, so it is not surprising that the adult elite should insist on pouring milk...

CIVIC FREEDOM

The Spectator

SIR,—I am writing a book on freedom in its civic aspects and would like to enlist the help of any readers with direct experience of the infringement of liberty by councils,...

Page 20

Television

The Spectator

THE first part of , the BBC's Othello, advance publicity told us, had been filmed; only when the Moor landed on Cyprus would the action become 'live.' Because of the greater...

Cinema

The Spectator

THE BIG KNIPE. (Gaumont.) ---- DAVY Caocxerr. (Studio One.) The Big Knife, taken (but not very far) from Clifford Odets's play, is an indictment of Hollywood, and as presented...

Zbe Oputator

The Spectator

DECEMBER 25, 1830 SIR WALTER SCOTT.—At the meeting of th creditors of Sir Walter Scott, which was itch at Edinburgh on the 17th instant, the followals resolution was...

Page 21

BOOKS

The Spectator

Hereditary Ability BY MICHAEL OAKESHOTT T HE possibility of a link between 'blood' and 'ability' has often been speculated upon, and it has provoked both superstitious hope and...

Page 22

Green Corn and Black Diamond

The Spectator

By ALOYSIUS C. PEPPER H E was a dark, strange man who spoke but little. For long months it seemed that his body knew nothing beyond the insistent rhythm of his pick-axe as he...

Page 24

Crewe and Cuizon

The Spectator

LORD CREWE: The Likeness of a Liberal. By James Pope' ti Hennessy. (Constable, 21S.) REMINISCENCES. By the Marchioness Curzon of Kedleston , (Hutchinson, 21s.) MR. JAMES POPE -...

Second Highest From gelow

The Spectator

ASCENT OF K2. By Professor Ardito Desio. (Elek Books, 21s.) THE Americans made their last attempt on K2, the world's second- highest mountain, in 1953 and failed; the Italians...

Page 25

Le Cote de Tooting

The Spectator

THE SUBURBAN CHILD. James Kenward. (C.U.P., 12s. 6d.) INNOCENCE UNDER THE ELMS. By Louise Dickinson Rich. (Robert Hale, 15s.) IF the population of central London is subtracted...

Wordscape with Pictures

The Spectator

BALLET: A Decade of Endeavour. Edited by A. H. Franks. (Burke, 18s.) THE BALLET OF THE SECOND EMPIRE, 1847-58. By Ivor Guest. (Black, 25s.) BALLETS PAST AND PRESENT. By Cyril...

Page 26

New Short Stories

The Spectator

MEN OF LETTERS. By Noel Blakiston. (Chapman and Hall, 9s. 6d.) WINTER'S TALES—I. (Macmillan, 16s.) MOST of the nine stories in Noel Blakiston's Men of Letters are concerned...

Page 27

Naval Intelligence

The Spectator

THE EYES OF THE NAVY: A Biographical Study of Admiral Sir Reginald Hall. By Admiral Sir William James. (Methuen, 21s.) ADMIRAL SIR REGINALD HALL, the great Director of Naval...

Page 28

THE FLOWERS OF EVIL. By Charles Baudelaire. (Routledge and Kegan

The Spectator

Paul, 35s.) THE FLOWERS OF EVIL. By Charles Baudelaire. (Routledge and Kegan Paul, 35s.) Tuts bilingual edition t a Baudelaire's Fleurs du Mal is an expensive book and would be...

POLITICAL THOUGHT OF THE GERMAN ROMAN - TICS. Translated and selected

The Spectator

by H. S. Reiss. (Basil Blackwell, 15s.) Tuts hook contains extracts from the writings of some exponents of German Romanticism, a movement still of interest especially because of...

HAVING conducted commination services over She last two PEN anthologies,

The Spectator

I do not think there is any need for me to say more about this one than that, although not worse than its predecessors. it is certainly not better. Indeed, it even puts the...

TRADE AND WELFARE. By J. E. Meade. (O.U.P., 45s.) DAVID

The Spectator

HUME : Writings on Economics. Edited by Eugene Rotwein. (Nelson, 30s.) THE second and final volume of the series 'The Theory of International Economic Policy,' issued under the...

THE, MOUNTAINS OF IRELAND. By D. D. C. Pochin Mould.

The Spectator

(Batsford, 21s.) ONE criticism only can be made of Dr. Pochin Mould's delightful book : that the photo- graphs are not in colour, and if the Irish mountains—particularly those...

TURKEY. By Geoffrey Lewis. (Bean, 21s.) THIS latest remake of

The Spectator

a volume in the Nations of the Modern World series complements. rather than replaces, Townbee and Kirkwood's book of the same title, first published in 1926 Mr. Lewis does not...

THE PATTERN OF CHRISTIAN BELIEF. By J. W. D. Smith,

The Spectator

DD. (Nelson, 12s. 6d.) THIS book is so good that it is to be hoped it will be used far beyond the particular purpose its writer had in mind. As 'a lecturer in a Re- ligious...

ENGLISH DRAWING: From Samuel Cooper to Gwen John. Chosen by

The Spectator

Geoffrey Grigson. (Thames and Hudson, 30s.) Tuts is a very enchanting scrapbook of 142 drawings, the earliest done about 1640, the most recent shortly before 1940, No two men...

ST. PAUL'S IN ITS GLORY. By G. L Prestige. (S.P.C.K.,

The Spectator

21s.) ST. PAUL'S IN ITS GLORY. By G. L Prestige. (S.P.C.K., 21s.) THE period covered is from 1831, when Sidney Smith became a Canon, to 1911, when Scott Holland left to become...

Page 29

llom a column in The Bookseller comes this 0 11ection of

The Spectator

amiable incidents in a lightly- tsguised provincial bookshop, narrated by a ten assistant who works hard and is under- aid. Pleasant enough reading for the bookish ho can...

Country Life BY IAN NIALL (4a the townsman there may

The Spectator

be something fizzling in the fact that country folk will me to market on the bleakest and rawest q of the year, even when they have nothing ) sell, but the market, like cattle...

CHRISTMAS TREES

The Spectator

I may be out of date, but the most pathetic thing to me is the artificial Christmas tree, the sort of half-brush affair coated with ready- made frost. Surely it is the invention...

PRUNING KNOW-HOW

The Spectator

Pruning is regarded as a technical business by some people, and there is no doubt that an expert is the man for the job. On the other hand, experts are scarce and the know-how...

ZZARDS

The Spectator

'Unless I am mistaken there will soon be a , I nPaign against the buzzard, aided, perhaps, '' a word or two from broadcasting person- tiles. The buzzard has not been a common...

Chess BY PHILIDOR BLACK, 3 men.

The Spectator

As I have carelessly forgotten to put in the Black king, sol- vers must first put this necessary piece on the board in such a position that there is a sound mate in two moves...

Page 30

CHESS SOLUTION

The Spectator

Solutions to Chess Tasks an p. 879.—(1) 1 P-K 3, P-Q R 4; 2 Q-R 4, R-R 3; 3Q x QR P, P-R 4; 4 Q x B P, R (3)- R 3; 5 P-K R 4, P-B 3; 6 Q x P ch, K-B 2; 7 Q x Kt, Q-Q 6; 8 Q x...

THE INFLATION BOGEY

The Spectator

By NICHOLAS DAVENPORT WHEN the Christmas bills come to be paid the fixed-income man will be sadly con- scious of the deterioration in his financial position as compared with,...

COMPANY NOTES

The Spectator

By CUSTOS AT this season of the year movements in the stock markets are usually slight and of no significance and business drops to a mere trickle while brokers go drinking...

Page 31

SPECTATOR CROSSWORD No. 866

The Spectator

ACROSS I It seems a tiresome gathering; ask Tommy Atkins! (7, 5) ° Nick Bottom, for example (9). 'The singing masons building — of gold' (Shakespeare) (5). I So backward among...

A King of High Degree

The Spectator

1 b y prize of £5 was * oilered for an English translation of the following verses from a carol oy lean Daniel : G'est wig ties grant mystere Qu'ung roy de si haul! pris Vient...

The winners of Crossword No. 864 nee: Mat. S. FLRGUSSON,

The Spectator

Dunfallaudy, a. itlochry, and Mat . Cour, 35 Blackraore Road, Malvern, Worn.

SPECTATOR COMPETITION No. 306 Set by R. J. P. Hewison

The Spectator

'Oh Lord r prayed Sir Jacob Astley before the Battle of Edgehill, 'Thou knowest how busie 1 must be this day. If 1 forget Thee, do not Thou forget me. For the usual prize (which...