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AN EMPIRE IN CONVULSIONS
The SpectatorU NLESS some unexpected action reverses matters, the events in Poland seem to have shattered the cornerstone of Soviet imperialism in Europe. Gomulka's victory is an astonishing...
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ANGRY AS A BULL
The SpectatorBy Our German Correspondent Bonn I T is two years since an alert reporter of Der Spiegel, seated behind a pillar in the foyer of Claridge's, overheard a shuddering forecast of...
ANOTHER CHANCE
The SpectatorT T was unlucky that the statement on Cyprus by the Greek 'Foreign Minister, Mr. Averoff, should have come at a time when events in Poland and elsewhere combined to relegate it...
POLITICAL KILLING
The SpectatorTN an article on another page Lord Templewood demonstrates 'the absurdity of the Government's latest attitude to the death penalty. By adopting its present course the Government...
REBELLION IN TIBET
The SpectatorBY FRANCIS WATSON T HAT the mere desire to be left alone can make news in any continent is a commentary upon our age. Communist China, avowedly learning from Russian mistakes as...
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PROP STOP
The SpectatorT HE trouble with this guy is he can't make a speech'— conclusion of an anguished but affectionate newspaper man on the world's leading political egghead. The candidate's...
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But this brings us to the second issue involved. It
The Spectatorarises in transport as in other industries, and it goes to the root of our redeployment problem. Put crudely, it is 'Can trade unions be expected to promote redeployment and...
hearing before the UN Security Council of the Jordan-Israel dispute
The Spectatorto say that 'our Jordan ally has our sympathy and commendation'? Ally, indeed ! This at a time when not a Jordanian is to be found to say a good word on Britain's behalf; and...
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The first is the unsolved riddle of accountability in a
The Spectatornational- ised industry. The British Transport Commission is running at a rate of deficit which is estimated at about £40 million a year. Now the National Union of Railwaymen...
The Suez question has been rather in abeyance during the
The Spectatorpast week. The Users' Association, it is true, has appointed its administrative officers, the chief of whom is a Dane, but the present Western view is that it is up to Egypt to...
A N ugly question now moves into the centre of
The SpectatorBritish politics; the question 'Are we going to have a wages war this winter?' The list of trade union claims is long, and exten• sive. In all they cover about five million...
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THAT MIGHTY old artificer Pablo Picasso is celebrating his seventy-fifth
The Spectatorbirthday. He has by no means pleased all of the people all of the time; but few who care anything for painting can wish him anything but well. He reminds me more and more of the...
•
The SpectatorEven Good Governments Forget BY LORD TEMPLEWOOD LL governments suffer from the occupational disease of loss of memory. When they get into a hole, they are apt to rush to ways...
BUT THE SINS of omission committed by the press on
The Spectatorits own account are a good deal less mysterious than those forced on it by our • egregious security authorities. Mr. Tom Driberg has been obliged by them to make certain minor...
I SEE THAT the heavy electrical engineering industry has called
The Spectatorof its proposed delegation to the Board of Trade. Its intention was to persuade Mr. Thorneycroft that it would not be in the national interest to publish certain parts of the...
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Mandarins and People
The SpectatorE XCEPT for a few foreign tourists the courtyard of the Silver Pagoda in the Royal Palace. at Phnom Penh is almost deserted. Although it, is in theory open to the public, most...
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Tamworth Revisited
The SpectatorBY DESMOND DONNELLY, MP T HE Tory Party is at an interesting stage in its evolution. The historical parallel is the period of the Tamworth manifesto. The big difference may be...
Her Excellency
The SpectatorBY RANDOLPH S. CHURCHILL B IOGRAPHIES written in someone's lifetime with the permission and co-operation of the book's subject are inevitably somewhat suspect. And although...
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Northern Lights
The SpectatorT HE lights went out all over six miles of Blackpool's proms on Monday. We may never see them free again in our lifetime. Perhaps the kindest way to deal with the tramcars...
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City and Suburban
The SpectatorBY JOHN BETJEMAN 0 NE of the most surprising possessions of the LCC is Marble Hill, Twickenham. It is that very rare thing in England, a small Palladian villa, and was built...
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The Golden Egg
The SpectatorS OME interest has been aroused by one of the diplomatic telegrams reprinted in the latest volume (No. IX, Series D) of Documents on German Foreign Policy, 1918-1945, which was...
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COPPERBELT UNREST SIR,—In 'Portrait of the Week' (September 21) your
The Spectatorcommentator refers to the Northern Rhodesia state of emergency and to the strikes and riots on the Copperbelt as being 'caused by growing racial discrimination in the area? This...
DARE•DEVILRY
The SpectatorSIR,—Pharos, and many others who have written in the same sense, are doing no service to theatregoers when they point out how foolish the Lord Chamberlain's office is made to...
COMPREHENSIVE EDUCATION
The SpectatorSIR,—In his article on Robin Pedley's book Comprehensive Education Sir Eric James asserted (Spectator, October 5) that 'Teachers have no excuse for complacency.' May I suggest...
Letters to the Editor
The SpectatorSuppression and Invention Copperbelt Unrest bare-Devilry Comprehensive Education And Mrs. Legge M. of S. The Destroyers H. Maclear Bate Dr. A. C. Fisher B. A. Young Hugh...
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SIR,—Dr. Robin Pedley finds fault with Sir Eric James's review
The Spectatorof his 'book which in my opinion was a perfectly fair and understanding one. Indeed I think that Sir Eric might well have taken a much sterner tone in view of .the fact that the...
AND MRS. LEGGE
The SpectatorSIR,—Whilst I was at Llandudno as a Young Conservative representative to the Tory Con- ference, I put to as many people as 1 could the following question : 'If the Conservative...
THE DESTROYERS Sta,Far more damage is being done in Kent
The Spectatorand Sussex by land speculators and house agents to old, interesting and beautiful build- ings and places than ever was done during the way by flying bombs. My husband's old...
Contemporary Arts
The SpectatorBack to the Dance WITH the addition of the two later ballets (The Fountain of Bakchisarai and Giselle) to its London repertoire, the Bolshoi Ballet pre- sented further...
M. of S.
The SpectatorSIR,—Th; nigger in the RAF woodpile is that amorphous mass the Ministry of Supply : it acts as a fantastically expensive tweeny and effectively bogs down all action—witness the...
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From the Sick-Bed
The SpectatorTELEVISION, I find, is not the sick man's friend that radio has always been. Which of us has not spent delicious hours under the blankets drea,ming through 'Housewives' Choice'...
Material and Image
The SpectatorSINCE the nineteenth century the qualities of a painter's materials and his personal manipula- tion of them have been increasingly and more deliberately a part of the image he...
Glamour in Reverse
The SpectatorBus STOP. (Canton.) 'I WONDER when Marilyn Monroe's cominl on,' whispered my companion, an innocen abroad in the film world who had somehml managed to remain unfamiliar with...
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BOOKS
The SpectatorThe Good Old Cause BY D. W. BROGAN ir HIS is the season of the year in which the `Liberal,' already at the altar of the Temple, thanks himself for the evident fact that he is...
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Into Unknown Territory
The SpectatorTHE PENGUIN BOOK OF SPANISH VERSE. Introduced and edited by J. M. Cohen. (Penguin Books, Ss.) THAT amorphous body composed, at least at some time in our liyes, of most of us,...
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For Better or Worse
The SpectatorHISTORIANS of social institutions, being mostly Victorians at heart, usually fall into one of two categories. Either, like Canon Demant, they think things are getting worse; or,...
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Percepts, Concepts and Precepts
The SpectatorESSAYS IN CONCEPTUAL ANALYS is. Edited by Antony Flew. (Macmillan, 18s.) ESSAYS IN CONCEPTUAL ANALYS is. Edited by Antony Flew. (Macmillan, 18s.) ETHICAL VALUE. By George F....
Condensable
The SpectatorNILA. Her story as told to Willie Snow Ethridge. (Gollancz, 18s.) IRON CURTAIN jumpers are nowadays so well established as a literary class that we demand something more from...
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New Novels
The SpectatorTun crapulent, venal, cruel and variously vicious Englishman abroad is becoming almost a stock figure in current fiction. From the novelists' point of view this is...
Science and Soil
The SpectatorDANIEL HALL. By H. E. Dale. (John Murray, 21s.) Tins is an unexpectedly pleasant and interesting book—pleasant because it is free from the senseless jargon and small, facetious...
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C RAKE AND BITTERN My thoughts are brought back to the
The Spectatorcorn- c rake by a card from a North Yorkshire reader, " 0 says, 'In answer to what you say about er uerakes ; with which I very much agree. I r n e e' that I must suggest that...
Thr A)pectatot
The SpectatorOCTOBER 29, 1831 NEW COLONY IN AUSTRALIA.—In the absence of Parliamentary business, we have thought that we could not do better than devote a portion of our pages to the...
FRUIT STORING Keeping fruit is a, major problem in a
The Spectatoryear of plenty for the person normally accustomed to a meagre crop. The temperature of the store should be roughly 45° F., and apples and pears should first be left in heaps to...
Chess
The SpectatorWHITE to play and mate in two moves: solution next week. Solution to last week's problem by Latzel :R-B4 threat Q x B. 1 . . . Kt-K 3; 2 Q-K 5. 1 Kt-Kt 6; 2 R-B3. I B-K4; 2...
Country Life
The SpectatorBy IAN NIALL ° VI:RTAKING a flock of sheep that had strayed on to the road the other day, I found myself In difficulty in getting past. When I came to a st andstill, the sheep...
WIND-SOWN SEEDS
The Spectator'There, in the windless night-time,' said A. E. Housman, in one of his lovely verses, 'the wanderer . . . halts . . . to harken how soft the poplars sigh,' and most of the time,...
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Enginuities
The SpectatorSPECTATOR COMPETITION No. 347 Report by Joyce Johnson . The Motor Show opened on October 17. Competitors were invited to submit advertise- ments for models put on the market by...
SPECTATOR CROSSWORD No. 911
The SpectatorACROSS DOWN I Was he transferred from Northumber- land to a North London Club? (7) 5 Toys irk this adherent (7). 9 'Lo, the poor — whose untutor'd sense Sees bliss in ale'...
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BUILDING SOCIETIES SURVEY Progress During the Credit Squeeze
The SpectatorBY ANDREW BREACH, F.C.1.S. T HE total assets of all building societies at the end of 1955 amounted to £2,063 million; an increase for the year of some £196 million, which...
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Building Societies' Dilemma
The SpectatorBy a Correspondent T HE Council of the Building Societies' Association has recently announced its recommendations to its member° and for the most part they are coming into line,...
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COMPANY NOTES
The SpectatorBY CUSTOS BUSINESS on the Stock Exchange has broadened—Monday was the busiest since May—but the gilt-edged market came back after its rise, being sensitive to rumours from...
THE CRIPPLING COST OF DEAR MONEY
The SpectatorBY NICHOLAS DAVENPORT BY way of postscript to my open letter to Sir Roger Makins I would like to add a statistical note on the national cost of dear money in case his eyes have...