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UNITY
The Spectatorc 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,...
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MEDICINE AND MIRACLE
The SpectatorBy 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 SpectatorI 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 SpectatorrrHE 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 SpectatorAfraid 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...
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Portrait of the Week
The SpectatorA 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...
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Political Commentary
The SpectatorBY 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...
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Herr Krupp Gives a Party
The SpectatorI 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...
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IN THE Sunday Express last week there was an article
The Spectatorcalled `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 SpectatorReport,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 Spectatorthe 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 Spectatoraccount 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 Spectatorin 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...
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The Mystery of a Diary
The SpectatorBY 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...
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Keyhole View
The SpectatorBY 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,...
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Winter Sports
The SpectatorBY 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...
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His Word His Bond
The SpectatorBY 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....
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City and Suburban
The SpectatorT 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 SpectatorI 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,...
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Strix
The SpectatorThe 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...
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Christmas Questions
The SpectatorSet 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...
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CENTRALISED ART
The SpectatorSIR,—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 SpectatorSIR,—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 SpectatorSIR,—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...
Letters to the Editor
The SpectatorThe 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 Spectatorreport 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...
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Art
The SpectatorITALY 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 SpectatorChristmas 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 SpectatorSIR,—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 SpectatorSIR,—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,...
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Television
The SpectatorTHE 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 SpectatorTHE 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 SpectatorDECEMBER 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...
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BOOKS
The SpectatorHereditary 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...
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Green Corn and Black Diamond
The SpectatorBy 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...
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Crewe and Cuizon
The SpectatorLORD 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 SpectatorASCENT 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...
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Le Cote de Tooting
The SpectatorTHE 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 SpectatorBALLET: 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...
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New Short Stories
The SpectatorMEN 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...
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Naval Intelligence
The SpectatorTHE 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...
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THE FLOWERS OF EVIL. By Charles Baudelaire. (Routledge and Kegan
The SpectatorPaul, 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 Spectatorby 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 SpectatorI 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 SpectatorHUME : 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 Spectatora 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 SpectatorDD. (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 SpectatorGeoffrey 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 Spectator21s.) 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...
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llom a column in The Bookseller comes this 0 11ection of
The Spectatoramiable 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 Spectatorbe 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 SpectatorI 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 SpectatorPruning 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 SpectatorAs 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...
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CHESS SOLUTION
The SpectatorSolutions 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 SpectatorBy 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 SpectatorBy 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...
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SPECTATOR CROSSWORD No. 866
The SpectatorACROSS 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 Spectator1 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 SpectatorDunfallaudy, 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...