which are discussed in a leading article on a later page, have ended, and the Pact has been signed. Its terms as published in Berlin leave no room for any optimistic...

The Turkish Government has as yet pronounced no opinion on the Soviet-German Pact ; but there is reason to believe that the firm attitude adopted by the French and British...

The steadiness of French public opinion in the present crisis was once again illustrated this week by the reception given to the announcement of the Soviet-German negotia- tions...

T HE troop movements reported from Germany reveal her plans with the utmost clarity. Some 2,000,000 men have been concentrated on her eastern frontiers ; the latest reports...

The House of Representatives Committee, generally known by the name of its chairman, Mr. Dies, which is in- vestigating " un-American " activities in the United States, has...

The movements of Count Csaky, the Hungarian Foreign Minister, during the last week have aroused the greatest interest. On successive days he saw Herr Hitler at Berchtes- gaden,...

Of all countries directly affected by Herr Hitler's pact with Bolshevism, Japan has the strongest reason for feeling betrayed. It is admitted in Tokyo that the pact may be a...

Another practical step towards preparation for emergency is the issue by the Minister of Health of a memorandum to local authorities on the repair of houses damaged in...

The uncertainties of the present situation make it possible that at any moment The Spectator may have to be produced under emergency conditions which would involve some...

The House of Lords Committee on the Bastardy (Blood Tests) Bill has now issued its report, which recommends that the Bill, with some amendments, should be passed into law. Their...

The position with regard to the financial responsibility of the owners of factories and other commercial premises for the screening of their premises is unsatisfactory, but it...

One of the most valuable resources of a democracy in time of war is the great army of voluntary social workers which has been built up and trained in the years of peace. The...

While this country hovers on the brink of war, the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen has chosen to call a strike of its members for midnight on Saturday of...

T HE full import of the Russo-German Pact is not known as these lines are being written. What is known is that the impending signature of a pact of non- aggression—it may...

T HE Report of the Permanent Mandates Commission of the League on Great Britain's policy in Palestine, as stated in the White Paper last May, has apparently come as an...

M OST of us will probably long remember how we heard the German-Russian news on Tuesday morning. No doubt the average newspaper-reader got his shock at his breakfast-table....

Editor of The Countryman, ever brighter ideas. What could be better than his suggestion that the copy of Magna Carta at present being exhibited at the World's Fair in New York...

the week-end confirmed the conviction which a tour northwards last month impressed on me, that if ever a time comes when money in substantial quantities can be devoted to such...

Mr. Ronald, are calculated to make a nice diplomatic confusion. Sir Ronald Campbell, Minister in Belgrade, goe , , as Ambassador to Paris, where Mr. Ronald Campbell is Minister,...

of the Fascist movement in this country is, for the fact that Fascist meetings are so largely ignored by the Press may create some misleading impressions. I do not believe the...

it say last week that two " convicts " had been rescued from some cliffs on the Bristol Channel, instead of two " canoeists," is to be condoled with, but its apology was lavish...

to have not unimportant reactions on British naval strategy. In a brief survey given privately not long ago by a high naval authority of the probable position on the outbreak of...

BY A GERMAN CORRESPONDENT ri1l-1E sudden volte-face by which Hitler on Monday 1 evening achieved one of the most dramatic surprises in modern history was, contrary to all that...

By ROBERT POWELL [This article was written before the announcement of the Russo-German Pact] Berlin. D URING the coming week-end, failing a last-moment cancellation, all roads...

By MAJOR B. T. REYNOLDS A FTER the Munich Agreement last year I was one of the " British Observing Officers " in the Sudetenland. In the course of my duties I was brought into...

By GEORGE EDINGER 1 eighteenth-century house on the hilltop at Monticello the former owner is still very much alive. He refers to him with quiet awe as " Mr. Jefferson." " Mr....

By PAUL EINZIG D URING the recent debates in the House of Commons upon the notorious Czech gold affair, the Chancellor of the Exchequer went out of his way to emphasise...

By HUGH SETON-WATSON I N recent years Rumanian foreign policy has seemed, from the West, uncertain and obscure. After the departure of Titulescu, faithful chimpion of the...

PERHAPS I always knew what they were saying: Even the early messengers who walked Into my life from books where they were staying, Those beautiful machines that never talked...

THEY cut the trees away I By day the lean guns leer Across their concrete walls; The evening falls On four guns tucked in bed. The top of the hill is bare, But the trees...

By FREDERIC EVANS A FTER a sudden attack of pneumonia Meurig Dafydd of the ' Lamb and Flag ' Inn at the crossroads had breathed his last. He was barely forty years old. Son of...

By HAROLD NICOLSON RECEIVED the other day a letter from the editor of a I Paris newspaper in which he asked me two questions. The first question was " Did I still keep a...

started, the proposition put to me by my French enquirer. Men of action keep diaries in order to give a spurious sense of ful- filment to their daily inefficacy. Men of genius...

lesser mortals who lead eventful but ineffective lives! The day passes in a whirl of distraction, telephones and taximeter cabs. History, during those sixteen hours, has jigged...

of literature, is not in the exact sense a diary at all ; it is an autobiographical confession in the way that the masterpieces of Rousseau and St. Augustine were auto-...

extract from Pepys, Evelyn, the de Goncourts, Greville, or Colonel Repington is a literary pleasure. I am not con- vmced even that it is a very reputable pleasure. The purely...

the great diaries of the past? Is it really true that all diaries have been written as a solace for ineffectiveness or as a sub- stitute for creative energy? Pepys and John...

have been left to us by men of unquestioned creative genius? One thinks at once of Swift's Puma! to Stella, and of the short but brilliant diary which Byron kept at Ravenna. It...

TWO DICTATORS AGAINST TIROL BY A SUDT1ROLE WHEN the Peace Treaties drew a frontier through the heart of Tirol, where in the whole course of history no political boundary had...

" , Les Disparus de St. Agil." At the Polytechnic.- 1, Young Man's Fancy." At the Leicester Square.—" Golden Gloves." At the London Pavilion. IT would be possible, I suppose,...

THE THEATRE The Importance of Being Earnest. By Oscar Wilde. At the Globe. " AND yet to me the play came out fresh and exquisite as ever, and over the whole house almost every...

Verdi's Requiem, under Signor Toscanini's direction, and, although neither was relayed by the B.B.C., no doubt many people with good sets will have listened to the broadcast...

[D'un correspondant parisien] PAR la force des choses les Francais sont devenus philosophes. Sans cela certains auraient pu hesiter a prendre des vacances cet ete. Car les...

WFILE harvest is in full swing some of the agricultural critics are expressing pleasure that the area under wheat has been reduced. The reduction is considerable, though the...

Wasps, which begin to be a menace as the plums ripen, can be destroyed by those who wish to destroy them in two ways which are more or less new to most people. The more...

Loud protests have been raised lately—and with full justification—at the defacement of the country in consequence of the extraction of iron ore. Certain districts, in Leicester-...

One of the early apples that has ripened betimes this year—and flourished particularly—is James Grieve, perhaps the very best apple of its date ; and it is not only blessed in...

A number of people have been observed of late visiting a particular common for the purpose of collecting the seed of the prevailing grass. The turf there is particularly fine...

The talk of finding a home for exiled Jews in British Guiana reminds me of a correspondence of some years ago, when there was a question of the commercial growing of certain...

[Correspondents 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...

Sot,—Would you allow me space to reply to Rev. J. H. Shackleton Bailey's letter in the last issue of The Spectator? If Mr. Shackleton Bailey re-reads my letter in the issue of...

Sta,—All those who have had to deal with the refugee problem are aware of the situation created by unscrupulous shipping companies or " travel agencies " who offer to carry...

Sin,—In connexion with the so-called " war-guilt " clause of the Treaty of Versailles, it is, I think, useful to recall what Mr. Wickham Steed has said on the subject in his...

Snt,—I have recently returned from a holiday in England. I found the English individually charming and collectively incomprehensible. One night, returning to our flat, we...

SIR, —In a broadcast I gave in the " Civil Defence " series last Tuesday I described how, in the streets of Spanish Republican towns, black arrows were painted up to point the...

SIR, —Mr. St. John Ervine is an old hand at controversy, and I am a mere novice. Yet I have always been given to under- stand that the first rule for fair play in this art is to...

I dropped it, and I only recently began again. The first copy contained Dr. Joad's article, the point of which seemed to be to take away from our spiritual armoury what had...

Sta,—In your last issue you produce, for the convenience of readers of articles on foreign affairs, a map of Europe, and I write to utter a protest against the form in which the...

in last week's issue of The Spectator is typical of the Right-Wing Pro-Fascist element in the Conservative Party today. It seems that such people would like all Labour, Liberal...

Sur,—On March loth you published a letter from a Mr. L. E. Kastner, in which he states : " It is hardly necessary to recall that all democratic countries in Europe have...

SIR,—Mr. J. A. Spender in his reply to Sir Norman Angell does not quite put the point which has long troubled me. At various crises prominent men have reprimanded us (the...

Greene 296 ALL OF NEW YoaK, D. W. Brogan 297 THE CHURCH AND THE TYRANT STATE, The Dean of Chichester . . 297 A PRESCRIPTION FOR PEACE, Archibald Crawford 298 GOOD...

A FEW months ago Messrs. Constable published the admirable New York Panorama, a brilliant specimen of the excellent work done by the writers' project of the W.PA. during that...

THE Christian Church is not rich in prophets today. But there is one man on whom the mantle of prophecy has descended; one man who, striving to see the world's problems as it...

A DISTINGUISHED Parliamentarian once observed that there was no more tedious reading than the back numbers of Hansard. It was not perhaps entirely true. While no doubt Hansard...

MR. DULLES, who is an international lawyer with wide practical experience in the international field, including membership of the American Delegation at the Paris Peace...

King, Lords and Gentlemen. By Karl Heinz Abshagen. (Heinemann. 12s. 6d.) King, Lords and Gentlemen. By Karl Heinz Abshagen. (Heinemann. 12s. 6d.) IN this book, written primarily...

MR. KNIGHT'S first book, Abolish Slumps, presented to his readers an analysis of the course of trade fluctuations not unlike that of Mr. Keynes, backed by ingenious statistical...

The Back Garden of Allah. By Major C. S. Jarvis, C.M.G., O.B.E. (Murray. 78. 6c1.) The Back Garden of Allah is a collection of anecdotes and humorous reflections derived from...

The Turning Path. By Ronald Bottrall. (Arthur Barker. 5s.) ONE of the stock poetic " characters " is the enfant terrible, the young man of promise who can be discovered by Mr....

Uncle Fred in the Springtime. By P. G. Wodehouse. (Jenkins. 75. 6d.) UNLESS my taste has deceived me, the connoisseur must face up to the fact that 1939 is not a vintage year...

By FORREST REID I WONDER how Mr. Brett Young would fare if some ruthless dictator forbade him to write novels of more than 40o pages in length. He would at first, no doubt,...

By James Hanley These " descriptive essays of the sea " (Methuen, 8s. 6d.) leave no doubt that Mt Hanley knows his subject. His use of technical terms is both convincing and...

By Guy Kendall No one interested in education should fail to read Mr. Kendall's thoughtful and appreciative study of Robert Raikes, the editor of the Gloucester Journal, who...

An Outline of International Price Theories By Chi-Yuen Wu This modestly titled study (Routledge, 15s.) will be a genuine and solid asset to all students of economics, and...

By Howard Coxe "The author," according to the dust-cover of this book (Chatto and Windus, los. 6d.), "has set himself to fill what he feels to be a gap in English historical...

WHATEVER fate European politics may have in store for the stock markets I feel that the City is demonstrating a wholly praiseworthy spirit of calm, which is itself a valuable...

There is cause for fresh hope in the breasts of Canadian Pacific Railway preference stockholders in the latest earnings figures. For the first six months of 1939 gross receipts...

The defence of sterling in the foreign exchange market has been no less praiseworthy than the performance of the Stock Exchange. Whatever views of the " real value " of the...

These are indeed days for the venturesome. I need hardly remind speculative investors that they must now add' a very serious political risk to the ordinary economic risk. With...

for the year ended June 30th are frankly disappointing though not altogether unexpected. This co - npany, which is much the largest unit in the printing section of Lancashire's...

GERMANY'S PURCHASES OF COMMODITIES GERMAN purchases of essential commodities, which have been a feature of commodity markets for several weeks, have now led to official action...

It was expected that the Triplex Safety Glass Company would show a slight reduction in profits for the year ended June 30th, and the results announced last week are fully up to...

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

The winner of Crossword 5 The Clevelands, Cleveland NEXT WEEK No. 24 is Mr. C. C. Green, Road, Torquay.