N the long history of journalism there -Lean have been few articles written that have matched in potency Marshal Lin Piao's 'Long live the victory of people's war,' published...

POLITICAL COMMENTARY By 'AIN . MACLEOD, MP THINE it was Sir Winston Churchill who once I observed that the wise man died in August because he got a longer obituary. By the same...

'Most of the words he objected to are lavatorial rather than obscene.' (Mr Geoffrey Sims. Drama Group Secretary of Keefe University drama group. in continent on the Lord...

AMERICA From DREW MIDDLETON WASHINGTON Understandably, the younger and more ambitious among these officials see the war as a test of their abilities and a means to promotion....

From DEV MURARKA MOSCOW rr HE course of Soviet-American relations is not I intrinsically determined by the Vietnam war, which is only a factor in the situation. It is...

Lin Piao-a Tiger in Mao's Tank? By DICK WILSON W HEN Lin Yu-yung became a Chinese revolu- tionary thirty-five years ago he took a new forename: Piao, which means 'tiger-cat.'...

By MALCOLM RUTHERFORD In recent weeks the situation in Latin America has changed dramatically, and changed for the worse. But Communism has not been responsible. The reason is...

I N the last of the valuable BBC series on the :War Against Crime,' Rab Butler and Roy Jenkins put forward some interesting suggestions as to the causes of the rise in crime....

THE PRESS By DAVID FROST T HERE is one important fact that a writer on the British press should not ignore—the fact that, however distant it may seem as we gnash our teeth at...

By PETA FORDHAM was sitting in one of the glossier West End I establishments when the news of the murder of the three policemen broke. My companions were friendly but not...

MEDICINE TODAY By JOHN ROWAN WILSON Treatment for mental disorders didn't take up much room in the textbooks twenty years ago. Lectures on the subject dwelt obsessively on...

BOOK REVIEW By GEORGE SCOTT As the blurb says, this book does not try to tell a detailed, 'inside' story of the Liberals since the war. Indeed. for my taste, the author grants...

EDUCATION By ALAN JENKINS S o Eton keeps its tails and white ties, while Anthony Crosland and compapy are going to ensure that ultimately no one is going to be free to pay...

AFTERTHOUGHT By JOHN WELLS THERE was an evocative heap of horse dung out- side the Elizabethan Rooms of the Gore Hotel in Queen's Gate, and we were welcomed up the steps by a...

A ug tut 25, 1866 The Russian Government has published a most extraordinary account of the plot which culminated in an attempt to assassinate the Em- peror Alexander. This...

in the SPECTATOR of August 19, but I feel it only right to point out a serious error of fact in his last but one paragraph. He writes: . . the United States began to withdraw...

SIR,--I hope Mr Enoch Powell can be persuaded to elaborate the arguments which lead him to the con- clusion expressed at the very end of his article, where he says that if the...

. - E=nngt 7C - 01 From : John Knapp, Sir David Anderson, Ilinca R Bossy. I. M. Angell, Hugh Brogan, A. D. MacDougall: Contresse Lippens. Cyril Ray, Lord Horder, R. G. A....

SIR,—In advocating a coalition, Mr Desmond Don- nelly may well be sincerely concerned for the coun- try's best interests. Mr Donnelly, however, is one of those politicians who...

SIR,—Ludovic Kennedy's attack on the proposed change in the jury system is very well timed. In addi- tion to the points he makes there are two I should like to raise: (1) At...

SIR, — Giles Playfair (August 5), like others, turns the Illicit Broadcasting Bill into a vendetta against pop music. That members of the public might not be able to see that...

SIR,—My son, Maurice Lippens, is on holiday in Yugoslavia. and so I have the opportunity of reading the SPECTATOR first. I should be doing a lot of other things, but I feel so...

SIR,—Thank you for printing the letter from John Robinson (August 19). One has often wondered what the mentally-underprivileged audience of the Royal Court would make of...

Public Relations Officer: Mr William Simpson has at last given tongue—if this is not too strong a phrase for so feeble a squeak as his belated letter to you. As I told you...

SIR, —It was pleasing to read in your pages on August 12 Terence Bendixson's views on increasing the traffic capacity at Piccadilly Circus. Surely it is time that the road...

SCULPTURE By BRYAN ROBERTSON David Smith was not, of course, a force of nature. He loved landscape, the wilder the better, but kept it firmly in its place and mostly enjoyed it...

fails to perform what can reasonably be expected of it—does not admit its fault and return ex gratis to the passenger a suitable part of the fare paid. This practice, among its...

MUSIC 7 1 HE first foreign 'band' ever to appear at the 1 Henry Wood Proms, Moscow Radio Orchestra played fourteen pieces at four con- certs, having picked and deployed the...

ART A L those mewed up working their way through mounds of mouldering manuscripts on a hot summer's day seeking the answers to vital problems, such as who was the mother of the...

Following Wind Cast a Giant Shadow. (London Pavilion.) — Nevada Smith. (Plaza.) — Arabesque. (General release from September 9.) (All 'A' certificate.)—The Russians are Coining...

THEATRE A Word in Your Ear DEAR MR BURGE, I can imagine how you felt when you were landed with this play. I dare say your first thought was to chuck it through the window,...

By SIMON RAVEN That he was a coxcomb and a bore, weak, vain, pushing, curious, garrulous, was obvious to all who were acquainted with him. That he could not reason, that he had...

Nonalignment. Edited by J. W. Burton. Foreword by Kenneth Kaunda. (Deutsch, 18s.) How time flies! Some twenty years ago we were reading the first volumes of what was to become...

George Eliot and Iler Readers: A Selection of Contemporary Reviews. Edited by John Holmstrom and Laurence Lerner. (Bodley Head, 30s.) WHEN at the age of thirty-six George Eliot...

The Perfect Stranger. By P. J. Kavanagh. (Chatto and Windus, 21s.) Westward Lies Heaven. By Petru Dumitriu. (Collins, 30s.) Iska. By Cyprian Ekwensi. (Hutchinson, 25s.) Mrs...

T. E. Lawrence : An Arab View. By Suleiman Mousa. (O.U.P., 35s.) HOWEVER dishonest it may seem to apologise, as is now fashionable, for our past as a world power, as though it...

RE-ASSESSMENT By TONY TANNER 7"r he Education of Henry Adams is an un- popular classic—respected but little read. And yet it seems to me one of the great auto- biographies;...

SOLDIERS have learned to expect that history takes a harsh view of their lost opportunities. And in his The Struggle for Crete (O.U.P., 70s.), I. McD. G. Stewart, who served as...

THE EGORNEW A THE By NICHOLAS DAVENPORT HE economic storm signals are flashing a I warning red to the captains of industry. I could hardly believe my eyes when I read the...

The Dresden Green, by Nicolas Freeling (Gol- lancz, 18s.). I am more than pleased to see a new Freeling, because it gives me the oppor- :unity in this, my last contribution to...

By CUSTOS T HE continuing slump in Wall Street and the redundancy notices posted by ICI caused industrial shares in Throgmorton Street to fall to new low levels for the year....

By JOHN BULL It isn't, of course. Exits in foto from equities ire not to be encouraged, even today. Indeed leciding whether to switch from one market to tnother is a somewhat...

to BEA CONSUMING "INTEREST - By LESLIE ADRIAN These classify into undue delays, overbooking and the unfulfilment of confirmed bookings, re- routings . without adequate reason...

ERIEPP EE By LORD EGREMONT . MR ENOCH pt)wELI., shadow Minister of De- fence, writes in this month's Bunker that the • simple answer to the ques- tion whether we can afford to...

Grumble. is Courage. 12 Hair-raiser. r} Bias. t5 Pay-toad. x7 Intents. t9 Samisen. 21 TravaiL 23 Pity. z4 Rechabites. 27 Corelli. 28 Portico. 29 Side-band. 3o Lytton. DOWN.-r...

ACROSS I. Walks off huffily when the wicketkeeper does his stuff (6) 4. Falls that barbers may expect? (8) 9. Mrs. Bennet's bite noire (6) so. 'Comes silent, - in, the main'...

No. 297. L. LOSHINSKt (sat Prize equal, 40th anniversary tourney, Shakhmaty, 1966) mitre to play and mate in three moves; solution next week. Solution to No. 296 (Eaton) : P -...