there has been a concentration of untoward circumstances which have converged upon us last week with such force that no country could have resisted it. We have not worked...

It is admitted that we have been " living beyond our income," aiming perhaps—not wickedly but too gener- ously—at a higher standard of living than our earnings would support,...

need to stop the outflow of gold from Great Britain. Foreigners judged us by our Budget prospects, by the Unemployment Insurance Report, the May Economy Report and . other...

War through which her credit, her system of Free Trade, her banking institutions, all combined to early her and helped to carry her Allies, struggled back on to the Gold...

1.—A Subscription to the SPECTATOR costs Thirty Shillings per annutn, including postage, to any part of the world. The SPECTATOR is registered as a Newspaper. The Postage on...

SPECTATOR.]

and generosity that the Princes have so often shown marked their sympathy with our financial troubles by forgoing the contribution of the Treasury to their expenses connected...

was due to any fears of our solvency or stability, we can only blame _the foreigner for not knowing us as well as we know our- selves. We fear that he does still doubt our...

a seedbed from which trouble would shortly spring. The feebleness and disorder that prevailed in China make her not only a tempting prey but also a likely provoker of violence...

note that Switzerland, according to her delegate at Geneva, intends to adopt Protection in self-defence, while Holland is increasing her revenue tariff to balance her Budget. On...

Satur- day decided to invite nations that are not members to join it in discussing the Scandinavian proposal that all Powers should abstain, till after next February's Con-...

by India is definitely summed up in the bare totals of the Indian census of this year. The population now numbers 350,353,000, and includes 238,330,000 Hindus and 77,743,000...

Faraday the British Association's meetings are being held in London under the admirably chosen President, Genera Jan Smuts, with whose address we deal in a leading article. We...

on September 21st, 1931. War Loan (5 per cent.) was on Wednesday 96 ; on Wednesday week, 99; ; a year ago, 10341. Funding Loan (4 per cent.) was on Wednesday 851 ; on Wednesday...

be the final act in the arduous task set by its Govern- ment of pacifying the North African possessions of Italy. We hope that soon those districts, which were so long under the...

Society, with whose aims we have been for generations in sympathy, have sent us a copy of correspondence that has passed between them and the Russian Embassy in London since the...

and good publishing will echo General Smuts's commendation of the Cam- bridge University Press, in the speech with which he opened an exhibition of Cambridge books at Messrs....

wheat sailed from Churchill in Hudson Bay on September 17th, and thus inaugurated a new direct route from Western Canada to England. The Dominion is to be congratu- lated on the...

Sunday of the brilliant young naturalist, Miss Joan Procter, who was famous for her knowledge of snakes. She was only thirty-five. Miss Procter became assistant to Dr. G. A....

Y OU cannot eat gold : you cannot dress in paper money. What then do these things really matter ? Why have countless generations been obsessed with the auri sacra fames ? We...

W HEN all nations in the Kellogg Pact renounced war as an instrument of national policy, not a few sceptics wondered how soon the obligation would be forgotten. They .had not...

I—What it Means and Why It Happened BY HARTLEY WITHERS. M ANY very clever people have been telling the public about the crisis and the pound sterling and its par value, and...

r 1HE world was waiting on Monday (while the pound floundered) for the legislation which would- legally—take Britain off the Gold Standard ; every seat in the galleries was...

I T is a century to-day since two hundred of the Friends of Science " assembled at York to inaugurate the " British Association for the Advancement of Science, having for its...

TT is a matter of common acceptance that plans for the .11.- progress of national education must be conditioned by the state of national finances. The need of " steering off the...

S. T. C.—II BY E. M. FORSTER. H E went by coach from Cambridge to London, got off at Holborn, bought a ticket for the Irish Lottery (not yet illegal), composed a poem on it...

BY OWEN TWEEDY. S PRING was on the move, and I was sitting on the step of the car by a birch copse which was just beginning to burst, when I heard " John Peel " loudly whistled...

FROM TFIE PIGEON'S POINT OF VIEW. People talk and talk, and the financial situation is still about as clear to me as the dome of St. Paul's at midnight before the...

Three Choirs Festival Top: Meeting of the Three Choirs at Gloucester this year was notable for a consistently high standard of choral singing. Mr. Herbert Sumsion, who three...

THERE seemed a possibility some years ago that Messrs. Heal and Son, having established a definite style (a little " cottagey " perhaps—but how sound and refreshing at the time...

If you complain that you don't believe in this paper-bag incident, then you can't have been reading your daily papers carefully. And if you protest that pigeons don't talk like...

Tabu. At the Plaza "AMAZING Epic of Uncivilized Love " scream the posters ; and all persons of even average sensibility might be expected to avoid Tabu ; instead, they should...

" Do not lace your boots in a melon-field or adjust your hat under a plum-tree, if you would avoid suspicion."—

A LETTER FROM PARIS. [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—These are not happy days for the Englishman in Paris. Well he knows, of course, that they are not happy days at home,...

LET us be easy in our verse, As Horace was, or Martial : But not give outward praise or curse, Though personally partial To this or that idea, or face, With secret bias for a...

THE " SPECTATOR," SEPTEMBER 24TH, 1831. Ax EcoxoxicAL PAINTER. I called upon D. [George Dawe, the Academician) to congratulate him. His pleasant housekeeper seemed embarrassed...

Geneva and Great Britain's Troubles Fnom the moment when the news of Great Britain's departure from the gold standard reached Geneva—the German dele- gation rather curiously...

WHEAT IN riir: DEmis. In Basingstoke market on September 17th, wheat was sold at 14s. 6d. a quarter—the minimum price of the day ; and at £1—the maximum. The 14s. 6d. wheat was...

one man. His crops, which include a good deal of wheat and much clover, are passably good; but the saving in labour means that the worst land consists of thorns and briars, and...

these out-of-the-way districts. A recent sufferer from warts asked for no caustic chemical from the doctor, but dabbed the place with a black snail, which was then transfixed...

Every year I visit a Midland village that lurks in the deep, deep country, some nine miles from any effective railway station. The beauty of the place increases save that here...

use of machines, which accelerate the harvest and reduce the number of hands, it will become possible to grow grain more cheaply than in the days of low wages ; but however...

What astonishing lengths of time country memories pre- serve ! I was in the depths of the Cambridgeshire Fens last wcelr, and heard a resident—he was round about four score...

difficult enough to know where superstition ends and science begins. An archi- tect of fame told me, this very day on which I write, that he habitually uses a water diviner...

[To the Editor of the SpEcr.kToa..] Sin,—While the sympathy of everyone who knows their work is extended to the teaching profession in the reduction of salaries that they are...

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sin,—Mr. Snowden's supplementary Budget for 1931-32 and advance Budget for 1932-33 purport to defead the pound sterling, but actually fail to...

[In new of the length of many of the letters which we receive, we would remind correspondents that we often cannot give space for long letters and that short ones are generally...

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—In a comment on the Schneider Trophy in the Spectator of September 19th, it is suggested that the Air Force should rest content with...

SIR,- - Trade benefits England, and the more goods we get and the. less goods we give for them the richer we are ; and if we owe more money than we are owed we have got credit...

Sin,— Free Trade in goods seems to involve free trade in wages, while protected wages almost necessitate protected impiirts. Many of our Free Trade friends have made sacrifices...

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Soa,---'Flie letter from " An Obscure Frenchman," in your issue dated September 12th is an excellent illustration of the French psychological...

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Mr. John Femald's judgement and enthusiasm are usually so sound that I am- diffident about questioning his theories or correcting his...

the SPECTATOR.] Sni, In spite of his analytical mind, Sir John Simon has not yet discovered that the bulk of our imports consists of food- stuffs and raw material, which is the...

of Liverpool is to be congratulated on the provision and equipment of so fine and up-to-date slaughter houses as those at Stanley, where humaner methods have been adopted....

A book published in 1859 " (Spectator, August 29th) is not the same thing, bibliooraphically, as " the little volume published in 1859 " (Spectator, September 19th). I repeat...

• We have received from the Society of Friends particulars of their China Relief Fund. We are pitying ourselves just now, but even at such an inopportune moment the horrors of...

Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Despite what it insists is the urgency of the economic situation, the Government (it is announced) is prepared to find time for the Sunday Cinema...

TITHE BARNS. The Tithe Barn, to which I referred in my letter to you of the 12th-inst., which appears in your issue of September 19th, is at Sehrorthy,. not Gahrorthy, in West...

I. M. Parsons makes a true point when he speaks of Mozart and Marvell. in the same breath. All he .instances of the poet could be instanced of the musician. But when he alludes...

RULES AND CONDITIONS Entries must be typed or very clearly written on one side of the paper only. The name and address, or pseudonym, of the competitor must be on each entry and...

Englishmen at Rest and Play. By Members of 'Wadhain College. (Clarendon Press. 12s. 6d.) John Bull at Home. By Karl Silex. (Harrap. 8s. 6d.) SUNDAY observance (still fighting...

THERE are fashions in religious philosophy, as in everything else ; and as in dress, so in theology, periods in which soft draperies and a comfortable absence of corsets...

One Man's Road : being a Picture of Life in a Passing Genera- tion. By Arthur Waugh. (Chapman and Hall. 18s.) WnEN the first volume of The Yellow Book made its appearance...

Footslogger. By Graham Seton. (Hutchinson. 18s.) WE may truthfully say of the late War that, in the words of Longfellow's poem, only those who braved its dangers com- prehend...

THE title of this book suggests a further addition to the number of books that have recently been appearing on the history, psychology and aesthetics of clothes. But the title,...

John Mistletoe. By Christopher Morley. (Faber. 7s. Gd.). Tins volume, if indeed it is intended as anything more systematic than reprinted essay-matter loosely slung together...

IN this volume Mr. Gerald Heard advances a thesis which amounts to nothing less than a psychological conception of history. He considers that " the periodic collapses of...

THE fifth volume of The Diary of a Country Parson is now published and, sad to say, the fifth is the last. It covers the years 1797 to 1802, in which year Parson Woodforde died....

Novel Forms Sado. By William Plomer. (Hogarth Press. 7s. 6d.) THE novel long ago ceased to be merely the telling of a tale, with or without an implication : the question asks...

notify the SPECTATOR Office BEFORE MIDDAY on MONDAY OF EACH WEEK. The previous address to which the paper has been sent and receipt reference number should be quoted.

of Sir Herbert Brewer. He was actively preparing the choirs for the event when he was suddenly taken ill. For a long time those who knew him and loved him best could not believe...

responsible for the stimulating volume on Early Man : His Origin, Development and Culture (Benn, 8s. 6d.)—a series of lectures delivered for the Royal Anthro- pological...

A Kscrui, and trustworthy sketch of the history of engineering is provided in The Quest for Power, by Hugh P. and Mar- garet W. ' Vowles (Chapman and Hall, 15s.). The authors...

to tell about old times. There is a particularly appetising flavour about his frank gaiety, sly humour, common-sense criticism and occasional sentimentality. Time Was (Hamish...

of the House of Commons, for the sixth edition of the late Charles Duguid's How to Read the Money Article, revised by Mr. F. W. H. Caudwell (Effingham Wilson, 5s.). Duguid, the...

[We shall be pleased to reply to any enquiries arising from the articles we publish on the Modern Home page. Enquiries should be addressed to the Editor, The SPECTATOR, 99 Gower...

[We publish on this page articles and notes which may help our readers in making their plans for travel at home and abroad. They are written by correspondents who have visited...

Relinquishing the Gold Standard THE strenuous efforts on the part of statesmen and bankers during the past few weeks to save the pound sterling have been in vain. Something...

. It is too early yet to determine the precise and final 'effects which will be produced by our departure from the gold standard. All that I can do this week is to indiCate a...

Before this actual announcement there had been a terrible slump in securities on Friday and Saturday of last week, the panicky fall being most pronounced in British Government...

As was bound to be the case, the Sterling Exchange has moved heavily against us, and on Monday . the value of the pound, as expressed in French and American currencies, was only...

With regard to the possible immediate effect of the abandonment of the gold standard there are just one or two general remarks which may be made, I notice in some quarters a...