24 MARCH 1939

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NEWS OF THE WEEK T HE seizure of Memel by Herr

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Hitler, in cynical violation of his declaration of last September, and apparently under threat of the bombing of the Lithuanian capital if Lithuania refused compliance, adds...

President Lebrun in London The visit of President Lebrun to

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this country has come at a moment so appropriate as almost to seem providential ; for there was never a time when France and Great Britain were more utterly dependent on each...

The Danger to Rumania The open seizure of Bohemia and

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Moravia, and the veiled seizure of Slovakia, by Germany inevitably focused attention on Rumania, and alarm regarding that country's lot was accentuated by reports widely...

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The reactions of the United States to the events of

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the past ten days in Europe are of far-reaching importance. In the main they are as might be expected. Public opinion as a whole is bitterly and increasingly anti-Nazi, but the...

Lancashire and India Any news that promises assistance to Lancashire

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is wel- come, for the drop in cotton exports has gone to alarming lengths. The new trade agreement with India which was signed this week and which is to replace the Ottawa...

M. Daladier's Decrees The decrees issued by M. Daladier immediately

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his new powers were granted provide for a strengthening of national defence, an increase in armaments production, and economies to offset the added strain on the national...

M. Daladier's Special Powers M. Daladier cannot be congratulated on

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his handling of the situation created in France by the present crisis. The fundamental desire of the French people, in face of the present danger, is for a genuinely National...

Palestine : An Adjournment The British Government's proposals have now

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been re- jected by the Arab and the Jewish delegations to the Palestine Conference, which has come to an end. The pro- posals provided for the establishment of an independent...

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Germany's Economic Position A remarkable account of Germany's economic position

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by Dr. Brinckmann, till recently Dr. Funk's assistant at the Reichsbank, was published last week by the Agence Econo- mique et Financiere, which guarantees its authenticity. In...

The Conservatives seem as a whole to be more interested

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in National Service at home than in the re-orientation of our foreign policy. But many who want some form of compul- sory service realise that they may not get it without a re-...

One would not trouble about these assertions if past ex-

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perience had not shown how readily the present Government majority welcomes comforting assurances from men who have been proved false time and time again. More will surely be...

There was a very full House on Monday in the

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expecta- tion that the Prime Minister would be in a position to make a statement on Government policy. However, he had nothing to say, and most Members forsook the Debate on...

The Week in Parliament Our Parliamentary Correspondent writes : The

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temper of Mr. Chamberlain's speech at Birmingham last Friday met with universal approval. The cheers which greeted him when he came into the House on Monday showed how general...

A Decision on Flogging . Sir Samuel Hoare is convinced that

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the abolition of flogging is a wise as well as a humane proposal, and the Standing Committee in the House of Commons on Tuesday adopted the clause to this effect in the Criminal...

Next Week's " Spectator " The next number of The

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Spectator will be a special Spring Number, in a coloured cover. It will include articles on "The Boat Race," by Bernard Darwin ; "England In Spring," by Georges Duhamel ;...

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BRITAIN'S REJOINDER

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I MAGINATIVE leadership and resolute action were enjoined by Mr. Eden on Tuesday as the essential conditions of this country's salvation. No one will ques- tion such a...

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BROADCASTING TRUTH rp HE latest crisis in Europe has forced

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the democratic nations, somewhat belatedly, into a stock-taking of the weapons they still possess with which to preserve the peace. Among them is one whose value can hardly be...

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One of the most encouraging remarks I have seen about

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the crisis occurred in a message in Monday's Daily Express from the paper's Berlin correspondent, who wrote: "Many Germans listened to Mr. Chamberlain's speech or the German...

* * * * A new Battle of the Book

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Clubs has been joined, and a considerable political interest attaches to it. Mr. Victor Gollancz's Left Book Club, the pioneer in a hitherto un- tilled field, selling books...

A rather pertinent question of literary etiquette—or ethics —arises in

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connexion with Sir Edward Marsh's new book, A Number of People. Passages from the volume have appeared in advance in the Sunday Times, including one to the effect that when Lord...

A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK

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S OMEONE, I see, has been raising the question of what the position of Sudeten German refugees in this country would be in time of war. It is quite necessary to raise it. I...

A postcard from Vienna, from someone whose opinion counts: "For

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heaven's sake do make it clear that no in- formed person here doubts that this—and what may yet follow in the immediate future—is not the initiation of an Eastern, but the...

A question to which I can get no answer—though it

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will quite probably have answered itself before these lines are in print—is, where is Mr. Cordell Hull, and why have all the Notes to Berlin and the statements regarding Germany...

The film Londoners is not yet on public show, but

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it soon will be, and I counsel all who can to see it. It appears appropriately at the time of the L.C.C's jubilee, and the Gas Light and Coke Company, under whose auspices it...

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HOW THE COUP WAS PREPARED

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By S. GRANT-DUFF F ROM information which has reached London during the last few days, it is now possible to reconstruct the last few weeks of the second Czecho-Slovak Republic....

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THE SPIRIT OF PRAGUE

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FROM A SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT "D ELUSION may triumph, but the triumph of delusion is but for a day." These words of Macaulay one might have expected from some professor seated...

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THE NAZIS AND SWITZERLAND

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By ELIZABETH WISKEMANN T HE Nazi Zeitgeist is a direct challenge to the Swiss Con- federation with its racial and cantonal diversity and its intense individualism. German...

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WHAT'S RIGHT WITH THE B.B.C.

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By SIR STEPHEN TALLENTS T HE searchlights are always weaving in and out over Port- land Place. No other broadcasting authority in the world, I fancy, comes in for quite such a...

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TRAINING THE UNEMPLOYED

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By SIR ARNOLD WILSON, M.P. MR. KENNETH NEEDHAM'S article entitled "We- The Unemployed" in The Spectator of March r4th displays literary ability, but memory, imagination or...

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PRONTOSIL AND ITS SUCCESSORS

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By OUR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT T HE medical profession as a whole, both at home and abroad, has always, and rightly, been cautious in accepting any new advance either in...

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A REMARKABLE MAN

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By JOHN RAVN OR W HEN my father, in middle age, gave up schoolmaster- ing and took a country living he was, being something of an epicure, in many ways sorry to leave London...

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Many people moreover were startled to observe that their conception

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of" the future" had suddenly been altered. Until that dreadful hour the thought of spring and summer had been illumined by gay enterprises and delights ; suddenly they found...

Then came the Prime Minister's speech at Birmingham. Few public

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statements can ever have done more to coalesce and galvanise the emotions of a nation. Within some thirty minutes bewilderment and anger were fused into resolution. The country...

Prominent in this initial mood was bewilderment. It seemed unthinkable

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that the leader of an honourable nation could thus flout the principles of honour. It seemed incon- ceivable that the initiative should have passed so blatantly from the hands...

PEOPLE AND THINGS

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By HAROLD NICOLSON T ASK my German friends when they come to London to tell me how many of their compatriots listen in to our broadcasts in the German language. The replies...

How tremendous, for instance, must have been the effect of

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the Prime Minister's speech of March t7th ! Those severe but simple sentences must have echoed as a gong of warning in all German hearts. This, as I have said before, is the...

first few hours men and women were actually numbed by

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shock. The sunshine stimulus which Downing Street had put out during the week before was suddenly dimmed by a stormy cloud. The accustomed impulses of hope or appre- hension, of...

I myself listen fairly regularly to the news bulletin in

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German. I do not see how it could be improved. Those of us who heard the shrieks of Marshal Goering on Sunday night, who heard the steam-saw of " Sieg-Heil! " grating upon the...

I do not share this cynicism. I believe that our

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former augurs, haruspicists and hepatoscopists are permanently dis- credited. I believe that we shall either achieve peace by firmness; or face war with resolution. I believe...

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Commonwealth and Foreign

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AMERICA CONSOLIDATES By ERWIN A NEW vigour has come into American diplomacy these last few weeks. It is hard to appraise the permanence of psychological factors, but certainly...

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STAGE AND SCREEN

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THE THEATRE " The Family Reunion." By T. S. Eliot. At the Westminster. The Family Reunion is a curiosity. It is an ambitious but misguided attempt to transfer the legend of...

THE CINEMA

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" I Met a Murderer" and "Titans of the Deep." At the Marble Arch Pavilion. THAT I Met a Murderer has a number of defects does not mean that it is not worthy of serious...

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ATHLETICS

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The University Sports IT is told of the illustrious M. F. X. Sweeny that on a day in New York, which the British athletes found just not un- bearably hot, he declared himself...

TRAVAUX D'HERCULE

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[D'un correspondant parisien] LE bouleversement de l'Europe cantrale a augmente l'import- ance et l'urgence du probleme financier. Pour faire face au danger qui menace, la...

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Garden-Escape or Alpine ?

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The theory of garden-escape is also held by another correspondent, whose name unfortunately I cannot give. As one of the largest landowners in the kingdom, he is in the...

In the Garden

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This year, as in others, the most-talked-of things in the March garden have been the lenten-roses, the pink, plum- red, green-white, and mauve-speckled hellebores. Bought for a...

A Farmer Accuses a Hunt

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It was Mr. Henry Williamson, I think, who said that in matters of country life the local paper was more interesting than all the national dailies put together. Certainly the...

The Agricultural Wage It is the local paper, too, which

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carries the story of the munificent increase of one shilling a week in the wages of male agricultural workers of over 21, accompanied by the usual outraged protests from the...

COUNTRY LIFE

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Reports on Daphne Mezereum My suspicions that Daphne Mezereum was extremely rare in the wild state in this country have been well borne out by the number of reports on it. Where...

The English Hedge

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As I write, there is a touch of green, a bird's mouthful of bread-and-cheese, on the hedges. It is a reminder that the hedge, the quick-hedge especially, is net only the thing...

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

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[Correspond ems are requested to keep their letters as brief as is reasonably possible. Signed letters are given a preference over those bearing a pseudonym, and the latter must...

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THE COVENANT OF THE LEAGUE

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[To the Editor of THE SpEcrAToR] Sra,—In the most recent of his brilliant contributions to The Spectator, Mr. Harold Nicolson remarks that the Covenant of the League of Nations...

"UNION NOW"

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[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—In the review of Union Now which appeared in your issue of March loth, you give it as your opinion that you cannot regard Mr. Streit's...

IN DEFENCE OF GERMANY

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[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—If you would allow me a last word with regard to my letter, I should like to say only this. Your readers, not only in England but also in...

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HITLER AND LOUIS NAPOLEON

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[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—The account of Field-Marshal Goering's floral reception of the Fuehrer at Berlin station on Sunday night is a reminder to anyone familiar...

THE MARTYRED RICH

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[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—When, under the heading, "The Martyred Rich," " Janus " pillories the statement: "I, for example, who live alone very quietly with a staff...

MOBILISING DEFENCES

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[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—For the time being Emkreisungspolitik and collective security are one and the same policy, and for us the right policy. We, France, Russia,...

ENGLISH PAPERS FOR GERMANY

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[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—In the midst of the lamentations over Czecho-Slovakia it is worth pointing out that sending each day's newspaper to any person one knows...

JOURNALISTS AS PROPHETS

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[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—When so many politicians are expressing their shocked amazement at Germany's new annexation it may be worth noting that had they taken the...

WHAT MR. FLEMING DOES NOT MEAN TO THE FRENCH

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[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—Mr. Peter Fleming has written a gratuitously unpleasant article in your issue of March 17th, headed by the pretentious title : "What I Mean...

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OPHELIA

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I TOO, seeking the water of life came to the river among the willows, the unpollarded old willows with split trunks and the scarlet and yellow saplings on the banks. Among...

SENOR CASALS' CONCERT

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[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] Sta,—I hope you will allow me to draw the attention of your readers to the concert which is to be given by Senor Pablo Casals at the Albert...

HOLIDAYS FOR CHILDREN [To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR]

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should not ask you to put our needs before your readers at a time when everyone is volunteering for National Service were it not that the workers we need so urgently for this...

THE GROWTH OF PSYCHO-ANALYSIS [To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR]

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SIR, —Could some action be taken against the growth of psycho-analysis in this country? So far as my investigations have led me, it results in far more failures than successes,...

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BOOKS OF THE DAY

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Hitler Unexpurgated (R. C. K. Ensor) Man's Unconquerable Mind (Bonamy Dobree) The Papacy in History (W. T. Wells) ... . Three Views of Leonardo (Anthony Blunt) ... Journey to...

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- MAN'S UNCONQUERABLE MIND Man's Unconquerable Mind. By R. W.

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Chambers. (Cape. iss.) THERE is nothing dry-as-dust about the scholarship of Professor Chambers, for he has those attributes, often denied to the learned, which must...

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THREE VIEWS OF LEONARDO

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THIS is evidently to be a Leonardo year. A comprehensive exhibition to be held at Milan, a new edition of Richter's Literary Works of Leonardo da Vinci, and a critical mono-...

THE PAPACY IN HISTORY

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The Vatican as a World Power. By Joseph Bernhart. Trans- lated by George N. Shuster. (Longmans. US.) THE author of this book was happy in the moment of its publication. If at...

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MR. ISHERWOOD AND FRIEND

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Journey to a War. By W. H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood. (Faber and Faber. I2S. 6d.) , Yourney to a War represents an experiment in publishing that should attract notice, and...

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FANTASIES OF PAST AND FUTURE

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Films of Time. By H. W. Nevinson. (Routledge. xos. 6d.) THERE is no living journalist who has gained, or deserved to gain, more respect and affection than Mr. _Nevinson. He i s...

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DOCTOR ARNE AND ITALIAN OPERA IN 1934, before a Courtauld-Sargent

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concert in which songs by Arne were being given, a press-cutting agency wrote to offer their services to, Dr. Arne. It is hard for Mr. Huben Langley that he must first bury the...

"TODAY THE STRUGGLE" Poems for Spain. Edited by Stephen Spender

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and John Lehmann. (The Ho g arth Press. 6s.) Flowering Rifle. By Roy Campbell. (Lon g mans. 6s.) EAcia of these volumes of verse is presented frankly as a "document for our...

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FICTION

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By FORREST REID The Gladiators. By Arthur Koestler. (Cape. 7s. 6d.) THOSE who can appreciate the lightest of light comedies will enjoy The Brandons. Mrs. Thirkell has something...

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EAST OF ATHENS By Eric Gifford

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The islands and ports of the Aegean and the Levant are the subject of East of Athens (John Gifford, I2S. 6d.), and the author has packed an extraordinary amount of varied in-...

HAPPY COUNTRIES By V. C. Buckley

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Mr. Buckley is the typical happy traveller and Happy Countries (Hutchinson, I2S. 6d.) is as cosy and exciting as an evening at the pictures. He describes a recent trip to Scan-...

THE PARALYSIS OF TRADE By Percy G. Donald

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This is one of those books (Allen and Unwin, 7s. 6c1.) which make one wonder what on earth the publisher was thinking of. It contains a howler, of fact or of logic, on an...

THE MAKING OF EGYPT By Flinders Petrie

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Professor Flinders Petrie, who at eighty-five can look back over nearly sixty years of archaeological work in Egypt, has done a service to students by preparing this handy...

CURRENT LITERATURE

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ROUND ABOUT THREE PALACE GREEN By Estella Canziani Miss Canziani is an artist, the daughter of an artist (her mother), and the friend of artists—among them G. F. Watts, Holman...

DUNANT : THE STORY OF THE RED CROSS

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By Martin Gutnpert Dr. Gumpert's life of Henri Dunant (Eyre and Spottis- woode, 8s. 6d.) contains so little about the man and so much about his times that it will disappoint...

KEEPERS OF THE BALTIC GATES By John Gibbons We know

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by now what to expect when Mr. John Gibbons goes travelling, and Keepers of the Baltic Gates (Hale, Jos. 6d.) will not disappoint his many readers. Of course, he has travelled a...

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MOTORING

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Tail-Lights for Cyclists Among the expected recommendations in the report of the House of Lords' Select Committee about to be published, I gather an important one will be...

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A.E.I. AND ENGLISH ELECTRIC

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Good as they are, the results of Associated Electrical Industries in no way modify my recent contention that an exchange from A.E.I. ordinary shares into English Electric...

"BLUE CIRCLE" CEMENT PROGRESS

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It is good to see that fears that the big cement companies had suffered a setback last year are not borne out by the facts. Associated Portland Cement Manufacturers one of the...

TRANSPORT " C " PROSPECTS

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In more favourable market conditions London Transport Board " C " stock could scarcely have failed to benefit from the disclosure of the extent of the addition to revenue...

FINANCE AND INVESTMENT AFTER all, it seems, the political sceptics

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have been right. Most people, including many who, in my view, were well placed to have known better, took for a clearer sky what was really only the prelude to the storm. The...

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CURRENT OUTLOOK

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The prospects of industrial recovery during the present year uere, as all knew, closely associated with the international political situation, and until more stable conditions...

A DIFFICULT YEAR

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The past year in the steel industry had been one of considerable difficulty. Shareholders would remember that a year ago he had indicated that a distinct if slight recession of...

- 1NIPANY MEETING

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LANCASHIRE STEEL CORPORATION INCREASED EARNINGS TIIE ninth ordinary general meeting of the Lancashire Steel Corporation, Limited, was held on March 17th at 34 Leadergiall...

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RAND MINES STRENGTH

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While the Kaffir share market see-sawed violently last yet —and the falls vastly exceeded the rises—the gold mining industry pursued a remarkably steady course. To realise how...

FINANCIAL NOTES

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VICKERS IT is a fitting commentary on current affairs that these notes should begin this week with an examination of Vickers' balance sheet—not that the examination will reveal...

COMPANY MEETING

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THE HONGKONG AND SHANGHAI BANKING CORPORATION (Incorporated in the Colony of Hongkong. The Liability of Members is limited to the extent and in manner prescribed by Ordinance...

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COMPANY MEETING

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THE EASTERN BANK SATISFACTORY RESULTS THE 29th annual meeting of The Eastern Bank, Ltd., was held on March 22nd in London. Sir James Leigh-Wood, K.B.E. (the chairman) referred...

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SOLUTION TO CROSSWORD No. 2 A 14.,.1 4.4111Ari

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4.): , RtE O if . L I* 4 V! Pi t 1 - E M 4 E4 514111p t 0 V'E . i - t - UM MART JEAN 8v RT p*o Li:7p D AL 0 SOLUTION The winner of Crossword 7 Elm Grove Road, Exeter, NEXT...

LANCASHIRE STEEL POLICY

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After the very rapid recovery in iron and steel output during the first two months of 1939, the note of caution struck by Mr. John E. James, chairman of the Lancashire Steel...

BANKING IN CHINA

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In dealing with the banking problems of the Far East, Mr. T. E. Pearce, the chairman of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, had no option but to tread very...

INDIA AND IRAQ

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The Eastern Bank, whose main business is in India and Iraq, has to report some contraction in the volume of its business, reflecting mainly the lower prices of the commodities...

"THE SPECTATOR" CROSSWORD SECOND SERIES-No. 3 [A prize of a

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Book Token for one guinea will be given to the sender of the first correct solution of this week's crossword puzzl e to be opened. Envelopes should be marked "Crossword Puzzle,"...