24 NOVEMBER 1950

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NEWS OF THE WEEK

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T „,,.. HE most hackneyed of all the epithets usually applied to British Cabinet Ministers is the word " massive " applied to Mr. Ernest Bevin. Yet it is the right word with...

Coal Shortage for Ever ?

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The reasons which the Minister of Fuel and Power gave the Commons on Monday for the latest coal shortage were increasing demand due to full employment, reduced output of...

Towards the Yalu

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The cautious United Nations advance towards the Manchurian frontier continues against mainly climatic opposition. Mystery still surrounds the purpose and scope of the Chinese...

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Strasbourg Perplexities

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Regarded as an instrument for furthering the unification of Western Europe, the Council of Europe is not achieving conspicuous success, so far as Britain is to be regarded as...

• The Church and the Churches

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The conference of Anglicans and Free Churchmen responsible for the important report on Church Relations in England (S.P.C.K., 2s. 6d.), published on Tuesday, consisted of seven...

Dr. Niemoller Talks

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There is nothing very new in Pastor Martin Niemoller's campaign of speeches and articles, in which he insists on subordinating a great number of political complications to the...

What Change in Germany?

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A major curse of German politics is exaggeration—the tendency to represent small adjustments as fundamental swings. Consequently, the West German Socialist leader, Dr....

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AT WESTMINSTER

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W E had been promised a tranquil week save for Thursday's conflict over the Sunday openin g of the amusement fair of the Festival of Britain. This apart, there was to be nothing...

Welfare of the Old

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"There is an ur g ent need for more specialised g eriatric hospital departments," wrote, Mr. An g us Maude in an article on the care of the old in the Spectator last week, and...

Festival Questions

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A lettdr, printed on another page, from an American citizen on the Festival of Britain has come to us out of the blue, but it is too pertinent to be i g nored. Why, it is asked...

NEXT WEEK'S SPECTATOR will contain articles by Sir Henry Dale,

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0.M., on Rutherford and the Atom, lain Macleod, M.P., on the National Health Service and Dr. Victor Purcell on the situation in Malaya.

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CHINESE TRAVEL WEST.

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T THE journey of nine delegates of the People's Republic of China to Lake Success is an event fraught with immense possibilities of good or evil for the world. It will reveal,...

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"As keen a Christian as myself," writes Sir Stafford Cripps

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of the Socialist candidate in South-East Bristol. Is this form of political recommendation to become current coin ? If so, with honest gradations, I hope: "Certainly a...

There is no doubt that the Liberal Party, which cannot

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afford to suffer at all, will suffer heavily in the country as the result of recent events in the House of Commons—particularly after Lady Violet Bonham Carter's trenchant...

My observations on the Paddington Station dining-room which downs tools

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at 7 p.m., referring would-be diners to the Station Hotel as an alternative, brings me a letter from a baffled traveller who followed this advice, paid 7s. 6d. for the hotel...

Difficult as it no doubt is in the present state

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of the nation's finances to spend more money on the roads, it may be still more difficult not to spend it. It depends partly on what is considered to be the cash value of human...

A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK , T HE Spectator goes finally to press

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on Thursday morn- ing. Organisers of by-elections and similar fixtures would therefore oblige by putting their climax not later than Tuesday. Handsworth omitted this courtesy,...

The Prime Minister is faced with the task of filling

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the See of Truro. It should, I think, be offered to the Dean of Canterbury, on condition that he never thereafter crosses the Tamar. And now I apologise to all Cornishmen.

Mr. Herbert Morrison always strongly favoured the appointment of the

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Royal Commission on the Press, which in the event passed a 1 erdict so very different from what he had hoped for.' But there was one straw to clutch at. The Commission (with...

I must congratulate my colleague Peterborough, of the Daily Telegraph,

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on resurrecting, on the day the latest coal-crisis was reported, a helpful observation made by Mr. Aneurin Bevan in 945: "This island is almost made of coal and surrounded by...

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Winter in Korea

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By SIR SHENTON THOMAS* A S a people we are prone to understatement, but to speak of the winter in North Korea as "cold weather," as happened recently in the House of Commons, is...

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The Second Lesson

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BY WILSON HARRIS T HERE are few books with contents so familiar and a back- ground so unfamiliar as the New Testament. Use and wont are the reason. We are so much accustomed to...

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M. Pleven's Problems

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T O the ordinary man it will always remain surprising that anyone should choose to be a Prime Minister—more especially in France. A French Prime Minister's attention is divided...

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A Morning in the Mellah

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By BERNARD FERGUSSON p ERCHED on a spur overlooking Fez from the west is , a Moorish café, and in its garden is one of those flat tables on which lines are drawn towards land-...

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The Queen of Tonga

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By HILTON BROWN Her reigning Majesty, Queen Salotte Tubou, G.B.E., can trace unbroken descent to Ahoeitu, the Tui Tonga of the tenth century, with every intermediate name ....

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A Socialist County

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By A DURHAM CORRESPONDENT i Consider the industrial and political background against which this storm has broken in Durham County. For generations trade unionism has been inbred...

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The Red Coat Man

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By SU-HUA LING CHEN 46PT1HJNGS in old days which one recalls all pitiful, all lovable! " I don't know in what poem I read this line, but it always seems true whenever I think of...

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Among the Seals

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By SETON GORDON T HERE are three small islands, western outposts of the Outer Hebrides, on which most of the Atlantic seal population in Scottish waters assemble each autumn to...

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The Living is Vacant

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By A LAY READER F 1VE months ago the vicar left our village for work overseas': No one, as I write, has been found to take his place. We are Low Church and old-fashioned in our...

Cats and Kings

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WITH wide unblinking stare The cat looked ; but she did not see the king. She only saw a two-legged creature there Who, in due time, might have tit-bits to fling. The king was...

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"Mbeil)pectator," Aobetnber 23rb, 1850

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DICKENS'S DAVID COPPERFIELD. Tins story has less of London life and town-bred character than most of its predecessors ; but what may thus be gained in variety is lost in...

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UNDERGRADUATE PAGE

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Innocents in Wards By PAUL WELLINGS (University College Hospital) j t t UNIOR Clinical Course ? " He repeated our question, and then said, "Yes, sir, go out of my door, turn...

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MARGINAL COMMENT

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By HAROLD NICOLSON T HOSE who, in their passage through this intricate life, have had opportunities to observe the working of the adeninistra- tive machine, are aware how small...

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CONTEMPORARY ARTS

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THEATRE “ Twelfth Night." By William Shakespeare. (Old Vic.) SHAKESPEARE'S fools are ignes fatui in pursuit of which even the most experienced producer is liable to go off at...

CINEMA The Clouded Yellow." (Odeon, Marble Arch.)—“ For Heaven's Sake."

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(Leicester Square.) The Clouded Yellow is a variety of butterfly, and, save that it is caught and skewered by that ardent lepidopterist Mr. Barry Jones, it has little bearing on...

MUSIC TOSCA, added tcy the repertory of the Covent Garden

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company on November 18th, has many of the traits of the most popular con- temporary films, containing as it does scenes of sexual passion and torture, a near-rape, a murder...

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RECENT RECORDS

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SoLomox (for H.M.V.) plays Beethoven's op. 111 very finely, but the extreme ranges of the pianoforte make it a very difficult work to record. Kathleen Long plays Faures 13th...

Postage en this issue: Inland & Overseas 2d.; Canada (Canadian

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Magazine Pau) ld•

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SPECTATOR COMPETITION No. 39

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Report by R. S. Stanier Reform of time-tables is in the air.- For the comfort of passengers h is surely just as important to know that a horde of school-children will invade...

SPECTATOR COMPETITION No. 41

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Set by Guy Kendall A prize of £5, which may be divided, is offered for a sonnet, Petrarchan or otherwise (Meredithian not excluded), on the passing of the London i tram....

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR the Festival of Britain. His opening

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sentence reads: "Next year Britain Kittery Point, Maine, U.S.A. throws her doors wide open in welcome to the world." There is great confusion of thought in the United States...

Employment and the Old

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SIR, —In his interesting article published in your issue of November 1 7 1h, Mr. Angus Maude, M.P., though possibly rather over-solicitous about the care of the old, does old...

Tanganyika Problems

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SIR,—Lt.-Col. E. B. Hoyle, in his letter in your issue of October 27th, asks what I mean by writing that "to introduce the Kenya complex to Tanganyika would be a major...

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SIR,—The writer of the article on "our secret police," in

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your issue of November 17th, ,s mistaken in his statement about the formation of M.I.5.. It came into existence as M.0.5—I was present at its birth and the dates have been...

Justice for Teachers ?

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SIR, —Your correspondent F.C.I.I. seems to be under some misapprehen- sion. In suggesting that teachers will be adequately remunerated under the new scales he equates the...

The Private Patient

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SIR. —May I thank Mr. Warren Postbridge for his timely and lucid explanation of how and why private-ward facilities are available in State hospitals for those who, for various...

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Colour in South Africa

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8nt. — I am glad to have Mr. Ray's explanation—I regret that it readied me only now. He did not advocate miscegenation, but said that Brazil which practised miscegenation is...

, The 44 Peace Congress" Sin,—In this week's Spectator you

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state that "to issue visas to delegates . (to the Peace Congress') abroad and then stop the delegates at the pen s is to play a very unattractive game." Mr. Ede showed recently...

Stranger Than Truth ?

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Si,—Like many of your readers I was greatly entertained by the extract "from a GovernmencOrder " quoted by Janus from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. My enjoyment was in no way...

The Guy Fawkes' Prayer

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SIR, — Other readers besides myself may have been puzzled by some of Janus's references to the form of prayer with thanksgiving formerly used on November 5th. He seems to imply...

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The Ethics of Gambling

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Sta.—The opposition of the Free Churches to gambling in any shape or form is not based upon any spoil-sport attitude ; still less is it due to bigotry or the " fanaticism"...

WE never know when our days will suddenly be enlightened

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by one of the smaller miracles of life. I went out on to the southward-looki ng terrace of my hillAop home this morning to watch the sunrise. After a savage day and Might of...

Stk — In your issue of November 17th you print a letter

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from a gentleman In a vicarage who says that a Conservative Prime Minister in 1935 subordinated, on the eve of a General Election, national to party interests, avowing in...

Advice to Bird-watchers

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I always keep a pair of opera glasses (I've had them for forty years) standing on the window-ledge, ready to be snatched up instantly. They serve me well, and I am reluctant to...

Setting Things in Motion

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Since I cut down a quince tree (a carrier of rust) on my ground some months ago, I have been astonished by the process of change which I then set in motion. First, the free...

In the Garden

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Personal temperaments of owners and makers show in gardens as , vividly as in clothes, choice of food, and the arts. And where the control is shared, some compromise is always...

A Dumas Novel

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should like to call your attention to a misprint in my review of Mr. Craig Bell's Alexandre Dumas. The novel of middle-class life to which I referred is called Black. This...

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BOOKS AND WRITERS M R. POSTERITY (as Goldsmith called our descendants)

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may possibly regard the eighteenth century as the high- tide of British achievement, when he considers the prose of Addison, the poetry of Pope, the conversation of Dr. Johnson,...

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Reviews of the Week

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What the Neighbours Think This week a well-known Irish author and journalist and former director of the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, continues the series of articles in the Spectator...

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An Adventure in the Past 'THERE is nothing unfamiliar in

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the scheme pr the subject-matter of this book, and therein lies its boldness. Not only does it invite comparison with the best of classical historians, but it must tempt...

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A Letter to Freya Stark

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Traveller's Prelude. By Freya Stark. (John Murray. 18e.) MY dear Freya,—They have asked me to review your book for the Spectator, but I do not feel that I can do so. I shall...

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Domestic Detail

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English Furniture Illustrated. By Oliver Brackett. Revised and edited by H. Clifford Smith. (Benn. 80.) ' OF some subjects there is never an end—and one of them is English...

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One Way of Philosophy

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Dream and Reality. By N. Berdyaev. (Bles. 303.) THIS " essay in autobiography" is as remarkable as the man who wrote it and almost as difficult to place in any recognised...

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South-East Asia After the War

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THE author of this illuminating and factual book was born in Java and played a distinguished part in the affairs of Netherlands India. Though he is a lucid exponent of Holland's...

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Mr. Gow's Theocritus Theocritus. Edited with a Translation and Commentary

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by A. S. E. Cow. (CambMge University Press. 2 vols. 63$.) MR. ANDREW GoW's Theocritus, child of many prayers - 6f seven- teen years' creation—marks a happy return to the great...

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The Heroic Theatre

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He that Plays the King. By Kenneth Tynan. (Longmans. 128. 6d.) THIS book is by a very young man, who begins it by saying that it does not contain "mature reflections and...

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44I Made a Posy. . . 1) A. Retrospect of Flowers.

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By Andrew Young. (Cape. los. 6d.) Tins autumn we were regaled on the Third PrOgramme by a series of lectures on "Twentieth Century Literature" and it appeared to be an...

On the Chalk Hills

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Wild Flowers of Chalk and Limestone. By J. E. Lousley. (Collins. The New Naturalist Series. 2 is.) Wild Flowers of Chalk and Limestone. By J. E. Lousley. (Collins. The New...

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Eastern... Europe Transformed

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The East European Revolution. By Hugh Seton-Watson. (Methuen. 223. 6d.) MR. S ETON-WATSON Is to be congratulated on this admirably com- petent and useful piece of work. There...

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Cezanne

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Jr is no easy undertaking to write a biography of Cezanne, for not only is much of the detail obscure, but also his life was relatively uneventful. Cezanne was in no sense a...

Tile advantage of an anthology of this sort—which ranges from

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Ruskin to Rachel Annand Taylor—is that it gives us an opportunity for reconsideration. To meet a writer in a new and different con- 'text is always a healthy jolt to...

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A Triumphant Prisoner

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The Venlo Incident. By Captain S. Payne Best. (Hutchinson. 12s. 6d.) A visa - to the Lion House in the London Zoo reveals that there are two possible ways of coming to terms...

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U.S.A. V. Alger Hiss

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A Generation,on Trial. By Alistair Cooke. (Rupert Hart-Davis. 125. 6d.) IT is not to be expected that Mr. Alistair Cooke's brilliant book should enjoy the best-seller status...

Operatic History

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Essays on Opera. By Egon Wellesz. (Dennis Dobson. los. 6d.) Five of the pine essays contained in this volume are specialist studies in the early history of opera in Vicnna,...

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Selected Reprints THOUGH the shelves, devoted to reprints are seriously

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overcrowded, I have no 'hesitation in giving first place in these notes for the Spectator's Christmas Number to a book that has only just joined the queue and which is published...

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Fiction

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Ifs no use. Honesty is the last refuge of the critic. There's nothing for it but to stiffen the sinews and declare boldly that I enjoyed The Other Side of the Sun more than any...

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SHORTER NOTICES

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Leigh Hunt's Dramatic Criticism, 1808-1831. Edited by Lawrence THE journalists of the nineteenth century were remarkably versatile, remarkably voluminous, and remarkably...

THIS book is just the thing to delight hundreds of

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homee, where families who have first tasted opera at Sadler's Wells can find full synopses of opera librettos, written in racy Kobbesque, and strum through simple piano...

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New and Forthcoming Books

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THE Stevenson centenary is causing a revival of interest in-the man and his work. Chapman and Hall have published Stevenson anti Edinburgh, by Moray McLaren, which contains...

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FINANCE AND INVESTMENT

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By CUSTOS THE dividend thaw has definitely set in. It is now becoming the rule, rather than the- exception, for industrial companies which have succeeded in increasing their...

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SOLUTION TO CROSSWORD No. 600

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P osig .. E INC A a I 6; .0V L , Gi " G!OiNiTI 1 . .w . r . ' , 1 11 , 4 s r.r _ic IC 6 L. EiA42 I 0:L1A I v N E 0 Dot HI E.,EiL!s E IlzI E 4.:Vi giAJCIAISIAIN A. E 1 •...

THE " SPECTATOR " CROSSWORD No. 602 IA Book Token

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for one glance will be awarded to the sender of the first correct al:client of this week's crossword to be opened after noon on Tuesday week, December 5th. Envelopes must be...