25 AUGUST 1950

Page 1

Failure of a Mission

The Spectator

The courteous statement issued by Sir Owen Dixon before he; left Pakistan contained no glimmer of hope for the future. He has failed in his mission which was, first of all, to...

FLASHPOINT IN KOREA

The Spectator

various islands, would provide quite a plausible collection of .. provocations." Nor is this the moment to rule out the possibility of Chinese intervention on the side of the...

German Rearmament

The Spectator

There has been so rapid and universal a change of opinion on th subject of German rearmament in the past few weeks tha Dr. Adenauer's conversion to the idea of an armed...

Page 2

Fall of a General

The Spectator

The change of Government in Greece is one of the less easily foreseen repercussions of the Korean war. In all the small nations which sit uneasily on the perimeter of...

Rough Justice

The Spectator

Two curiosities of justice which have occurred during the last week deserve not to be overlooked, and it is to be presumed that if Parliament was sitting they would receive...

A Problem Restated

The Spectator

The joint statement made by the Khama kinsmen, Seretse and Tshekedi, could hardly have been more cautious: they " have reached the conclusion that a basis of co-operation...

Dogma and Fact The statement of the Archbishops of Canterbury

The Spectator

and York on the impending enunciation by the Pope of the dogma of the bodily assumption of the Virgin Mary into Heaven was very necessary. It was essential to dispel immediately...

Page 3

The North American Strikes

The Spectator

Neither the President of the United States nor the Prime Minister of Canada has as yet used the Korean crisis to assume emergency powers which would enable them to take drastic...

AT STRASBOURG T HERE'S no lobby-fodder in Strasbourg. No Whips feed

The Spectator

delegates into the voting-machine. Everyone present must make up his own mind, as to whether he will say " Yes," - No," or " Abstain." And as the vote usually follows the French...

The Fifth Estate

The Spectator

Mr. Churchill's broadcast of August 26th, on his reasons for advocating the recall of Parliament before September 12th, will no doubt be important in its own right. But it will...

Page 4

SOCIALIST LEADERSHIP

The Spectator

T HIS is not the best of times for exercises in party politics. Whatever the full repercussions of the Korean war may be, it is generally recognised that the situation is...

Page 5

A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK

The Spectator

E IGHT weeks after the fighting started, the commanding officers of the units who are to go to Korea from Hongkong received . (on a Saturday) their orders to mobilise. Most of...

A neighbour of mine, who got a George Cross and

The Spectator

a George Medal for taking the more abstruse types of German mine to pieces during the last war, complains that every time the international horizon darkens his friends start...

I wonder what has happened to the gentleman who became

The Spectator

premier of South Korea when Syngman Rhee was made president. I know nothing of his attainments or capabilities, but his name was General Bum Suk Lee and in some ways it seems...

One swallow does not make a summer, nor fourteen Channel

The Spectator

swimmers a Silly Season. The world has become such an alarming place (or perhaps our capacity for being alarmed has so much increased) that the Press no longer allows itself...

Madame Sun Yat-sen's invitation to Pandit Nehru, though it has

The Spectator

been refused, is likely to strengthen a contemporary belief to which one sees and hears increasingly frequent references. This belief, which, if it ever gets a name, will...

The committee which has reported on the conditions of employ-

The Spectator

ment of child actors seems to have done its job in a very sound and sensible way. The thing that interests me is the sudden rise, in recent years, of the standard of juvenile...

This minor muddle doesn't seem to me to matter in

The Spectator

the least. What does strike me as painfully characteristic of the standard of leadership which the British are getting from their present rulers is that it should take us two...

Page 6

War in Korea

The Spectator

By PETERFLEMING T HE cautious optimism with which, last week, I assessed the tactical situation in Korea, has been more than justified by events, and my forecast that,...

Page 7

No Cold Cure

The Spectator

By DR. MARGARET JACKSON 46 OME say cinnamon and some say rum, and a marine- on one of the Channel boats recommends a slice of onion clapped to the sole of each foot ; but the...

Page 8

Christian Democracy in Italy

The Spectator

By E W. ASHCROFT C OMMUNISM in Italy is by no means finished. The Italian Communist Party is still the largest party in Europe and the most brilliantly led. But it has had a...

Page 9

The Nairobi Strike

The Spectator

O N May 15th, 1950, a Sikh agitator named Makhan Singh, known to be a Communist, and a Kikuyu named Fred Kubai were arrested by the Nairobi Police, and were charged with being...

Page 10

Barcelona

The Spectator

By GABRIELE ULLSTEIN p ROPELLED by assiduous kicks and shoves, our luggage screeched across the tiled bedroom floor. The tiny creature whose crumpled cotton shorts barely...

Page 11

MARGINAL COMMENT

The Spectator

By HAROLD NICOLSON I HAVE been reading this week, and for the third or fourth time, Lord Grey of Fallodon's Twenty-Five Years. I find this noble book both a sedative and a...

Page 12

CONTEMPORARY ARTS

The Spectator

THEATRE "They Got What They Wanted." By Louis d'Alton. (Phoenix). How much would we not, all of us, give to be able to foresee the future ! And how particularly interesting...

MUSIC

The Spectator

AMY SHUARD, who sang Rezia's great aria from Weber's Oberon at the Prom. on August 16th, has a very fine voice. (I owe her an apology, by the way, for referring to her in the...

CINEMA

The Spectator

66 The Miniver Story." (Empire.)--“ Shadow of the Eagle." (London Pavilion.)--- ,, Caged." (Warner.) OUR old friend Mrs. Miniver, now battling with post-war problems and...

Page 13

EDINBURGH FESTIVAL

The Spectator

THEATRE " WHAT," asked an earnest South Briton as we were emerging from the new Bridie, is the message of this play ? " It was odd to hear this critical question from English...

MUSIC

The Spectator

How pleasant if one could have said that the 1950 Edinburgh Festival started off with a bang, but how untrue. All the bangs in the opening concert by the Orchestre National de...

CINEMA

The Spectator

MOST of the 200 films from twenty-five countries being shown at the Festival find their drama in fact rather than in fiction, although some have been made in part at least in...

Page 14

COUNTRY LIFE

The Spectator

ENOUGH has not been heard of late, though its activities haw: not waned, of the Council for the Preservation of Rural England, which now has to fight against the planners as...

In the Garden

The Spectator

A great deal of scientific—and indeed almost mystic advice has been given us on the subject of compost. It is doubtless excellent ; but there is something to be said for the...

THE SPECTATOR

The Spectator

readers are urged to place a firm order with their newsagent or to take out a subscription. Newsagents cannot afford to take the risk of carrying stock, as unsold copies are...

What Is It ?

The Spectator

Most country people, even if they are considerably learned, come from time to time upon some creature which they do not know and would like to identify. How shall this ignorance...

Rose History An ardent amateur gardener complains that no catalogue

The Spectator

and indeed no book known to him gives the desired information about roses. What is a tea rose, for example, or a musk rose and how did the garden grow? Our garden roses—how...

Page 15

"the *pectator," august 24th, 1850

The Spectator

THE GAOL AND THE SCHOOL " A VERY wicked boy indeed, and gives us more trouble than any other boy in the prison," said the keeper of Liverpool Gaol to the commissioner of the...

SPECTATOR COMPETITION No. 34

The Spectator

Set by Derek Hudson " Barrie told me he liked to see a woman's cloak flung over his chair," wrote Lady Kennet in her diary. A prize of f5, which may be divided, is offered for...

SPECTATOR COMPETITION No. 32

The Spectator

Report by Peter Townsend A prize was offered for words, designed to attract cities. Smoke-belching chimneys, squalid back-to-back houses, foundries sweating with metallic...

Page 16

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

The Spectator

Would France Fight? SIR, While agreeing with the general sense of Lord Winster's friend's conclusions—namely that the key to vigorous defence of western Europe is the principle...

Men for the Ministry

The Spectator

SIR.—The Reverend Bernard Croft seems to throw all the blame for anomalies in the Church of England on the bishops. But surely he must know that thirty years ago the Church...

Dini Ya Msambwa

The Spectator

Stu,—As a medical missionary in Kenya from 1906-1937, and as one who re-visited Kenya in 1948, I read with deep interest the article which appeared in your issue of August 11th...

Page 17

Two Years SIR,—It may interest you to know that prior

The Spectator

to the 1914 war the ordinary man in Germany was liable for three years' service in the army, but with good behaviour he got off with two. A man passing an exam similar to our...

Quaker Scholarship SIR,—Like Sir Ernest Barker, I, too, in the

The Spectator

days of my youth knew Dr. Thomas Hodgkin, the Quaker banker-scholar who was the neighbour and friend of my parents. Coming down from Cambridge in 1890, where I had been one of...

Development of the Native SIR,—The article Groundnuts and the African

The Spectator

in your issue of August 18th is very interesting, especially as showing how history repeats itself. With the opening of the Suez Canal in 1860 British traders in Burma saw that...

SIR,—In your issue of August 18th Sir Ernest Barker seems

The Spectator

to suggest that the late Dr. Edwin Bevan was a Quaker. As 1 had the honour of his friendship, I ask you to allow me to state that he always was a loyal member of the Church of...

Scottsboro Boy "

The Spectator

Sta,—Two points in Professor Brogan's review of Scottsboro Boy call for comment. " Who wrote this? " he asks. " We have no means of knowing whether Mr. Patterson or Mr. Conrad...

Both SIR,—Anybody who cares for words cannot but be interested

The Spectator

in their varying usage. Two instances of a change have lately struck my eager eye. Messrs. Faber and Faber, in their advertisement of Leone Vivante's English Poetry in The Times...

British Papers in Germany

The Spectator

Ste,—Mr. Moffat's letter in your issue of August 18th deserves the thanks of all those who are interested in British-sponsored publications for Germany. He draws attention to...

Page 18

BOOKS AND WRITERS

The Spectator

/ N American parlance an " editor " can be either an individual responsible for the contents and regular issue of a periodical or a member of the editorial staff of a firm of...

Page 19

MacLeish

The Spectator

THE art of the distinguished American poet Mr. Archibald MacLeish has been inclined to change, not just in quality, but in its adoption of different ends. His journey into...

Reviews of the Week

The Spectator

Paul Bourbon Stories My Old Kentucky Home. By Elliot Paul. (Cresset Press. 12s. 6d.) Loutsvn_LE, with its thriving university, with one of the best news- papers in the United...

Page 20

A Man of Parts

The Spectator

IN a period when the part is equal to the whole, the man of parts who combines them into a whole is a sufficiently rare phenomenon, and now that the specialist has it all his...

Jade Past and Present

The Spectator

Tins investigation into the technique and progress of jade-carving in China and elsewhere is based on painstaking documentation and conforms to the exacting standards of modern...

Nationalism in Music

The Spectator

Ralph Vaughan Williams. By Hubert Foss. (Harrap. 12s. 6d.) MUSICAL nationalism has receded, by the middle of the twentieth century, into that historical region where all the old...

Page 22

Channel Island

The Spectator

MR. BALLEINE, whose name proclaims him a Jersey man, has covered Jersey history from prehistory to the German occupation and after, and relates the events to those in Europe. It...

Words to Watch

The Spectator

Having the Last Word. By Ivor Brown. (Cape. 6s.) MR. IVOR BROWN is a regular etymological Jack Homer. Plum after delectable plum he pulls out of the pie, never exclaiming "...

Page 24

Fiction

The Spectator

Fanfare in Blemont. By Marcel. Ayme. Translated from the French by The Piper's Tune. By George Blake. (Collins. los. 6d..) How common it is nowadays for novelists, especially...

SHORTER NOTICE

The Spectator

The Meaning of Beauty. By Eric Newton. (Longmans. I is.) AFTER perusing this discourse an amateur in aesthetics may well feel that he comes out " by the same door where in he...

Page 25

SPECTATOR " CROSSWORD No. 596

The Spectator

THE 66 14 Book • Token for one guinea will be awarded to the sender of she first correct sobown of this week's crossword to be opened after noon on Tuesday week, September 5th....

SOLUTION TO CROSSWORD No. 594

The Spectator

nmummmonmemnomn n mnonnmn manna, mnnonnn MEIMMINIMMO annommon HIT= rAnn nmmn MMDIUM mmonnnimn n m umumunnmn unmnm n nipin nmn mmmmn MMUMMEM MMCBMIGI_M U MMRIMMINIM...

Page 26

FINANCE AND INVESTMENT

The Spectator

By CUSTOS le any fresh proof were needed of the underlying firmness and resilience of investment markets it has surely been afforded this week in the brisk response to better...