22 MAY 1941

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THE DANGER . IN SYRIA T HE one question everyone conscious of

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the dangers in the Middle East is asking is why British troops have not so far attempted to gain possession of Syria. There may be good answers to that. If the matter is one in...

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Mr. Cordell Hull's Declarations

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The attitude of the United States on the war and post-war problems has never been declared as plainly and emphatically as it was by Mr. Cordell Hull, the Secretary of State, in...

NEWS OF THE WEEK I T must be expected, as the

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Prime Minister said on Wednes- day, that the fighting in Crete will continue with increasing severity. A German official statement the same nay spoke of the confident...

Yugoslavia Dismembered - Poland was the prey of two Powers—Germany and

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Russia. Yugoslavia is the prey of four—Germany, Italy, Hungary and Bulgaria. They are tearing her to pieces and rivalling one another in savagery (the behaviour of the I lians...

Liberated Abyssinia

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The surrender of the Duke of Aosta, the Viceroy of Abyssinia and Commander-in-Chief of the Italian forces there, brings the Abyssinian campaign to an end. The campaign has been...

Vichy and Morocco

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It is certainly true that public opinion in occupied France is strongly pro-British, but it would be a dangerous illusion to expect any effective opposition to the Germans or to...

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To all this it may be objected that only those

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in charge know all the facts, that war demands swift and secret decisions, that partial criticism can never be more than a post-mortem, that " questions " and the fear of...

It is satisfactory, therefore, that many members are using their

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professional and industrial experience, their week-ends and odd moments to find out for themselves what are the real facts about production, about fire-watching, about...

Previous to a debate on production energetic attempts were made

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to give Regional Boards more direction and responsibility,' yet Mr. Ellis Smith and other Labour Members voiced their constructive opinions on this matter months ago. Is this...

An Astonishing Survival

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Lord Mottistone made an astonishing disclosure on Tuesday regarding prisoners-of-war's pay. It appears that under a regulation dating back to the Napoleonic wars, while an...

The Prime Minister has given the House of Commons and

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the country full information on developments in the Mediter- ranean, and no information on the descent of Herr Hess. This meets with the general approval of the House of...

The Civil Service in War

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Elsewhere in this issue appears the first of two articles in which a writer with considerable experience of the civil service from within and of dealings with it as a business...

The Week in Parliament

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Our Parliamentary Correspondent writes: Every week that passes provides more and more proof that Parliamentary criticism is vital to the successful prosecution of the war. This...

Fire-Service Reform

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The only criticism to be made of Mr. Morrison's Fire Services (Emergency Provisions) Bill, which was passed through all its stages in. the House of Commons on Tuesday, is that...

Subscription 305. a year to any part of the world

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Postage on this issue: Inland lid., Foreign and Imperial id., Canada id. Subscription 305. a year to any part of the world Postage on this issue: Inland lid., Foreign and...

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WHOM ARE WE FIGHTING?

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O NE of the theories about the arrival of Rudolf Hess is that he came to warn us for our own good, or to invite us for Germany's good, to make peace with Hitler. Nothing but...

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The German wireless has been agreeably prodigal of valuable information

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in regard to the Hess affair. Quite apart from the generous assortment of explanations of Herr Hess's intentions and state of mind we may learn a good deal that not all of us...

One effect of the war has been to give, for

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better or worse, a sharp stimulus to anonymity in journalism. I should say it is for worse. Apart from leading articles, which represent no purely individual view, but the...

My note last week on the egregious word " busology

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" brings information of a solecism almost more appalling. The word " autobusim "—a Greek prefix, "auto," plus a completely meaningless Latin termination "bus," plus a Hebrew...

Sir Robert Vansittart's decision to leave the Foreign Office on

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reaching the retiring age of 6o (which is often, and in war- time usually, extended) next month will surprise no one. Sir Robert has been strangely treated. He was for eight...

Last week Time and Tide, youthful and sprightly compared with

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this centenarian-and-a-bit journal, celebrated its coming of age, and I offer it my respectful congratulations. What I like most about Time and Tide is a certain agreeable...

A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK

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A. REMARKABLE piece of information, to which I have seen no reference in this country, appears in the New Republic of May 5th. In that issue there is reproduced, as basis for an...

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The War Surveyed

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MEDITERRANEAN PRELUDE By STRATEGICUS T HE greatest difficulty from which we suffer at present is that of realising the true gravity of the situation and yet giving full weight...

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A CIVIL SERVICE INQUEST -I

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By THOMAS LODGE* HERE can be no more pertinent subject of discussion today than British administration—in other words the Civil Service and its work. In the last war, Great...

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PROPAGANDA TO GERMANS

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By JOHN WILLOUGHBY A s 1941 will be a year of destiny for us and our civilisation, it is imperative that we should forthwith make a highly critical survey of every offensive...

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THE KLAUS

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By ISRAEL. COHEN A MONG the many institutions in Eastern Europe devoted to ti the pursuit of knowledge which have been swept away by the scourge of war, probably the least...

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THE ARMY . AND ODD JOBS

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By A 1914 SOLDIER A CERTAIN misapprehension appears to exist in the public mind as to the part the Army can play in helping in the essential task of civil defence. There can be...

THREE POEMS FOR BECKY

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Somumas, in the house, or walking in the damp streets, or when the rare sun springs out on London, there comes, evocative, non-existent, reminiscent, a smell of Georgia lanes,...

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THE CINEMA

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“The Lady Eve." At the Plaza.--Ministry of Information Films. Generally released. • The Lady Eve has set the name of director Preston Sturges drip- ping from every critical...

ART

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New War Pictures THE latest Official War Art at the National Gallery is the best yet. In the newly-hung room the artists concerned show signs that they are going to create...

HOLBEIN IN 1940

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TUDOR imaginings are cheap on Cotswold; " Semi-Shakespearean " is each road's label, And every orchard is some kind of cousin To that in which the quavering voice of Shallow...

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Sut,—The excellent article on "Young Offenders" in your issue of

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April 25th provokes further comment. It seems to me that the ordinary child suffers a good deal from boredom and a sense of frustration, and that in time of war that feeling...

YOUNG OFFENDERS

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Sta,—Your article on "Young Offenders" raises the very important question of what to do with those young people who, through lack of a good home or through other difficulties in...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

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THE UNKNOWN SAILOR Snt,—In the good old days, just after the so-called Great War, before the big motor-trawlers had quite ruined the small-boat herring- fishery, there were...

OUR HYSTERICAL COMMONS

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SIR,—It was refreshing to read your criticisms of our war-effort and of the debate in the House in your issue of May 9th. For are not these Commons slightly hysterical? During...

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THE BRITISH SUNDAY SIR, - A popular error has slipped into Mrs.

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Catherine Carswell's letter in your last issue—the error that the British Sunday came from "Continental influences," being a result of "the foreign sway of Luther and Calvin." I...

TERROR IN SILESIA

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SIR, —Dr. W. H. Dawson's statement in your issue of May 9th that at the time of the plebiscite of 1921 the population of Upper Silesia was subjected to "Polish terror" should...

GERMANY AFTER THE WAR"

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Sm,—May a reader ask W. H. Dawson to explain and amplify a phrase in his letter: "The date was 1936, the year when Hitler ceased his long and vain efforts for disarmament on...

"INDICTING A NATION"

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Sut,—There must, I think, be many besides myself who have got very tired of hearing Burke's (alleged) saying, "You cannot indict a whole nation" invoked whenever the question of...

A QUESTION ON HESS

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SIR,—There is one curious aspect of the Hess affair on which, so far as we know, no comment has so far been made. We are told that Herr Hess wrote to the Duke of Hamilton and...

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A PLEA FOR THE WARDENS

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SIR, —In common with many other ex-1st-Great-War men, I joined the Wardens' Service long before the outbreak (May, 1938, to b e exact), and our rural area had practically too...

"THE MAN-POWER PROBLEM"

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Snt,—In connexion with the above subject I put forward one sugges- tion, which so far as I have been able to observe, has not been mooted in public officially or otherwise,...

CONFIDENCE-AND QUESTIONS

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Sue,—Your interesting article under the above heading reaches the conclusions that the trend of the moment is against us, and that confidence in the Prime Minister is unabated....

EXPLOITING THE SERVICEMEN

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SIR,—As a member of H.M. Forces I would like to utter a protest against the ever-increasing profiteering-ramp organised by civilian firms who specialise in selling...

"GOOD CHARITIES"

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Snt,—I have just seen the letter by Dr. A. V. Hill in your issue of the 2nd instant. The two reasons which Dr. Hill puts forward in opposition to the judicial ruling that...

PARLIAMENT AND PEOPLE

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Sta,—The setting up of an unofficial opposition in Parliament is evidence that circumstances have compelled this course if public questions are to receive due consideration. The...

THE VIRTUES OF MASTICATION

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Snt,—In Macaulay's essay on the Athenian Orators he writes: "Rum- ford, it is said, proposed to the Elector of Bavaria a scheme for feed- ing his soldiers at a much clieaper...

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If you have never heard of the Iceni Estate and

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the remarkable experiments in land-regeneration carried on there since 1932, I think sixpence on I Believe by a Farmer (R. G. M. Wilson, 285 Milton Road, Cambridge) would be...

Wholemeal Loaf .

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When T. first asked my baker, the most courteous of men, for the wholemeal loaf he replied, " Ah, but I doubt if you'll like it," and went on to relate stories of other...

In the Garden

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It seems to me that we cannot hammer too much at the serious question of vegetable-prices. The local price for parsnips is fifteen shillings per cwt., the London price...

Basket - Making

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During the last war the Dutch were able to seize a great part of the osier- and basket-trade of this country, and keep it. Later the osier-trade had to meet competition from the...

A SAD HISTORY"

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Sia,—" Janus," in his foot-note to my letter of the r6th (in which I clearly said that it was the coroner's report and not Mrs. Woolf's action which I criticised) states that,...

WILD ASPARAGUS

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Sia,—" Your admirable H. E. Bates" (if a landowner may endorse the characterisation of the Editor of The Countryman) is a little vague about asparagus officinalis, the wild...

CLASSICAL PREMIERS

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Sia,—Sir Richard Livingstone in your May 9th issue, in referring to those Premiers whose classical attainments did not, se judice, entitle them to the name of scholar, states...

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A Christian to Pagans

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Noble Castle. By Christopher Hollis. (Longmans. 8s. 6d.) WHEN Dante passed through the uppermost circle of Hell he found it a region in which there was no torment, but the...

BOOKS OF THE DAY

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Empire and Liberty Ideas and Ideals of the British Empire. By Ernest Barker. (Cambridge University Press. 3s. 6d.) THE greater the stress to which it is subjected, the more...

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"Bed—Exhausted

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Australla Visited 1940. By Noel Coward. (Heinemann. IL) MR. COWARD has—perhaps inadvisedly—reprinted the series of broadcasts he spoke in Australia last year. The patriotic...

Greek Drama According to Marx

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THIS is not a book : it is a conglomeration. It is not (except for three of its nineteen chapters) about Aeschylus: it is about anthropology, Greek politics, Mandan economics,...

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Two Plays

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IT is sometimes interesting to speculate on what element in a play formed the germ from which it grew. Was it a character or a scene in real life which expanded in the fancy of...

The Amateur Traveller

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Mad Dogs and Englishmen. By Eric Berry. (Michael Joseph. los. 6d.) Indian Harvest. By Pamela Hinksou. (Collins. 16s.) AMATEUR is a word that has changed in meaning to such an...

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Fiction

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A Passion for Privacy. By Louis-Paul. (Michael Joseph. 7s. 6d.) Miss Compron-ButmErr has produced another of her devas- tating conversation-pieces in Parents and Children,...

Shorter Notices

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Estonia. By J. Hampden Jackson. (Allen and Unwin. 8s. 6d.) THIS clear and admirable account of what was almost as close to an Arcadia as the European scene has ever witnessed...

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ROYAL INSURANCE COMPANY, LTD.

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IN a statement 'circulated with the 96th annual report of the Royal Insurance Company, Limited, the Chairman, Mr. A. Kentish Barnes, indicated that fire premiums totalled...

Outside Information. A Diary of Rumour. By Naomi Royde- Smith.

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(Macmillan. 5s.) MISS ROYDE-SMITH'S purpose was to keep a diary of rumour ; and she begins promisingly at the beginning of the London air- raids with the destruction of...

COMPANY MEETINGS

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THE LIVERPOOL AND LONDON AND GLOBE INSURANCE CO. LTD. 105TH ANNUAL REPORT IN a statement circulated with the 105th annual report of the Liver- pool and London and Globe...

FINANCE AND INVESTMENT

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By CUSTOS Crry markets have done well to maintain a fair volume of turn- over and firm prices in face of the counter-attractions of London's War Weapons Week. All the big...

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TAM 1 , ^EETING I MPERIAL CHEMICAL INDUSTRIES LIMITED EXPANSION OF TRADE

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LORD McGOWAN'S STATEMENT THE fourteenth annual general meeting of Imperial Chemical Indus- tries Ltd., will be held in London on May 29th. The following is a summary of the...

COMPANY WEETaNG

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THE NATIONAL BANK OF INDIA, LIMITED COMMENTS BY THE CHAIRMAN, MR. R. LANGFORD JAMES TriE following are extracts from the statement by the Chairman (Mr. R. Langford James),...

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COMPANY MEETINGS

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LONDON AND MANCHESTER ASSURANCE COMPANY, LIMITED STATEMENT by the chairman, Mr. A. H. Dawes, relating to the accounts submitted to the seventy-second annual general meeting...

UNITED MOLASSES

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TRADING UNDER WAR CONDITIONS THE annual meeting of The United Molasses Company, Limited, will be held on May 30th, 1941. The following is a summary of the statement by the...

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COMPANY MEETING

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INCORPORATED ACCOUNTANTS PRESIDENTIAL SPEECH CONCENTRATION OF PRODUCTION REVIEWED Ar the annual meeting of the Society of Incorporated Accountants, ; c id at Incorporated...

"THE SPECTATOR" CROSSWORD No. 115

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[A prize of a Book Token for one guinea will be given to the sender of the fir.: coreect solution of this week's crossword puzzle SO be opened. Envelopes should be marked with...

SOLUTION TO CROSSWORD No. 113 SOLUTION ON JUNE 6th

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The winner of crossword No. 113 is Miss Boog Watson, 204 Grange Loan, Edinburgh.