23 JANUARY 1926

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The Coal CoMmiSsion will, of Course, reject, this elaborate dream

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of the future as certainly a - sit will reject the:retro- grade proposals of the mineowners: But Whatever seheme is recommended time will be required for reconstruction during...

The Coal Commission ended its public sittings on Thursday, January.

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14th. On that day the Miners' Federation presented its scheme of reconstruction,'which was explained by Mr. R. H. Tawney. It was frankly admitted by the sponsors of the scheme...

NEWS OF THE WEEK

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S IR WALTER SCOTT said that necessity was the best of peace-makers as well as the surest prompter of invention. We accept the omen of his words, for our neces- sity is indeed...

Mr. Tawney explained that the coal - mining industry thus transformed must

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be owned by the nation. At the head of this national industry would be a Power and Transport Commission, The internal affairs of- the industry would be managed by a Coal and...

The main object of the Consumers' Council would be to

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prevent the exploitation of the public. Wages and prices would be determined by consumers and producers at joint meetings of the Coal and Power Production Council and the...

EDITORIAL AND PUBLISHING OFFICES : 13 York Street, Covent Garden,

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London, W.C. 2.—A Subscription to the "Spectator" costs Thirty Shillings per annum, including postage, to any part of the world. The Postage on this issue is : Inland, id.,...

The Index . to Volume _135 of the SPECTATOR for the

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half-year ending December, 1925, is now ready. A copy will be sent pose free to readers enclosing is. in stamps, upon application to • The Publishers, 13 York Street, Covent...

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We must now pass to the principles of organizing elec-

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trical power which Mr. Baldwin laid down in his speech at Birmingham on Friday, January 15th. The whole scheme is a repudiation of nationalization. The aim is to get away from...

Count Volpi, representing the Italian Debt Funding Commission in London,

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seems to have made a very meagre offer. The Trilmna states that he offered an annual payment of only £.5,000,000. Whether this is true or not it seems certain that the Italian...

President von Hindenburg's openly, expressed impati- ence at the delay

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in forming a new Cabinet has had a good result. On Tuesday he made another and more definite appeal to the " patriotism" of the parties, and immediately afterwards Herr Luther...

At Leeds, on Wednesday, Mr. Churchill said that the estimates

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for next year would be more than £30,000,000 higher than for the present year if economy did not come to the rescue. The increase was due to - policy whichhad been approved by...

The situation in France is as obscure as ever: The

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Finance Committee of the Chamber has been busily , working at M. Doumer's Finance Bill, but almost wholly towards its destruction. The majority of the , Finance Conunittee...

At Carnarvon on Wednesday Mr. Lloyd George said that in

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future the Liberals would probably hold the balance of power. How, then, ought they to acr? Personally he had made up his mind never again to sanction such action as had put...

Another point to the good is that M. Briand has

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great; personal prestige, and he may be able to command a' majority in the Chamber by some special effort of oratory and persuasion. Meanwhile the people of France are...

It is believed that in drawing up this scheme the

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Government have relied in the main upon the Report of the Weir Committee. The Parliamentary correspondent of the Times says that in one respect, however, the plan departs from...

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Dublin was surprised on Tuesday when the Minister of Finance

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in the Dail produced a Bill authorizing a new • silver, nickel and bronze coinage. The corres- pondent of the Times says that the new issue will be purely a token coinage and...

The United States has informed the League of Nations that

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she will in future deposit all her foreign treaties with the League Secretariat for publication in the Treaty series. This will not, of course, amount to registration, as the...

We deeply regret to record the death of Mr. J.

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F. P. Rawlinson, the senior member for Cambridge University. Few men could be so sorely missed as he will be, and his mere record, though it was a fine one, does not suggest the...

Further, the new coinage is not likely to case trade

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between the Free State and the Six Counties. Even though the token coinage may in itself be harmless— being legal tender only for small amounts—the political effects may be...

With its issue this week the Guardian reaches its eightieth

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birthday. We offer it our hearty congratulations and good wishes for the future. If we are not mistaken it overlooked, or at all events did not call attention to, its more...

The Royal College of PhySicians of Edinburgh has done better

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than the Royal College of Surgeons. On Tuesday it reinstated Dr. Axham, who had forfeited his diploma when he acted as anaesthetist for Sir Herbert Barker in 1911. Last week the...

Bank Rate, 5 per cent, changed from 4 per cent.

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on December 3rd, 1925. War Loan (5 per cent.) was on Wednesday 1011; on Wednesday week 1001; a year ago 1011. Funding Loan (4 per cent.) was on Wednesday 87i ; on Wednesday week...

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TOPICS- OF- THE DAY

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only by the tone of his 'speech, seems nothing very- big; or • hew,. or epoch-niaking. When, however, the detail's are learefiilly .‘ StUdied and the Consequential . -elemeriti...

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THE NEXT ..BUDGET AND A BETTING TAX

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Mr. Churchill introduced his Budget he 7 expected an increase of revenue, but the first nine months of the financial year, as compared with the first nine Months of the previous...

THE COAL COMMISSION

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A HEAVY cloud has settled darkly upon the British coal industry. The gloom seems to be impenetrable for the moment. The public hearing of evidence by the Royal Commission has...

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BRITISH PIONEERS : A NEW LABOUR MOVEMENT

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BY ITS PRESIDENT, F. KIRKLEY. F ROM time immemorial pioneers have had to follovt paths which were thorny and strewn with innumer- able difficulties ; efforts have been made to...

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THE " LATEST " FROM . LONDON I N Upper Regent Street

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(at No. 315 to be exact) a palace -dedicated to the adornment of Woman is being decorated and prepared for the official opening. .0n January 27th, at 3.15 p.m., the Duchess .of...

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AN AMERICAN PROFESSOR'S - " REFLECTIONS ON OXFORD "

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T HE retiring Harmsworth Professor of American History in his two articles in the Spectator of November 7th and I4th has painted Oxford, on the whole, in such rosy colours that...

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AN AFRICAN WATERWAY A THOUSAND miles up the Niger river

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from the sea t a curious - refractory little tributary 'enters it after a hundred twisting miles - Of course froni Jega, which is the Chief trading town of the province of...

NEW POEMS BY SHELLEY

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TT may seem at first that Professor Walter Peck has fallen in luck's way. For over twenty years there has heel kept in Harvard library a manuscript notebook of Shelley's. Yet no...

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QUARRIES

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Q UARRIES, when they arc allowed at last to pass into retirement, undisturbed by the hammering and. blasting of acquisitive men, turn by an easy transition from open-air mines...

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THE CINEMA

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THE BRITISH FILM SITUATION II.--THE PLIGHT AND THE REMEDY THE making of films can never be a pour man's hobby. For a picture of the ordinary length (lasting an hour or...

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THE THEATRE

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ANOTHER TCHEKHOIT (" UNCLE VANYA " AT THE BARNES THEATRE) Mn. PHILIP RIDGEWAY and Mr. Theodore Komisarjevsky (as producer) have given us a version of Tchelchov's Uncle Vanya at...

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CORRESPONDENCE

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A LETTER FROM MADRID [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—It is certainly a privilege to be among people who, even if they neglect its deeper problems, act as if life were...

ART

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EXHIBITIONS OF INTEREST THE "SEVEN AND FIVE " SOCIETY, BEAUX ART GALLERY, 1 BRUTON PLACE, W. A visrr to this exhibition is sufficient to convince one of the devastating and...

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

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THE ITALIAN DEBT [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] - :SIR,—The letter on the Italian Debt in the Spectator of January 16th, signed " An Italian," repeats a statement which has...

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR4 Sin,—You have dealt in

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the " News of the *Week " with the arguments of the letter from " An Italian," that appears in the Spectator of January 16th ; but inconclusive as are the arguments the figures...

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R E F ORM POOR LAW REFORM {To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]

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- Sit,---In the Spectator of January 9th an article on Poor Law Reform contains the sentence : " The Minority Report (of the -Royal Commission of 1905) proposed the- abolition...

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]

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am sorry to seem captious, but I cannot admit that Dr. Welldon has answered either of my questions. Ile says that duelling is always sinful, because it involves the taking of...

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Stn,—Since the arguments advanced

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against a betting tax by Canon Green and Mr. Maude (Spectator, January 9th) seem to be based on the assumption that gambling is a sin, they fail to appeal to Roman Catholics,...

A TAX ON BETTING [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]

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Sut,. an old Liberal I welcome your support of a tax on betting, and I regret that Canon Peter Green cannot see that the simplest way of checking a thing is to tax it. Still...

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THE OSTEOPATHS [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] defending the

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General Medical Council's attitude towards the osteopath, Dr. Graham Little, M.P., descends to a childish level of argument. His effort, in his latest letter, to disparage...

A RACIAL DANGER [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]

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SIR,—It is hardly likely that Mr. Harold Cox can have for- gotten, in writing on such an important subject as sterilization, that some mentally defective children are the...

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BRITISH TRADE .WITH AMERICA . [To the Editor of the

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SPECTATOR.] SIR,—At first sight the slogan, " Buy British Goods," would appear to be a defensive movement against the inroads of American products in this country—and if this...

ENGLAND'S GREEN AND PLEASANT LAND [To the Editor of the

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SPECTATOR.] Sin,—Captain J. W. Dixon, who writes a letter to you in your issue of January 9th, no doubt is admirable in his own profes- sion. But he does not shine in the...

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sue, — I have been particularly

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interested in your leading article this week on the subject of " Buy British Goods." Your American correspondent is certainly illuminating ! I have just returned from the United...

THE P.O. TELEPHONE CABLES [To the Editor of the SPF.ers:roa.]

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Sui,—The P.O. Telephone Department are laying an under. ground cable or line close to my house. I notice that the circular crates which (I suppose) contain the cable or line,...

MR. BALDWIN AND THE CLASSICS [To the Editor of the

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SPECTATOR.] Sra,—May I, in all humility, commend to the attention of your readers one aspect of the subject so admirably handled by the Prime Minister-I mean the study of the...

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THE BIRMINGHAM STIRS [To -the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR, — The

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attitude of Gallio towards religious controversy has a natural attraction far educated people ; and politicians are unwilling to burn their fingeri by intervening in...

A CORRECTION [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]

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Sin; --My letter is last week's Spectator contains two errors. The President of the Educational Facilities Association is now Lord Birkenhead ; the term subscription is £1, not...

THE HOMECROFTING SCHEME • [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]

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SIR, — If I could be sure of not conveying a false impression to them, and setting them all thinking we are further on than we are, I wish I might at this stage circulate a few...

POETRY

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MY PROUD DARK-EYED SAILOR - (To the air of " Castle O'Neill.") My brave boy is far from me, Oh, my sorrow,- on a strange, distant shore— My proud, dark-eyed sailor, When...

EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS = Tim TuE -, TACNA-ARICA DISPUTE. Mr. Oscar

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V. Salomon (Consul-General in London for Peru) writes ". The whole trouble is rooted in the unjust, immoral- and illegal rapacity of Chile, who, covetous of Peru's rich nitrate...

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A BOOK OF THE MOMENT

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FOURTELN ENGLISH Jcpc,4ES Fourteen Englieh Judges. By the Rt. Hon. The Earl of Birken- head; RC.,--4).L. (Cassell. 25s. net.) Tnoi.Ton there..4ve a number of good things in....

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. From her home in British Columbia " E. Barrington

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" has published another historical romance (Glorious Ap011o . . HarriP. 7s. Ifid.), which' is - longer. than The Divine Lady, but On the Same_plan. The subject-matter, however,...

Mr. Guthrie Smith writes interestingly on the habits of birds

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in New Zealand in Bird Life on Island and Shore (Black- wood. 25s.). Of the nest of a Saddleback that he observed, he says : " . . . the hen was so wrapt; in the ecstasy of...

- * * * * -

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Dr. Iladen Guest has compiled an authoritative work on The New Russia (Butterworth. -10s. 6d.); which merits a longer notice than can be given here. From . the shadow of the...

.

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In the - review a Tree Vagaboiick . iri Languedoe (Joint Lane)" last - week the price was incorrectly quoted as -25a - It shmild haVe been 12s. 0d,

THIS WEEK'S BOOKS

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The Book .of the Red Deer and Empire Big Game (Simpkin s Marshall, Hamilton, Kent and Co.) is a profusely illustrated and well-produced volume .written. by men with personal :...

Anything that Professor J. Arthur Thomson writes is sure of

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a good public, and in The Gospel of Evolution (Newnei. 2s.) he sets out to prove the always interesting theory that " our affiliation with the beasts helps to bring us on 'to...

. NEWS OF THE COMPETITIONS

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The Editor has offered two prizes of £5 each, the first for a new Tale for Children in not more than six hundred words of prose or sixty lines of verse, the second for a new...

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WILLIAM BLAKE

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The Writings of William Blake. Edited by Geoffrey Keynes. Three vole. (Nonesuch Press. £5 17s. 6d. net.) BLAKE receives affection for the simple and free Songs of Innocence. He...

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THE • GASCON KING OF SWEDEN

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Bernadotte, Prince and King : 1810-1844. By the ft t. Hon.. Sir Dunbar Plunkett Barton. (Murray. 12s.) IN all the history of adventurers, there is nothing more amazing than...

FRANCE 'AND THE FRENCH

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FRANCE and the French are perennial subjects for the English writer. Our nearest foreign neighbours are so different from ourselves that there is hardly a " standard British...

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EUROPE WITHOUT TEARS

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The Brighter Side of European Chaos. By Vernon Bartlett. (Heath Cranton. 10s. 6d.) WnEx a Bolshevik guard enters a railway carriage, stands on one foot and then the other " like...

THE BOOK OF THE HOME

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The Book of the Home. By Davide C. Minter. (Gresham Publishing Co. 50s.) As Lady Jekyll says in her introduction to the first of the four beautiful quarto volumes of this...

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IN this volume of reprinted essays we are given an

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opportunity of recognizing Professor Grierson's wide range of reading. and his critical penetration. He succeeded Professor Saintsbury at Edinburgh, and his inaugural address,...

Ix writing pleasantly about trivial objects, such as pins or

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needles, the modern essayist inevitably seems to adopt the frayed but lovable coat of Charles Lamb, and when he draws upon his own memories of childhood or boyhood, he slips on...

POTTERY AND PORCELAIN : A Guide to Collectors. By Frederick

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Litchfield. (A. and C. Black. 35s. net.) THIS is the fourth and completely revised edition of Mr. Litchfield's first work originally published in 1879. The author apologizes to...

E. T. BUSK. By Mary Busk. (John Murray. 7s. 6d.)

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AFTER the War there was a plethora of short memoirs, fitted only for private circulation. Mrs. Busk has let several years pass before writing this little biography of her son...

PHYSICAL FITNESS IN MIDDLE LIFE. By F. A. Horn= brook.

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(Cassell. 6s.) This is a sensible little book, giving plain advice to middle- aged men and women, especially men who feel that they are losing their vigour while still they are...

REFERENCE BOOKS.—The Official Year Book for the Church of England,

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1926. (S.P.C.K. 3s.) Contains a mass of useful inforniation and the " Who's Who of the Church Assembly " has been brought up to date and includes all members of the new Houses...

TURKEY IN TRAVAIL. By Harold Armstrong. (John Lane, 8s. 6d.)

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CAPTAIN ARMSTRONG writes vividly of life in Turkey, from 1916, when he entered the country as a prisoner of war, to 1923, when he gave up his post as staff officer at...

WITH admirable, but we believe, mistaken, industry, Mr. Albert Mordell

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has traced and gathered more reviews and articles contributed by Lafcadio Hearn to newspapers, during his years of struggle in Cincinnati and New Orleans ; and as a definitive...

CURRENT LITERATURE

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THE LOST SWORD OF SHAMYL. By Lewis Stanton Palen. (The Bodley geed. 6s.) Ix The Lost Sword of Shamyl Mr. Lewis Stanton Palen tells the story of the early life and adventures of...

A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE FIRST EDITIONS OF PUB- LISHED AND

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PRIVATELY PRINTED BOOBS AND PAMPHLETS by AUSTIN DOBSON. Compiled by Alban Dobson. (First Edition Club. 15s. net.) A BIBLIOGRAPHY of Austin Dobson's first editions will be wel-...

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The Adventures of Captain Ivan . Koravitch. By Victor L. Whitechurch.

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(Blackwood. .7s. 6d. net.)—Captain Kora- vitch is an officer and gentleman of the Imperial RUssian Army who'arranges his life in convenient wartime episodes, fights on his...

The Reluctant Impostor. By Muriel Hine. (Lane. 7s. 6d: net.)—In

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this agreeable if conventional love story Miss _Muriel Hine has used with some skill the hackneyed imbroglio brought about by the impersonation of the dead. In this case the...

FICTION

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ENGLISH FAMILY LIFE The Sinclair Family. By The Hon. Mrs. Alfred Lyttelton, D.B.E. Quince Alley. By Mrs. Henry Dudeney.. (7s, 6d. net.) ... _f THERE are moods and emotions...

One Dreamer Who Awakes. By E. Shaw-Cowley. (John Lane.. 7s.

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6d. net.)—Christine Stacey, a charming and cul- tured young woman, left stranded by the death of her only relative, becomes a violinist in an hotel orchestra, and later the...

- NOVELS'

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Cobbler, :Cobbler and . Other Stories., By C. Henry Warren. (Faber and Gwyer. 7s. 64.)—in this colleption of short atbries Mr. C. Henry Warren 'describes, for.the most part,...

The Backsliders. By Edgar Jepson. (Herbert Jenkins. 7s. - 6d. net.)—Mr.

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Jepson has a keen sense of the comic and, apparently,, an inexhaustible fund _ of high spirits ; and in this book he his allowed both to run away with him, and in different...

Cross Lode. By Edward D. Fraser. (Castle. 7s. Od. net.)—A

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work of exceptional merit, Mr. Fraser's story of - David' Grant; artist, egotist and sensualist, is in 'the modern manner and stresses unduly the unseemly aspects of life....

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BOOKS RECOMMENDED

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SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY :—Life, Mind and Spirit. By C. Lloyd Morgan. (Williams and Norgate, 15s.) Prophecy and Eschatology. By Nathaniel Micklem. (Allen and Unwin. 7s. 6c1.)—The...

FINANCE-PUBLIC AND PRIVATE

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THE INDUSTRIAL OUTLOOK BY ARTHUR W. KIDDY. TILE period of the annual bank meetings is at hand, and before this issue appears in print the chairman of Barclays Bank will have...

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FINANCIAL NOTES

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- . _ FaIPIRD DEVELOPMENT. . . AT a moment when there is a good deal of vague talk as to the development of our Dominions and the affording of 'simultaneous relief to...

„ CANADIAN, IMMIGRATION SCHEME.

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Quite the most interesting feature of -Mr. Sale's address to the Hndson Bay shareholders, however, wni Iihs nrilininice- inent of the steps which -had. been taken, cligeetion...

FRESH LOAN FLOTA.TIONS. - - The vagaries of the security-markett

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are very well exempli- fied just now by the varying Success attending fresh capital issues. Foreign loans giying Yields, say, from over 6 up to 8 per cent. seem to be eagerly...

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A PROSPEROUS INDUSTRY:

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Not. the least interesting feature of the address of Sir Hugo Cunliffe-Qwen at the recent meeting of the British American Tobacco . Company was his .somew i liat reassuring...

WEST3LINSTF.R BANK BONUS.

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The Mailditeinent of the'Westihinliter he con- gratulated not:m:4771pol' tfie excellent ItepoW for thepast year, but also upon the steadiness of the improvementver a recent...